Cyberguy

I noticed some good perspectives in post #62. Toadbrother, your post(#63) is highlighted here. What form of governance are you advocating, without political parties? What would result? Please expand on this idea, I wanna know what I'm missing in terms of quality of life.

This reply goes to the guy that pats Harper on the back for Canada's performance during the great Recession of '08. What did Harper do? He prorogued (shut-down) parliament!(twice) Way to go! The following year he didn't recall it 'till March 17th & just ruled by decree! He is the finest dictator to ever lust after! Wait a minute... it was Flaherty that signed in the No Down Payment 35 year mortgages & destabilized CMHC by allowing these to get mixed in. Anybody should see that Harper was restrained from his lust to be American & adopt bogus american financial practices by a minority parliament. The premiers recently met about the Canada Pension Plan, & Flaherty wants to hand over it's management to a buncha trust companies. The guy reads Bush's speeches word for word. His orders come from Houston.

Bush-Chaney's onto something. Administrator: I also think we need a thumbs-up or down meter! Thumbs up!

If the parents are both @ work then they might be street orphans. I think Quebec already has a national daycare system that's $5-$8 / day. This simply reduces the burden on families, many of them single parent. The parents can be productive & don't have to dispose of their livelihoods because they want a family. I bet the taxes that the mommies fork over @ year-end because of having a career would easily outweigh the government's cost of the daycare. Childcare doesn't have to be more mysterious than medicare. I have no idea, however, if the program is self-sustaining or costly, or not. Maybe it's cheaper than prisons. I see the flaw in these message boards now. We all have baseless idiological opinions that require professional input. Experts should agree to moderate these forums.

No it isn't. Canada is a "freeish" country you know. Bountiful British Columbia is a Mormon community & the mayor had 7 wives & 48 kids last time I checked. Actually 1 left & took her brood with her to PrinceAlbert, Saskatchewan, but you get my point. I, myself, have had many partners, sometimes interchangeably.

Does your idea of free speech include shouting "FIRE" in theatre, inciting violence, or hate? How about Slander? Public broadcasters are Licensed to broadcast as long as they do so with integrity. Using their pulpit for lying & deception is as bad as phone-scamming & should not be tolerated in civil society. Have you no shame?

As far as I can tell, you're all a bunch of Xenophobes (Look it up) operating by degrees within some sort of Xenophobic arena: ie. the topic of this forum listed above. People will automatically get to know their surroundings & adapt on a daily basis to engender their own (survival or) well-being, if it's warranted. My grandparents had an accent & had trouble with certain phrases, so, wow that pretty much limits immigration to England, New Zealand, if you don't mind being called "love" or maybe only Austrailia or whites & the odd black from the U.S.A. That's pretty much a caucasions only policy. Most racists don't realize their own prejiduce; its justified by some minutia or irregularity. Besides the only people that were "Canadians or Americans" were the aboriginal tribes before their genocidal eradication. I am a believer in tolerance & multiculturalism & the value that all bring to our society & the desire to be part of it that far outweighs the domestic apathy that is born out by election participation rates in the 30th percentile range. Since Immigrants are more Patriotically Canadian or American than we luddites are, the only thing to do to Canadianize & Americanize ALL immigrants, allowing for the least variance & the most hegemony, is to adopt Aboriginal ways immediately, intermarry, & farm collectively, hunt in packs, & control territories.

