Shaw cable? Ditched that

Shaw cable? Ditched that years ago.

Here's a hint: if you MUST watch a few tv shows, like Mad Men and Dexter (even I can't resist) go to tvlinks.eu for free streaming.

Enjoy!

Prices, or the cost of

Prices, or the cost of living, increased over 1,000% in the past 35-40 years, while incomes went nowhere, also destroying real private enterprise and collectivizing the economy into the hands of criminals.

When we consider the standards of life, the millions of independent businesses we used to have 40-50 years ago, before neoconservative, neoclassical economics "wealth creation" was forced on the world by economists and governments, we should cry.

But we should also wonder how in hell can a so called "democratic" society let criminals get away with stealing them blind, and then vote the governments that legalize this crime wave, back into power, time, after time.

The cause and culprit is the garbage being taught in our universities as economics, the deregulated money creation from the air, permitting special interests to take control of the world's resources, the fraudulent "free trade" agreements, in reality international treaties establishing and legalizing a global ruling class with the free movement of imaginary capital, used as weapons of colonization.

Now, here's the very likely future scenario.

The US will sink into a premeditated and planned recession and the powers will blame Obama, propagandizing and forcing the election of some Tea Party jerk, with fantastic promises people will fall for.

This will be the end of the USA, but leading toward a planned, worldwide depression, causing incredible poverty and suffering, so the criminals can take over the world`s economies and set up a global, corporate dictatorship in the name of "wealth creating globalization"

The question is, how long can these crooks control humanity, before it wakes up and kick their asses to hell ?

I'm dead against any form of violence against anybody, even crooks, but handing brooms to some of these "business leaders" would definitely be a good way to make them become useful.

But nothing is lost yet and perhaps we should start questioning the crap being taught in our universities as the "science of economics" at the intellectual levels of Hitler's racial theories, Stalin's dialectics and Mao's Cultural Revolution.

The funny thing is that some have seen this crime wave developing, and coming, over 30 years ago, wrote and tried to warn the world, but were ignored.

Ed Deak.

Some times one has to look over a longer period.

Between 1999 and present day my Rogers/Shaw bill has only increased 3.1570190495245516674915493402694% per year. That's including taxes.

They are still getting way too much of my money and I'm seriously thinking of ditching both their home phone service (not included in the above comparison) and cable TV then simply going to a higher speed internet package.

cognitive dissonance

As young children we soon learned from our parents that lying, cheating and stealing were not acceptable behaviors in a 'civilized' society.

The punishment for such bad behavior was usually enough to dissuade the practice of either.

Then along came Anna Freud with her 'cognitive dissonance' postulation that if the reward outweighed the punishment, we would ignore the negative social ramifications.

Too many 'leaders' in our society, whether business, political, journalistic or academic, seem to have contracted this malaise precisely because we have no effective punishment for this behavior which today is crippling our democratic society.

The Warning Flags Are Up I...

"Prices, or the cost of living, increased over 1,000% in the past 35-40 years, while incomes went nowhere, also destroying real private enterprise and collectivizing the economy into the hands of criminals." Fait Lux.

One might want to quibble with Mae West a tad, but Fait certainly says it most accurately. Though I might take it to a whole other level.

Capitalism has been on a course to class war and its own destruction for precisely this same period, since the late 70s to early 80s. The marker flag for which, in BC, was the great Operation Solidarity Movement of around the same period. (Which failed as a consequence of labour boss treachery.) The rise of extreme right wing think within capitalism, and taking root in ruling class policy, deciding that the old Social Democratic State of capitalism, as grew up in the post WW2 was leading to its death by a thousand cuts (reforms) anyway, has now spread across capitalism globally and is bearing its poverty and increased exploitation of the working class fruit.

