Rediculous

If an employer can't afford to pay $10.00 an hour in this day and age then they have the wrong business model. $10.00 is essentially poverty level, and there is no reason for people to be living below it in such a rich society. The Liberals care only about the corporate class.

Guaranteed Annual Income

The minimum wage should be part of a package that guarantees a minimum annual income regardless of where you live, your age or occupation. I ask where are the unions in all of this? If they started to work for the benefit of all canadians, they just might find they have huge constituency that would give them some sorely needed validity. Unless we allow shanty towns, as in the third world there is no alternative to fair minimum wages.

$10 minimum, Not Out Of Order

I have been in business for over two decades here in Coquitlam BC and I unequivocally support BC NDP leader Carole James's recent demand for a provincial $10 minimum wage, including a small adjustment downward for small business taxes.
"Ms. James call for a $10 minimum wage is clearly supported by public opinion in the province which I have sponsored in part."
I believes that "BC Liberal Finance Minister Carole Taylor's assertion that BC's 'low unemployment rate' is evidence that BC's current minimum wage is acceptable is preposterous."
"It is my opinion, and the opinion of many of my clients, and the public at large that Premier Campbell is not trustworthy and operates a corrupt government which benefits donors, friends and insiders. It is pretty clear he intends to maintain a slave wage in the province for as long as his friends pour money into his party account."
"I have no doubt that BC NDP leader Carole James is a socially responsible human being, who is now reflecting a fiscal awareness as well, something past BC NDP governments were not entirely successful at. As a lifelong business person I support her on this account wholeheartedly."
I have always been a supporter of BC Social Credit values and principles espoused by former Social Credit Premier WAC Bennett, who understood that a strong economy must include a fair and decent wage for workers." "Apparently, Gordon Campbell cares little for most if not all principles of Social Credit. He is obviously a market liberal, who cares only about the bottom line for his friends and associates and the engorgement of their personal wealth, and could care less about the well being of British Columbians generally."
Jim Van Rassel
Coquitlam
604-328-5398

There are disabled and pensioners who live on less!

A society is judged by how it cares for its most vulnerable members. Our society, led by Campbell and Cronies is failing miserably! It is immoral, unethical and unjust, if not criminal, that our political leaders can vote themselves hefty pay raises and pension benefits at a time when so many citizens are suffering financially.

A single person receiving provincial disability "benefits" is only entitled to $906 per month. Only $375 of that amount is allowed for housing, which is impossible to find. That means that money that should go towards essential living costs such as food has to be diverted to housing costs. It is common for people on welfare or disability to pay between %50 and %80 of their monthly "benefits" just for housing, leaving little left over.

A disabled person receiving provincial "benefits" is allowed to earn up to $500 a month without having that amount deducted from their monthly cheque. However, if that same person also receives CPP disability benefits, those benefits are deducted from the provincial amount. Even though those CPP benefits are based on past earned income, the province says they are not earned income and so deducts them, even if those Federal benefits are less than the $500 income exemption allowed by the province. Why not allow them to keep federal benefits up to $500 instead of deducting them?

This is an outrageous situation, whereby callous cold-hearted politicians deny disabled citizens benefits they are entitled to, even while they vote to enhance their own already comfortable life styles. Those politicians will say that the law is on their side (the BC Court of Appeal agrees), but we all know "the law is a ass" when it comes to compassion for the poor.

It's time to throw the rascals out!

Unions

They have little money, and the labour laws are stacked against them due to legislation from both the provincial and the federal Liberals. Every labour union loss (such as with the Telus lock-out) is a step backward for non-unionized workers too. It would be great if unions were better at communicating what they do, but they are basically volunteer organizations (with some paid positions, of course) and they can't compete with the millions of dollars that corporations spend on PR and on the buying of politicians. Corporations know how to bleed unions dry with legal maneuvers. It's not an equal fight by any stretch of the imagination. Even with these constraints, many unions do a lot of outreach and public policy lobbying, but I would say they've lost a lot of ground over the last 25 years and don't have the clout they once did.

The textbook purpose of

The textbook purpose of economics is: The science for the management and distribution of scarce resources.

A decent wage is part of this alleged economic "distribution" process, now long forgotten by economists, who seem to believe that as long executives are stealing multimillion dollar salaries from the public's pocket, Adam Smith is smiling from a heavenly cloud and everything is A-OK.

Ed Deak.

Unions

"Where indeed are the unions? They wouldn't have just become a part of the self-serving market system, would they?"

Wasn't the campaign started by the unions? Isn't it the BCFED that is running the campaign? You see Sinclair speaking out all the time for low wage earners whether or not they are union members. The above quote is just rhetoric to cover-up the fact that the laisse-faire free market could care less about the working class.

$10 an hour is a good idea.

In 1965 the minimum wage was $1.00 an hour. At the same time you could rent a room for $20-40 a month in Vancouver. This works out to one quarter of a minimum wage income or less. But that wasn't all at that time. There were a vast number of cheap rooms and apartments available. Today someone on minimum wage would have to shell out half or more of their income for rent, should they be lucky enough to find low crental accomodation.

