On Work

Here is a great video, now 3 years old, where Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame talks about work and the failure of western society to make work “attractive”, particularly those jobs that we really need:   Here also is a link to Rowe’s action after his revelation about the need for more people to be …

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Alberta electricity “market” is broken

Back in 2000, the PC government of Ralph Klein purported to “deregulate” the electricity industry, with the promise that more competition and the free market would provide more choice and better prices for Albertans.   But something went wrong. Today, although many power plants have been built and the total installed base of power generation …

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The Decline of America

In Mark Steyn’s recent treatise, After America, he makes the case that American society is doomed unless the people of the United States very rapidly repudiate the social welfare state and expansive federal government that they have voted for repeatedly over the last fifty years.   This data, which I found at Zero Hedge, shows …

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The City of Calgary shouldn’t waste time on “sustainable food”

The other day on my drive home, Angela Kokott (CHQR 770 drive home show host) interviewed Calgary alderman Giancarlo Carra (Ward 9) about the City of Calgary’s  efforts to consider the “Sustainability of the Food Supply”.  Carra droned on about the need for the City to have a food plan to make sure that all Calgarians …

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There will be no Deus Ex Machina

Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge has provided a link to a very good article at Gold Switzerland: With most of the world’s major economies as well as the financial system bankrupt, there is only one solution that can save the world economy. Like in the Greek tragedies, Deus ex Machina is now the only way that …

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On WorkAlberta electricity “market” is brokenThe Decline of AmericaThe City of Calgary shouldn’t waste time on “sustainable food”There will be no Deus Ex Machina

Jun
15

The failure to explain Capitalism

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I have noticed in recent years that some new graduates of university do not understand capitalism.  A recent posting by John Westover, entitled The Forgotten Member of the Triple Bottom Line, brought these thoughts forward in my mind.

John explains that our educational system has indoctrinated (my word, not his) our young people about the need to consider human and environmental drivers in everything society does, but has poisoned them against the idea of profit-making.   However, as John further explains, the students do understand, and when put to them in the correct way they come to understand why profit is necessary.

Some time ago, I referenced a similar story of educating young people about capitalism.  If one could get past the socialist bureaucracies of our educational system, I think that Atlas Shugged by Ayn Rand should be required reading for all high school seniors…

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Jun
07

On Computer Simulations and Reality

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Today, I was directed to a very good article, But It Worked in the Computer Model, on why complex computer models, of any subject, will usually contain errors and not provide a good analogue to reality without a lot of real world experimentation.

It also explains, tangentially, why many students coming out of universities with technical educations are woefully unprepared for the rigors and complexity of the real world.

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May
12

Rescind duties/taxes at the border

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Matt Gurney has a good column in the National Post.  But he fails to point out the most obvious reason to rescind these duties/and taxes.  It costs more to enforce and collect them than it is worth to the state.  CBSA collects a small sum, estimated by some to be less than $200 million dollars per year.  The government is hoping that by maintaining these, Canadians will shop at home and thus domestic businesses will be making more money and paying more taxes.

It’s foolish.  The correct answer is to get out of the economy where you don’t need to be.  Lowering taxes and duties would result in lower prices in Canada and thus consumers would have more money in their pockets to spend on more stuff.  Or on investing in or growing a business.  All that these duties and taxes do is protect Canadians from lower prices, and that is not what our government should be doing.

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Apr
30

The Risk of an NDP government

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The polls this week shifted dramatically this week, with the Liberals falling below 20% support and the NDP surging above 30% for the first time in history.  The trajectory of the polls was indicating a possibility that the NDP would pass the Conservatives by Monday’s vote, but that appears unlikely as the key base of the Conservative Party is pretty firm.  I would like to talk about why Conservatives must get out the vote on Monday, and why even some blue Liberals might want to consider voting Tory in key ridings where the NDP has a chance of winning a seat.  I’m not going to go through the NDP platform, or their constitution, as others have done.  Nor am I going to dwell on Mr. Layton’s musing about the Bank of Canada.

Instead, I am going to go through an article published this week on the CBC website by Michael Byers, a former NDP candidate and UBC political science professor. Read the rest of this entry »

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Apr
28

The problem with “Alternative Fuels”

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I will admit that I am employed in a field that is heavily tied to the energy sector, which may bias me towards it, although I hope not as much as some might think.