But something else is marked by this demise of the old Social Democratic State and the rise of extremist Conservatism, more and more walking and talking like corporatist fascism. What also passed with these social and economic policy development events of the last 35 to 40 years was... the opportunity for the "reform of capitalism from within", and the usefulness of trying to "change the system from within", by such parties as the NDP. More and more, it is becoming clear out of emerging economic and political development events, that it is going to take a movement or "movements" of revolutionary scope and commitment to bring this period of "criminal capitalism" to an end, and to complete the democratization transformation of the economy and the rest of society as will finally move us fully and completely beyond the status quo.

Though that said, I think "the people", including the broad mass of the working class, are going to first attempt to give the NDP a chance to do this federally, before they ultimately move beyond it. Even though, for such as myself, I think the NDP, for reasons of ideology and the class composition of especially its leadership, is most likely destined to fail at this second "from within" attempt as well... just as it did as the inspiration for the old Social Democratic State period of the postwar.

Continued next post...

The Warning Flags Are Up II...

Continued from previous post...

But clearly the warning flag is being raised for capitalism, with this last federal election result: You cut a deal with these "nice" guys, the NDP, or you are going to finally have to deal with what comes after... and we are less inclined to compromise and "deal make" with you. The revolutionary transformation of the social and economic order is our intent, such as will finally bring this period of capitalism, enduring since the the last half of the 18th Century Industrial Revolution, to a conclusive end.

What is, within capitalism, cannot much longer endure... without provoking a full blown revolt of the lower orders. Take heed ye wingnut idiots. (And I hope you won't.:-)

Inflation not something that affects workers?

An acquaintance recently told me that she was denied a well-earned raise because her very comfortably well-off employer advised her that inflation had gone up and he was unable to afford some necessary repairs to his summer home! Since when did inflation and worker's wages become independent of each other?

What we need is a peaceful political evolution.

The Story of Mouse-land as told byTommy Douglas in 1944, is still relevant today. He suggested that mice, by switching their vote from: a white cat, to a black cat, to a gray cat, did not improve their lot. The trouble wasn't with the colour of the cats. The trouble was that they were cats, and they naturally looked after their own interests. Projecting this anecdote to our era, 2011; switching our vote from one party to another party, for the past 144 years in Canada, has not served most people as expected. The trouble is not the ideological intention of the parties. The trouble is that all parties want to hoard our power, to impose their own agenda on us.

Tommy Douglas suggested that the mice should elect, not cats of any colour, but their own fellow mice to office. Advancing that thought further, we suggest that we, all the citizens, become our own legislators instead of giving our political power away to politician, of any party.

Potentially there are as many ways to develop higher forms of democracy, as there are people. You can see an extended version of this issue at: www.pasifik.ca/node/23582

How much is Jim Sinclair's pension?

Once again the union funded Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives trots out its tired old class warfare rhetoric. Of course they'll never talk about the real disparity in income in Canada - the one between public and private sector workers.

You don't like Jim Shaw's pension, get rid of Shaw Cable. You don't like your teacher's pension - tough luck!

don't like shaw?

I know this is a tangent, but you won't like Telus as much. Check the packages of Entwhistle and Co. Then check the CRTC rulings about Telus. At least the Shaw customer service department is still in Canada.

to Sooke

Sooke: without unions, public or private sector, wages and benefits simply would not be half what they are for the workers who do the jobs. Union efforts over they years have dragged non-union workers' salaries and benefits (and conditions) to improved levels along with them. Quit believing the fallacies about unions being propogated by the likes of the Harpers in Canada and the Tea Partiers in the U.S. Even better, join a union.

Real income growth (or not) vs. perceived growth

There are the statistics and then there are the optics - my wife and I are going through this right now as we look to purchase a home.

I sold my house four (4) years ago for $575,000 having bought it in 1992 for $280,000 (do the math on my 15 year return). After paying out the real estate agent, remaining mortgage etc. I ended up with $425,000 in the bank.

I can't afford to re-buy my house as similar homes are now selling for $900,000. Why?

Because my wife and I are a one income household. There is almost no such thing anymore. I make decent money ($70k a year) but my peers make effectively double that (tax benefits of income splitting) because both partners work.

