FOOD FOR THOUGHT 3

Dave Carpenter reports that about 1 in 6 of American homeowners are “under water”, i.e. the home’s debt exceeds its market value. That’s double last year’s figure.
(Toronto Star (03/01/09)

Fired workers in Guandong, China, smashed motorcycles and company equipment in anger as their dreams of prosperity and their $175/month jobs disappeared and the reality of capitalism bites – you work at the pleasure of capital.

In “Canada Should Strut It’s Stuff” (David Olive, Toronto Star, 18/Jan/09), an article designed to show the world what Canada is made of, the author reveals that and estimated 900 000 children in Canada live in poverty and wretched conditions. Some stuff! Some strut!

For those who have lost their jobs, unemployment insurance is much harder to get and much lower, and lasts for shorter periods than previously. In the 1970s, unemployed workers received 75% of their wage, today it’s just 55 %. In the 1990s recession, workers received $150/week more than today. Requirements are tougher and part time workers need not apply. Only 42% of Canadians who are unemployed receive relief, just 25% in Ontario. The futility of reform.

On the other hand, some are coping quite well. The Wall Street financial sector, the one that ran the surest, most prestigious institutions into the ground and then came begging for a trillion dollars, has just handed out $18.4 billion in employee bonuses. To the chagrin of president Obama, who castigated them publicly, and then ordered more bailout money!

According to The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada’s top 100 CEOs pocketed one billion dollars last year, averaging $10 million apiece, which means that by coffee time on the second work day of the year, they’ve made the average Canadian workers’ annual salary of $40 237.
John Ayers