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Be it resolved – If the Private Sector is cutting jobs in a economic downturn then the Government of the day should also be cutting Public Sector.
This is my debate point. You won’t find it anywhere in the Alberta@Noon podcast I’m about to link here. I know most of you won’t be thrilled to hear about Alberta’s budget from the finance minister so instead, skip forward to 33:50 of the podcast when two guests, one from the Alberta Taxpayers Federation and one from the Parkland Institute are invited to respond to callers and engage in some debate.
The Alberta Taxpayers Federation (ATF) has shades of the Tea Party mixed in with neo-liberal dogmatic imperatives. Much of their ‘research’ comes from the equally dubious Fraiser Institute, a rightwing corporate skunk-works whose only aim is the complete corporitization of civil society. Listen as Paige from the ATF gets tripped up because her sloganeering has little to do with fact and much to do with stirring right-wing populist notions.
What I’d like to talk about is the caller ‘Mike’ and the following discussion (36:40 – 41:15). Mike is a plummer who lost his job and had to take a lower rate of pay with his job because of the downturn. Mike feels like a faceless drone supporting the ‘queen bee’ of that is the public sector because our recently elected provincial government stated in their platform that they would protect the frontline public workers and public services of Alberta.
Now here is the thing, Mike and other neophytes of the Free Market dogma, there is this thing called the business cycle. When you *choose* to work in the private sector you are choosing the insecurity that comes along with ups and downs of said business cycle. In terms of personal responsibility and making choosy-fucking-choices when the economy is good you will be doing good, and when the economy is bad, you’ll be doing bad too, generally speaking.
This is a choice. Contrast this with the public sector though, whose wages are generally lower and tend not to increase as quickly or dramatically with the ebb and flow of the business cycle. Public sector work therefore, is also a choice with related benefits and negative attributes. Stability over profitability, one could say.
Mike, you don’t get to turn around and demand that the people who have chosen to make less than you in good market conditions all of a sudden should share your pain when the economy isn’t so robust.
I’m not totally against Mike and what he has to say but I don’t think he’s looking at the big picture. Our government, for the last 41 years, has been taking a shit on basic Keynesian market prescriptions. When times are great, we lower taxes because we want to attract more business. When times are crap, we lower taxes to keep our businesses afloat.
Do you see the problem here? Lowering taxes during the Boom times royally screws the government and people of Alberta. How do we save for the economic downturns when we have lower revenue during boom times coming in; also lowering taxes during boom times increase the rate of inflation and makes the bubble expand that much quicker – recklessly endangering public health, infrastructure, and public services. The Anti-Keynesian aphrodisiac the old Alberta PC Party snorted by the bucketful, systematically razed the economic flexibility and resiliency of the province by tying the running of the government closely to the business cycle.
The false-populist beliefs that the ATF, represented by Paige on the podcast, are an extension of this seppuku inducing cycle that our old government perfected. What is fascinating to behold is the scepticism over what beneficial counter-cyclical government economic policy is actually supposed to look like. The government is supposed to spend more and take on debt to moderate the business cycle during economic slowdowns, conversely, the government must raise taxes during the high times to pay of accumulated debt and to moderate reckless growth and expansion during the boom times.
This is what moderating the business cycle is all about and why it is so important is because when you shave off the peaks and troughs, the people who make up the economy have a better chance of keeping things together and surviving in whichever phase the economy happens to be in.
This basic understanding of Keynesian market management is in the curriculum. I’ve been taught, and have taught it to students in this province. Why we elect governments (up till recently) that don’t apply this basic economic fact boggles my mind.
Rachel Notley being sworn into office.
First off, WE DID IT!!!! The Notley Crew crashed a tidal wave of orange crush all across this province. They have secured a majority government and did the unthinkable – won as a progressive party in Alberta! While Arb has already posted about the victory, I want to post about the defeat. The defeat of this political dynasty that has reigned for 44 years is monumental and was largely engineered by themselves. And while power has been what has held this unholy alliance of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and progressives together, it is the loss of this power that will destroy them.