That's why prices have gone up so much and noone "notices" - the family dynamic has changed compared to 25 - 40 years ago. People are using two incomes to do what one income used to do - and they think nothing of it.

Me.

How about the gap btwn self-employed and grifted blue collars?

Before you shed even tear one over 'pension-rich CEOs,' who ultimately create employment, Google the collective agreements of B.C. labor, including the elite public service, then you tell me what's fair.

CEO's don't create employment.

Consumers create the demand and someone fills the need. Consumers create employment.

Jim Sinclair's pension - can't imagine he is getting one as he is still doing his work - is nowhere near any of the examples given by Bill. So why is that even relevant? Why does anyone on pension need a pension of $16,000 a day or $315,000 per year. It only sets a target for all parasites in our society.

Sooke

Maybe you need to listen to Warren Buffett - he happens to be spouting the 'class warfare' message too.

You might be surprised which side of the argument he's on....it sure as hell isn't YOUR SIDE.

There's class warfare all right - and the rich class is winning it - The CCPA doesn't make up its figures it simply reports them.

As for the disparity in public vs private sector workers, you might want to talk to Davie Boy Hahn about that.

He claims his super heated salary and pension is private sector driven remember.

In fact though he makes 8 times what the head of Washington State Ferries does and he's also way better paid than the head of Stena.
You can check it out.

And as for the elite public service and teachers, you need to look into those statements as well. In fact, in most professional jobs, the private sector pays far more than the public sector does and teachers' salaries in BC have a hard cap.

Because wealth can not be

Because wealth can not be created, only taken, class warfare begins when certain groups invent theories to take the properties, which includes survival rights,like wages, from others, and persuade the losers to submit, because that it is their right to do so.

This has been going on since the beginning of history, originally through the use of religious beliefs, and now with ideologies and economic theories.

The funny part is that this legalized theft usually claims to be and sold as "freedoms"

The ultimate, claimed to "classless society"
has been and still is communism, with total control over lives by a self appointed ruling class, in the name of "freedom" of course.

The same way "free enterprise" is now used to collectivize economies and deny the property rights of billions, by, once again, a self appointed ruling class.

There was a news item yesterday of some major bank, HS something, making record profits and firing 33,000, which is the best example of class warfare.

Ed Deak.

You be the change you want to see in the World

The only way to deal with Shaw and other big companies is to give them the least amount of money you can. Cable TV is not essential. These criminals reduced their Canadian workforce, moved many of the jobs overseas (afterall those workers won't be asking for fair wages and pensions plans) and at the same time increased their rates. And Canadians are paying because they are addicted to TV and many other really non-essential to life items. So no one should complain. Life on this part of the continent is still very comfortable. Therefore we could be doing something about it by making choices in terms of where we are spending our hard earned dollars. It takes time and effort but it is doable. And it is a choice.

Cable - and many service oriented - companies simple would not exist without customers.

We were not able to make changes in the government in the last election but I think consumers could affect any industry by deciding how they spend their hard earned dollars. It is a choice.

People would be better off anyway to watch less TV and talk to their neighbours more often.

Regardless of cable and other crap - I agree that life became more expensive as salaries of the middle and working class have not changed in years.

Things will eventually change because what goes up must come down. But because people aren't really smart and don't typically think ahead other then their own needs and etc. - things will go really bad here before it will get better. We may blame things on the tea party but eventually they are going to die out- hopefully sooner than later.

A last thought - unions at least keep corporations in check and demand fair wages for their workers. Those of you against unions let me just say that they have a very important role in society.

When you look at countries like Norway where the union is strong and people have better outlook on pensions and other work conditions - then you must wonder ...

It is not corporations that build society. It is people having stable jobs and decent working conditions and wages. And I think Canadian unions have done a lot of work on that front in the past.