Study

Here's a link...I think.

I may have missed it but the study didn't seem to differentiate between, for want of better words, captive and non captive jobs. A captive job being one at say MacDonalds or Timmy Ho's where any competition is only from within the province.

Employers who have this type of work could pay the $10 minimum without fear of losing market share. The public might gripe but I don't think prices would rise enough that employers would start losing business.

The non captive job market is another matter. It would be necessary to see just how many current minimum wage jobs fall into that category and try to find out how much wiggle room there is for any adjustments. Who knows, if the ratio of captive/non captive jobs was in favour of captive jobs then market forces may bring the other wages up on their own. Tax breaks may be required to reach a balance.

There could still be room for experience based increments but they should be short enough to make the cost of training employees greater than any savings gained from replacing them for new hires.

I think you'll find this much more convincing

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/175445

The suggestion that increases in the minimum wage negatively affect employment is absurd.

And this is a much more relevant study

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/BC_Office_Pubs/raising_floor.pdf

In my view

Pffft

"You can't live on less than $10 an hour and have a decent life."

You can be living on double that and barely be having a decent life in this wonderful society we've created for ourselves...

why not argue more over maximum?

I think we have our priorities wrong in terms of wages. There is always such huge debate about a fair minimum wage. Why don't we spend more time trying to set fair maximum wages/income - say ten times the minimum payed to any full-time employee that a company has? This could be for board directors as well as employees.

The CEOs of the world need to allow the Cratchets more lumps of coal, and a goose for their Christmas/Hannuka/Eid al Adha dinner. An article written earlier this month at the Tyee showed that many of the rich are never sated anyway. This current article about 18,000,000 dollar, 5000 sq. ft. condos seems to further support this argument. Couldn't someone be just as happy in a 3,000,000 dollar condo? Perhaps large companies and corporations could become more eco-friendly as well as employee-friendly if society would pay greater respect for bosses doing good than for those who amass excess wealth.

Finally, we need to spread more company ownership to employees, especially following the death of stockholders. Instead of large amounts of company stock being passed directly to next-of-kin through inheritance or gifts, 1/3 of the stock should go to the employees and 1/3 to the province. There should be maximum amounts of capital that a person can both own and pass on to others.

We (all of us who are not sociopaths) know that greed is bad and sharing is good. There is no reason that people should be born into this world and be taught that it is their birth-right to be rich beyond enough to meet a reasonable need for food, shelter, health, and learning.

http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/10/14/4574953-sun.html

Good Points!

Good points SharingIsGood. While we are about it though, we should also abolish the laws that allow this corporate racket to flourish, such as the corporation as fictitious person and limited liability. All forms of corporate welfare should also be stopped.

Raise minimum wage now!

Stuart Murray of the CCPA wrote in a press release titled "Time to Raise BD's Minimum Wage": "In March, Ontario's provincial government announced plans to raise its minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010, arguing that a more rapid increase would result in substantial job losses. The evidence suggests otherwise. The minimum wage is, if anything, a bit player when it comes to employment rates. Over the past 25 years, increases in provincial minimum wages have been followed by both increases and decreases in employment, showing that other trends in the economy are much more important. Given BC's current economic growth and labour shortages, increasing the minimum wage to $10 would, at worst, result in a negligible slowdown in the growth of new jobs."

Also, in a Province article of September 3, titled "B.C. Fed floats demand for $10 minimum wage," is stated the fact that currently 20,000 to 30,000 workers "scrape by on the $6 'training' wage." If the BCFED can gather such statistics, why can't the government? Answer: they don't care, so they can't be bothered.

The BCFED is collecting names now (before Nov. 1) in an online petition to present to the BC government. To sign on, go to the BC Federation of Labour's website.

The BC NDP has a petition going also.

To find these sites, google (www.google.ca) their names (click on "pages from Canada").

Sicko's. Keep the working

Sicko's. Keep the working poor down. How can one afford to live in Vancouver is beyond me.

A two buck an hour raise is only 25% that is pretty small to the 29% Campbell gave himself and brought back the pension plan retroactively that averages $800,000 (No this is not a misprint).

Funny how right wing governments like to kick people that are poor, working poor etc. It is truly very sick.

I really think it is time for a social revolution. People need to take this country back from corporations, the rich and elite.

I would not doubt it could happen eventually as I heard somewhere once 35% of the population get disenfranchised it is prime time for a revolution and not a peaceful one at that.

Really how long can this country continue this path? 95% of the people will be all but slaves to the rest.

France , Venezuela, Holland or Cuba are starting to look like where I should plan on retiring too.

Slave revolts

If we start drawing parallels we should start with the Roman empire, because they had a very similar economic and demographic picture, adjusted for differing rates of communication. Theirs was slower, so the processes proceed faster now.

