Surviving The Fall, 57

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. They are the language of the disempowered who still want to appear intelligent, but only come across as paranoid and stupid. But it is still hard not to wonder if at least some of what has been going on in our world and in this city has been somehow planned, or at least allowed by default, in order to placate the demands and whims of the wealthy and greedy. I know that there have been agreements in place to make Vancouver a welcome place for foreign investment, but that we are rapidly spiraling into a kind of Grand Cayman for offshore land speculation. And now the lid has just been blown off of the use of casinos in this area as money laundromats, which also suggests some very embarrassing connections between foreign land ownership/speculation; illegal money laundering, most of it from China, and the previous Liberal government of BC. Even with some of the new taxes and regulations being placed on foreign land ownership and speculation, this still appears as too little too late. Vancouver has become such a internationally coveted place to live, and our elected officials have proven to be such useless windup dolls and puppets of greed as they passively obey the uber-wealthy, so that property values remain stratospherically high in Vancouver, and it is almost impossible to find a liveable one bedroom apartment for under two thousand a month, or the entire income of a low wage worker. So little is being done to actually make living in this city affordable, because our politicians and their wealthy support base are still worshipping at the altar of market greed, and no one wants to offend the mammon deity. But offend it we must, or this city and many other parts of the world are going to continue spiralling out of the reach of ordinary workers. This is where it is hard not to think of conspiracy theories. Perhaps in one of the Bilderberg conferences, the leaders all agreed to reserve certain coveted, attracted cities as havens only for themselves and their lackeys, people of obscene wealth, and everyone else can live in favelas. But now they are discovering just how backward this is with the huge social fallout of growing wealth and social inequality and the way it is impacting everybody. Yet, the wealthy and their minion politicians whom we stupidly re-elect every four years still don't want to budge. They are still building giant phallus condo towers throughout Metro Vancouver, and only the very well off will be living in them. The rest of us will have to move, unless we can endure the massive waitlists for the paucity of social housing that is available. Yes, they say they are working on in, they always say that they are working on it, and that they are investing another billion here, half a billion there, but where are the results? Why are people still left with no option but to live on the sidewalk or in low barrier shelters, or they have to move out to...Newfoundland? At least people are friendly in Newfoundland. Or maybe our chicken politicians are going to have to start heeding and obeying the will of the people, not the wealthy, but everyone who has to struggle and work hard for a living in this city and elsewhere. Maybe it is time to expropriate those same condo towers, obscene profits and tax revenues be damned, and start renting out those units at affordable rates, which is to say, by strictly adhering to the thirty percent of income for rent formula, with a balance of incomes so that everyone c an enjoy a decent roof over their heads, the rent gets paid on time with money left over for food, retirement and vacations, and no one has to move out of the city, no one has to end up living on the pavement. There are some very simple and straightforward solutions and it simply takes a little bit of courage to implement them. We have to change our thinking a little, is all, and un-brainwash ourselves once and for all of this poison of capitalist greed. If we want an economy that is going to work for everyone then we are going to have to start thinking of the economy as people, and of people as being the economy. Otherwise, disaster.