What did Shaw give to the community, to society? Or any other big corporations for that matter? Zero. Their only mandate is to make money. And mine is to keep it. I cancelled cable 6 month ago and don't miss all the crap that comes out of TV. I encourage everyone to cancel TV and other non-essential stuff. Less to Shaw's and other CEO's pocket the better. And as long as we let them - as someone said here earlier - nothing will change.

The Trouble With Billionaires

I'm half way through Linda McQuaig's book and this just goes further to prove her thesis. So does what happened earlier today south of the border. People like Shaw do not deserve their wealth; did he work 24,000 times harder than my father, your's? The disparity between the rich and poor is not helping economic growth. When the rich were taxed at higher rates the economy grew more. Poverty mixed with disparity has a broader and deeper social impact than poverty alone.

Poorer but not Statistically

Remember "lies, damn lies and statistics'. StatsCan chooses the starting and ending points to prove their point. In 1976, I don't think I knew of anyone that made $46K/yr. In the early 1970s, I made $8600/year then made $15600 by the late 1970s. But housing went from $15,000 to $35,000 over the same time. Super inflation raised incomes quickly, almost as fast as prices rose.

Thus a change in the starting date or a 5-year rolling mean (or median) would make more sense to develop comparisons. Picking a specific starting date will only prove whatever point you want to make. Maybe start with March 2009 instead of August 2008 to show an increase in wealth.

I bought a bungalow in 1966

I bought a bungalow in 1966 or 67 in Vancouver for about $6,500, with $500 down and $45/mo

Tore it down in `74 and built a new, energy efficient, ultramodern one for $15,000 in materials, plus my own labour. Sold it for $65,000 in `79, it was resold to Hong Kong money for $138,000 a year later.

Torn down since and replaced with new monster.

This is not inflation, but a crime wave, licenced by "free trade" and the "free movement of capital" bringing back our own money stolen from the pockets of Canadians and Americans, while our braindead and bought "conservative" politicians are calling it "badly needed foreign investment".

The buyers are not immigrants, don't live here, but are buying million dollar houses for "investment", while their workers are jammed into hot bed dormitories, and are paid two bits a day.

When I was an employer of tradesmen in Vancouver from 1957 to 79, all my married guys owned their own homes and their wives stayed home with the kids.

Today, Canadian working people can no longer own homes, thanks to the beautiful communist/capitalist/conservative conspiracy stealing them blind, while our governments, working at the intelligence level of 10 year olds, want more and more of this crime wave, calling it "economic efficiency" and "growth".

Ed Deak.

Because Wealth Does Not Drop From The Sky...

"Consumers create the demand and someone fills the need. Consumers create employment. " wrote Skywalker.

And the majority consumers are... Didn't know?... the mass of the working class and their families. You impoverish the working class through restricting their right to chase prices and profits with collective bargaining won wage increases, and you impoverish the goddamn consumer so critical to capitalism. Yes, the consumer who really drives the capitalist to create baubles and beads and find the ways to separate the worker/consumer from the contents of his/her waller/purse.

This notion of the so-called but bullshit "freemarket", that they create the jobs and the raison d'etre of it all, is sheer bullshit. It is the worker and their activity, and that of their kith and kin across the whole of society, working AND consuming that drives the real "engine of capitalism". The capitalist per se is just the man in this social order arrangement, positioned through his/her ownership of money and property "capital", that could as well be done self-organized and realized by working people themselves, who brings the workers, the means of production and the raw materials together into a process of production and reproduction. The outcome product or service of which must finally be realized by the ability of said worker/consumer to actually purchase and use same across their numerical entirety.

The LEAST essential part of this entire process, given the final realization of a more democratic arrangement of the economy, its enterprises and society, of and by working people themselves... is the Capitalist him/herself. They are but the bloodsuckers in the process. controlling society and the economy, who syphon off obscene share to themselves over many, many transactions that go on in the so-called free market daily. Then they and their minions turn about and blame the very producers/consumers so critical to it all, for their own impoverishment as a consequence to the bleeding down over time of their share.

