Here’s the problem with focusing on balanced budgets.
Balanced budgets rarely come with increased revenue, which means they must be accomplished with decreased expenses. And decreased expenses always means job losses. Because, as I’ve discussed before, everything the government spends money on creates jobs.
A couple of years ago, the City of Lethbridge was experiencing some issues with the municipal water supply and were asking residents to voluntarily conserve water.
One day, they posted an info graphic with several conservation ideas. One of them was putting off doing laundry for a day.
On 2 December 2019, Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf spoke to the Alberta legislature, saying the seemingly random rant seen below:
To generate profit, a company must make more than it spends. It must pay their workers less money to produce a product than it charges customers who purchase that product. It must pay less for the raw materials to produce a product than it charges customers who purchase that product.
On 20 February 2019, Jason Kenney, then the Official Opposition leader, said in a press conference that if elected, a UCP government would conduct a performance review of Alberta Health Services within 30 days of taking office.
“With the most expensive health system in Canada, I believe we can find some savings to do things more efficiently without affecting front-line services.”
Jason Kenney, as reported by Dustin Cook. “Jason Kenney calls for Alberta Health Services review, says UCP will not make cuts to health care”. Edmonton Journal. 20 February 2019.
He reiterated in the press conference, “If we can find the money, there will be increases in the health budget. There will be no cuts.”
Regarding gun violence in the United States, there are a couple of things to keep in mind before we conclude that the gun violence is caused by an abundance of guns.
Let’s take mass shootings.
The idea that Canadian veterans fought for our freedoms is completely made up.
Yesterday, someone wrote a letter to the editor of the Lethbridge Herald. This person is dealing with drug addiction and was providing some insight from that perspective on the benefits of the supervised consumption site, as well as addressing some myths.
Naturally, the online version of the letter received negative feedback, many with the same, tired myths and rhetoric. I thought I’d address some of them here.
A few months ago, someone I know commented on a Facebook post of someone else I know and made a joke about gender. When my trans child confronted them on it and I later confronted them on it, they responded by saying that their comment wasn’t directed at my child and that they’d never disrespect my child like that.
The thing is though when you make fun of a marginalized group, you disrespect those who belong to that group, even if you didn’t direct your comments to those specific people.
When I took my 7-year-old to ballet this past weekend, I noticed quite a few vehicles in the university parking lot that were in various states of disrepair.
Some had cracked windshields. Some had broken grills. Some had duct tape either masking blemishes or holding parts together. Some had patches of rust.
And all this reminded me that we live in a society that doesn’t pay its workers sufficiently.