Budget Rant

I haven't put up a good old rant in a while so hang on kiddies, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Tomorrow's budget promises to offer more spending than Imelda Marcos on a shopping junket on Rodeo Drive. Over 34 BILLION in government money that does not exist yet is to be earmarked to begin being pumped into the public trough. The sound of the hogs coming to root will be deafening. If this plan goes forward our government will burn through 100 BILLION dollars that do not exist yet (that's how much of the national debt we paid off in the last decade) by the year 2013.

And why?

Because Jack (The Sky Is Falling) Layton says that we are in "the worst financial crisis since the 1930's"? Because Michael Ignatieff "sort of" agrees with him? Not so fast Jack & Mike. Unemployment was higher in the 1980's recession than it is right now. Today Canadian unemployment stands at just over 7% and it was 27% in 1932. It is today a far, far cry from every third person out of work as in the Great Depression. Also in the 1930's the numbers didn't include students or most women. We are enjoying far, far higher employment today as a percentage of our total population than at just about any other time in our history.

Now I agree that the manufacturing sector in southern Ontario is having a bad time, relative to recent years, but let's be honest for a minute here. Manufacturing jobs have been bleeding away from the industrialized western world for more than two decades and frankly, if the businesses in southern Ontario didn't recognize this and make some plans to diversify then this would have happened sooner or later. So it's sooner.

I have been reading the top auto magazines for 30 years and the editors and pundits of the auto industry have been literally begging and pleading with the Detroit so-called "Big Three" to "wake up and smell the coffee" for most of that time. I was in the parking lot at Safeway today and I parked my Impala between a Toyota Tundra and a Toyota Camry. That problem didn't happen to the auto industry last year. It's been coming for quite a while, and while I believe government can help workers with the transition, propping up an industry as obtuse and inflexible as the North American auto manufacturers makes about as much sense as holding a beer drinking contest to promote sobriety. As an interesting aside, there are now more people employed in Great Britain in automotive design, manufacturing, supply and distribution than when British Leyland owned everything. Foreign ownership made the industry BETTER there, not worse.

Back to our "bail-out" budget. The Bank of Canada just announced that they are predicting that the recession we are in will end as soon as September. That's just 9 months from now. And we have no chartered banks in any sort of situation that could be considered even mildly problematic. Our banks could probably loan other banks money right now. And we don't have mortgage companies that are sucking up dollars faster than a fat kid with a Slurpee on a hot August afternoon. American mortgage giant Freddie Mac just announced that "about 30 BILLION more dollars" would keep them afloat for a while longer. There is no such silliness going on north of the 49th parallel.

What IS going on up here is the fact that we are the highest taxed nation in the G7. We are in the top 10 world wide and we work about half the year before we start getting to the money we can spend on ourselves and others can use to create wealth, jobs and a vibrant economy. The truth is that the money we need to spend our way out of this recession doesn't have to come from the Canadian Government's Mastercard - all they have to do is leave it in your pocket and mine. All the government has to do is get it's taxation jackboot off the throat of small and medium businesses - who employ the vast majority of Canadians and who generate most of our true wealth. But nooooo.... The lobbies of the multinationals, the unions and the special interest groups will suck up the cash and determine where the wealth goes before the entrepreneurs even get a chance to make their case.

In Canada the modus operendi of our Federal Government is to take as much money from the people as they can and "redistribute" it through programs. Inefficient, wasteful and bureaucratic. But hey, we vote these guys and gals in and then they believe they can do what they want, or worse they try to figure out what we want and do what we want - sort of.

Now I KNOW you are smart. A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky and stupid (Thanks Agent K). And what we need right now is for an adult to walk into the room and get everybody to settle down. Unfortunately for us, the adults are hiding out in the staff room and they've barricaded the door. And we are panicking because we are being told to - not because our situation is as bad as is being touted.

Now will the new budget and the wrangling over it wreck Canada? Probably not, at least not right away. We have so much and we are so wealthy that it's going to take a lot of mismanagement and waste to truly run our country onto the rocks, but the feds are giving it their best shot. No, I think what will happen will be what so often happens. We will miss the opportunity to be great. We will miss the opportunity to break out and leave the hurting USA and other economies who hitched their wagons to that misbegotten star in our economic dust. We will once again win the silver or the bronze or at least make the top 10. And the most frustrating thing about that will be that for the vast majority of us that will be "good enough".

