Raising housing allowances for the poor by just ~$35 when rent has increased more than $50-$200 over the last year (for most renters I know), is an insult. It’s obscene really, because we know that many of these families that are already in desperate need of money to scrape by, are going to have to pay to move to a less desirable rental situation. What kind of a government do we have again? I thought it was one that claimed to be socially conscious.
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Governments have “done nothing” to stop downloading because it means you can put 200 songs onto a disc, instead of 20 like you get from HMV.
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Did you pay your bank $1100 over the last 12 years for fees? I know I didn’t. This story is great news if you’re over 60, but banks still could be cutting fees for customers of any age, and still make piles of money.
@hotmail.com
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Shagya | 01-Sep-07 at 7:24 am | Permalink
Concerning the item about welfare, it is long overdue that our social service system was replaced with a guaranteed annual income. If a country like Brazil can move in that direction then we should be able to do as well. Much serious thought is being given to the idea in Holland, England and Germany to name a few … Everywhere but here it seems. What else is new? I have seen more than enough of the horrors inflicted upon the poor by bullying social workers whose main aim in life is a government sinecure built upon the bodies of helpless people. About twelve years ago my ex-landlord broke up with his native girlfriend who had one kid by him … and another by a previous relationship. She was on welfare and even the “workers” admitted she could not live on the money received from the state. But that didn’t stop them from stealing her kids and putting them in a foster “home”. It also didn’t stop a fire in the house which burned the kids to death. The original parents tried to get a local well known lawyer to go after Social Services but the guy wasn’t interested in working Pro Bono so that was the end of it. Another story from the inner city.
Welfare rates have declined in most parts of this country in relative terms over the last twenty years. I say all of this as someone who is employed on a full time basis … it just that I do not think the same way as many people in this “red neck” province. Even in these days of phony cutbacks and “tough” measures across the board our welfare state provisions are a joke by European standards. We’ve got money for 100 million battle computers and subsidizing sociopaths like Hillier but not things we really need like a GAI or socialized dentistry … there’s never any money for joe average.
Shagya | 01-Sep-07 at 7:27 am | Permalink
typo: “one hundred million dollar battle computers”
Saskboy | 01-Sep-07 at 10:55 am | Permalink
We’ve got the blinders of the bought-and-paid-for American media here in Canada as well. Anything that isn’t what we’re doing right now, is “Americanizing the system” (AKA “making worse”). We forget that there are hundreds of other countries out there that may be able to teach us a thing or two about generosity or social systems.
Shagya | 01-Sep-07 at 12:32 pm | Permalink
exactly