Conservatives in Canada: Boiling Frog Warning

More stupid ideas from "Progressive" Thinkers.

Ok.

So.

Here we are in the midst of one of the most significant economic depressions in modern history.

Budgets are strained to provide the basic needs of our citizens, particularly health care and education.  The building blocks of a functioning social system.

Anyway.

Out in Vancouver (the place that brought us the constitutional right for crack and heroin addicts to camp in children's playgrounds and do heroin without legal repercussions) they are advocating another wonderful idea.

They call this "guaranteed income".

You see - as pointed out in the Straight, the problem is that there are too many children in poverty.

Which may be so.

And apparently, it is the responsibility of working Canadians to guarantee those children's families a certain level of income - which in an article in the Georgia Strait, isn't defined, but is implied to be about $35,000.00 per year.

In discussing the concept, the article references a paper by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (sort of the Liberal/NDP answer to the Fraser Institute), "Possibilities and Prospects: The Debate Over a Guaranteed Income."

As painful as it is, I would urge small "c" conservative Canadians to read this paper.  Read it and think about a few things.  Like many offers from academia, it has the patina of looking at the pros and cons of it's underlying premise.. but in reality, it's a slick piece of progressive propaganda, and given the effectiveness of selling bad ideas to a burdened electorate, one should read this paper with some serious degree of concern.

What is the suggestion?

That the government hands out money to every Canadian, without condition.  No need to look for work, no need to lift a finger.  You are a resident of Canada and as such, the government hands you money.

As described in the paper:

"..recipients of such an unconditional guaranteed income would have no requirements of labour force involvement or availability, labour skills training, or job seeking. Such a benefit could be seen as a right of citizenship, as important as (for example) the right to vote."

The discussion of who pays for it and how is, I suggest, intentionally underplayed and to a great extent ignored.  The article acknowledges that the cost would be significant for the effort to be anything more than a token gesture and that taxpayers would hardly stand still for a significant increase in their taxes to fund free-loaders.

The answer?

Deception.

Boldly described in the article is how you avoid a tax revolt.

You get your foot in the door and then, administratively, you just push it open, farther and farther over time.

"Many thoughtful proponents of a guaranteed income see a strategy of gradual implementation — an initially modest but universal guaranteed income whose benefit level grows as the public gets used to the idea — as answer to the tricky issue of cost."

Their idea is they are going to boil us like frogs.

They'll talk us into the pot, and then little, by little, they will raise the temperature by small increments, until we're soup.

Which is fine, because, really, child poverty is OUR fault don't you know?  Those of you going to work today - know that as you get your car started and find your way to the grocery store you're stocking shelves at, you police officers standing in the cold giving out a ticket, coal miners pulling on your blackened work-boots and cleaning snow off your truck, all of you are just being greedy by not giving more of your income to those in need.

People like Tracy Johnson.

Who is Tracy Johnson?  Well, she's one of the proponents of the guaranteed income plan referenced in the Straight.  To quote:

Tracy Johnson, a single parent, knows only too well the difficulty of getting by on limited means. Speaking during the presentation by First Call of its child-poverty report, Johnson explained that she is on welfare, and that she doesn’t have enough for her five children.

Read that again.

She is on welfare and doesn't get enough for her FIVE CHILDREN.

But it's OUR fault, right?

Tracy.

A little advice.

To quote Chris Rock, "Put down the dick!"

To the rest of us - don't be a frog in a pot, don't get in it, and if you feel like you're already there.. jump out.