Taxation – A Leftist Battle Cry – ‘Eat the Rich’

People rightly think that corporatocracy dipping their hands into politics is wrong, but the way the current financial system is set up, it’s pretty well guaranteed. Politicians and businesses are good pals, maybe even lovers, they go so close together.

So crying out that the system needs to change so that businesses don’t prosper from what their glad handing with politicians does to get campaign funds and back room deals does little good. Both sides love what they have and won’t change it

But what are the alts?

• Either the govt owns the businesses
• or the employees do (coops, shareholders)

What if in order to do business in a country, all you could do was pay basically a finder’s fee at the federal or provincial/state level? With an agreement/contract that they would take care of their employees/ environment where they actually did business. And a good sense of what that meant.

Then the rest of your money went to actual communities, into groups like the local chamber of commerce or business improvement/ethics advisory groups like the ‘Better Business Bureau’. Where a fund existed that any business working in that region paid into for environ safety & inspection and worker benefit plans/insurance.

And what if there was a collective for worker protection? Like the unions we have now, but better. Someone who had actually done the job inspected the reputation of the company and sought out safe work place needs. Inspected the sites, talked to the mgmt and workers at other facilities before they would agree to a plant or franchise being located in their area. And advocated for fair wages and programs in the contract. Not some distant union full of people who had no clue what the workers would need. Someone who was accessible/accountable to the workers. Someone who lived among them.

Then the taxes of the business would go to local needs, like coop gardens, kitchens, schools and daycares for their workers’ kids, affordable roads and utilities for their plant and their workers’ homes.

Because you know five things:
cared for/valued workers

• don’t strike,
• don’t leave and
• don’t steal.
• and have fewer accidents.
• So they cost the business a LOT less.

And policing the business and the community cost a LOT less.

So what does a worker need?:

• wage equity – parity, fair casual/pt/ft proportion of staff, continuity of care
• cost of living increases
• benefits for workers – med, teeth, eyes, therapy, pharm, obgyn, parenting classes for first timers, PT/OT
• safe work place – shift supervisors with CPR/lifesaver/ wound care, accidents, harassment – clear separation of authority & worker in private relations, bullying, bigotry,
• safe min work force, safe min training for job, green/eco policies, safety/code of structure
• shift separation/fatigue, burnout – cap to overtime max 12 hrs in 24. max 4 x 12 p/wk
• pensions for retired and disabled workers, buddy system/peer support plan
• parental leave, day care/school availability
• work sharing – mentoring – primary to disabled workers, older and returning parents
  retraining & fair upward/internal promotion
• fund for continuing education
• where possible – work from home options – primary to parents and disabled

And by doing it as a consortium of local govt, the collective of workers (taxed on goods and property they own), and the local businesses, as basically a pot they all paid into, it wouldn’t bankrupt any participant. And the businesses would only be paying for areas where they had a hands on investment, rather than the vague concepts of country and land mass of province or state.

And if there was a tax system buffer, the local govts could help out their neighbouring counties if trouble hit. Or businesses could help out another plant or franchise as needed.

Why do this? Something has to change, so why not try something that is more worker/family focused? Something that doesn’t rely on the ‘charity’ or ‘good will’ of people who haven’t really shown enough to date.

Sin Taxes

I’m not sure if this is still a phrase…. But what it means is that the govt charges a tax for things like alcohol, cigarettes etc because they want to penalize people for using these products. The money is meant to go toward treatment (hospitals, rehab beds) of any health conditions the person using these products incurs. Or for infrastructure.

Sounds good, right? Except the govt also sells these products, or licenses companies to sell them (ie. duty free shops) , making them more available to the people. And now we can add marijuana too (dispensaries). It’s completely contrary to their intended purpose of regulating/reducing behaviour, to provide the sin, then charge for actually engaging in the sinful behaviour, don’t you think? They are profiting off the sin they claim to condemn.

Which makes it far easier to take a Libertarian/Anarchist view that the govt shouldn’t exist. And if they do, it shouldn’t be allowed to tax us. At least not for our ‘bad’ behaviour.