We could be "The Next BIG Thing", but we'll settle for being "the next best thing".

*sigh*

BTW - I'm not the only one who thinks deficit spending is a bad idea for Canada.

Kicking Glass

I took a picture today of about a dozen glass containers sitting on the ground beside a Loraas recycling bin. I can't post it because my personal computer is "in the shop", but rest assured dear reader, (if you exist) I will post it soon. It is an image that should be used to indite and shame our provincial politicians.

Glass manufacturers have been recycling their product since the 1600's or even much earlier but we can't do that in Saskatchewan unless the containers we do deal with once contained either sugar-loaded drinks or alcoholic beverages.

Saskatchewan.
Can't.
Recycle.
Glass.

Morons can recycle glass - but not Saskatchewanites. We have 2 BILLION excess dollars in our provincial coffers that have not been budgeted to be spent on anything yet and we still can't recycle pickle jars. And our provincial members of the Fourth and Fifth Estates should also be ashamed because they are saying NOTHING about this.

If I even hear ONE person say anything about how it isn't "economically viable" to recycle general glass products at this time I'll go ballistic!. That is exactly the kind of thinking that has gotten us to the ecological crisis we now face. If we can't do the right thing because we can't AFFORD to do the right thing then we are officially screwed to a wholly breathtakingly new and frightening level.

So John Gormley et.al., before you claim to be "holding the politician's feet to the fire" let me hear you get our provincial Minister of the Environment on you radio show and ask him a couple of hardball questions about glass. And Premier Wall, before you go off spouting about how great we are in Flatland and how we're ready to move into the future let's see if you and your cabinet can figure out how to do something Europeans have been doing since before Samuel de Champlain discovered how bad the black flies were in northern Ontario.

'Nuff said.

It's Quiet. Too Durn Quiet.

So the dialogue has come to a deafening halt over at the 'other' blog I contribute to. Nothing now except the sound of crickets chirping.

Was it something I said?

Hmmmmmmmmm.........

Of Crumbled Cookies and Bouncing Balls

I've been awash in stories of disappointment and discouragement of late. That's not what's kept me from blogging either; my own distracted nature managed that without much help from Brother Circumstance (a wonderful Corsican monk who makes excellent wine but suffers from habitually poor timing in all things social).

Too many people I know are either in the midst of the worst plague of seasonal affective disorder I have ever witnessed or else Mr. "Murphy" has gotten behind in his deliveries and is attempting to clean out the warehouse before inventory is to be done. And it seems all that happens in response is that some shoulders get shrugged, some tongues get clucked, some eyeballs get rolled and some countenances get set in steely poses as we all attempt push forward against the dour tide of misfortune and dismay. It's enough to drive a tee-totaling Baptist pastor to spike his coffee, it is!

Whither joy?

Whither glee?

Whither cheer and good humor?

Whither a decent hour of television - a pox on this 'writer's strike' I say!

Then a friend reminded me, in an officious, yet loving way - only a TRUE friend can do that - that it is our responsibility to choose the positive reaction. It is our responsibility to question and defy the stingy spirit within. It is our responsibility to change our perspective. The Psalmist questions his own motives and mood when he asks, "Why are you so downhearted, O my soul?"

Truth is I COULD whine and complain and go on and on about what's happened to me, to my family, to my friends and to my acquaintances as of late, but "it won't make it no better" as Tonio K would say. And despite the fact that I'm truly only about one more bad bounce away from writing a Grammy Award-winning country music song, I refuse to get swept up in this!

I'm going to put on Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and disturb the neighbors while I quaff a beverage and thank the Good Lord that even when my cookies crumble wrong and my ball bounces down the sewer I'm still here and I'm still breathing!

'Nuff said!

Shalom.

Just In Case You Didn't Know....

I have been exceptionally frustrated with the "music biz" of late. Shopping for stuff at the retail level has been an exercise in monumental futility.