It is not a great mystery. It's the rip-off character of a class based system that needs to be overcome... that just because it has gone on for a very long time, is not a reason it should not be undone. However many times it has been tried and failed in the past, and/or been corrupted. Till we finally get it right... whatever you call the final result.

Right on Jerry!

Now add to the mix the exporting of manufacturing jobs to China just to make the few richer. Keep this up and there won't be enough money to buy even these goods but a few will be filthy rich and the rest in the country will be easily manipulated to take anything to put food on the table. It is about creating an elite class for the rich and every other peasant remains in serfdom for life.

When the whole thing explodes these clowns in the elite class will wonder what hit them and why. Just cluelss.

West

Never mind comparing private sector salaries to public. Try comparing a lifetime payout of a public workers salary AND Defined Benefit pension with a private sector salary with the standard Defined Contribution pension - if they even have one - and a very different picture emerges doesn't it.
Be honest. Theres no comparison. The public worker wins hands down in the long run.
As for Hahn...just another overpaid overpensioned faux government employee whether you want to call BCF private or not. Its still government owned.

Pootle

http://www.alternet.org/economy/148194/how_right-wing_billionaires_and_business_propaganda_got_us_into_the_economic_mess_of_the_century/?page=entire

Ed Deak

Sounds suspiciously like the Japanese "internment" at the beginning of WWII.......

Jerry Munro

You are assuming that even the "capitalists" want the system to continue functioning. But it is my thought that the "super-capitalists" want to grab as much as they can, then "get out" (however one does that). They are not interested in sustainability - and therefore are quite willing (and able as long as there is no resistance) to see everything go down the tubes.

One of the biggest lies that governments commit is saying how capitalists "create jobs" - a patently false notion.
http://robwipond.com/?p=501

Message

Thanks Bill. This is clear to any Canadian that takes a moment to look at their savings and another to look at the cost of living - but:

How do we respond to the neocon message that all unions are greedy overpaid lazy freeloaders? There is a strong message - even in the above comments that unless you work at a job that meets the lowest common denominator you are somehow cheating the system.

Has anyone given thought to articulate responses to the anti-union rhetoric (other than - you'll find out eventually when your children are indentured and you are working for in 3rd world conditions.)

happy - I disagree

Public sector employees pay dearly - every pay-cheque - for those pension plans...AND nobody , no-body, gets a Christmas bonus in the public sector.

Ask anybody in middle or upper management in the banking industry about the 35 - 50 % bonuses they get when the company has a good year.

Why do you think I wrote this:
In fact, in most professional jobs, the private sector pays far more than the public sector does....THAT'S the God's truth for anyone with professional credentials and it's one reason why so few professionals stay with the public service for very long.

Engineers, lawyers, doctors, architects, actuaries, programers etc. etc. ... they're all very well paid and significantly better paid than public servants.

Teachers in BC are among the poorest paid in the country - how'd you like a cap on your salary set at less than $70 G per year?

Shaws are princes, but there are many in Victoria too

People at the top of the pyramid ensure they are treated differently than ordinary folk. For example, ordinary public servants in British Columbia have their pensionable earnings capped so that the pension rights earned may bear little resemblance to actual earnings.

Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings has averaged a little over $40,000 in the last decade. So, if you are an skilled worker (eg.critical care RN) routinely earning over $100,000 annually, your pension will be based on less than half your wages.

I'm not commenting on whether or not that is appropriate for BC's public servants, just that it is extremely different than what the bosses award themselves. BC Liberals are double and triple dipping specialists and giant pensions for the favoured few have been earned for short terms of service.

I wonder what sort of pension rights are being earned by Allan Seckel, or were earned by Jessica McDonald or Ken Dobell?

skywalker and RickW....

"Now add to the mix the exporting of manufacturing jobs to China just to make the few richer. Keep this up and there won't be enough money to buy even these goods..." Skywalker.

