(Photo via MailOnline)
Simon Enoch talks about how economic crises (caused by our really messed up banking system this time) are often used as an excuse to cut important public social services. These cuts were totally un-necessary and were used to make people even more vulnerable to mean business practices in the market and work place.
Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives – Parting Shots: The Coming Austerity: “Canadians have seen this before. During the supposed ‘debt crisis’ of the 1990s, the common refrain was that Canada would face outright bankruptcy and International-Monetary-Fund-imposed austerity unless it pursued a vigorous gutting of all things public. Paul Martin’s infamous 1995 budget did just that, sacrificing 45,000 civil service jobs, privatizing CN Rail and Petro-Canada, slashing federal transfers to the provinces and transforming unemployment insurance into the woefully inadequate program it is today.
Progressive economist Jim Stanford argues that much of this belt-tightening was not only unneces sary, but ultimately damaging to the Canadian economy. As Stanford documents, Canada could have reached its deficit reduction targets through economic growth alone, without having to endure the draconian cuts to our social programs. Stanford concludes that the $50 billion in public programs and assets that were sacrificed to the deficit gods would have ‘made an incredible difference to the concrete quality of Canadians’ lives’ had they remained invested in public services and assets.”
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