In Rome, slaves were captured. They were sentenced to slavery for debt. Because anybody could be thrust by circumstance into slavery, slaves were not only the poor and uneducated, but also might be middle class or educated people fallen on bad times.

In Rome, slaves were often paid minimal amounts so that they might have faint hope of buying their freedom. There were government lotteries for the same purpose. It rarely actually happened that a slave won citizenship, but it prevented revolt.

A formula has been proposed that says that when 30% or so of all people are slaves, and they feel hopeless, a revolt will inevitably begin that will lead to a change in the population of owners.

Unfortunately, this is usually a bloody affair.

As far as I can see, the biggest difference between them and us is that our owners can hide better. In South America and Asia and in the offshore banking areas. And they can move faster. When Rome fell, the legions in the middle east couldn't be recalled fast enough to be useful. This might not be true today. I believe Blackwater might be willing to take a contract to kill a civil uprising in North America.

However, I don't believe any force would be sufficient to quell an uprising of more than 40% of the population of the empire. Especially if the various elements in the regions can link, and act in a coordinated way.

For one thing, such an uprising would necessarily include relatives of most of the soldiers sent to put it down.

Bailey

It would certainly pose enough of a challenge that, all other things being equal, the level of violence and coercion required to 'put down' the uprising would - given a wide enough diffusion of the news - quickly create a situation (such as that in Burma) where the only way the 'government' could keep the lid on things would be the military.

It would be a more dicey thing than was Trudeau's apprehended insurrection...which, in a kind of back-handed and strange way eventually led to the Charter – which is, woody to the contrary, still the best defence individuals and groups have against the tyranny of the state and the greed of their corporate enablers.

I still think the Charter is the way to fight these things - but maybe not for much longer!

Driven to the wall...

The social democratic reforms initiated during and after the Depression staved off the slave revolt that Bailey talks about. This indicates the arrogance and stupidity of the recent crop of rulers with their piratizations, cut-backs and other moves to turn the clock back to the Robber Baron Era. TILMA and NAFTA have also taken away much of the ability to restore those social democratic reforms. Since we can no longer reform the system through parliamentary means, we will have no choice but to use extre-parilamentary methods. If these criminals have made reform impossible we will have no choice - our very survival at stake - but to choose revolution

talk is cheap

It is encouraging to read the comments, where posters agree that we are approaching the time for a revolution.
At the same time it is evident that we all are a bit too well off to actually plan to participate!
We agree in principle, but expect the really poor to lead the charge.
The really poor do not even have a computer and have no idea of the support they have (hopefully)

We have posters wondering why the unions do not lead? Forgetting that there are political parties for that purpose?
All I can say is that writing here may ease your conscience, but what counts is action!
Quit sniping about the NDP, join up and participate! make your voice heard! insist on your opinion being considered!
Certainly that party has strayed from its root in order to become more popular, but it is still the only party that has a chance of representing all of us against the multinational corporations that own most politicians.

On tyranny

"'Necessity,' wrote Milton, is always 'the tyrant's plea.'"--from: A Short History Of Progress, by Ronald Wright, p. 90

Talk..

While your point about talk being cheap is certainly true, brother, whom I learned that from is precisely the blankety blank NDP.

Thanks, but no thanks.

It may take longer, but I'd rather put my trust in a real "people's movement" outside any of the prevailing parties to capitalism, which the NDP has certainly proven itself to be, to anyone but the fool "true believer"-, in my experience and view. Might as well stick the old "Wahoo" out the window and try to shag the world.

And I understand that a lot of really good and sincere people have bought into the mythology of all kinds of "vanguard parties", who are going to "lead" the working class but in fact only join the parade to "rule over" the working class.

Sorry, True Believers, but this is something the working class and its poor is going to have to, really, and actually do for itself-, however long it bloody well takes. (And the blood may indeed be copious, but hopefully, and we should try with all our might, not.

Sorry again, but insofar as the NDP and all the other Vanguard Parties that but merely wind up creating new elites and ruling classes are concerned, I've already been there and done that.

Continued Next Post

Talk II...

From Previous Post...

And Brook-, and Chris H, sorry for taking so long brothers, but I am a trade unionist too, and for a very long time was proud of being so. But the increasingly obvious failure of the trade union movement and its leadership didn't just happen. It had a beginning. And that beginning first, of course, began with the early pogroms against the radical left that had largely first built the trade union movement in the fiery furnace of the 1930s, and this pogrom against them went on through the McCarthyite period of the 50s, and came to its final conclusive result when the trade union leadership failed to step up to the plate in the great Solidarity Strike of the 80s in BC, at the birth moment of the current Neoconazi period. Some others of you may recall as well.

After this failure of principle and courage, you could hear and see trade unionists heading for the exits all over the goddamn province, country and place. Clearly, with that failure, the time of every man and woman for themselves had arrived, AGAIN. (And it was the NDP leadership that had its pudgy finger, through its control of the trade union leadership of that day, in that pie as well.