As a point that you make here, and RickW correctly as well further on with, "They are not interested in sustainability - and therefore are quite willing (and able as long as there is no resistance) to see everything go down the tubes." The full dimension of what is going on is, the ruling business elites are behaving like insane people... with almost a death wish, you'd think sometimes.

It's almost like they know Rome is coming down around their ears anyway, so they are just insanely stuffing their pockets with their stolen loot, and don't give a rat's ass who sees them. They're just hoping that they can get away and hid in time. There's no real thought of the future or high ideals, just smoke, mirrors and theft. They're going to party while it lasts... which depends on the gullibility of the masses out there. And unfortunately, while most folks really do know what's going on, the wherewithal simply hasn't been found yet, to finally and terminally bring it to a resolution... which is really all a revolution is. (Violence is an entirely separate question, dependent on the behaviours of the ruling class mostly. Such as the latest display of ruling class violence in Syria. I don't want violence. Do you? Of course most of us do not. It's just that these assholes on their way out can get pretty bloody nasty with us. Enter the G20 in this country.)

Good to read and write Tyee again. :-)

Rick, I grew up in an ultra

Rick,

I grew up in an ultra conservative, fascist environment and didn't know anything else until I went to England at 21, in 1948, and first saw the speakers at Hyde Park Corner, with the bobbies just standing there and not arresting them.

A good example of brainwash: Hunting, in our society was the privilege of a noble class.

We learned how to kill people in battle, but not any wild animals.

In Feb.1945 I was standing guard with a lance corporal on the dike of the river Bobr, which was then Silezia, with the Russians just across the valley.

There was a a strong wind with the snow drifting, when we saw a shadow coming toward us. We had our rifles pointed, when we saw a small deer coming out of the snow, standing there, looking at us, then sauntering away.

We were starving, skin and bones, no food sometimes for days, but we never even considered shooting that deer and have something to eat for days, because hunting was not our privilege, washed into our brains.

There are billions of people around the world tied down by such brainwash from childhood, and even here, with daily propaganda that they must submit to a ruling class.

But some of us woke up and are more and more waking up every day.

Ed Deak.

No, spare me

Have a look at what the majority of public servants make - clerks 1, 2 and 3 for example..And try doubling the annual pension contribution to 8%.

Cry me a river...there are decent benefits - but most junior public servants have to work for at least 20 years before they make a decent wage that's comparable with what the private sector makes; benefits only partly make up for having assholes like Campbell as one's boss.

norman, you make an excellent point

Much of the prejudice against public servants (and especially teachers) in general has grown up as a result of the same misfeasance one sees in Hahn's salary - something which, at the upper levels of the Order in Council fraternity, has been the hallmark of Campbell's notion that you can't entice good people from the private sector without gilt-edged PRIVATE STLE salaries.

All incomes originate with

All incomes originate with the conversion of resources into products and then sold.

The wages, salaries and profits of everybody, whether janitors, engineers, CEOs, politicians and public servants, all come out of the same public's pockets, regardless who employes them.

At the same time, we're all part of the same public, regardless who, what, or where we are.

I didn't, or don't, pay the wages of my employees, or the feed for our chickens and cattle, my customers, the public does, as I'm paying the wages of road crews and the profits of billionaires.

There's no such thing , as propagandized by economists and ideologues, as "the users pay", because the users have to get their monies from others and ultimately everybody pays for everybody, whether it is a meal for some homeless in a soup kitchen, or a $500 dinner in a super fancy palace for some executives on expense accounts.

The billions of Jim Pattison come out of the same pockets, as the welfare cheques of destitutes.

Wealth can be a meal for a starving person, or a private jet for a billionaire.

Wealth can not be created, only taken from others, the environment, or future generations.

The textbook definition of economics is : "The science for the management and distribution of scarce resources"

Not crap like "wealth creation" and similar lies.

The difference is how the distribution is being done, what direction the benefits are dictated, who dictates them and by what religions, ideologies, or principles ?