To understand the defeat of the PCAA one should understand that they have been a big tent party from the beginning. Peter Lougheed came to power by creating the recipe for a modern petro-state. His plan to drive business and bring investment into the province brought the fiscal conservatives in droves while his plan to build hospitals, schools and infrastructure with the resulting inflow of cash, brought the progressives along. The social conservatives held strong to the Social Credit party for a time but eventually they realized they were better served by having a seat at the government’s table rather than sitting on the sidelines.
And that is the crux of what kept this party together decades upon decades. Power. And lots of it. Massive amounts. In fact, in the entire history of this dynasty they have only elected less than 50 candidates twice. In their twelve straight election victories, seven have been with a popular vote greater than 50 percent and three greater than 60 percent! Numbers like those are rare in democracies where the head of state is not called Dear Leader. While it is indeed true that this power kept the party together, it is also what tore it apart.
The thing with that much power is that it always breeds conflict on who should be controlling it. Just ask Caesar. And much like Rome, Alberta was strongest when it was held together by strong leaders, namely Lougheed and Klein. And while Lougheed managed to retire on his own terms (or at least from what I can tell), Klein most certainly did not. Once Klein announced his intent to retire before the next election in March 2006, he was already dead in the eyes of his party. He ultimately suffered a humiliating 55% on his leadership review as the sheep that were his flock revealed themselves as the wolves they really were. Klein would resign and the wolves were already fighting to see who would be the new Dear Leader.
Therein lay the problem problem that would haunt the PCAA until 2015 where their hubris would be the end of them. First came Stelmach, everyone’s second choice who made the mistake of challenging the true masters of the PCAA by trying to raise royalties on the bitumen leaving Alberta. He received his just deserts and ended up on the floor next to Klein. Next came Redford who was the choice of the progressives that didn’t stick around to prop her up. She was the personification of the corruption and arrogance the PCAA had gained after being a multi-generational government. Watching her go down brought to mind the image of Nero playing the lyre as Rome burned.
Then finally came the nail in the coffin, Diamond Jim Prentice. Not because he was impotent like Stelmach nor an avatar of corruption like Redford, but instead because he was so effective. Winning by-elections that nobody thought he could brought him the credibility and the strong leadership the PCAA needed to finally coalesce around. It was this strong leadership that lead the PCAA down the rabbit hole that was their end. To highlight their strategy going before calling an election:
1.Blame Albertans for their mismanagement of our resources that caused us to be in a debt situation again. The fact that he also infuriated ordinary Albertans by telling them to look into the mirror and then refusing to apologize for it didn’t help facts either.
2. Infuriate the progressives by running an austerity budget that literally destroyed all the progress they made side the days of Klien.
3. Infuriate the conservatives by raising taxes everywhere.
Calling an election not only after pissing of the entirety of the Alberta populace is one thing, but waiting a few weeks to confirm that they are still pissed off and still calling the election anyway is another thing. The only people they still had rooting for them were those still feeding at the trough. Not until the polls started showing a NDP victory did the swine take a moment to raise their snouts from the slop bucket and proceeded to threaten sick children if we as Albertans dared to elect the NDP.
Well, we as Albertans elected the NDP anyway and now the covenant of power that was the PCAA is over. That which bound the disparate factions of Alberta together in darkness has been thrown into Mount Doom and cannot be reforged. There is no longer any need for the progressives to flock to the PCAA as the NDP is in power. There is no longer any need for the conservatives to rally for the PCAA as the Wildrose is the opposition. The provincial Tories are currently stuck in the middle without anyone at their side. Unless they manage to pull off what will be a literal miracle (or at least the Jesus on toast kind of miracle) and convince the Alberta electorate that they have changed for real this time and to give them one last final chance, I expect their future to reflect that of what happened to the Social Credit party way back when that political dynasty died off.
The dynasty is dead. May we never have another one.
Let’s be honest folks, this election win by Rachel Notley and the NDP was completely unexpected here in what has been fortress Tory Alberta for the last 44 years. I watched the election write itself out with trepidation for the first hour and a half, because one can never forget, this is Alberta, and for the longest time you could elect a half a bag of stale nacho chips here as long it sported the Tory Blue colours.
