Saturday, June 25, 2016

Reflections on a dark economy

I haven't written about the dark days of near-financial collapse in Newfoundland. Mainly because I vent on Facebook and to friends. So here is an encapsulated version.

It's a long story of blundering governmental and political incompetence in a drunker sailor scenario of spending when offshore oil generated unbelievable wealth here. Instead of creating a heritage fund, Dems Wot Rulez initiated a hydro electric project - Muskrat Falls - which is proving to be voracious in its appetite for more and more funds as the project is elayed due to structural collapses and disputes arising with Italian contractors. I won't bore you all with it here. Suffice to say taxpayers here are like taxpayers everywhere, bailing out wealthy banks, except we're bailing out this disastrous project which is already over budget by 100% - 6 billion dollars projected costs at the outset now tipping close to 12 billion dollars. We are a province of just over 1/2 million people to give you some idea of the monetary per capita overload incurred for generations yet to come.

To add insult to injury, the poorest and most illiterate amongst us are being penalized financially for this absolute boondoggle of an enterprise. Half of the public libraries are being shut down, taxes are added to insurance (my car insurance increased by 50% even though I am 47 years accident free)glucose strips distribution at pharmacies is being reduced and co-pays for home care for seniors are being increased. It is the most mean spirited budget ever. And we are all appalled and significantly less solvent as a result.

There was no hope offered in this budget. Our politicians are the highest paid in Canada and don't, truly, have an operating brain cell amongst the lot of them.

They bleat austerity whilst living lavish life styles completely out of touch with the rest of us struggling masses. For instance our finance minister owns 8 MacDonald's franchises in the province and refuses to even discuss a fast food tax. H'm. Along with believing herself to be an entrepreneur. Mull that one when every decision at a Micky Doo's is dictated by Head Office.

Protests were launched, one a massive poster demanding the premier resign affixed to every pole for miles around the provincial legislature. These were removed in the dead of night at tax payer expense.

Free speech, guaranteed by our constitution, denied to the peasants by their betters.

Our local MHA (MP)announced publicly that we just didn't understand the complexity of political decisions. This is her first crack at politics.

Fun times out on the Edge of the Atlantic, folks.

And I've just given you the bare bones.

21 comments:

  1. Anything could happen in Britain right now. Everything we have worked for seems to be collapsing round our feet.
    Very hard times ahead over this way,
    Maggie x

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    1. I know Maggie I've been following. I think it is a global collapse, predictable for years, that is imminent. The tar sands wipe out in Alberta being part of it too.
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  2. You should live in India! You will have a great deal more to write about.

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    1. Seriously? I haven't touched on 1/2 the stuff here.
      XO
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  3. Come the revolution, sister! I'm convinced every university degree course in political sciences now contains a corruption section in its syllabus.

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    1. And we've misplaced trust in these greedy overlords RJA. this last shower of ours promised us the moon 6 months back and we voted them in and they're proving worse than our old masters.
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  4. Seems to truly be a mess everywhere. Guess I'd best cross Newfoundland off my list as an option to flee to if our U.S. flim flam con man gets elected president.

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    1. We have so tightened our immigration policy too Joared. You'd proably never get in. I totally sympathies with you and the Orange Buffoon who has come so perilously close to that red button.
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  5. I feel your pain. The UK woke up on Friday morning to find that a spat between two old Etonians has caused us to leave the European Union. As a long time immigrant in the UK from Ireland I keep crying for that loss of link with my family in the Republic of Ireland. Worst, a hard border will have to be reinstated between the north and the south of Ireland as it will be the only land border between the EU and non-EU countries. Thirty years of peace process - gone.

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    1. I agree Anne it's a nightmare scenario and I truly believe the scope of all this dissent and dissatisfaction is global. Tough times ahead for all of us.
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  6. Fricken fracken fruckin politicians and their greedy selfish selves. Honestly, sometimes they make it easy to understand the violence of the French revolution.

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    1. The current French Revolution that is being blacked out by the media? Or past revolutions.
      I do live the ballsy French. We have lit to learn from them. Us Canajuns are far too polite.
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  7. You were served a cold dish of stupid, just as I fear we will be here...Hope you are well otherwise...

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    1. Well said E my friend. Well said. Yes thank you health is wealth.
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  8. Oh dear, I don't know where to begin. I must respond to the Muskrat Falls part I'm afraid. For you Newfoundlanders it is money down the drain and little benefit. For us Labradorites it is money down the drain, a HUGE increase in our energy bill (crazy huh?) and our land, fish, and animal life poisoned by mercury. For absolutely NO ONE is it a good deal. It will never be a good source of energy because the money sunk in it cannot be reclaimed for something like 92 years and then it will begin to trickle in. It was a money grab by NALCOR and some smart flim flammers to sell puff and nuthing else. I could cry all day.

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    1. Yes Jan I held back on ALL of this disastrous enterprise as I simply hadn't enough time & space. It goes on and on down to the unstable marine clay and the poisoning of everything around it. For 1/4 of the cost we could be wind and wave and solar. It is sickening. I'm raging.

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  9. Doesn't it seem like things are going nuts everywhere right now?

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    1. Yes SAW many of us are talking about this. It's an Armageddon isn't it. Despair is close to all of us.
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  10. And to think that once it was possible that you'd now belong to the EU instead of Canada and the Commenwealth.
    Personally, I think GB made a big mistake, but I'm not there.
    Cheers
    Mike

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  11. Well the EU didn't save Ireland from the big bank fail, Mike. But, I agree I think the UK has made a huge mistake, mainly through lies and ignorance.
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  12. Glad to read that the library closure plan is on hold for now due to public outrage. In the area where I live, the school board took staff out of all elementary school libraries last year. This year, they reinstated them due to the outcry. People power.

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