-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.18/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.18/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 18 </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times May 3, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 18 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Canada, Government Knows Best by Peter Topolewski Canada has a million things right. But here are some of what it has most wrong. Number one: many Canadians suffer delusions about the problems facing them. Here is what a reader of my article Taxes on Mars (Laissez Faire City Times, Vol. 3, No. 14) had to say about Canadian socialism: We do pay higher taxes yet I think one has to look at our society as a whole as to whether we get our money's worth or not. Universal health care is open to the rich or poor, and even the homeless can get treatment. I have yet to meet anyone who has complained of the treatment that they got under the system. I don�t know anyone who has complained of the treatment they received in Canada�s health care system either, but again and again Canadians tell pollsters that improving the health care system is the most critical issue facing the nation. From BC to Quebec headlines tell of bed shortages forcing patients to spend nights sleeping in hospital hallways and closets. Across the country nurses, support workers, and doctors have been in pitched labor battles with their employers, the provincial governments. Surgery wait times is an uncomfortable euphemism politicians have applied to a medical system that can schedule your surgery six months from now, at the earliest. Although these sickly characteristics do not constitute what the media, in its exuberance, calls a health care crisis, no Canadian can pretend that all with the much-vaunted health care system is rosy. Wake up. Number two: too many Canadians want to solve the country�s economic and social problems by making them worse. According to the demands from columnists, activists, bureaucrats, and many average citizens, the only way to solve health care problems, poverty, child abuse, illiteracy, crime, racism, drug abuse, sexism, and so on is by spending more money. The problem is there isn�t more money available to spend, and�what�s more�there never will be. Health care for example has come under significant federal cuts over the last few years. That�s because since the 1970�s demand for nearly all government services has been greater than the supply of dollars funding them, and just now is the country beginning to pay for those services rendered. The account is long overdue, and a mountain of debt remains. Recent spending cuts were ostensibly the source of funds for a payment on the federal debt. But even the cuts were not sufficient to cover the bill � Finance Minister Paul Martin was able to make his small, symbolic debt payment only because he stole $19 billion in unemployment insurance premiums from the nation�s unemployed. Given this state of affairs how can Canada possibly afford to increase federal spending on anything? The debts, barely serviceable and threatening to cripple the country, need to be repaid. Each day they are allowed to expand diminishes the chances of paying them off before they bankrupt the entire system. The tax burden in Canada long ago passed the oppressive mark. And while this has even become a concern at the UN, many Canadians believe it their duty to pay their fair share, as the above quote indicates (re: we do pay higher taxes yet I think one has to look at our society as a whole as to whether we get our money's worth or not). In my opinion Canadians have little idea how much tax they pay. Besides the depressing federal and provincial taxes, one or two sales taxes (depending where you live), payroll, cigarette, alcohol, and gasoline taxes, and all the other regular taxes, Canadians face government "user fees" that have grown exponentially over the last ten years as well as government utilities that skim profits into general government revenue. Without knowing how much tax money they send the government, citizens have no way of knowing if they are "getting their money�s worth"; but the current state of affairs makes it clear that whatever amount Canadians do pay in taxes it is not enough to meet the demand. What portion of the average Canadian�s income will support government�s services? 100 percent? Not likely. This ugly scenario of huge debt, service cutbacks, and awesome tax burden should make it clear to Canadians that this system cannot support itself. Even with 100 percent of taxpayer income there is no reason to believe it could. Government, in Canada and in general, is inherently inefficient. Estimates by the Fraser Institute indicate that for every eight dollars fed into the Canadian federal tax system citizens see one dollar in benefits. This ratio is likely no better in any other country, and in many probably significantly worse. This inefficiency is simply a characteristic of government. Canada�s Growing Dictatorship Here is another characteristic of government, in Canada at least: it�s undemocratic. Not just undemocratic, but generally undemocratic. Frustrated radio show callers commonly refer to Canada�s dictatorship and more Canadians than ever feel "detached" from their elected officials. Two sterling examples show why. First, there is the matter of Canada at war. In Ottawa members of parliament (MPs) debated involvement in the bombing of Kosovo for exactly zero seconds. MPs got around to discussing the war after the bombing began � transforming an exercise to scrutinize the government into nothing more than a conversation � but they were never allowed to vote for or against Canada�s involvement in it. In fact Prime Minister Jean Chretien said "his cabinet" (read "he") � and not the 301 MPs who represent all Canadians � will reserve the right to decide the extent of Canada's military involvement. He�s done just that, and in so doing has demonstrated his capability to go to war without a single check on his power. Not one. Next, in the legislature in the province of British Columbia the ruling party recently invoked a rarely used procedure called closure to ram through a treaty with the Nisga�a Indian band. The legislature is essentially the place where the government rubber stamps its own bills, but it is also where the official opposition party finds its one role in the system. During question period the official opposition party can at least shine some light on the doings of the government. With closure, however, the government cuts off debate (that is, the question period) for a bill and moves along to the inevitable vote of approval. The ruling government in BC invoked closure on the Nisga�a treaty before fully one third of the document was even discussed. This is a treaty that proponents and opponents alike have called the most important piece of legislation in BC history. No matter that from day one the government promised open and full debate, entire sections on self government, financing, land management and taxation were approved now and forever without seeing the light of day. The leader of the opposition, Gordon Campbell, marched his party out of the legislature, stating that the government�s move had rendered the opposition, even in its limited role, irrelevant. He called it "the worst tin pot democracy you could find." Examples like these are in every corner of the country. The picture that quickly emerges is clear but it is not pretty. Canadian government is not only inefficient, it is undemocratic. So what remains is merely the most baffling question of all: who in their right mind would turn to government to solve their problems? Why would anyone ask such an institution to raise their children, or own their labor, run their liquor store, manage their retirement fund, insure their home, or run their business? The answer remains a mystery. But in a Vancouver weekly, a recent article by union economist Sid Shniad suggests part of the reason Canadians eagerly ask the government to do exactly those things and more. In summing up his argument for increased social spending he says "either we want to be a caring society or we don�t". Somehow Canada has found itself unable to express or execute any form of compassion or charity but through the government. Not once in his column does Shniad suggest, much less mention, that citizens use their own power to create solutions. Rather, the good of the people is had only when that good is legislated. The relationship seems one of almost mental dependency, so that Canadians have to "ask Ottawa" for money as though it were never theirs but the government�s from the start. Economically Canada cannot afford to have an inefficient and undemocratic government as the only mechanism of its caring society. More importantly, Canada cannot afford such a moral dependence upon government. It is precisely this that compromises democracy. Personal freedom must be seized and personal responsibility with it. Until they are, the cherished social programs have no hope for survival, no matter how strongly the government mandates the country�s compassion. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 18, May 3, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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