Stephen Harper does not seem to care how Canadian government policies compare to those of other countries (other than the U.S.), or want to know how other countries build (or not) their industries, and care for (or not) their citizens.
When Harper was in Davos, Switzerland, last week to address the World Economic Forum, he did not talk about the subject of the conference, The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models, or address concerns about regulation of international banking, or global trade and payments imbalances. Instead he presented his austerity plan for Canada.
Singling out retirement security for attack, the Canadian prime minister wrongly blamed the Eurozone financial crisis on government overspending for social security, ignoring that financial instability was generated by the over-leveraged banking system.
Now it is true that Northern European nations spend more on pensions than Canada. Canada sits in 23rd position among the 30 industrialized members of the OECD on overall social spending, and ranks even worse on public spending for pensions.
In fact, Canada's poor standing on pension spending puts a lie to the idea that we need to cut back on future pension spending. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, Canada spends 2.41 per cent on public pensions while Italy spends 14 per cent. Professor Kevin Milligan projects Canadian pension spending to increase to only 3.14 per cent by 2031 as a result of our aging population. Why cut back on outlays for pensions when needs are going up, and existing levels of spending are low?
Going to Switzerland to announce his intentions to attack seniors served domestic purposes. There were no opposition politicians, or interested Canadians, around to react quickly to the news leaked to journalists on site, that Harper was ready to raise the age eligibility for Old Age Security to 67 from 65.
Harper is hoping that fear of an impending financial crisis will stampede Canadians into welcoming immediate 10 per cent cutbacks to government services to be announced in the spring budget. By floating the cut-the-old-age-pensions balloon he wants to soften public opinion up for the budgetary cuts to public services, public servants, and, Ottawa, the national capital.
The prime minister is counting on public ignorance of his wasteful spending for new prisons, long jail times for first offenders, and $480 billion in projected purchase of military equipment (before the tripling of projected costs of F-35 jets). Harper expects the public to forget the over $200 billion in public revenue given away to large (often foreign) corporations through tax cuts, in addition to numerous tax loopholes, like the one that benefits wealthy sellers of corporate stock options.
Harper lives politically by creating anger among his followers: anger about taxes, about public spending, about public servants, about "the holy land," and about people who get something for nothing.
The points of anger he wants to touch in the next budget are no different than the ones he identified years ago as research director for the Reform Party, and elaborated when working for the National Citizens Coalition. In a celebrated 1997 address to a right-wing American audience, Harper described Canada as a "Northern European Welfare State, in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it."
The Davos conference title was inspired by the magnificent 1944 book by Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. Polanyi understood that the economy was "submerged" in social relationships. He saw the importance of redistribution and reciprocity as organizing principles for societies across the ages. He set out the reasons why a self-regulating market economy would fail to provide economic security for all.
What at least the organizer of Davos recognized was that the growth of inequalities means the world needs new models. As Stephen Harper continues to invoke his favourite demons, he should remember his own words. Canadians are indeed proud of helping each other. That pride can turn into anger against a prime minister who in the name of austerity increases inequalities, attacks those least able to fend for themselves, and undermines social solidarity.
Original Article
Source: Rabble.ca
Author: Duncan Cameron
When Harper was in Davos, Switzerland, last week to address the World Economic Forum, he did not talk about the subject of the conference, The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models, or address concerns about regulation of international banking, or global trade and payments imbalances. Instead he presented his austerity plan for Canada.
Singling out retirement security for attack, the Canadian prime minister wrongly blamed the Eurozone financial crisis on government overspending for social security, ignoring that financial instability was generated by the over-leveraged banking system.
Now it is true that Northern European nations spend more on pensions than Canada. Canada sits in 23rd position among the 30 industrialized members of the OECD on overall social spending, and ranks even worse on public spending for pensions.
In fact, Canada's poor standing on pension spending puts a lie to the idea that we need to cut back on future pension spending. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, Canada spends 2.41 per cent on public pensions while Italy spends 14 per cent. Professor Kevin Milligan projects Canadian pension spending to increase to only 3.14 per cent by 2031 as a result of our aging population. Why cut back on outlays for pensions when needs are going up, and existing levels of spending are low?
Going to Switzerland to announce his intentions to attack seniors served domestic purposes. There were no opposition politicians, or interested Canadians, around to react quickly to the news leaked to journalists on site, that Harper was ready to raise the age eligibility for Old Age Security to 67 from 65.
Harper is hoping that fear of an impending financial crisis will stampede Canadians into welcoming immediate 10 per cent cutbacks to government services to be announced in the spring budget. By floating the cut-the-old-age-pensions balloon he wants to soften public opinion up for the budgetary cuts to public services, public servants, and, Ottawa, the national capital.
The prime minister is counting on public ignorance of his wasteful spending for new prisons, long jail times for first offenders, and $480 billion in projected purchase of military equipment (before the tripling of projected costs of F-35 jets). Harper expects the public to forget the over $200 billion in public revenue given away to large (often foreign) corporations through tax cuts, in addition to numerous tax loopholes, like the one that benefits wealthy sellers of corporate stock options.
Harper lives politically by creating anger among his followers: anger about taxes, about public spending, about public servants, about "the holy land," and about people who get something for nothing.
The points of anger he wants to touch in the next budget are no different than the ones he identified years ago as research director for the Reform Party, and elaborated when working for the National Citizens Coalition. In a celebrated 1997 address to a right-wing American audience, Harper described Canada as a "Northern European Welfare State, in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it."
The Davos conference title was inspired by the magnificent 1944 book by Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. Polanyi understood that the economy was "submerged" in social relationships. He saw the importance of redistribution and reciprocity as organizing principles for societies across the ages. He set out the reasons why a self-regulating market economy would fail to provide economic security for all.
What at least the organizer of Davos recognized was that the growth of inequalities means the world needs new models. As Stephen Harper continues to invoke his favourite demons, he should remember his own words. Canadians are indeed proud of helping each other. That pride can turn into anger against a prime minister who in the name of austerity increases inequalities, attacks those least able to fend for themselves, and undermines social solidarity.
Original Article
Source: Rabble.ca
Author: Duncan Cameron
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