How Much Can You Afford to Pay

Gas prices went up here yesterday, to $1.32 a liter.  The Loonie is at a record high of about 5¢ more than the Yankee buck.

Can you afford it?

Thing to realize is that gas prices, means increased shipping costs and manufacturing costs, for everything. From growing wheat, to raising cattle, to building solar panels.  It all is going to cost more, and the so-called experts expect Gas Prices to only continue to spiral upwards, more.  Gold is at some insane price, as well.

A high Loonie, means that everything we bring in, such as all that cheap crap from China, will also cost us more.  And we do IMPORT a lot of stuff these days.  Last I heard was that over 60% of our consumables, purchases, were Imports.

It also means that what we sell to other countries, just got more expensive too. See we don’t trade on the International Market in the Loonie, we get paid in Yankee Dollars, which is then converted into the Loonie.  So yep, our exports cost more, as we have to raise the price, to compensate for the High Loonie.

Can we say Recession Round Two?

We didn’t learn from the last one, so naturally history is going to keep on repeating itself, until either we self destruct, or learn the lesson.  High Gas Prices do impact every aspect of our life. From food, to clothing, to simply breathing.  Everything now is going to cost us more, and what is our Stevie Boy going to do about it?

• More Tax Cuts to the Oil Industry?
• More Corporate Bailouts while Cutting Jobs?

Is this really the type of man we want in charge, for anouther Recession?  He gave out BILLIONS to his corporate buddies, that invested 1/10th of that money back into our infrastructure. They got fat raises, we got pink slips.

Anyone But Recession Causing Harper Conservatives

Rising Unemployment

The Harper Government continues to show its inability to grasp some key elements, in what it means, to be a Government. Mind you, Big Business is not much different, in that it has forgotten, how they became a giant corporation.

Unemployment in Canada has risen to an eleven year high of 8.4%, and many claim it could top 10% before beginning a downwards trend. Now that isn’t healthy, but there is also the untold aspect of all this.

To begin with, jobs lost are measured against jobs gained. However, it is like saying, how many fruit trees had fruit, versus how many didn’t. Not all fruit trees blossom at the same time, nor does it take into account, the different type of fruit trees. Just as the unemployment statistics don’t take into account, the numbers by sector.

Sure, within the figures are individual stats, for manufacturing, construction, etc. but not in the overall numbers given to the public, or at least reported by the biased media.

While part time jobs were increased, it doesn’t say at what rate of pay. So while those numbers help offset the jobs lost, it isn’t a true picture of the job market.

Fact is, we are losing jobs in the sectors that PAYS ABOVE  minimum wage.

We are gaining jobs, in the sector that PAYS AT  minimum wage.

Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that the more who earn minimum wage, the less one’s buying power becomes. The less likely are those going to buy new cars, new washing machines, new homes. How can they, when they can barely afford food?

All this talk about how so many in Canada have become ‘self employed’ is just a way for the Harper Regime to claim it is doing a good job, managing an ailing economy. Truth is, if one takes into account the number of job losses in high paying jobs, and the number of high paying jobs being created, we’d see a lot higher rate, and we’d also see, just how incompetent the Harper Government is.

We’d also see why it makes no sense to pour billions of taxpayer money into the corporate coffers of  companies like GM or Chrysler.  The result of all that money, is that workers in some other country will benefit ( being employed ) while we’ll be putting our workers, in the unemployment line, or in minimum wage jobs.

THAT IS SIMPLY STUPID.

Bailouts, Rip off or Solution?

Billions of taxpayer cash has been doled out, with more to be spent, and I wonder, are we getting any results for our buck? Now in the USA they have poured HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS into Corporate Coffers, and it seems like it hasn’t done much there.  However, that is there, and here is here.

With Chrysler filing for Bankruptcy protection can GM be far behind? And how does that impact the money given to them, by our so called leaders?

 Has Harpernomics finally found a way to hold onto power, pay off campaign debts to big business, while screwing the average citizen?

Has the pressure put on the CAW by Harper, given these corporations the necessary cuts, to add to their bonuses and perks, while seeking court protection?

Unemployment rose again, the economy shrank again, but Harper continues to claim that we are in good shape. The Bank of Canada revised its economic outlook, but one wonders, were they forced to do so, or are the indicators, they looked at, really worsening?

There is something not right, about the solution being placed before us. These giant loans to business, are supposed to help keep the companies viable, to protect existing jobs. And yet, in order to meet the Government conditions for the bailout money, jobs and wages have to be cut. Now, I am not a rocket scientist, but how is that protecting jobs?

I am certainly not an economist either, but I know that throwing good money after bad, is just simply, throwing money away.  If these giant industries, like GM & Chrysler are incapable of managing their affairs, of competing with the other industries, giving them billions isn’t going to change that, now is it?