Eh, I was friggin' there.)

Which brings us precisely to the quagmire we are in today-, where indeed the talk continues to be cheap, especially out of the mouths of the NDP and the trade union leadership. (Somebody wanna close that hot air vent?)

Like I would say, we are, to a very large degree, back at the beginning again, where the old radical left, left off and the "business trade unionism" period of failure began, having to start all over rebuilding the "peoples' movement" that is going to be needed to reverse the fortunes of the working class and its poor. And in doing that, I will suggest, we will have the greater chances of success if we turn our backs on the social democratic (NDP) and trade union leadershipS of failure from the past, and rely instead more entirely on ourselves. Again, it may take longer, and that may not even be true, but certainly the result will have a greater chance of being better.

I hate chewing my cabbage twice. Better to move on to new fare. :-)

We need a new peoples movement, not a re-reaching for the failures of the past, its vanguard parties and its fellow travellers with capitalism trade union bureaucracies.

My view.

Many Comments

I have read the comments here. Some ask where are the unions in this. I belong to a union. Unions are made up of volunteers and we are supporting this campaign. Union funds go for posters and and other media forms to get the campaign out. This campaign is discussed at meetings and we try to get the word out to everyone. One does not need to belong to a union though to be involved. This is something that should concern all and others should not sit back and expect unions to do all the work. Unions are just a group of individuals.
I think the real problem here is Gordo and his NeoLiberalism ideas want wages of all kept low. If minimum wage is increased then all up the scale wages must be raised. Those making $10 now will want more because they will not want to work for minimum wage. Then raise their wage to $12 and those making $12 will want more and so on. Gordo already showed by cutting HEU wages 15% and some others by less amounts he is not about seeing anyone getting fair pay. Well I guess I am wrong if you are a Liberal MLA or Liberal big business supporter you deserve a raise.
To achieve their goals they must keep us beat down. Keep us so busy trying to make a living we have no time or energy to revolt. If a revolt of any sort is to happen we can not sit back and wait for others to do it. We must all be involved in it. Power is in the numbers active not the numbers sitting in comfort watching. And when we can't make a living there is Harpo with his NeoLiberlisms passing more laws and bringing us closer to a police state.

NoLeftNutter?

I ask you, do you visit any of the service industry? Do you go to restaurants or stores or hotels and on and on?
If everyone upgrades their education and skills and then feels they should work as trained who will work the service industry? Bet you would be the first one crying when you have none of those luxuries to enjoy. You have to cook every meal for yourself. You have to go to the farms and harvest all those foods first. You must shear the sheep prepare the wool then knit or weave to make your clothes. There will always be a need for the service workers. That does not mean there needs to be a need to undervalue and disrespect them.

Since the '60s the cost of

Since the '60s the cost of living increased by about 1000%, but wages remained stagnant.

When I started my apprenticeship in Vancouver in 1955, my minimum wage was .75 cents, my wife was making about the same in various jobs. But our rent was $35/month and even in the early '70s we could feed our family of 5, very well, for $25./wk.

In 1966 we bought our first bungalow in the Killarney area for $6,500. with a monthly mortgage of $45. We tore it down in 1974 and built a new, ultramodern one, by ourselves, for a material outlay of about $15,000.

In 1975 I bought a brand new Dodge Tradesman 200 van for my business, with all kinds of extras at Johnston Motors on Kingsway, for $5,600. Now the same would cost $50 or $60,000.

Then the neoclassical "competitive market capitalism" started raising its ugly head in the '70s and prices started soaring. We sold our house when we moved to our ranch, in 1979 for $65,000., which was our reasonable asking price. A year later it was sold for $138,000. and so on and on. We know what it would cost today. We had no regrets, as we wanted to get the hell out of that already then overpopulated zoo at any price.

So where are the wages to balance this inflation caused by being "more competitive" ?

If the equation was still the same as we had in the '50s and '60s, the average wage would be around $50/hr. and the minimum wage at least $30.

But now we're in a "globally competitive equilibrium of the free trade marketplace" that rewards legalized theft with incredible rights to the corporate mafia to steal more and more from the public, while calling it a "booming economy".

In short, we live in a world of fraud and legalized crime and our governments want to reward us with more of the same with the "free movement of labour" between the 3 NAFTA countries, under the now, secretly negotiated SPP racket under the control of the multinational corporate mafia.

Free enterprise and free trade?

Hundreds of ranchers will go broke this year alone, because the corporations in control of the world's food supply have depressed cattle prices to half what we were getting 10 years ago, while meat prices in the stores have doubled and keep going up, claiming a "shortage".

Stalin did it with bayonets, these crooks with the power of imaginary capital created from the air by banks, working to set up a global corporate dictatorship, while calling it "freedom".

Ed Deak.

Corporate "Democracy"...

Ed Deak.

Having a long memory is certainly a useful tool, eh Deak!!!

