Thanks for the link,

Thanks for the link, Patrick. A good piece of information there. And also I can understand what you are writing this time!

No problem, anarcho! I

No problem, anarcho! I really appreciate knowing that your complaints with my last series of posts, were genuine. (My apologies, but I didn't yet know you well enough, to know.) Not sure just how I'll be inclined to write in future, but I'll be keeping what you and ME2 have offered, in mind.

patrick mcevoy-halston

Much appreciated, KWD.

Much appreciated, KWD.

McJob Nation: Response to RickW

Canada/U.S.A might now be a McJob nation, but if you listened to politicians, it's still a nation built of concrete and steel. Last night, for instance, when Obama (who actually, for all his talk of medical record digitization, more vividly put forth images of train tracks and concrete bridges) talked of the unemployed, he made it seem as if they were all former factory workers, and we note that this article defends the unemployed by directing our attention to laid off mill workers, the oil patch, and Ontario factories--not laid off retail clerks, to laid off parents of children living in MacKenzie, Grandfalls, or Windsor--not laid off singles living in urbane abodes like downtown Toronto. So it probably is true that if politicians suggest that the laid-off, traditional values, old style, working class/proletariat--people in car manufacturing (or who think they should be), for instance--are intrinsically lazy, they'll get in trouble for it. But if they target those working at McJobs who refuse to work for less than twenty bucks an hour, as dolphin paints them, "shifty" youth, willnevergrowuppers, or those who look like they lack the stuff to ever find a way "back," the voting public might be more than okay with it: they might already be prone to see these people as irresponsible and dispensible: people we should be happy to be rid of, for their loss makes the nation feel pure, virus-free.

Note: If the Tyee would like me to write a fictional piece on the midnight adventures of a mob of MacChine Gunning McJobbers, lead by a baby boom house burning, Vanessa Richmond, styled a la Thomas Pynchon, I might be up for it. Could do the pubic good to see in clerks the potential to be a bit more than prickly.

Entitlements

I think there’s a fundamental ‘disconnect’ between perception and reality that runs, like a chasm, along the generational ‘divide’.

For every young person who ‘refuses’ to work at a menial job for meagre wages there are scores of struggling ‘folks’ doing just that – and they ain’t all from the Philippines either; for every well educated college graduate living in her parent’s basement into her thirties there are hundreds of young professional couples struggling to pay off student loans and build a career who can only imagine the day whey they might be able to afford a home and have a family.

We live in a dysfunctional society where the greatest hope of people like minister Finley is fulfilled when the gulf between what life actually ‘is’ for all our neighbours and ourselves is preserved. As long as she and her boss can persuade Canadians that their problems can be addressed by directing their anger toward a fictional cohort of ‘lazy’ young people who ‘won’t’ work instead of making the necessary connections between failed plans, promises and the larceny of a political culture ‘ruled’ by fewer than two hundred thousand ‘insiders’ there will be no improvement for anyone.

The idea of public service as an ideal has been so degraded as to be meaningless. Finley and her enablers may have persuaded themselves they’re making a positive contribution toward anything other than their own continued hegemony – average Canadians shouldn’t be fooled!

These type of flippant

These type of flippant comments could come back and backfire on politians, just like it did to Harper on his comments on the Maritimes when he was in the opposition. Now that times are becoming harder and some more flippant remarks are made, maybe we'll be seeing some demonstrations in the streets, then maybe our elite business and political leaders will start being nervous like they are in certain parts of Europe. Has anyone noticed that the media and elite have been saying that Canada is better off than all the other countries, our "banks are more sound and stable", "we won't have the housing crisis as our neighbours to the south have". Pure bullshit; just wait and see. Wonder what it takes for Canadians to stand up and say "I'm not taking it any more"

Wait a minute

She didn't call workers lazy, the writers of this story just say she did.

Now many of you are responding as if she was directly quoted saying that. Did you even READ the article? I don't see how you can extrapolate that from the comment she made, unless of course you already have an axe to grind and are looking for any excuse to put words in her mouth.

I really wonder about the outrageous bias on this site sometimes.

socialism works, if you're wealthy

“Shovel-ready, infrastructure job creation programs”, the new rightwing recovery mantra, is on the lips of gov’t leaders around the globe. However, in order to avoid being labeled 'socialist', folks like Finley, Harper and Campbell have drawn the line at extending socialism to programs and folks that need it most.

Making it lucrative to stay at home would be an admission that socialism actually works for those outside the realm of the rich and famous.

socialism works, if you're wealthy

“Shovel-ready, infrastructure job creation programs”, the new rightwing recovery mantra, is on the lips of gov’t leaders around the globe. However, in order to avoid being labeled 'socialist', folks like Finley, Harper and Campbell have drawn the line at extending socialism to programs and folks that need it most.

Making it lucrative to stay at home would be an admission that socialism actually works for those outside the realm of the rich and famous.

socialism works, if you're wealthy

“Shovel-ready, infrastructure job creation programs”, the new rightwing recovery mantra, is on the lips of gov’t leaders around the globe. However, in order to avoid being labeled 'socialist', folks like Finley, Harper and Campbell have drawn the line at extending socialism to programs and folks that need it most.

Making it lucrative to stay at home would be an admission that socialism actually works for those outside the realm of the rich and famous.

extra posts

Not sure how that happened.

dualie

How would you interpret what the woman said?

Here, let me quote the passage for you again....

I think the writers, and the commenters, have come to precisely the correct conclusion.

