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Stop Paying the Rich Increase Funding for Social Programs
The more the crisis of the capitalist system deepens, the more
statistics corroborate all the symptoms of a system that cannot
provide for the people. Recently released figures from Statistics
Canada profiling the country s labour force once again testify to this
The crisis of unemployment, now taking the form of the jobless
recovery since the last recession, is evidence of one of the most
profound failings of the system, which denies the people the right to
a livelihood. The response of the governments across the country is to
aggravate the situation by abdicating their responsibility to provide
for the victims of the system.
The 1995 "labour income profile" shows that as unemployment has taken
its toll, increasing numbers of workers have been forced into the
category of "self-employed contractors." Between 1990 and 1995 both
the number of people earning their income from self-employment alone,
and the number relying on both self-employment and regular jobs
increased. The number of people relying only on "wages and salary"
actually decreased.
The Statistics Canada reports, while revealing these facts, mystifies
the reality by describing those peple who have come to rely on
"self-employment" as part of the "employed labour force". This
suggests that the economy is actually providing jobs for the people.
The reality is that the workers are thrown out of work, cut off
unemployment insurance benefits, and then forced to scrounge for a
living, taking short-term contractual work without benefits, with very
little "income". The presentation of the earnings of the
"self-employed" as "employment income" is a deception. It does not
reflect the many expenses which are incurred and quite frequently
result in virtually no income. The same is the case with the distorted
picture that is given of a "median" income of $20,600 per year. This
covers up the increasing disparity in the society between the rich and
poor by lumping together those who earn millions in "salary" and those
who barely earn a few thousand. Statistics on poverty and those on
"employment income" are reported separately, which means that poverty
is not connected with the very failing of the economic system and its
incapacity to provide the people with a livelihood.
The increasingly insecure economic situation of the people is an
indictment of the capitalist system. Nonetheless, the ruling circles
of Canada have washed their hands of the problem, simply declaring
that the "hidden hand" of the economy will generate jobs, so long as
the state treasury and the legislature are used to create a
"competitive environment" for the capitalists. At the same time,
governments hand over billions to the financial oligarchy in the form
of interest payments, cutting funds from social spending and
facilitating, in many other ways as well, the withdrawal of more and
more out of the economy than what is put back into it. Furthermore,
the refrain of the bourgeoisie that there is no other way is a course
for disaster.
Just as the facts reveal that the capitalist system cannot provide for
the people, the facts also show that there is an alternative. It lies
in the program to Stop Paying the Rich Increase Funding for Social
Programs!
The decisive factor in changing the situation is for the working class
to take up this program for implementation instead of waiting for the
bourgeoisie to solve the problems of the economy.
CPC(M-L)
Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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