When the current day political and intellectual charlatans attempt to pull the wool over the collective eyes with their recycled shtick, it's a whole hell of a lot harder from them to pull it off with those of us who can actually remember, and have been there before.

I know many of you younger working folks are living it now, but those of us who remember the road well travelled from the past also know it can and is going to get a lot worse than this, unless something clicks pretty damned soon in the collective mind-set. There have been huge movements of ordinary folks in the past that dramatically changed society, and there can and will be again, no bloody doubt. (Two steps forward, one back, does seem to be about the way it works.)

They, the ruling class and their neoconazi allies are taking a huge gamble here, and the longer it goes on the greater the risk grows that it is all going to turn around and bite them on the ass. Capitalism only works reasonably well for all, when it is in fact highly "regulated". De-regulated capitalism increasingly begets growing chaos and anarchy, as we are now living through. And the world has been there before too-, from the time of the 18th Century Industrial Revolution in Europe through the 1930s, to the rise of a mass labour/trade union movement and radical working class organization. It succeeded in scaring the ruling class enough, for awhile.

Unfortunately, working folks forgot the lesson over the postwar Prosperity Time, and is going to have re-learn all over again, the importance of, at the very least, keeping the ruling class scared shiteless. 'Cause when they ain't scared, then it's we who have to be.

yada yada

OK, Canis Latrans, so you were there and you got burned.
Now you resent the NDP as well as the union movement.

Well join the crowd of people who are disappointed with how things developed and angry at some leaders who did not manage to follow through on their fiery speeches once they got elected.
We have all been there, we have all been disappointed!

But sitting back wishing for some new peoples movement to arise while our rights are being eroded make no sense...brother.
We have to do something, and since we already have organizations established it is a simple matter of stepping up to the plate and put our stamp on the leadership.

About those disappointments, as for instance about unions, many leaders realise the problems but are subject to the demands of the rank and file; so they go public with what the members request, even if those requests may not be realistic!
The "garbage trike" was a good example of both sides posturing, when they both knew they were wasting time and money. The union trying to satisfy the wishes of members who were pissed off at the way they have been treated and management influenced by "Sam" ideology.

Other leaders may simply cave in to pressure, hey maybe they are human?

Why you would expect perfection from organizations that are run by volunteers is beyond me?

If you want change, then do something!
Belly aching here about what was, is not positive! worry about what is about to be!
And participate instead of sniping!

Alive..........The problem

Alive..........The problem is that no politician, no party and no union dares to raise a single voice against the fraudulent teachings and tenets of the neoclassical market economic theory in our universities, which has now become the biggest crime wave in human history.

They complain and wring their hands over the effects, but say nothing about the causes.

All we can hear are demands to become
"more competitive in the global markets", when it means getting poorer and poorer, because all forms of competition increase costs. Period.

I have competed in a number of sports and in business and can easily prove that economic competition does not cut, but increases costs on account of the increased energy demands to remain on top.

Unless our politicians and union leaders finally come to grip with this reality, we'll go down the hill faster and faster.

Unfortunately, their house economists have been brainwashed with the same ideological crap as the economists of the Fraser Inst. and can not break the chains of their miseducation. All they can come up with are band aids over compound fractures.

In 1997, when the IWA local asked me to make a presentation of the effects of the then being negotiated MAI, they were ordered by their head office, under Haggard, to cancel it, as their chief economist thought it was a good idea.

When I tried to explain to Jim Sinclair, that Campbell wasn't "cutting" anything, but transferring costs on the public and the workers, because real economic costs can not be cut, only transferred on other sectors, the environment and the future, he didn't get it. People were still running around with sandwich boards with "Mr.Campbell's cuts are too deep", while Campbell piled the stolen "savings" into the pockets of the corporations.

How many jobs has the IWA lost during the presidency of the famous Jack Munro, later jumping into a fancy corporate office and from Wall St. in Vancouver to the British Properties?

Unless the problems are cut off and drowned at the source, at our universities, there won't be any improvements, because the crooks are using their fraudulent teachings
to legalize grand theft and global massmurder by poverty and hunger.

Ed Deak.

let action follow words!

Right Ed, but do we wait for the universities to begin teaching real economics?

I have about as much life experience as you, I have been active in unions and political movements here and in Europe. I have been self employed and I have participated in contract negotiations.

I do get the big picture and I realise that most people here are not ready to make the sacrifice of an actual revolt.

My point is that beefing about how certain leaders failed us, will not solve anything!

If no political party has the guts to stand up for us, then why not "invade" the best choice (NDP) and force a change in directions?

Sitting back and beefing solves nothing!

Wishing that your theories would be universally recognized is also a pipe-dream!

The only way things change is when enough people make it clear that the time has come for a change!

So far all we get is protest votes, where "we" split our chances because one fraction feels it is better than the other, while the enemy just sits back and laugh at us.

True Believers ....

