Monday, December 26, 2011

Worth A Second Listen


Financial Crisis In Europe Clearly Explained

This video has appeared on Nanaimo Info Blog in the past, but as we approach the New Year with warnings of the still impending economic doom Europe could bring to the world in 2012, it is good to hear someone other than politicians explain the reason for the current economic woes.

The only sensible economist I have heard of late addressing this issue is a fellow from down under called Steve Keen who proposes a remedy along the lines of the 'Jubilee Model', which according to the Old Testament was a method perscribed by God to handle the financial affairs of men. Not being an expert on the topic, I offer, my less than perfect explanation of the  Jubilee Method which consists of wiping the slate clean every 50 years and just starting all over again. Of course there is more to it than that but it was the perscribed method of 'resetting' the financial affairs of men every 50 years when things got out of hand. 


It would seem a rational argument that we have pretty much run our 50 year course, and hitting the reset button and zeroing all accounts, might just be the only way out of this financial quagmire we seem to be stuck in.


As we approach the New Year it is my fervent hope that all of our elected and non-elected officials from the municipal level, the provincial level and the federal level wake up and realize that the false economy we have invented over these past few decades is simply not sustainable. On a very close to home level the ever-increasing local property taxes are beginning to cause some serious hardship for many residents already struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomach. A fact, that seems easily lost on the $75,000 + crowd making policy at city hall.


When the Occupy Movement talk about the 1% as opposing the 99% speaking of the inequality in our society, they likely are thinking about the great gap between the huge corporations, and evil bankers and the average person barely getting by They seem totally oblivious to the gap of nearly 35% between the earnings of those in the public service and those of us in the private sector. It is those in the private sector earning on average 35% less than those in the public sector who are paying the freight and those high wages are not coming from the pockets of the evil industrial barons exploiting the poor working stiff, they are coming from the average working stiff and the pensioner on a fixed income. Sooner or later this inequality must be addressed, but is presently being totally ignored by the illustrious fourth estate in our great country.


As we head into 2012 we need to take far more seriously what those in power over us are actually up to these days with how they are planning on spending our money. Locally, there are several items in the current Financial Plan which need a serious, sober second look before we continue merrily down this road of forever taxing and spending as if we were living in the gravy train days of the last century, which was primarily fueled by spending our Grand Kids money.


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