Down But Not Out/economics

On this page, Ronzig discusses economic issues which directly or indirectly effect all Canadians. Capitalism is a system which if tempered with social justice could and should provide a bounteous life for all Canadians, but left unrestrained, it is nothing more than a barbaric system that allows the powerful to trample the weaker members of our society. We are fortunate to have the means of production that would enable us to ensure a wonderful life with decent housing and ample food for all, so why are people across Canada needlessly dying every day on the streets? You can comment on content seen on this page by going to the bottom of the page. Every page on the site will have a comment section at the bottom.

Has Capitalism Failed?

Over and over, I hear the same lament, “Capitalism has failed!”

Dictionary.com defines Capitalism as an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Capitalism is merely an economic system created and designed to deliver the highest possible level of goods and services (wealth) to the people who utilize its principles to ultimately achieve the best possible standard of living. It makes no claim to being a form of distribution of wealth and has never been intended to deal with issues such as social justice. These issues are not addressed by Capitalism and belong in the realm of governance, not economics. As an economic system, Capitalism, has not failed, it has been extremely successful. It has provided goods and services adequate for the provision of an extremely comfortable and pleasant lifestyle for every human being on the planet.

On the other hand, our form of governance, Democracy has failed.

Dictionary.com defines Democracy as government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. A state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

According to that definition, our government which is a form of Democracy is given the responsibility of ensuring that each citizen is guaranteed equality of rights and privileges. Specifically that would mean that our government is responsible for creating rules or laws that guarantee that if some members of society are privileged with a lifestyle that provides comfort and security, then all members of the society should also be granted the privilege of a lifestyle that provides comfort and security.

Democracy has failed to ensure equality of rights and privileges and that is where our society has failed. We need look no further than our political system and the politicians who work theoretically for us when we seek to understand the vast inequities in our society. They have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring equality of rights and privileges yet we have individuals and families sleeping on our streets while others sleep in homes that exceed their physical needs so dramatically that it boggles the mind.

We live in the richest society that has ever existed on the planet and yet we have members of this society who are reduced to searching through garbage to find food to keep them alive and every month several people who are denied the basic right of a safe and secure home perish for no reason other than our failure to enforce the rule of Democracy that demands equality for all. We claim that society can not afford to provide this equality even though we are surrounded by vast riches. I say we can not afford not to provide this equality under penalty of disintegration and collapse.

Democracy has failed and each and every one of us is responsible for allowing it to fail. Only you and I have the power and responsibility to correct this. No-one else, you and I.

This is by far the most informative and important analysis

 of the economic collapse ever to be reported.

As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

Click the title to watch an important and shocking video from:

Democracy Now! | Radio and TV News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped 10,000 for the first time in a year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.

When will we move beyond a Stone Age mentality?

Throughout the history of the human race there has been a division of power resulting in an elite few who did little while the majority worked every waking hour just to survive. While the privileged few grew fat off the labour of the rest, the progress of the race was hampered because most of the population had no time to work at creating a better society.

Today is no different. While 90% of the population slaves every waking hour to maintain the few comforts they have been allowed to enjoy primarily through a credit system that ensures they will never escape an indentured state of existence, the dominant 10% enjoy their multi million dollar yachts, private jets and mansions.

This powerful elite maintains its privileged existence through manipulation of the economy, the politicians and the population through bribery, deceit and corruption as they gather the bounty of this Earth unto themselves at an unprecedented and alarming rate, leaving the majority to struggle for survival with the threat that they face disaster if the income they have been fooled into relying upon through the credit system is disrupted.

Nearly every individual and family in the industrialized world faces the loss of all they have if they are deprived of income for just a few short weeks. Thus they are driven by fear of loss to toil under a system of Economic Slavery throughout their entire lives and each and every one of them by doing so contributes to the ever increasing gap between the few at the top of the heap and the rest of us as the profits from their drudgery is siphoned off into off shore banks where it has no benefit to society whatsoever.

Whenever society becomes alarmed at this situation, the elite put forward a token saviour to fool us into thinking that he will alleviate the inequities. Such is the case with President Obama. It costs One Hundred Million Dollars just to be able to run for President in the United States. Now, Mr. Obama did not pull that money out of his pocket. Neither did his opponent. They had to have backers willing to pay to support them, backers with very deep pockets. I didn’t give them this money and neither did the average citizen. The bulk of this money came from the privileged few at the top and they gave similar amounts to each candidate because they were never concerned with who got in. They own them both. A couple of Hundred Million Dollars is a small price to pay to ensure the system remains basically as is, for as it is, the system allows these powerful people to skim all the cream from the economy to the tune of Billions of Dollars annually.

Now that the token saviour is in place at the White House, his hands are tied by this monstrous debt he carries and by the similar debts of each and every politician who has been elected and whose support the President needs to pass any legislation. As an added incentive to maintain the status quo, lobbyists are ever present to continuously remind them of the debt and to sweeten the pot when absolutely necessary, thus increasing the obligation.

Meanwhile, the spin doctors create false propaganda to deceive the public into supporting the status quo. Is it any wonder that the wars continue while important legislation such as heath care is thwarted?

Now you may say that is the United States and this is Canada, but the same formula to dictate government policy exists in every modern so called Democracy in the world. The political leaders of the governments are not the people who make the decisions. They obey the orders of their bosses at the head of the major international corporations who are the unseen dictators worldwide.

And what is the result of this situation?

Men and women are tricked into enlisting or drafted into the armed forces and sent off to distant lands to kill and be killed where covetous elitists who never step into danger see opportunity to seize resources through military intervention. All to augment the unimaginable coffers they maintain in off shore banks.

