Paying for Public Services

not an accurate comparison at all. 

and i'm tired of people making issues into an affront against Jews, through association or rhetoric.

it's also unfair to equate discrimination against people with disabilities to discrimination based on race. 

the practice is entirely unfair to clear analysis of the dynamics of systematic defunding of public services, which BY THE WAY is what this thread is about, and how to pay for them.

G. Muffin your comments twist meaning and are offensive.

G. Muffin, I am very sorry to hear that you aren't getting good care in Vancouver.  There is definitely a need for more public dollars for good multi-faceted supports for people with mental health issues.  I believe there are professional obligations as well for caregivers to help those who may do harm to themselves or others, if not legal obligations.  The Canada Health Act also calls for universality of public health care.  That includes people suffering from mental health issues.  Health Authorities in Vancouver and across Canada are obligated to uphold the Canada Health Act and universality.  The federal government is similarly obligated. 

The provinces should be demanding reinstated transfer funds for public health care from the federal government.

But the provinces should NOT be signing any WTO deals on sub-federal procurement, as i heard recently via www.canadians.org .

Then, in the context of NAFTA and proposed EU and other deals, our public dollars would just be heading to private, unaudited pockets.

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Regarding generous use of public funds, that generosity is best reflected in measures of suffering people helped, of decreases in rates of suicide, illness, and poverty, of decreases in greenhouse gases, increases in members of previously-endangered species, increases in preserved wilderness areas, increases in measures of ecological and human health.

Use of public funds is 'maximized' when definitions are shifted from consumptive measures like GDP to measures of national wealth defined in ecological and human terms.

Use of public funds is maximized when policy and vision take account, not in dollars, but in counts of natural processes which have their own order and respective boundaries.

Nature has limits. 

Generosity acknowledges and respects Nature's limits and holds any dollarized transactions to account within those limits.

- items are 'kept together' via the name index.

- what's babble if not a publication?  rabble promotional material often highlights babble. it's read.

- back to the subject, our Conservative MP is in the habit of sending out these slippery flyers, like the one in the mail this week:

"Following through on our commitment to restore fiscal balance to the provinces and territories to ensure they have the ability to provide health care, education and other essential services that are important to Canadian families...Defending consumers against unfair financial practices by introducing a new Code of Conduct for the Canadian Credit and Debit Card Industry."

another flyer sent to other constituents said, "Providing record-high support ($54 billion) to provinces and territories for 2010-2011. Since we took office, support payments to the provinces for vital health, education and social services have increased by 30 percent ($12.7 billion)."

I don't have numbers to counter his statements regarding 'support', but seeing as past governments, including Conservative governments federally and provincially have cut mercilessly, i doubt their 'support' even comes close to meeting equivalent service levels in the '80's, let alone comparative levels of support in earlier decades.

And how much of Conservative 'support' is going to be tied to public-private partnerships and directed to their crony banking and insurance profiteers? 

Harper announced he signed a deal with the US last week, forcing our provinces and municipalities to procure critical infrastructure/services from foreign suppliers.  So all that Conservative 'support' is going to go south.  And east if Harper gets his way and we sign an EU deal too.

As for the 'Code of Conduct' for the Credit and Debit Card Industry, i hope it doesn't give them more self-regulating room to trick household debtors, by, say, 'forcing' industry players to follow counter-productive rules in trade deals as determined by the G20.

Besides, the financial fog extends far beyond the household credit house of cards.  Conservatives in Harper's camp don't have what it takes to clear up the larger mess.

Finally, 'restoring fiscal balance to the provinces and territories' means they're going to cut some more, directly or indirectly.  It's wrong.  First government needs to publicly audit the financiers it already gave 200 billion to, via the Bank of Canada.  Then it needs to publicly audit the other corporations it has subsidized over its tenure, and tell us where all that money has gone, exactly.

Then Harper and Flaherty can tell us where all future handouts to private corporations and their bankers will end up, exactly.

Talk of 'fiscal balance' is complete hypocrisy when Harperites don't keep track of where our money goes once its handed out.

thanks for comments, it's helpful for me to hear that others are concerned. i have to think more about ramifications.

while i'm here  though, might as well type up some of the questions i had the other day:

Why do many progressives avoid discussion of debt and use of the Bank of Canada? I understand that debt is a construct, dependent equally on inputs as outputs, and that one part of the equation can be changed as much as the other.  Is it that progressives think its easier to convince people to support taxes and jobs than fully public finance? Or that they just don't want their political representatives to get assassinated as some US presidents were over the latter?  Or what?

Some clarity would really help.

- Harper's bunch is just waiting for Obama to put mortgage limits on first. and if CMHC is guaranteeing all the banker mortgage loans anyway, why not have it or the federal treasury collect the interest too?

- the whole mess of setting prices for money- exchange rates can be done by us, not a few privacy-protected bankers.

- no clarity yet on the assassination question

- just calling something 'a capitalist institution' is silly- more useful is to know how it works and can it be made democratic.

- i don't like war language for environment, some have used it with good intention, but already that's being misused as energy is considered a security issue.

- regarding Harper's procurement pact, I hope people are demanding to know specifically what Harper thinks the provinces are willing to hand over to the US.  Scott Sinclair wrote last fall on the negotiations (www.policyalternatives.ca - publications) that some in the US were pushing to have health care and university education up for takeover by private US corporations/ investors.  Water, sewage, and electricity were possibly 'on the table'.  Are we going to get written documents from Harper or more detained info?  Media are saying Harper wants it all sewn up by Feb. 15.

Honestly it's like a living nightmare with this prime minister.