myata

An average salary in Norway is about $US 70,000. An MP gets about twice that. Now check the state of the public health system, Covid statistics and shutdown record. There's a difference between responsible democratic governance and feudal-style government. And now, thanks strange as it sounds to the pandemic we can see it with our own eyes.

Has anyone noticed that some participants here appear to be in training for their Turing test (that is, for a machine to pass for a human)? Wonder if someone misplaced a bot recently.

In a feudal system there's no relation between the the compensation of the ruler and the results they deliver, that is, the condition of the country. Why should there be?

Median income for a single individual in Canada is $33,800 (StatCanada) The salary of a chief PHO is close to $400,000 with benefits and allowances. Public hospital CEO can have up to and over a million. At that level of compensation, does it still look like an "in crisis" "crumbling" system, or already somewhat like a third world, Latin American system? A system where rulers get obscenely rich without any relation to the reality of the country or the results they produce, for the country. Who said that these folks merit 10 times and more, median wage or a regular Canadian? Is it because of outstanding service and contribution, what is it, where can it be seen? In the permanently in crisis mode, don't blow on it "crumbling" system? We ended up with a bizarre mix of democratic phraseology and feudal management system. Is it going to work in this century, and for how long?

Who needed mandates that caused and causing controversy and backlash when voluntary compliance was high and vaccination levels increasing? Was it done to distract attention of the public from dismal state of the public health system, "substandard," "in crisis", "crumbling" on which countless public billions were spent over decades?

Enough, enough of cases, airlifted, ICU babble. This doesn't happen in normal countries. There's no shortage of resources in the systems of standard quality with competent professionals in managing the disease, not the population. They have achieved much better results without having to shut everything down once. Every time scary cases, shortages, (inflated) ICU etc mentioned as purported reason it is actually an excuse for ineptitude, incompetence and ineffective waste of public resources, including on obscene compensations and entitlements of the management. And excuses only encourage these practices and as a logical issue, dismal state of the system to continue - indefinitely.

Our great leaders will tell you, not to worry.

Vaccine mandates created controversy and backlash: Chicago police. If it was not stupid and counterproductive naivite then it could be deliberate abuse of power, to distract attention of the society from the dismal state of the system and responsibility of those who benefited from massive spending of public funds on it. As with "travel from Wuhan" questions need to be asked and answered: who made these decisions? How they were made? What arguments supported them, as opposed to voluntary measures and education? And the last and most important one: who is answering questions here?

The line is drawn at forced vaccinations. In specific and limited situations where it can be justified, it has to be disclosed to employees upfront as a condition of employment. Otherwise, many questions need to be discussed and answered before even considering such possibility. It beats my mind to see how such a serious matter is pressed thoughtlessly only on a political whim. Just shows how close we drifted, in the post-war prosperity bliss, to authoritarianism and dictatorship. Where citizens sleep liberty departs.

Maybe you'll get it in yuans?

As heard in the news today Liberals may be pressing (to be confirmed at a later day) for denying EI benefits to those fired for refusing mandatory vaccinations. A worker enters into a contract with employer. The latter changes the contract unilaterally and arbitrarily. Then denies the worker the benefits helping to find another employment. I have a feeling that those ruling boys and girls have been a bit too long and too far at it. And the only way to stop it would be with massive, billions worth hopefully law suits, maybe class action and more than one. Sure it will never be out of their fat personal pockets but still Joes and Jills paying them would see where their hard earned buck is ending up in, instead of running hospitals and great roads. Or of course, we would find out that there's nothing wrong with it and that would mean that the train has arrived to authoritarian station where anonymous bureaucrat can have virtually unlimited control over citizen's life under whatever banner. Either way, a very valuable exercise. Would someone take up this important, and possibly, deciding for the next phase of democracy in this century task? Or we'll go to slumber under uncontested aegis of benevolent authority?

It's difficult to argue that massive immigration does not contribute to the serious problem for many Canadians. And it's further exacerbated by the incompetent government that just comes up with a bright idea, like 100 millions by end of century and drops it on the society (luckily for it, in Canadian system a majority government can do pretty much anything it likes) without any clue about side effects and consequences. And when it bites in the a.. it starts talking then looking then procuring reports etc and it could take decades to even begin acting. That is what we have, what we worked for and constructed. And no chance in a heck it's going to be any better.

