Monday, November 28, 2016

(Bitter) Fruits Of Our Neoliberal Governments



It would seem that Star reader Douglas Porter of Peterborough sees with unusual clarity what so many prefer to ignore:
It seems that many things in history do a repeat cycle about every 80 years. I hate to think that we are on target for another societal unravelling evidenced by what we are seeing in the EU, U.K. and the U.S. that’s similar to what happened in the mid 1930s Europe prior to World War II.

But when 40 to 50 per cent of everyday working people are experiencing a steady 30-year decline in living standards and feel nothing but despair for the future, they often fall for the appeal of a charismatic strongman (or woman) who promises prosperity and better times ahead.

We are seeing a polarization of people that is worsening with more and more of us living in our silos and social media and sneering elites fanning the flames. It’s pretty clear the major cause is increasing income inequality and poverty.

Here in Ontario we are seeing hundreds of thousands of people driven into financial distress, low income status or poverty by an essential public service called electricity. Our government can’t even provide the basics of life any more in an affordable manner. Not housing, energy, child care, pharmacare or basic dental care.

Canada is the only Western democracy without a food security program, if you can believe it. What the hell kind of society are we creating? Water, electricity, food, affordable housing and even Internet in today’s world should be considered human rights, not luxuries. And remember that people outside of the bigger cities pay several times more for hydro, and those with electric heat and hot water pay about three times more again. Some 60,000 people had their hydro cut off last year and 600,000 were behind on their bills.

The Ontario government’s answer to everything is more booze — to kill the pain I suppose. Their electricity pricing is economic insanity and cruel social policy like nothing I’ve seen in 50 years. A vicious attack on the poor and utterly immoral. As if booze, drugs and gambling weren’t enough.

8 comments:

  1. Did anyone really expect that privatizing a government monopoly would result in cheaper rates?

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    1. Actually, these unmanageable rates have grown while Hydro was still a public utility, thanks to the craven polices of Wynne who, hewing to neoliberal orthodoxy, refuses to raise taxes to fund infrastructure. She is therefore selling 60% of one of Ontario's crown jewels, consistent with neoliberalism, so the private sector can benefit from the inevitable further outrageous rate-gouging of the consumer that will ensure handsome returns to the investors.

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  2. I'm convinced, Lorne, that our political caste simply cannot envision how to get out from under neoliberalism. We know that neoliberal globalism doesn't work save for a narrow elite. We know that it impoverishes societies and fuels extreme inequality. We know that it undermines local economies. Yet we've embraced it for so long, without real question, that it has become our orthodoxy. It will collapse under its own weight, presumably when one or more seismic stressors hits such as climate change impacts or another global meltdown (there'll be no bailouts next time because almost every government is now effectively broke). We may even see a return to the old Westphalian order, every nation for itself. It'll be a messy, chaotic, even dislocative affair to be sure.

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    1. Even though our political 'leaders' seem to be wearing ideological blinders, more and more of the ordinary people are not, Mound. The political class can expect more results such as what happened in the U.S., and they will have no one but themselves to blame for their willful adherence to a failed orthodoxy.

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  3. Ontario Hydro hasn't been a public utility since 1999. It was then that Mike Harris decided that California's experience with Enron was just dandy, and what Ontario really needed was to deregulate and privatize. So he split the public utility up into Crown corporations so they could be sold off piecemeal.

    Naturally, each of these corporations had to hire super-expensive executives to run them instead of the more modestly paid bureaucrats that ran Ontario Hydro. Each corporation was under pressure to be profitable (how else would they be sold off?), which they did by hiking rates. Finally, the populace is conditioned to accept privatization, since Wynne obviously can't keep a lid on rates. And, we all know that the private sector is much better at running utility monopolies **cough** Enron **cough**.

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    1. Thanks for your correction, Anon, and I completely concur with your analysis.

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  4. Our governments are selling the family jewels, Lorne -- things they inherited but didn't earn.

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    1. While there has been some publicly-expressed outrage over this, Owen, I am surprised it is not right up there with the many complaints about hydro rates.

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