First, an afterword about yesterday's post. I was chatting briefly with the cashier at my local Shopper's Drug Mart, where every Saturday morning I purchase the weekend Globe and Mail. When I commented that I was going to read it at home with coffee and breakfast she mentioned how much she also enjoys this kind of activity, for when she needs "me" time. She said she really appreciates the break because she has three babies to raise: her two small children and her husband! 'Nuff said.
By the way, having no kids, or spouse of any gender, nor any other dependents, I am very grateful that I have unlimited "me" time. Perhaps a little too unlimited. I am also grateful for my job working with vulnerable adults with mental health challenges, because it helps me focus on other peoples' needs and prevents me from becoming incurably self-centred.
I am also grateful for the plenty of having enough. I really can't understand people who are greedy, acquisitive, selfish, and think only of themselves and their own wellbeing. There are too many with this kind of mentality, in this country, and in this province. I believe I can speak with a little bit of authority here. I have always had very little, but even when I was very poor I felt rich. Yes, we were eating wild plants harvested from our back yard and washing our clothes by hand, as well as having to walk the ten miles or so into downtown to do our ministry work, given that we couldn't even afford bus fare. But all our needs were still provided for, one way or another, sometimes miraculously.
When I hear people, such as Andrew Wilkinson, one of the BC Liberal incumbent candidates for our current provincial election, refer to taxation as robbing people of their hard-earned money I get particularly concerned. Of course he says things like that to appeal to his voter base. Fiscally conservative politicians get elected for appealing to the greed and selfishness of their supporters. The BC Liberal Party is a party of the well-off and well-moneyed and these are the people who are generally not in the least interested in sharing their largesse. Greed creates wealth and wealth is fuelled by greed. It is a sad and tragic irony, but with few exceptions, wealth tends to make people even more greedy and less compassionate and more judgmental of those who have not.
By the same token, there appears to be a huge stigma in our country against taxation, as though it is cruel and unusual punishment that we each pay our share to support the common good. Right wing political demagogues make tonnes of hay appealing to this reptilian-brained greed and selfishness in their backers, insisting that no one has the right to deprive them of their hard-earned money, especially to siphon it off to the many programs for taking care of the Great Unwashed.
If we examine this picture with clear minds, we are bound to see that if we have such a large proportion of people on low incomes who live in inadequate or no housing with laundry lists of health, economic and social problems it is because we have become so dependent upon the capitalist system, which creates winners and losers. If for whichever reason you are not going to compete well, if you do not have the stuff to be successful in business or in entrepreneurship, then those who have already made it will simply assume that you are lazy, that you are a loser, and that no matter what your obstacles may be, somehow you are going to deserve the horrible and miserable lot that you end up with. Natural Selection. Social Darwinism 101. To the moneyed and successful we are already dead, which I also believe is a line that the ignominious Kevin O'Leary famously uses, or, ``You are dead to me``.
Yes, it will require some modest tax increases for the upper-incomed and corporations to carry out the various social programs and services needed to improve our collective life: universal affordable daycare, health care services that include universally subsidized pharmaceuticals and dentistry, complete housing services for the homeless and low-incomed, enhanced harm-reduction and treatment options for people with substance dependencies, to name but a few. Where is the money going to come from? From the uber-rich who have way more than they know what to do with or will ever be able to use. Who is going to benefit? All of us. With an enhanced availability of quality housing and universal social services we are also going to enjoy a much healthier social infrastructure, much less money being squandered on emergency services and significant reductions in crime. Also, the new social services and programs will create lasting jobs and careers for well-paid professionals who will be re-investing their earnings into the economy through shopping and patronizing businesses and services, as well as in the form of income taxes. Everyone stands to win. The only thing that is getting in our way is people's greed, selfishness and fear, and we really need to work hard at educating ourselves and one another.
By the way, here is a shout-out to my many readers in France. Thank you for your ongoing support of my blog through your readership and interest. And please, tomorrow, vote with your heads, not with your fears. If Marine Le Pen and her fascists are allowed to win you will be dragging France backward and taking the rest of Europe with you. We do not need a repeat of Italy in the twenties and of Germany during the thirties. Get over your fears and please take a page from our Canadian book about welcoming and integrating immigrant peoples, especially refugees.
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