There's another way though. You're being intelligent and respond to the situation. If the level of the infection grows dangerously high maybe it's time for additional measures. But not because some bureaucrat scratched their a..e somewhere and saw something in their cup of milk. And when measures are no longer justified by the situation you drop them, right away, without crying wringing hands and other drama. Then maybe people will be more inclined to understand and trust you.

Live life or lose years for the Holy Number? Must be a no-brainer, in Canada.

A thought crossed my mind that beefing up mandatory measures and controversy like forced vaccinations, masking hoopla is not just stupid shooting oneself in the foot (a better results could have been achieved via voluntary compliance with little resistance) but may at least in part be intentional. The controversy distracts and diverts attention from the dismal state of the system that was described as substandard and crumbling, incompetent management ("travel from Wuhan") and obscene amounts of public money going to compensation of top management with no relation to the results. So next time you hear "Aiiiiii!!!" think who benefits from attention.

BS of course what else? Restrictions apply mostly for traveling and some in the early phase, mass public spaces like museums and libraries while businesses never closed. Sure sounds very much like Canada with three total shutdowns and exzperts crying and jumping let's have more! every time numbers twitch. Stretching information to the max under thin guise of "we looked". Like four meaningless categories out of five. Like suddenly skewed ICU stats. L...rs, l...rs.

Another misconception (or l-word?) that "lockdowns" in Scandinavian countries were the same or even happened at all. Some people would just say something or anything in the hope that it would never be checked or questioned.

I would say, there are governments and governments. Competent and effective governments would not need to inflate numbers simply because they can show the results. And then, there are other governments.

Maybe not so ridiculous if and when it brings a cuddly 400K x 4.4% = 17.6 K addition to the annual income. Good enough for a family Caribbean trip and why not if entitled to entitlements?

If anyone cared, they could compare effective (i.e. all levels and types) taxes in Canada and these countries. My guess would be that they would be on the same level. But of course, after citizens money are collected the question is how they are spend. Some invest them in a quality modern system working for the citizens. Others, spend on management perks and golden parachutes going into their private cottages and mansions (and foreign trips while everybody is supposed to be in lockdown). To each, their own. I prefer citizens own and control their governments, and for that reason they mostly make sense to the citizens (and if they don't citizens change them). But you are free to think it the other way. That way of thinking would of course, be more aligned with communist ideology.

Unfortunately one cannot trust any data coming from PH authorities in this country without independent verification as it's manipulated to support dogmas of the day. For example as was shown recently, ICU statistics in proportion to reported cases suddenly jumped close to 100% earlier this fall compared to analogous period last year and far exceeded similar statistics in peer countries. This is the sad state of affairs we have come to, but hardly surprisingly, by voluntarily relinquishing any checks and controls on the all-powerful bureaucracy. Now we cannot even work intelligently on the best approaches because we cannot know what is actually going on. The objective is not learning and improvement, but proving self-propagated dogma of the day.

Certainly, if it's not some authoritarian paradise someone or something would need to take a very good look at who is raking outrages incomes from public funds (no don't cry, make it in your own private business with no limits just pay taxes, no socialisms) why, with what relation to the reality and the produced results. Otherwise, and obviously, "don't blow on the crumbling system" wouldn't be the final stage, why would it?

Not me, they just need to be related to the produced results. There are countries that never had a lockdown, as they are known here, and with far better results. It would be interesting to compare compensation packages in those successful places if anyone was interested. It's a fact though that an MP in Norway makes approximately a double of the average income, while here MP salaries are out of all bounds imaginable. And of course those MP are actually representatives, not stooges of party nomenclature.

Thanks for confirming though, you're advocating obscene and surreal compensations (according to their needs, with no relation to the reality) with not even slightest relation to the produced results (according to their abilities, whatever they are). That's Papa Marx's famous formula except it was supposed to apply to everybody, and that makes you a Communist. Now that is clear and wraps up the discussion.

You mean, you can get worse than "travel from Wuhan" and aiii it's oh so new people? How do you know it's possible?