Economic Reflections:
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Nipawin - February 24, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis | |
economic |
Our economic, political and business leadership have been playing the gimmick that social |
and economic growth can occur solely by invoking conventional macroeconomic theories. | |
That is, for instance, by playing with taxes, by playing with the balancing of governmental | |
budgets, by playing with the reduction of governmental debt, by fighting inflation, by | |
playing with interest rates. The isolated implementation of these economic theories, | |
irrespective of our social growth, have caused very little economic growth in the last two | |
decades, and at the same time the country's political and social texture has eroded with the | |
consequences that we have a divided Canada, geographically, politically, socially, and | |
economically. | |
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leadership |
At the same time, as we have experienced a negative economic growth in the last decade(1), |
so our governmental leadership has weakened with the consequences that we have a | |
Prime Minister who practices business development plans with his criminal friends(2), and | |
a government marred by an administrative nightmare where paternalism and fraternity's | |
loyalties take over entrepreneurial independence and public service(3). | |
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oligarchic |
The gimmick of our leadership to maintain an oligarchic, paternalistic and fraternal social |
and economic growth has to end. The gimmick to have capitalism versus socialism has to | |
end, and the gimmick to have the World Trade Organization as the only leverage for | |
economic growth has to end as well. | |
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to serve |
Our governments must go back to what they were designed for, that is to serve the people |
and not to serve themselves and the big multinational conglomerates. The gimmick to have | |
smaller governments while encouraging international mega mergers of multinational | |
conglomerates must end as well. We can grow economically and socially irrespective of | |
the different degree of taxation or size of government of any country, the common | |
denominator being our willingness to be entrepreneurial, individually and collectively(4). | |
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phony |
Our political and business leaders have been trumpeting an economic growth across |
Canada in the last decade, and they have been using phony GDP indicators to support | |
this growth, while in fact we have shown in our writing that this economic growth has | |
not occurred and that social inequality has increased with the consequential establishment | |
of a social system for the benefit of the 'Few and Privileged(5).' | |
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economic |
Our conventional GDP indicators are grossly inadequate to evaluate our well being and |
we need a new economic language to support our social and economic growth. This new | |
language should be used by our political, business and academic leadership. | |
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Lars |
It is commendable to mention the work of Canadian economist Lars Osberg(6) who has |
been developing an index for measuring the well being of our social and economic | |
system(7). In particular, Osberg's index includes the measuring of | |
i) per capita consumption flow of goods and services, |
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ii) the economic resources to sustain our social growth, and |
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iii) our level of poverty and social insecurity. |
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It is worthwhile letting our past Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow and Prime Minister | |
Jean Chrétien know that our Canadian well being has deteriorated significantly in the 1990s; | |
in fact, our well being has deteriorated by a whopping 10% in this period. This deterioration | |
of our social system has occurred under Jean Chrétien, and now this Prime Minister wants | |
to be in power for another third mandate of Cretinism, and if he can't survive this mandate, | |
then he will push for a new Canadian political era of Tobinism(8). | |
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Joe |
Old Joe Who, come to our rescue please? |
------------References/endnotes: | |
List of relevant political and economics articles http://ensign.ftlcomm.com | |
Sharing the Wealth from Growth: Comparing the Canadian and U.S. Experiences, Jack Mintz C.D. Howe Institute / University of Toronto & Shay Aba C.D. Howe Institute, Conférence IRPP-CSLS Conference, January 26-27 th , 2001 Chateau Laurier Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario | |
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's involvement with the BDC's $615,000 loan: Lack of Common Sense Democracy, by Mario deSantis, December 1, 2000 | |
Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Reports and Publications | |
IRPP-CSLS Conference on Economic Growth and Inequality, Château Laurier Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, January 26-27, 2001 | |
A World for the Few and Privileged in Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, February 18, 2000 | |
Lars Osberg, Ph.D, McCulloch Professor of Economics, Dalhousie University http://www.dal.ca/~osberg/home.html | |
An Index of Economic Well-being for Canada - with Andrew Sharpe, Lars Osberg, October 1998 | |
Tobinism and Additional Rules of Law, by Mario deSantis, February 10, 2001 | |
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