What do you think about sin taxes?

Moral Philosophy – Are All Pleasures Created Equal?

It depends?

• Are you talking about the interests of the individual or the group? And which group? (family, neighbourhood, religion, state/nation)
• What is the purpose of the pleasure? Is it base interest, lifestyle? Or of a higher principle?
• Can you find others who share this pleasure to unite with and at least discuss it if not participate in it?
• Are you completing your daily tasks and your caring responsibilities before you engage in this pleasure?
• Are you injuring yourself or others in striving for this pleasure?
• Are you attempting to arrive at excellency or perfectionism? Or is it a time filler?
• Is it tolerated by authority? Would you be incarcerated (by legal authority) or excommunicated (by family or religious authority)?
• WHY does authority tolerate it? To allow freedom? Or to dumb down the masses so they can do as they wish and get away with it?
• Are you then complicit in their actions? Or their neglect of duty of care?
• Does authority use different pleasure principles to divide the people and cause that division so people don’t see what they are doing and why? (Don’t fight with me, fight with each other!)
• Is pleasure used to create the ‘other’?

…..

It’s not as simple as you may have been told or thought before is it? As an adult, you can’t just do what you want to with no thought to consequences, can you? Your actions and neglect of duty affect others, beyond your immediate group. Which is why pleasure is much discussed by philosophers. And if you wish to look at that further, try ‘utilitarianism’ (Bentham, Mill) and ‘libertarianism’ (Locke, Thoreau, Spencer).

Does Everyone’s Happiness Count Equally?

There are a LOT of questions within this primary one….. Yet it seems so easy!

…..

How far do you take the principle of equality? Do you think that men and women should be treated with the same care and deference? How about children? How about animals? How about AI?

Do you think it should be considered based on the ‘soul’ and it’s ability to reason? To care for itself? To live independently? To feel pleasure and pain?

Must the soul work ‘for the man’? Must the soul pay taxes? Must they employ other souls?

…..

Depends where you are on the above questions, it might determine how much value you put on their lives when push comes to shove. But does it also determine how happy you want them to be and how willing you are to work for that happiness?

Does that change if you feel obliged or responsible for their happiness? If you are their parent, carer, guardian, boss, dominant…. creator, engineer, mechanic?

…..

And how do you build a legal system that at least meets their needs? Or who do you prioritize? Do you consider the ones who have power and wealth first? Or the ones most in need of society’s care? Or the one who will vote for you? Or the one who will follow the law and/or comply with authority? Or the one who can be uploaded for a future iteration when it’s more conducive to their being safe(r)?

There has to be something in it for the person to fully comply with authority. Is belonging enough? Or do they want some benefit beyond that? Are people really idealistic or prosaic in their reasoning when push comes to shove? How linear is their reasoning? Are they capable of grasping your needs as their authority? How much trust do they have in you?

This is critical for medical and legal decisions, esp during a public health emergency. How do you enforce your values onto others during a time of crisis? Or do you? Do you convince/persuade? Or incarcerate/fine? Or perhaps limit their freedom rather than ask or demand? Or change their programming with drugs, education, rewiring if need be? Surgery? What is most likely to win the day?

…..

It seems the questions will become MORE complex in the not too distant future, doesn’t it? And with the earth warming up and creating a situation where resources will be less available, more critical too. So these are questions that speak to our presence and quality of life as well as our resources and how they are allocated.

Would you want to be the decision maker?

What is happiness? {pleasure , duty, justice , service, convenience, pain}

Even when you consider these ideas, ideals as the frame of happiness, there is further work to do.

• Are you wired to think first of others, or of yourself?
• Do you consider your community to be your country, town/city, your neighbourhood, your school, or job, your religious/cultural group, your extended family?
• Who is your priority?
• And where do you place them on the continuum in this post’s title?

Because most people think of happiness as being when they belong and their people think well of them, or at least tolerate them with some support and kindness.
Or when they are sufficiently individuated to be independent.

Keeping in mind that children need others more than an able bodied, clear minded adult does.

