Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Just Take Any Job . . . (How about Revolutionary Leader?)

In a way I am happy that Jim Flaherty, that sad, pathetic, incompetent, shell of a man, has told Canadians that they just need to stop complaining and take any job they can get. I am glad because Mr. Flaherty's statement is a de facto admission that this government has no interest in creating a modern, dynamic, forward-looking economy. Rather, this government is on the path to the third-world economy where the rich are getting richer and the rest of the people can just piss up a rope for all the government cares. Despite the continual refrain that we hear from the Harpcons that their government is all about jobs and growth, they (along with their neo-con associates globally) have taken the most prosperous economies in the world (at a time of unprecedented wealth) and managed to throw most of the working population under a bus, relegating us and our expectations to McJobs for the rest of our lives. At a time when the rich have never been richer, Mr. Flaherty is telling you to go out and just deliver pizzas because that is all Canadians are really worth.

Gone are the days when governments spoke inspiring words of hope (remember this is the Finance Minster who actually publicly eschewed investment in Ontario). If our government was a parent it wouldn't be the type who says "I have faith in you, you can go out and do anything you want with your life! No goal is to big!" Rather, this government would be the type of parent that said "Forget college or university, you are never going to amount to anything anyway. Just go out and take the first job that comes along and be thankful you could get that."

What Mr. Flaherty inadvertently did when he told Canadians to just take any job was admit that his government is not really about making a better future for you and your family. His government is about repressing wages so that corporations can make more money while you and your family wallow in poverty. Little did most people know that when Harper says his government is all about "jobs and growth," what he really meant was his government is all about "bad jobs and growth for corporate balance sheets."


8 comments:

The Mound of Sound said...

KC, it's all part of Canada's decline into pure petro-statehood. Too many of us believe that our country, absent our bitumen windfall, would be nothing. If it wasn't for an asset we can claim no credit for creating and in respect of which foreign companies handle extraction, processing and transport abroad (together with the lion's share of the value), we would be relegated to a larger version of Albania.

Even then Harper jury-rigs our immigration laws to allow Big Oil to import cheap labour for the Tar Sands, incrementally undermining labour rates. The more they lower going wages the fewer Canadians will sign up for the jobs the more cheap offshore labour they can import further incrementally undermining labour rates, on and on and on.

Maybe at some point those working class rednecks responsible for delivering Harper to power will figure out that while they're voting for him, he's pulling their pants down around their ankles. Then again, maybe not.

Beijing York said...

Thanks to the Harper brain trust:

handicapping working women by failing to introduce a national daycare program;

wheat and barley farmers have been screwed while multinational agribusiness are buying up all distribution opportunities;

locked out union workers were legislated back to work and
union workers were left out in the cold while mega corps and foreign investors improved their bottom line;

an incentive prison program to prepare convicts for life outside prison will have their $7/day wages clawed back by 30%;

fishers will be adversely impacted by changes to the fisheries act;

FNs who benefited from environmental review panels in negotiating jobs and community investments with resource developers will have less clout with the new Environmental Impact Assessment Act;

foreign workers will be invited to this country to work for 15% less than the going rate for the jobs they perform;

some 20,000 unionized public service jobs will be axed on top of the many jobs that have already been axed in the past few years; and

construction and other seasonal businesses will have a hard time retaining experienced and skilled workers with the changes to EI.

I also think these changes will squeeze women out of the work force by increasing competition for low wage service jobs and/or making them give up their jobs to follow their spouses across the country for employment. Denise Watts of freaking REAL Women advised Canadians to focus on the predominant wage earner in terms of adjusting to these changes.

sassy said...

@Beijing York

Did you happen to listen to CBC Radio One, The Current yesterday when they had a piece on "No Bad Jobs".

Here is the link, listen carefully at 09:42 to hear what Diane Watts from REAL Women had to say.

audio file
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2235494180

(Diane Watts from REAL Women was one of three panellists.)

Her comment beginning around 09:42 seems to indicate that employment insurance should look at whether or not the earner is a sole income earner for a family . . . . . .

Is she perhaps thinking that if (in a two income family) that the lower/second earner should be forced to compromise is some way when it comes to accepting employment? She also mentions dependants, where is she going with that?

Beijing York said...

@Sassy. I definitely caught her on "The Current" and I think you nailed it. She is out to promote stay at home wives and mothers as being the best option for Canadians.

Anonymous said...

Flaherty should have kept on driving cabs. He's useless as a Finance Minister. Of course he is certainly with the right crowd. The ranting, raving henchmen, of Herr Harper's, so called Conservatives.

Flaherty and MacKay, also ripped off Canadians for $1,300 luxury hotel suites. Oda is far from the only one, thieving our tax dollars. The tax dollars thieved from Canadians, is obscene. I won't get into that one, my list is as long as my arm.

I have read. Harper is no Conservative. He is a Neo-Nazi Reformer of his, Northern Foundation Party from 1989. They said, the skinheads organized that party.

All dictators have the same typo personalities. Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, including Harper, all control everything possible. They suppress opposition and criticism, and, they treat their people extremely harshly.

Harper has stolen billions, to give to banks, mines, gas and oil corporations and big businesses. He also gives them, huge tax reductions. This was seen, on the House of Commons TV channel. He thieves from us, to give to the wealthiest outfits in the world. Harper now sneaks behind closed door, to do his dastardly deeds.

I firmly believe, Harper used election fraud and the robo-calls to win. Over half of
Canadians did not want Harper as P.M...he knew it, he cheatd.

I learned about Harper election fraud, from an American site called, presscore. They said Harper election win was rigged. There were robo-calls from out of the U.S.

Presscore said Harper's win was rigged because of this. Read: Harper gives a speech in New York, at the Council of Foreign Relations. This was Sept 25/2007. Obama, Harper and Calderon, and their border talks? Watch out for that. There have been many secret meetings, we don't even know about.

Anonymous said...

You guys are a bunch of uninformed individuals. Look at Greece Italy etc.. sorry the free ride is over. You are not owed a job by anyone, not how it works. Gov does not create jobs, all gov can do is keep taxes and red tape low, this encourages private investment - this is what creates jobs. Stop whining.

Kirbycairo said...

Sorry Anonymous - you are the one who is poorly informed.

A) You picked on the wrong case with Greece. The decline of Greece is a direct result of a corrupt tax policy in which almost no corporations pay tax of any kind and anyone with a significant income pays zero tax. You are just buying the propaganda if you think Greece's problems are a result of inflated social programs. That is what the banks and the bankers want you to believe and you are a very obliging drone.

B) The success of the Western Capitalist economies is a direct result of protectionist policies enacted during the long post war boom. And the gradual rise standard of living indexes is a result of a genuine social democracy. If you want to live a a third-world economy where the majority are poor and there are a few very rich people - by all means keep advocating the policies of people like Harper.

C)The so-called free market is nothing but a propaganda exercise. We don't live in the 19th century any more. All economies are very organized and deeply regulated. Therefore the only real question is how do we regulate the economy and in whose interest. If you really believe a government is supposed to be minimized and the market can take care of everything then you are simply ignorant of history, conditions in less regulated third world economies, and you are not paying attention.

Make real arguments about real things if you want to pontificate about your opinions.

The Mound of Sound said...

It's amusing that Anon proclaims others "uninformed individuals" when his grasp of facts and background of the examples he raises is so facile. The Tea Party mentality is a testament to the success of the few who get people like Anon to swallow their spin.