And then it happened. The seat count exploded for the NDP and the Orange Crush never looked back. No Tory Minority, No NDP Minority but… damn son… an NDP Majority government. The missus and I, around 9:30, broke out the Honey-Jack and toasted Rachel Notley and the new political future of Alberta.
I am very glad that we have a new government as of today, the old PC’s by now could be nothing but rife with patronage, cronyism and corruption. Out with the old corruption and all that; hopefully we’ll have a nice long window of reasonable governance before the new wave of graft starts.
It is important for the NDP in Alberta to make good on their promises to the people of Alberta. For the record here are the highlights
Notley campaigned on having the wealthy pay more to fund better health care and education. She’s promised:
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A Resource Owners Rights Commission to review the royalties oil companies pay to the province.
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A boost in the corporate tax rate to 12 per cent from 10 per cent. Increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018. Current wage is $10.20.
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More tax brackets for high earners than the Tories are proposing: a 12 per cent rate on income between $125,000 and $150,000; 13 per cent on income between $150,000 and $200,000; 14 per cent between $200,000 and $300,000 and 15 per cent over $300,000. NDP would also roll back the Tory health levy.
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The creation of 2,000 long-term care spaces over four years.
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A ban on corporate and union donations to political parties.
Well there we go. Let’s hope that we see movement on these issues as early as the new budget that will be coming up
Another thought does occur to me, as I am still processing this NDP win in Alberta: How does this affect the prospects for the upcoming federal election? Is there enough momentum to carry the Orange Crush to the next level – and in Harper’s hometown to boot. I’m thinking the political landscape has become a lot more volatile, not only in Alberta, but in Canada as well.
For once, the polls in Alberta were right.
The amount of horseshit per square centimetre in this Edmonton Journal editorial must violate the laws of physics, it just isn’t reasonable to pack this much fail into one column of newspaper. Who wrote this tepid work of Tory apologia? To me it smells like the business owners out East decided they needed to nobly stand up for the privileged in our province.
I’ve excerpted the parts I wanted to comment on, but you really should read the entire slavering, propagandistic ode the PC party over at the lowly esteemed Edmonton Journal. Duly note that this is corporate boot-licking at its finest, we should expect nothing less from the fearlessly-besotted-lick-spittles of what passes for editorial board over at the EJ.
“The choice, then, in Tuesday’s provincial election, comes down to competing economic visions.
We need a premier who can be our chief executive, piloting a $48-billion public company through a fiscal minefield for at least the next two years, while the world price of Alberta’s lifeblood, its oil, remains below $75 per barrel.
That person is Jim Prentice.”
I’m not looking for a fracking CEO to run our province. The last thing we need is more business bullshit that erodes our values and sense of community, and more to the point our sense of humanity.
“In his March budget, Prentice came to grips with the issue of the province’s dependence on volatile oil revenues, and took the bold move of ending Alberta’s anti-tax political culture.”
Boldly raising the sin taxes and the gas tax. Visionary stuff there, filled with visiony things and stuff…
“Is it a perfect plan? No. Even he’s admitted that, having reversed a decision to cut a charitable tax credit in half. There’s more room for improvement; many voters believe he should have spread the tax pain to the corporate sector.
Those types of changes could come if Prentice listens to the apparent groundswell of discontent that’s being revealed by recent polls.”
OH OF COURSE, our allegiance to the status quo has been serving the people of Alberta so damn well over the last 41 years. Please note that changing the status quo never starts with electing more of the status quo.
“No one wants another costly and divisive election, hard on the heels of this one.”
Then don’t vote PC and we won’t have any problems with another divisive election, you know kinda like this election called opportunistically before the legislated date.
“only the PCs have campaigned on a vision that balances revenue generation with spending cuts in a way that will allow Alberta to weather this fiscal crisis and be better prepared to avoid future catastrophic swings in oil prices.”
Oh you mean where we balance the books on the backs of the poor and middle class while the elites and the corporations continue to unjustly prosper in our society. I’m tired of that particular PC corporate provincial strategy.