Perhaps YOU should read the piece again.

If you'd suggested that implications drawn from the lady's appearance and eyewear were uncalled for; I'd have agreed with you.

KWD

I'll let you know if I find myself mumbling, "socialism works, if you're wealthy," at work. Or if I whistle it--to the tune of "life's a piece of shit, when you look at it"--during tomorrow's shower.

dualie

Yeah, what G West said.

Patrick McEvoy

When I finish the lyrics I’ll let you know so you can avoid mumbling or whistling, but I’m torn between genres ... rap, blues, country and western or Gregorian Chant. What do you think?

tubthump

tubthump it: "Socialism works, if you're wealthy--you're always going to keep us down. Socialism works, if you're wealthy, always going to keep us down . . . (isming the night awaaaay, isming the night awaaay)."

isming?

Whaaaat?

socialisming the night away!

socialisming the night away!

chuckle

Thx.

Dishonesty

The dishonesty of the ruling party and Diane Finley in particular is sickening.

Looking at her records, I can't help but wonder what has this "lady" done ever sicne she took office?

Does anyone know?

Does she wear those silly glasses because of a medical condition or some such thing. I think they make her look ridiculous but I would cut her slack on that point if there was a good reason. Those lights in the House are bright and maybe she needs to be in a darker room.

Wall Street Journal

Even the right wing Wall Street Journal asserts that the joke is on her:

http://obama.wsj.com/article/02Pnfhw6087En?q=Diane+Finley

Skywalker

It's a medical condition...

In February 2006, she was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, a hyperthyroidism condition, which has led to her wearing tinted lenses full time.

She has a rather 'thin' bio - even the one she wrote for herself.

http://www.dianefinley.ca/about

She sounds like a typical MBA to me.

Twisted words

The story headline and the authors' spin on the Minister's statement is a shameful example of yellow journalism.

I take the words (even pulled out of context as was done in the article) to mean that EI payments should go to those who legitimately cannot find work. Employed people contribute to the EI fund and do not want to see it spent on the UIC ski team or the unemployed Canadians laying around a pool in Mexico.

With that said, I also believe the government raid of the EI fund was wrong and the money should returned for EI payments or to allow reduced contributions.

The program should never have had its name changed

IT IS UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.

Working people pay for it - to the extent where there was, not long ago, a surplus of $54 billion in the bank.

If you're so proud of the program and the minister perhaps you should read THIS:

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/281987

She's slicing and dicing the electorate and trying to turn people against their neighbours in time hounoured reform party fashion.

The suggestion that this articile treats her badly is absurd.

If she doesn't want to appear a fool, she should shut the hell up.

G. West.

Thanks for that info. Any criticism will be based on her performance.

The comment, "We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it," clearly means that people are content to vegitate at home doing nothing if they get anything close to the wage the got while working. So unless E.I. is close to their former working wage then some might decide to sit at home and drink beer. Hardly something that appeals to most folks. The statement invites the reaction it gets because it is a scatter gun comment and typical of the right-wingnuts who think everyone on E.I. is lazy and that there are plenty of jobs just waiting to be filled that pay a living wage.

She's a typical Harper reformer and should be on E. I. herself or try living on a McWage.

The program should never have had its name changed

Agreed. But more importantly, the program should be a real unemployment insurance scheme. As it now stands, it is simply a tax on workers and on the the people who employ them. A real insurance plan would consider the potential of a worker to become unemployed and factor that into the premiums. The current setup simply transfers money from those with steady jobs to those in occupations with chronic problems. And worse, it allows government to siphon off a big chunk for other purposes.

Providing assistance for people who cannot find work is part of a decent society but it should not be done on the backs of the working people. A combination of a real insurance scheme and income support from general revenue would be a better approach.

By the way, G West
Quote: " If she doesn't want to appear a fool, she should shut the hell up" Don't know why the Minister should follow this advice as you clearly do not.

I see ministers of the crown

I see ministers of the crown as fair game - when they say foolish things they should expect to be called on it.

As for your 'advice', you might do well to remember the rule here that posters are constrained from making critical personal remarks about other posters.

It's an insurance program - you pay into it and you have a right to claim its resources when they are needed.

The minister is more into social engineering and I think what she said was incredibly foolish; furthermore, it can hardly be interpreted in any other fashion.

She clearly has little concern for the necessity of providing all Canadians with a decent life.

Pogey bogeys?

And the Right Wingers never figure in the benefits to short-term business enterprises by always having an unemployed labour force handy, or the benefits to small towns with large numbers of seasonal jobs when workers spend their EI cheques locally.

And since unemployed workers have to eat, and taxpayers have to foot the bill for welfare, R Wingers better think that one through :-)

Finally, Western governments ALWAYS maintain an unemployment rate of between 9 - 10%. (jobless counts are only for those REGISTERED as out-of-work). This is so labour shortages won't drive labour costs (wages) "too high".

Federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley

Federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has been lazy. She has NOT done her homework. She relies on very old rhetoric and, unlike the new US president, has no foresight. The reason the world is in an economic mess is because of the frozen minimum wage. Workers have been made to try to survive on jobs that pay not nearly enough to cover the bills and Ms Finley SHOULD know that. She is avoiding admitting it, perhaps because of laziness, perhaps because of greed. Maybe she could get to work coming up with a plan that will raise the level of income for the poorest WORKERS so that money will be available to stimulate the economy. Perhaps her paycheck is too big to see this point.