Alive,

I certainly understand your concerns about the NDP, and indeed "official labour". They are on the skids and have been since the late 70s to early 80s. And if you still "believe", in the face of the mounting evidence that both have been seriously derailed, (and even a "business union, as most have become, is better than none), then by all means, fly at 'er and beat your head against the wall. I just won't join in your masochistic exercise, if that's alright with you.

There's no arguing with "true believers". I learned that one a long time ago too.

Other than that, what Deak says above, pretty much. Though he and I would pose it differently and to different effect, in many important regards.

The continuing ideological commitment to capitalism, its economic and political notions, by unions and would-be "progressive" parties needs to end first, yesterday, if they are going to have any relevance to the future at all.

Just my view, mind. I'm just not a true believer in anybodies religion anymore. Been there and done your shtick too.

What I'm saying is that

What I'm saying is that protesting against politicians and governments is a waste of time, because all they do is thump their phoney economic scriptures from universities, justifying their criminal actions.

The protests should be directed against the economics departments, as I know from personal contacts and global exposure on economic forums, that every university has dozens and hundreds of professors who could knock over the neoclassical theory in one day, but they're scared for their jobs, now also controlled by big business, who rob the world blind.

I'm in daily contact with scientists from all over the world, who know exactly what is going on, what is wrong, and what should be done, but can not move without public support.

This is where the NDP and the unions should come in standing up behind them in support.

By the way I'm a member, and have been urging them for years, without any results. All they do is moan and groan over and talk about "scaring off wealth and job creating foreign investment", the biggest fraud that ever was.

No foreign investor has ever brought anything to this, or any other country. All they do is putting people into permanent debt, colonization and enslavement.

All justified by the neoclassical theory.

Ed Deak.

The Privatization of the Horse and the Cart

To me the approach by the NDP is all wrong here.

The increase of the minimum wage means little if you have no power...and no way to access it.....like increasing voltage but having no access to electrical power in order to actually benefit.

The NDP have displayed (for all the good intentions on the part of many decent hardworking NDP MLA's) little leadership on the BIG question of REAL people-power. They are unable to or refuse to articulate in any "powerful" way the grand theft of rights and resources currently taking place in this province.

If an Opposition is unwilling to take on the absolutely crucial issue of people power as the main issue, then, let's be blunt, it simply is not an opposition...and we already have enough "pretending" going on in BC in the guise of "so-called" governance.

By not making the selling out of this province and its people THE crucial issue, and by not voicing it in any powerful way as THE crucial issue facing us all, they turn all other issues, (which certainly deserve and ought to be addressed) into mere trivialities.

To be brief, (sorry, one day I'll learn how ;-))....it's not rocket science, it's just the old horse and cart thing, "forest- for-the-trees" kind of stuff.

Absolutely spot on Lynn

An opposition bill to raise the minimum wage was NEVER going to pass and Ms James knew it before she started. It doesn't really make good political theatre and in no way offsets the collaborationist air that has hung over the party ever since Ms James took over.

She should have been expending research funds to calibrate exactly how compromised the future prospects of the province have become since Campbell took over and started selling assets down the river.

Campbell is very vulnerable on that score - and has been ever since Joy McPhail cross-examined him over the BC Rail mess. At that time it was obvious to anyone who was watching and listening that neither the Ministry of Transportation nor the Ministry of Finance had a watching brief over any of the major developments in this government.

They are all run off Gordon Campbell's credenza and he's the guy who should have klieg lights on him 24/7. The management screw ups and cost over-runs on the Convention Centre (without even exploring the ‘white elephant’ aspect) are now significantly more of an embarrassment to this ‘private enterprise’ government than the fast ferries ever were. The Olympics will soon start delivering their own dose of bad news – the Richmond skating oval already has in fact and the security costs over-runs are likely to be horrendous and both Kenny boy Dobell and now Graham Bruce have provided signal examples of how this government “does business”.

Carole James should be killing them. Why isn’t she?

Quit stalling brothers

Thanks for the contribution fellows!

All I hear is lame excuses why nothing can be done.

Yes, it is a global problem and whichever country tries to modify or correct things will be blackballed by the US.

So let us take action locally for a start?

Most people agree that for instance Cuba has managed to defy old uncle Sam and create a better functioning society in spite of all the propaganda and interferences.

Perhaps if Canada showed similar initiative, the world would sit up and take notice?

Perhaps it will take a new political party, perhaps communism will need to be revived?

Whatever it takes, what are we waiting for?

Lynn.....

Great comment-really appreciated.

Yes, why isn't the NDP making the selling out of our Province front and centre?

Good grief they couldn't even oppose the Tsawwassen Treaty out here even though it wasn't what the NDP proposed when they were in Government.

James just sat on the fence until almost Treaty signing and then came out in support.
She wouldn't allow the NDP caucus a free vote on it.
The one NDP MLA who was going to oppose the Treaty wasn't there when the vote was taken but three Liberal MLA's voted against it.
Our Conservative M.P. John Cummins is against the Treaty.

Time for James to go...she's done enough damage.