“That sort of thinking is a clear sign that Prentice isn’t leading the same old Tory party; he’s a leader with clarity of vision and the aptitude to chart a new course for Alberta.”
How come this ‘new course’ sounds and looks exactly like the old course from yesteryear, only with different clowns at the wheel? There is no ‘new course’ only more of the same BS that has been and will be bad for the average Albertan.
Let’s keep the magical thinking out of schools.
Let’s be upfront. The demographic situation in Alberta in the days gone past dictated that we have two school boards. Keeping the religious happy was much higher on up on the agenda in the 20th century. I get that.
It is, however, the 21st century. Religious cotton-brained ideas and the accompanying adherence to magical thinking should have no place in a secular society.
As a teacher I find it distasteful that fellow members of my profession are actively teaching ‘magic-as-reality’ to naive children who look to teachers as a secure attachment point and reliable source of information. It boggles the mind.
Let’s scrap the ‘separate’ school system and worry about giving a meaningful learning experience to all children – not just the ones that are lucky enough to go to public school.
Hey Jimmy Boy, you certainly have shown where you priorities are and what you think of Albertans.
I don’t blame you though; we let you take power basically through acclimation – no fucks were given, as long as got rid of that WOMAN who was single-handedly ruining the province. The flyby-night parachute (Hi Steven Mandel and other assorted Tory hacks! Your exercise in nepotism and narcissistic self-aggrandizement is noted) elections that merely waved at the trappings of democracy, that shit was cool here in Alberta where the electorate gave an enthusiastic “hell ya“. It’s all okay thought because the electorate would enthusiastically vote in a bag of empty shirts as long as was the right shade of Tory blue.
Not that any of this fucking matters here in Blue Zombie Tory PC land. The latest example of the Alberta Tories pouring shit on the people of Alberta came from the priemier himself. Corporate shill-master Jimmy Prentice was dropping truth left and right on CBC radio.
‘Speaking on CBC’s Alberta@Noon Wednesday, Premier Jim Prentice told host Donna McElligott that “in terms of who is responsible, we need only look in the mirror. Basically, all of us have had the best of everything and have not had to pay for what it costs.”
Damn son, you just said a mouthful. I mean your predecessors have all at least tried to cover their contempt for the public and the public good. You may as well just get a T-Shirt that says “privatize the profit and publicize the risk” it would simplify your PR and keep the rest of your team on message. You could do it here in Blue-Zombie Alberta, they’d still vote you in, I guarantee it.
“I’ve never said Albertans are the problem,” Prentice told the Calgary Herald Thursday. “I’ve never, ever said that or anything like that. What I’ve said is that Albertans have to be part of the solution.
Prentice admits he “touched a nerve,” but is not backing away from his tough line.”
Oh, I get it now. We all have to buckle down and tighten our belts!
“Premier Jim Prentice says Alberta has no plans of raising corporate taxes to deal with the current economic woes in the province.”
Well, that was completely obvious wasn’t it? We certainly can’t raise the lowest corporate tax rates in the country that, fellow peons, would be virtual seppuku for EVERYBODY. Instead, lets gut the public service, education and healthcare – the real culprits. Let’s watch Jimmy helpfully explain why we must not tax the rich:
“[…] if we increase our corporate taxes, we will simply make ourselves uncompetitive and it will result in losing jobs,”
Oh, right. Because of all the other competing Tar Sands projects located in politically safe areas will completely take all the business… I’m not sure how much more clarity is required for Blue-Zombie Voters to see fealty expected of our elected public officials toward their oil-overlords.
Oh hey, it’s also spring election time in Alberta. And I bet that we’re going to vote these craven corporate sycophants in *again* because penury is awesome!
I was looking for an image to describe the Alberta electorate and their behaviour. I think I’m getting closer with this one. The last person in the human centipede is the typical ‘Alberta Voter’ getting all the shit, and just loving it (and clamouring for more!).
The Blue Zombie PC Vote Train! – Maybe it’s time to stop the madness and not vote Alberta PC?
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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