How much do you need others’ good will to feel happy? And what will you do to keep it?

Doctor Says, Insurance Says, Budget Says…. Help I Feel like Crap!

Even in Canada where we are supposed to have universal health care, many people cannot manage the care plans their doctors think should be so simple.

Prevention – diet and exercise.

It’s recommended that we get three squares a day of 2 veg, a grain and a protein. But how do you do that when money is tight? And supplements aren’t cheap, nor are they really recommended.

chronic pain

Things like physio therapy, massage, acupressure, Reiki are known to help and often recommended by even Western medicine. But (at least in Canada) they aren’t covered. And these days, it’s getting harder to get medicine for pain relief other than Tylenol Ibuprofin or Aspirin.

……

We know that pain and obesity are common, and cause long term issues with health and mental health too. Yet no matter what the doctor recommends, the insurance plans won’t cover it.

If we could fix or provide supports for even these two things, people would be a lot healthier and we’d have to spend a LOT less on health care. On bandaids for our neglect of these issues.

Mostly because the govt doesn’t think like we do. They want cheap, they want now to get the votes they need to stay in office, and they want their backers and corporations to profit. And one of those corporation prototypes is Big Pharma. So the focus will be toward taking blood pressure pills, insulin, opioids…. rather than things like diet and exercise.

Which leaves it to the poor person who cannot be compliant to what seems like common sense, yet gets blamed for that lack of compliance.

……

And you can tell that this is the way it will stay when you talk to a doctor about what standard medicine is, and they tell you to eat right and exercise. Sure doc, but how do I pay for what you tell me to do?

Election Day! Polls in Ontario are Closed Now

list of Prime Ministers of Canada –

As you’ll note, they are all Liberals and Conservatives (well iterations of, the CONs have done some mucking about with the curtains, thinking we don’t know who and what they are)

So far the Maritimes are starting the reports, and if they have their way, it’ll be a liberal majority. But Quebec is next and there are going to be some BQs and maybe even Liberals there.

Where we’ll really know who rules is when we hit Ontario and the prairies. They’re pretty much cons atm and usually. But how mad are the people at their current premiers? Do they separate the provinces and feds?

So many people voted in advance (which they can’t start counting till tomorrow to be sure no one voted twice) this year. I think i saw a leap of 57% used these tickets and mail in. So unless there is a real spike, where little doubt is left, we may not know till within the next few days who is running Canada. (At least we don’t have to wait till January!!)

Will we be Canada (LIB) or USA North (CON/REP) when it’s all said and done? Oh lord!!

Voices in the Left Wing – The Eve of the Election – Canadian Politics

Inclusion – Culture

Canada has it’s own founding people & those to consider

• Indigenous People
• French origin – Acadian, Metis, Quebecois
• English – British Loyalists from the USA, UK
• settlers and traders from HBC.
• builders of the country-
  Chinese – railroads
  African American (slaves from USA- underground railway)
  WWII fascists as POWs
• immigrants
• gig workers

Gender, Sexuality

beyond the binary view and the ‘traditional’ family

• LGBTQ+
• single parent homes (divorced, NM, underaged/teen)

workers

• office
• shop
• carers (paid & unpaid)
• factory
• farm
• teachers
• civil servants & first responders

retired workers

• pensioned off due to infirmity, age, illness, injury
• ltd jobs available

disabled

• veterans, first responders injured by war, service to country
• injured workers
• fire, car accidents
• disabling disease (mental, physical)
• addicts

right wing parties

with a hyper focus on the economy and the traditional family rather than the people who pay taxes and make the economy possible. With a divorce rate at over 50%.
Also prefer to control the people, so military, policing, CAS as costly systems rather than community led support initiatives pensions and social services by govt

left wing parties

with a focus on social justice and anti-govt. Self sustaining country rather than globalization. Local govt rather than federal. UBI, guaranteed income

the question remains –

who best represents you? Who actively includes you? Who has policies just for you?