Re Incomes Stagnating

You don't have to go back decades to realize that wages have stagnated.

http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=1396

shows that wages have been stagnant for at least two decades, corresponding roughly to the rise of neoliberalism.

Question now, like everybody seems to be asking, is what to do about it?

A research project for us

Seems like every observed phenomenon in this whole scenario points to some invisible outside influence.

The the liberals don't really seem to benefit (beyond petty "contributions" )from the truly massive sell off of public assets to various foreign interests.

The NDP has no real excuse to neglect it's duties as opposition. At least since they rose from the ashes. I see no obvious explanation anyway.

When the opposition was Jenny and Joy they were valiant. The government had to run their scams into the middle of the night to tire them out so they could sneak through their illegal deals. Bill 29 among many.

Now, not so much. So here's my question:

What invisible outside influence can we postulate that would explain all these effects?

I will not believe in a coincidence that would give each observed anomoly a seperate cause without very good evidence.

Bailey

Some possibilities:
1) Inexperience. With Joy McPhail's departure there is really no one with the kind of background necessary to mount a real attack on Campbell - and he is the one upon whom the blows must fall - all the others are just window dressing.

2) Penury - Many of these NDP MLAs may now be making the best money they have ever earned - there is no fire in their bellies and, out of fear for their own futures, they are reluctant to take the Campbell people on outside the legislature - which is what they have to do: Simply because the legislature itself does not draw that much attention any longer.

3) The Media - It is very hard for James to get her message out when the media is more interested in scratching the backs of the corporate enablers who pour Campbell's drinks for him.

4) The Legislative rules - simply don't give the Opposition the amount of time and exposure they need when the house is in session.

5) Carole James's philosophy and approach - her background - is much more attuned toward negotiation and consensus building; remember she even tried that on (to her everlasting shame) over the first aborted Campbell attempt to raise salaries. She doesn't seem to realize she's in the ring with a Mike Tyson type who will bite her ears off in the clinches. She needs to grow some muscles or get out of the ring.

6) Hope springs eternal. It may be they believe that Campbell and his government will simply self-destruct; they seem so compromised and characterized by the smell of corruption and payola that the Opposition thinks they will win next time by default. There are indications that things will be getting much worse as the election approaches – Campbell is being hurt badly by the Dobell affair; the Graham Bruce situation; the incompetent management and cost control of the convention centre; the emasculation of BC Hydro and the hint of scandal in the Health Ministry and there is still the BASI/VIRK trial to come. Can it be that the Opposition thinks they can just sit back while these things unravel? I certainly hope not.

It's about housing costs...

The main thrust of this article is the disconnect between the cost of housing and wages. This is a reality that affects all wage earners, not only those making the minimum. Perhaps it might be worthwhile to focus on those government policies which drive up housing costs, or which alternatively reduce disposible income available for housing. These are personal and property taxes, and mass immigration policies. Vancouver's housing costs are fundamentally driven by our mass immigration policies. At the federal level, the NDP advocates increasing our current immigration levels to 1% of population, or an increase of more than 20%:

http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2006/static/issues/ndp.htmla immceral

For example, the wikipedia article on immigration to Canada states:

Immigrant population growth is disproportionally concentrated in or near large cities (particularly Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal). These cities are experiencing the strains that accompany strong population growth causing some residents to express concern about the declining livability of those cities. For example, a Toronto Star article published on 14 July 2006 authored by Daniel Stoffman noted that 43% of immigrants move to the Greater Toronto Area and said "unless Canada cuts immigrant numbers, our major cities will not be able to maintain their social and physical infrastructures".

Perhaps the NDP should focus on the affordability of housing, instead of advocating policies which contribute to reducing it.

Well Percy

I'm willing to put a cap on immigration - other than legitimate refugees - anytime you are. My price is a complete overhaul of the tax system.

That's how to create more affordable housing, that and foreign investors in the housing market.

Therefore, I'll go along with your immigration tactic as long as you concur with my changes to the tax structure. And then even the current minimum wage will go a lot further.

Deal?

should make it clear, percy

That I want to get foreign investors and speculators OUT of the housing market.

tricia58

Your post epitomizes some of the fuzzy thinking around this issue. The value of the work is generally consistent with the value of the output. If the end product isn’t worth much than the labour to create it won’t be worth much.

Labour scarcity also affects the value, in our current economy you don’t need much in the way of experience, education or work ethic to do better than the minimum wage.

It’s just nutty to turn this issue into some kind of class warfare conspiracy…….

No it's not:

In fact, in the technological age nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the most highly paid people in our culture produce absolutely nothing of any real intrinsic value.

Shut off the power at the service entrance to your home some day and leave it off for a fortnight and you'll understand what I mean.

The exorbitant costs of greed

When millions upon millions is made to look like "small potatoes"....but ten dollars? Now you're really asking toooo much.

Vancouver Convention Center: over budget by 248- 388 million depending on where you place the starting line.