This is something humanity will have to decide one day, instead of letting screwballer idiots and crooks making the decisions, with the excuse of some "faith" based theory, giving screwing and thieving rights to the "chosen".

Who the hell has chosen the chosen in the million years of human history, whether they wield stone axes, or "investments", created from the air and exist only as computer figures.

Ed Deak.

An interesting idea from

An interesting idea from Britain on the gradual awakening to the ongoing crime wave against humanity.

Time to start something similar here !

Ed Deak.

=========================================

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28723.htm
A New Jury to Put the British Public Interest First

A campaign has been launched to hold to account Britain's 'feral' elite for the series of crises which have scarred the country

By Compass

August 02, 2011 "The Guardian" -- - Something is unraveling before our eyes. From bankers to media-barons, private interests have bankrupted and corrupted the public realm. Power, for so long hidden in the pockets of a cosy elite, has been exposed. Those who wield it have been found wanting – in scruples, in morals and in decency.

Things are now in flux, but will not stay so for long.

Without decisive and sustained action, power will fall back into the hands of a small elite who have their own, and not the public's interest at heart.

They want to prevent public revulsion turning into public action. But, it's time for real change. Things cannot be allowed to turn back to business as usual.

Britain can no longer be just the plaything of a handful of powerful, remote interest groups treating the wider public with contempt.

The current press and political scandal is not an isolated event.

It's the third crisis in quick succession.

First, the bankers and their bonuses, then some politicians and their expenses and now there is the press, profiting from peoples' pain, grief and private lives.

These crises share common origins.

Left to their own devices politicians, bankers and media moguls could not regulate themselves.

Mooney

I wonder what the numbers would be if you factored out Free Trade effect and the Lyin Brian years?

GWest - Another Odd Comment

You stated that:
There's class warfare all right - and the rich class is winning it - The CCPA doesn't make up its figures it simply reports them.
This is after Bill Tielmen stated:
And the richest of all benefitted the most. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives determined that the top one per cent got one-third of all income gains in Canada from 1997 to 2007.

Doesn't anyone in this group attempt to have their own thoughts? "The CCPA says it's so, then it must be"? That's childish.

"One third of all wealth created in Canada over that ten year period was earned by one percent of the population."

Come on kids. Think about it. If you do I'm certain you'll appreciate how idiotic that statement is.

Why should it be idiotic ?

Why should it be idiotic ? There are all kinds of figures showing that a very small percentage, some claim 3% of the wold's population own and control over 50 % of the wealth.

When the Canadian public is claimed to have $54. trillion, with $1.3 trillion of personal debts, while the Rothschild family alone owns $110. trillion, it shows that there's something badly wrong.

A few years ago Pattison was reported worth $4.5 billion, now a billion more
which shows which way things are going.

Here's a list of the richest in Canada. How can anybody "earn" this kind of wealth ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadians_by_net_worth

Ed Deak.

John Corman

Just for once, before you start, why don't you go to the CCPA website and READ their reports?

Have a look at where they get their figures, what their sources are and how they came to publish those statements.

Only the truly ignorant call other people names without first checking the facts.

The statement, by the way, about CLASS WARFARE and who's winning it isn't mine.

It was made by Warren Buffett - so you can call that old bird names if you like.
You try calling me names one more time and I'm going to push the offensive button on you. There are rules here about the kind of argumentation you seem to thrive on.
Here's the actual quotation:
(see next comment)

From the New York Times Nov 26, 2006

...the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

What happened?

a few thoughts (somewhat more than can be condensed into 3000 characters...) from someone who has been watching this whole situation develop for the last 30 years, and trying to figure out What Happened? http://www.rudemacedon.ca/what-happened.html .