Come to think of it, wasn’t that exactly their problem back in the 1970′s?

Seems to me, they haven’t learned from that era much. They still produce gas guzzlers, and still produce sub par cars. If they had bothered to learn from the Oil Crisis of the 1970′s, then maybe they’d not be in the dire straits they are today?

And I don’t know about you, but to me, it seems that if we are needed to help boost our economy, should we not be looking at those areas that produce the most jobs, that deliver the most revenue to our treasury? I mean GM & Chrysler certainly don’t create the number of jobs that smaller operations do. Nor do they keep all their revenue in this country.

I mean hell, Chrysler owes over a BILLION IN BACK TAXES, so uh, why did they get special treatment over the small logging outfit in BC? How about the smaller auto parts makers, that could maybe switch into building parts for some other mechanical industry? Why are they being left to hang?

Perhaps instead of tax cuts to businesses that aren’t paying taxes, which isnt such a good plan,  instead, we should be helping smaller industries achieve stability, and new markets. Instead of arranging for free trade deals, that allow the bigger boys to ship their plants abroad, and cut jobs in Canada, we should improve the domestic markets?

Just an idea, but hey, if we are going to spend the money, MY MONEY, I kind of think it should be spent on companies that will help grow our economy, not further cut it down.

Unemployment Continues to Rise

Protectionismis a naughty word in the United States & Canada. For some reason, wanting to protect Ono’s own is somehow, wrong, somehow unacceptable on a global stage.  HOW?

With Unemployment hitting record highs in Canada, one has to wonder about Globalization and the inability of National Governments, or Regional, to protect our jobs. Take the Billions being given just to General Motors. 60% of GM hourly wage earners in Canada are about to be put on the unemployment lines, and the drain on our resources will only grow.

Canada’s unemployment rate in March climbed to a seven-year high of eight per cent as the economy shed another 61,300 jobs. ( source – CBC News )

It is a double edged sword, because it is taxpayers who are paying for those billions to GM, and it is taxpayers who are paying for the EI benefits these out of work auto employees will be drawing on.  And that is rapidly becoming a dwindling pool as well. After all, those losing their jobs, are the one’s who have been paying into the fund, along with the companies.

Makes you wonder too, at how we can import migrant farm workers, when more and more people are losing their jobs?

Then too, we are so wrapped up in bailing out companies like GM, we aren’t providing enough resources to the very industries that actually create long term employment, which is small business.  I think we are too enamored with the big dollars, versus the small but steady income from smaller operations.

The Auto Industry employs a large number of people, which is true, but you know, the collective number employed by small business is dramatically more, and if we started protecting our smaller industries, we would have a lot more higher paying jobs being created, than lost.

You know, the ancillary industries provide more jobs than the auto industry, so wouldn’t it make more sense to beef up their business, to help them diversify, than to pour the billions into just the one aspect, hoping for a trickle down effect?

Giant Conglomerates have one concern, their bottom line. Smaller business, is also about making money, but isn’t so rigid about how much it must make, unlike companies like GM or Chrysler. Yet Government continues to IGNORE those smaller industries.

Makes you wonder a bit. If we put the 4 Billion we are giving to GM, and spread it out among several much smaller operations, would our unemployment be at 8% or would we even be in an economic recession? After all, isn’t the cause of this entire economic mess, due to the globalization impact of the Oil Industry & the Financial Markets in the USA?

Something to consider, as we see more job losses happen in the sector we are pouring billions of our money into, supposedly to protect those very jobs, that are now being lost.

Saving the Auto Industry

It truly amazes me, at how stupid we are.

If I run a slip shod business, fail to make any profits, should I expect my Government to help me out, to pour billions of taxpayer money into my corporate bank accounts? I don’t think so, and you know, back in the day, if business didn’t adapt to changing consumerism, to changing times, they went belly up.

Think about it, if you run a business, and fail to deliver what your customer asks for, who is going to step in and save you? Will your bank manager forgive your loans to the bank, because if he doesn’t you will move your banking elsewhere? Not that any other bank will take your account over, but hey, your bank manager is too stupid to know that, right? WRONG!

Yet that is what Chrysler has done up here. It demands more concessions from labor, even has our Corporate Toady Harper insisting that the union capitulate, if they want to keep their jobs. Now, I don’t know, but should any government directly interfere in the negotiations between labor & management?  Then too, what guarantee is Chrysler giving Canada for the billions?

NONE.

In fact, they have stated that they will be closing plants, and oh, they can’t pay that Billion in back taxes they owe either, but hey, not to worry, because once they get back into the black, they’ll consider it then. Not that they’ll pay it, just that they’ll talk about it, and our Stevie Boy is okay with that?

Like you try owing the Revenue Service back taxes, and see how quickly they’ll ignore you, and let you determine when & IF you will pay them what is owed.