BC Rail 990 year/"Sale": First a broken election promise. A profitable public railway that should never have been sold. A one billion dollar deal that wasn't - CN was allowed a 250 million tax write down (tax credit). That's 250 million dollars that this province lost in revenue. (BC Rail was always non-taxpayer supported debt - the shippers rates covered all this). Then we were told the selling of our railway would allow the paydown of 500 million dollars of provincial debt - debt incurred because of that big BCliberal tax cut for the wealthy.

So as Joy Macphail said in the legislature: "there was no net gain in economic value of this sale whatsoever."

Then the cancellation of the Roberts Bank spur line cost the taxpayer close to one million dollars. Add that one million dollars to the 14 million dollar "selling" costs of a railway we didn't want sold and that's another 15 million dollars for all of us to bear.:

Here's the breakdown of those selling costs:

The financial adviser, $6 million. The shipper consultants, $250,000. Communications, $40,000. Legal counsel, $5.01 million. Accounting and auditing, $250,000. Actuarial work, $50,000. Captive insurance looks like $25,000. Real estate adviser, $600,000. Fairness opinion, $300,000. Internal expenses — this has to do with staff, travel, etc. — $300,000. Evaluation committee support costs, $15,000. Internal communications, $6,000. And a contingency of $5,000 — for a total of $14 million.

Note the $600,000 dollars for real estate advisors - they come in when we find out that there is a clause in the deal that allows the government to sell to CN (what Kevin Falcon admits in hansard) is crown land for $1. (ya read it right, that's one dollar) to CN.

Then there was Gordo's brother-in-law who was awarded $60,000 in untendered contracts, and had a $400,000 debt written off by the province.

And The Tyee's Claudia Cornwall reported on the costs of the doomed attempt to privatize the Coquihalla:

"The doomed project cost the B.C. taxpayers $4,222,688 in consultants’ fees. $1,157, 016 went to a Swiss company called KPMG International, $845,023 went to the British AMEC, $266,794 was paid to another UK-based corporation, Halcrow, and $206,593 went to the American OPUS, who are design-build specialists."

Then there's 2010, the Sea-to-Sky and so much more....and more.... and on and on... and so it goes....

Ya gotta wonder how this government and its leader are still standing?

On that note...

I tutored a 15 yr old tonight who informed me that she got two "jobs" over the weekend. Both were at sushi restaurants- one not owned by Japanese. She worked for 6 hrs, no break (they gave her a can of coke) and told her it was a "trial" run and she would not be paid a dime. They want her back this Saturday for another "trial" (that is- no pay) and for 11 hours!! She has been here a few years and is aware that this is all illegal but is so desperate for experience she is willing to overlook it... this time. I convinced her to not take the job. The other employer sounds a bit better, though she was not paid for the 3 hrs she worked there on the weekend, either.
Does anyone know where I can report these places? Here we are having a discussion about a fair minimum wage when dozens, possibly hundreds of employers out there are scamming young immigrants by not paying them ANYTHING!! Ugh

Fii

Employment Standards branch of the Ministry of Labour.

Information line 1-800-663-3316

Minimum wage and pensions

While minimum wage is less than what many pensioners get, many of these retired people don't have to go to post - secondary school and have a house that is already fully paid for. The price of everything is slowly creeping up. I for one believe that it is time for minimum wage to take a leap as well.

I am currently in post - secondary and working. I have to scrimp and save every penny in order to guarantee that I'll have enough for the next semester of my university. I went for five months with no shoes except for my work shoes. I finally bought some runners a couple of weeks ago after I couldn't take the feeling of the wind whistling around my toes any longer.

I do believe that minimum wage should be raised immediately. I encourage the Campbell government all to live for one month on minimum wage and see if they can make ends meet and have enough money for post - secondary. I for one, know they won't.

Syaoran.....not a contest

It's not a contest for who gets the least-a student or pensioner.

Both have expenses related to their stage of life.

Both deserve a decent standard of living.

Thanks.

A decent standard of living

Both have expenses related to their stage of life.

Both deserve a decent standard of living

.

Nicely put, southdeltawalker.

Again, we get to the core of this argument....which revolves around human rights and human decency. Why would we want a world structured in any other way?

mini budget is no help!

So we get tax-cuts!
Big deal for anyone who do not make a decent wage, as it amounts to nothing!
Once again "our surplus" gets divided so the rich get all the benefit and all we get is the media-spin about how great a country we live in!

Its not just min wage

The whole structure is flawed and must be removed. The biggest problem is that citizenship in this so-called democracy is meaningless.

Citizenship, something imo should be earned, and allow for every person full humanitarian rights. I'll be one of the first in the fray for destruction and rebuilding.

Waiting for what is basically the elite share-holders to deem a minimum life standard (which they already have, look around) is not appropriate for citizens of the Canada I was born into (1971).

I must have been mis-informed about what Canada stood for in the world. Still blows me away that our leaders aren't looking to people like B. Fuller considering all our access to technology and so-called social leaning.