Are you suggesting, then, that there should be legions of people working full-time unable to pay the rent? Nice, "necessary" picture that you paint, but it's unworkable in the end. I do mean what I say: that if it can't be done for a basic minimum wage, then it shouldn't. That's wasting labour on a product or service for which there is insufficient demand. I like your idea of automation or paying by piece work. Employers like those kind of fixed costs per unit & so, actually, do employees. It wouldn't take more than about a week's working to know if the rate is fair or not. I am not actually referring to piecework or job suitability, or the "lazy" poor. All I am saying is that slavery simply forces people onto welfare so that they can get a roof over their heads. That is 1 place where corporate charity must end. I can give an example of how a non-productivity based system might "work" as well, since it was asked for. Potash Corporation earned $1.8 billion last year after paying a royalty of just $75 million to the province of Saskatchewan. In 2009 Saskatchewan actually owed Potash Corp close to $.2 billion- a situation where the province was technically paying them to mine the stuff. We know that in the '80's, when the province owned the company, the director earned around $385,000 anually & the company annually paid hundreds of millions in profit to the provincial treasury. Now PC(S)'s director can pay himself & his cronies hundreds of millions annually & still show billions in profit for the shareholders. Bill Doyle (the CEO) was estimated to be "worth" over a billion himself, in 2008, if you account for stock-options. These guys simply occupied their ivory tower, in Chicago no less, & raked off all the cream. There is a collossal example of how a non-productivity based wage system works. It's modelled after present-day Capitalism. It's totally corrupt & obviously has everyone fooled into slavery even though the math is hard to hide. This is only 1 example, but anywhere within the monopoly sector you'll find it if you care to look. Even ologopolies are also run that way. By the way the Premier campaigned on a 10-year royalty freeze, so now you know who he's working for. I feel sorry for mom & pop enterprises as many of these ventures do go under. I am only addressing the corporate model which is the only one that can automate or compete on a basis of scale. Even Egyptians demand sustenance. They just want a government that will address their NECESSITIES rather than advance corruption. As the fiscal imbalance of power corrupts absolutely, then even small business can't flourish as export markets will become unreachable & the domestic market will whither under the burden of inputs, taxation, & general corruption .

In reading the posts, it seems that either people are venturing way off topic, or the topic itself is too broad! Most see an increase in the minimum wage as the quintessential answer (or not) for the working poor. To avoid bending the mathematical financial reality, we have to assume that the 40 hour week enshrined in law during the 1950's came about in recognition that your average person could not be expected to do more than that many hours during the span of their working lives. I am talking about the "average" person because the working poor is a group. Only averages should apply, not the acute examples listed in some posts (which are cute). Running faster on the hamster wheel is hardly an option; that didn't work during the industrial revolution either. Why is there a minimum wage? I assume it is because every citizen who works a 40 hour week should have the ability to put a roof over his or her head. We also know that since '76, if minimum wages had kept up with inflation, they'd be @ around $17/hour by now. (I 4get what the rate was in'76 exactly). There is some merit to this statistic, because I'm sure that poor people are using @ least 2/3 of their incomes to pay rent, these days. Living like sardines in a can is not an option for many families, nor is it one from a health department standpoint. I know it can be done because, in the welfare house next to mine, they used to sleep in shifts. People that advocate living like sardines or running around from part-time job to part- time job & throwing in your own scam here & there are only bolstering the case for a minimum wage or "job entitlement" because the minimums are there to prevent exploitation & outright abuse of the most disadvantaged in society. No way is there any need for that! They show up with a desire to work; what more do you want? Sending someone down the road because they're due to recieve a salary increment is bad enough! To say that our country depends on slavery to survive, is absurd. The people who say this the loudest are no doubt the multi-million dollar CEO's & their untouchable cronies on the boards of directors who drain off hundreds of millions annually (in salaries alone) from the profits from production (or services). Profits generated by the labour of the legions in their employ. If slavery is so necessary, then change the system to one that benefits mankind! Emancipation should be the goal. If the job isn't worth minimum wage than it's not worth doing & that's it! For all the poor-bashers out there, this is supposed to be a discussion about the plight of the WORKING poor. I think they should have the right to shelter, some food, & maybe even a car if public transport doesn't exist. All this takes a wage. An actual wage-not a theoretical one. Notwithstanding if they're Catholic & have sex, or if they have mouths to feed. If raising the minimum wage to a bare minimum to afford basic shelter is due, then so be it. Obviously though, without a national childcare program, poor families (women) are screwed. National daycare would obviously boost worker productivity by adding more (female) minions to the system. Then everyone would be "productive" from the standpoint of creating shareholder wealth & contributing to the official GDP. There are statistics on rent in every province - in a just society, wages should match. Wage push inflation (if there is any... it was negligible in Australia) is much more desirable than the other causes. You could tighten up the credit market @ the same time for example, although none of this would be necessary, as the banks are the big causers & reapers of any inflation rippling through the economy. I say $17/hour to be implemented in stages & national daycare for the working class. Problem solved. No need for a fight. Minimum wage should be indexed, too. Even if the inflation rate is a bogus lie. No, scratch that, just tie it to rent. By the way, last time I looked, Quebec's national daycare plan was $5/kid/day.