John Corman, owned

Lotsa fun reading the deep thoughts you put into your contributions, Mr. Corman. Let me share with you one of my favourite sites. No opinions, just statistics, good and bad. Tells a vastly different story from the one so frequently parrotted by politicians of all stripes, but particularly the ones we've had in power the last few years.

http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

Not unimpeachable, but certainly quite thought-provoking

I particularly like this one. Turns out Canada's not quite the paragon of the welfare state that some claim....

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_wel_sta_the_wel_sta_and_soc_exp_of_gdp-welfare-state-social-expenditure-gdp

happy

Your knowledge of the pension situation isn't quite accurate, and in some cases you’re deliberately misrepresenting the facts. More than 90% of BC public-sector workers are in one of the four public-sector pension plans administered in Victoria and guided by bcIMC. These defined benefit plans have not been allowed to run deficits for some years, and when a shortfall is expected, are required to impose additional contributions on contributing members. However, on the bonus side, nor are they required to lend funds to the BC government at 2.8% interest as it was required to do under Socred rule to finish the Coquihalla...

Every three years an actuarial valuation is performed to GAAP standards and any future shortfall is identified. The employer and employees make it up according to the terms of their contract. In most cases, the employer contributes 105% of what the employee contributes, so the employer contributes 4.2% and the employee contributes 4% to their pensionable earnings.

This is divided into four accounts, only one of which is inflation adjusted - and it's inflation adjusted by the second of these accounts, which is called the "Inflation Adjustment Account". Full marks for originality. It's a mandatory separation of the pension premiums of both parties intended to be used to cover shortfalls or "surprises" in the other accounts. It is always used for providing inflation protection for the Basic account - thus we get your much-maligned inflation protection with our own money.

In the past, it was occasionally used to makeup shortfalls in the Benefits Account when the government started delisting services and insurers privatized or outsourced parts of their business. It is now policy (and has been for half a dozen years) that no further funds will be used to restore benefits to the Benefits Account, which means employees now are paying pension funds into an account they will likely not be able to collect from. It is expected that by 2022 under the current plan that the Benefits Account will not exist - its funds will be assumed into other accounts. This has caused misery for existing pensioners who have also paid into this account in the past, and now find themselves without benefits such as eye exams, physiotherapy after the first 8 visits, or dental benefits - all delisted or sacrificed to keep the few remaining benefits such as Pharmacare access and some extended care benefits for serious illnesses.

further...

Though some good negotiators have been hard at work on both sides of this scheme - I consider it fairly run and well managed - but bcIMC got used to the last dozen years of 8.5% average returns, and since 2007 has suffered a serious lack of confidence in returns over 5%. Despite an increasing number of private placements, it's expected that returns will continue at low levels, necessitating changes in the Joint Trust Agreement. Cuts to pensions are not out of the question - they are in fact specifically provided for in the JTA.

So much has our ludicrous federal government done for us, encouraging society to participate in the equities bubble, while destroying the 90% of hard-earned wealth in the bond market by sacrificing interest rates to private wealth creation at the hands of the banks and their idiot schemes.

Our pension scheme is scarcely any more secure than your own, Mr. Happy. And given the attitude of previous provincial governments, they seem only too happy to take a page out of Attilla the Hun’s book and slash and burn our pensions for all they’re worth... the only saving grace being that they slash and burn their own at the same time, for they’re part of the same Joint Trust Agreement, even if the taxpayer does cough up $5 for every $12 the MLAs put in...

Mr Farrell

Critical care nurses earn $40.42 for a 37.5-hr work week, or $78,800 a year, plus weekend and night premiums. No overtime is counted for pensionable purposes - though you must pay a portion of overtime earnings into the plan, you cannot collect any additional pension based on that overtime earnings - another unofficial tax.

However, they can earn up to 70% of that salary (based on an average of their highest five years) as pension, no matter what the YMPE is. Oversimplifying the calculation, that would make a nurse retiring today eligible for a maximum pension of around $51,000 a year (based on an average salary of $37.32 in the past five years with nothing added for shift premiums.)

If they made 35 years. Not many of 'em do.