"Music Retail. It's not about selling you what you want. It's about making you buy what we have!"

Anyway, despite my frustrations I have uncovered some music "gems" so I'll share them for your summer listening.

In the Blues category you need to pick up The Road To Escondido by J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton. Eric has posted on his website that he's taking a couple of years off starting now, so other than his ongoing work at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago each year there will be no tours or recording projects unless something extraordinary strikes his fancy. So get The Road To Escondido and be thankful that every single tune on it is a masterwork 'cause it's gonna hafta satisfy ya for a while!

Patti Smith always had - in my never-to-be-humble opinion - one of the most evocative and powerful voices in rock music history. Now she has released an album of cover tunes that demonstrates that she still possesses a voice of singular presence and power. "Twelve" is an addictive romp - as if anything Patti does could be characterized as a "romp" - through twelve carefully chosen pop/rock "standards". Her rendition of "Gimme Shelter" alone is worth the price of admission.

I'm going to get in trouble here because this next band uses some bad language - but if most Christians I know would be honest it isn't anything worse than what they might have already heard at the movies, theatre, read in books or listened to at the company water-cooler. And most importantly these guys are by far and away less offensive than dozens of other bands who use profanity or controversial subject matter to promote their careers, a manipulative tactic this group definitely does not use.

So if you haven't given Bowling For Soup a chance, this is the summer you should. I suggest you start with "A Hangover You Don't Deserve" which contains their ridiculously infectious Grammy Winning '80's nostalgia anthem "1985". Then if they get as far under your skin as they have mine you'll have acquired one of the most fun new musical obsessions money can be traded for.

Finally just go to http://www.davidusher.com/ and if you don't think "Ugly Is Beautiful" is a killer tune then I give up!

Now the trick is trying to find somewhere to buy these things. If you're patient the internet awaits to serve you AND it's not usually too busy to help.

Peace out children! It's summertime! Time to groove!

Shalom
*Music hath charms.....OH YEAH!*

Of Real Estate, Gambling and Getting Rich

Lots of crazy stuff seems to be going on in the real estate market (don't I know it!). If we had moved only 3 years later from Edmonton to Saskatchewan our house would have sold for double what it did in 2002.

My friend, Lee has a post at his blog that comes from someone intimately involved in the market in Edmonton. The following was going to be my comment/reaction, but I think it better belongs here.

Please understand that I do not want to in any way disparage the hard work, effort, study, training and ability of those who through their diligence and effort make a living in investing in all manner of ways. The following comments are aimed at those who pursue get-rich-quick strategies.

Seems to me a career as a professional Texas No Limit Hold 'Em Poker player would be about as stable as being an undertaker by comparison to gambling in any endeavor without putting in the hard work of learning how to do it well.

As a Christian I have some theological and moral issues with gambling, but I'm always surprised how many of my self-proclaimed brothers and sisters are willing to gamble big-time in real estate, the stock market, commodities or multi-level marketing scams schemes opportunities. And how quickly those with more knowledge in these fields are willing to fleece the naive investor. I am aware that "Caveat Emptor" is the rule of the day, but there are predators about who use the purported "respectability" of many investment disciplines as a mask to hide their duplicitous agendas.

Las Vegas may be the ultimate gambling "sin city", but the establishments there always seem morally superior to me when compared to most of the investment world when it comes to gambling. I mean, at least you get dinner and a show when they take your money, which is more than Wall Street or my adviser at Investors Group offers. And in Vegas they will tell you the odds. Try getting that information from most investment prospectuses.

Waitaminit, what about this - maybe these folks looking to make some money could try this - trade someone work for money! A radical idea I know but it's just crazy enough that it might work. (Please adjust your "Sarcasm-O-Meter" at this point by calibrating it for "10" on the "Snarky Scale". Thank you.)

"How high are the stakes?
How much fortune can you make?
Should I carry on?
Will this matter when I'm gone?"
- lyrics from the song "How High" by Madonna from the album Confessions on a Dance Floor

Now those are really interesting questions considering the source.

We all have to make a living, again I offer the idea that how really, really matters.

Shalom
*It has the novelty of having never actually been tried before.*