Dictators worldwide are supported and billions of taxpayer dollars are funnelled to them annually under the auspices of aid programs for the sole purpose of ensuring unimpeded access to the resources to be taken for the further enrichment of the elite. Most of this aid money finds its way into the off shore banks rather than going to alleviate the suffering of the throngs of people who are enslaved by these dictators. All to enable the elite to siphon off even greater profits to add to their coffers.

Millions of people die annually from starvation while the surplus food that would prevent this tragedy is destroyed to maintain high prices in the marketplace.

Diseases that are easily prevented or cured take millions more lives because need is not the motivation to save them, profit is. Since they have no money to add to the coffers in the off shore banks, they are expendable.

And as was the case during the Stone Age, the chieftains continue to fatten at the expense of the majority.

What can be done, you might ask.

We, the people need to go after the storehouses of the bounty that we worked and slaved for generations to create. These off shore banks which exist for only one purpose, to hide ill gotten riches from exposure must be stopped. The United Nations should seek to lead world opinion in demanding that the secrecy and resultant immunity of off shore banks be eliminated.

Some thoughts on the budget speech

After catching the budget speech on the news last night I have to say that I am disappointed,but not in the least surprised at Prime Minister Harper?s cynical attempt to con the public with a smoke screen of proposals that appear to be designed to provide recession relief while actually doing very little except to keep him in a job. Sadly, I fear that he will accomplish his goal as it is doubtful that the Liberals will vote to defeat this ignominy.

a)     Of primary concern is the fact that the only meaningful step he has taken to help the average man on the street is to extend Employment Insurance coverage for five whole weeks. Whoopeee!!! That'll help a lot. We?re entering a period of prolonged recession expected by the experts to last for years, but at least when you lose your job; you'll be covered for an extra five weeks before you drop off the face of the Earth into the welfare system where you will find it impossible to keep your home or feed your family. Hooray for Mr. Harper. Thanks buddy that should really help.

b)     Absolutely no mention of welfare in this document. Harper seems to believe that once your EI runs out, you just don't matter any more and it?s OK to let you slide into homelessness. Surprise,surprise!!!

c)     He has promised to spend billions on infrastructure; something which should have been done years ago, but by requiring the provinces and municipalities to each put up one third of the cost of each project and requiring a prolonged application procedure before approval,he has made certain that there will be few projects begun until long after the recession has run its course. No help there either.

d)     Out of the couple of billion dollars earmarked for social housing projects, less than a quarter of the funds will be spent on new housing for the hundreds of thousands Canadians on the waiting lists, so it seems that the desperate shortage of affordable housing is still not of concern to the Conservatives who have fine homes to live in. Why should they be concerned about the plight of the 60,000 people on the waiting list for housing in Toronto alone? An average often years isn?t too long to wait to be able to afford the rent on a home for a person?s family is it? Again, not a lot of help for Canadians facing the downward spiral of joblessness followed by the loss of homes and families.

e)     By raising the point of the first two levels on the Income tax graph he has effectively conned us again. The result will be that everyone will pay less tax including people at the top who earn millions of dollars annually, but why not make everyone who earns less than the poverty line totally tax exempt and raise the rates for the top earners enough to compensate? They can certainly afford it from their multimillion dollar incomes and these top earners are recession proof. Even if they go bankrupt they get to keep more money in their personal accounts than most of us earn in our lifetimes. There is never any fear of their needing EI or welfare, but then again if there was, you can bet Harper would be the first to raise the rates.

A scene from Yonge St South of Bloor St.

OCAP's response to the budget

Today's budget will do little to help low income Canadians. Harper's
government has made some attempt to placate the opposition, but his
efforts will only help a shrinking fraction of the population. The
spending strategy is described as Timely, Temporary, and Targeted. Indeed
it is. It's too little, too late, for too few. While 75 billion dollars
are given to the financial sector, there are only scraps left for the
poorest in our society.
In line with the ongoing Harper agenda, the budget emphasizes tax cuts,
instead of making real investments in housing, infrastructure and people.
He crows about investing in social housing and unemployment insurance. The
budget says that it will invest 2 billion into social housing.  Sounds great. But the cost of repairs to Ontario's housing are estimated at about
$1.2 billion. And 60,000 people are on the waiting list for social housing
in Toronto alone. Given that much of the infrastructural fundingis
dependent on cost-sharing with the cash-poor provinces and municipalities,
the figures are misleading. Harper claims that he's making things easier
for laid off workers by adding 5 weeks to employment insurance. Given that
60% of Canadians aren't eligible, this will do little for the majority of
those suffering in the economic downturn.
As factories close and businesses go bankrupt, more and more Canadians
will need help. Unfortunately the tax cuts, benefits and incentives will
do little for them when they're evicted, unable to obtain employment
insurance, or scraping by on welfare and food banks. A budget that would
really address the needs of the increasing ranks of poor Canadians would
raise the welfare rates, expand employment insurance in a serious way,
build new and quality social housing invest in transit, education and
health care. This budget doesn't even try.
An economic recession that leads to layoffs, evictions and poverty is not
the time for bailing out the corporations and playing political games.
It's the time to organize in our communities to support one another, and
to fight to ensure that the poorest, the most vulnerable, are not
abandoned yet again.

The TDRC & The Recession Relief Fund Coalition respond to the budget
The Recession Relief Fund Coalition of which TDRC is a member was very disappointed in the Budget tabled today. A response has been crafted to send to Ottawa. Here are the email addresses for the Minister Flaherty, Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton. Please email the attached letter(with your signature/identification) to them.
flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca
ignatieff.m@parl.gc.ca
layton.j@parl.gc.ca
Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca

Yonge & College in Toronto

Also at Yonge & College

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