Triaging During a Pandemic – Moral Debate

Aspect 1. Canada is a rich nation, with many many hospitals, beds, ventilators and you’d hope that would mean anyone would get the care they need, right? But each wave has caught the govt and hospitals with their pants down.
You could be an idealist and say that everyone deserves care equally, but you don’t have the resources for that.
You need:

• staff that are specially trained
  And each wave reduces the number of staff. Because they caught the virus, or they burned out.

…..

Aspect 2. With the fourth wave, we now have one of the highest world numbers of vaccinated people. (Approx 3/4 of the pop over 12 yrs of age are vaxxed) So the people who require most of these resources for virus mgmt are now unvaccinated people. Some of whom have shown they had every opp to get a vaccine, but chose alts like Ivermectin, gargling Betadine, Hydroxychloroquine…. multiple vitamin regimes…. and attended every rally going against masks, lockdowns, and vaccines.

…..

Aspect 3. But it is a public health crisis. And some of these people may be contagious. There is no alt plan for their mgmt, either to treat or at least to separate them from the people who do comply with pandemic protocol. So the hospitals full of staff who do know the precautions have become in effect the dumping grounds for deniers. Which has maxed out the resources yet again.

……

…..

Up against a patient who was having a heart attack, a stroke, needed a critical tumour cut out, had a car accident, was in a fire, had an insulin reaction and now need life support…..a mom &/or baby who didn’t process labour well. Someone who did all the right things, were compliant to their treatment regimes. But the ICU is full.

……

……

What does a doctor have to think about when they plan their use of ltd resources?

• Who most needs it
• Who is most likely to survive
• What their quality of life will be
• How much support will they need to cope, if/when they’re discharged (Is that support available where they live? Can they afford it?)
• How much will that cost society
• Is society likely to pay it (and let’s be honest, it doesn’t open it’s purse strings easily)

….

….

Aspect 4. If you needed a transplant, whether or not you’d comply with care and do your best to get better, or at least not sabotage the investment made in you is a critical factor for whether or not you receive the organ you need. If your home will be a safe place for you to recover. (How likely is it that a covid denier lives with a bunch of vaxxers? How often would they be re-infected?)

…..

Aspect 5. What risk are they to your staff? Because even though they do know how to take precautions, doctors and nurses have been dying from this virus,

……

So now you know what the issues are. And you know where the hot spots are and which hospitals near you even have a ventilator and an ICU. What is your answer if you were asked the question ‘who is your care priority?’

…..

And for the political POV, is your premier a Conservative? Because they don’t seem to be making good decisions re: pandemic response. Alberta is in crisis mode …. again. Because they wanted to step back to treating it like an endemic. O’Toole praised Kenney for his mgmt of Covid. As an BTW.

When the Covid Vector is….. the First Responder? The Carer? The Teacher? (Anti-vaxxers in Authority)

When the person who is in charge of your well being during a crisis is acting against their certification college, the union and the govt’s mandate, what do you do?

Police officers and military have a higher onus to follow and enforce the laws of the country, so shouldn’t that mean they lead by example? Rather than holding silent protests in public? Speaking to the media?

Doctors and nurses, lab techs, EMTs, and other care workers should be science-savvy, at least literate enough to know where and who the best sources are for info?

Teachers should be the leaders of their classes, and at least able to research credibility of sources and what scientific method is, right?

So explain to me like I’m a five year old why they’re joining protests and letting it be known what their occupation is and expecting to keep their job. And how they are able to for that matter.

These are in many ways super-spreader careers. They are front facing as carers and at times they are there at the moments when you are most vulnerable. Like first responders when you’re having a stroke or a heart attack, when you just got pulled out of a burning car or house and are oxygen deprived, when you’re a kid and are crying/huffing, wheezing or throwing up.

But bottom line, these people all make their living and hold their jobs because they were taught to respect authority, to follow the chain of command. And they don’t want to comply now? But but but… aren’t they the ones who are supposed to be enforcing the mandates?

How are we supposed to take them seriously?? The mandates or the person telling us we have to obey when they won’t? And how do you call 911/999 if you don’t know that the person who should be taking ALL precautions isn’t?