I am not against alternative energy sources.  However, I am against massive government subsidies to force convert us, because the track record of government trying to pick economic winners and prejudge the results of research have been significantly less than stellar.  Alternatives are good if they offer both an environmental and economic advantage to the current crop of energy options. Read the rest of this entry »

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Apr
24

Impressed by youth

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In the Saturday National Post, I was intrigued by a column that talked about young people blogging about personal finance and providing advice to their peers.

While I no longer qualify as a young person, I found these blogs (I actually checked them out) interesting and would point any young people to them.  They do provide some useful advice.  The biggest thing I found there was a focus on paying off debt and saving money, as opposed to the credit-card consumer culture many people find themselves drowning in.

So that you don’t have to go to the Post for the links, here they are:

Only one thing disappointed me about these blogs…  why are they all by women?  Are the young men all useless?

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Apr
23

On Corporate Taxes

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In the 2011 Election, the Liberals and NDP have tried to claim that the Tories drive to reduce corporate taxes is not necessary, and trot out socialist economists to claim that “lower corporate taxes do not create jobs”.

It is interesting to see then that in other countries, there is concern over high corporate tax rates: HIGH CORP. TAX RATES IMPEDE JOB CREATION

Moroccans are concerned that having the second highest corporate taxes  of 59 countries assessed by PwC, and the impact that is having on investment and job creation in that country.

It is good that Canada ranked 27th on that chart and that the Conservatives want to continue to push us down the rankings of countries that penalize investment.

 

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Apr
23

On Taxation and Affordability

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Two items in the news/blogosphere over the last week caught my attention and triggered a thought in my mind.

The first was the news that a survey by Environics for TD Canada Trust found that 30 per cent of respondents don’t have enough cash to pay for basic living expenses.  This was run as the headline in most papers, although interestingly 30% was inflated to “one-third” by most of them…

The second item was from the blogosphere, where Dan Tappin at MapleLeafParty.ca posted this interesting graph:

Percentage of Canadian Federal Income Tax by Income Percentile

Now, one might imagine that the 30% of Canadians who can’t afford basic living expenses would all be members of the bottom 50% of incomes.  But I don’t think that is true.  Why?  Partly because of material published in the first article I mentioned above:

12 per cent said they can’t afford to pay their bills every month, and the same proportion admitted they’re shopping beyond their means.

The same poll had 38 per cent of respondents saying they have no savings at all, and 54 per cent find it a struggle, if not impossible, to put money away.

Hmm.  I have trouble believing that 76% of the bottom 50% of incomes (<$35,000 per person)  in Canada don’t save anything.   Therefore, some of the people “struggling” to get by must be in the top half of incomes.

Another factor could be Canadians’ high personal debt levels, which average almost 150 per cent of annual disposable income.

Hmm.  So, if the average Canadian has that much personal debt, then a significant portion of income must be going to debt servicing.  So when the survey says people can’t afford basics, how much of that is because they spent too much on a car, or a big TV, or an iPhone, when they really shouldn’t have?
I mean, look at it this way – if you buy an iPad 2 with all the bells and whistles, that can be up over $800.  Which is 1% of your income if you make $80,000 per year.  But are only people making over that high income buying iPads?  No…
Part of the problem is that too many people can’t manage their money and don’t understand that they can’t have everything they want.  It is a social problem.  But the solution is not government intervention.  It’s parents teaching their children the value of money.  And people taking responsibility for themselves.

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Apr
20

On Ignatieff’s plan

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I was going to write on Ignatieff’s plan for taking power after defeating a Conservative budget following the election, should the Conservatives fail to gain a majority in the House of Commons.   But the Premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, has said it much more succinctly than I would have:

I am deeply troubled by Mr. Ignatieff’s assertion that he may choose to overturn the democratic result of the federal election.

While I understand that the scenario spelled out by Mr. Ignatieff is within the conventions of our Parliamentary tradition, the last thing our country and our still fragile economic recovery need right now is a period of instability caused by a constitutional dispute over who should be the government.

Morever, Canada is poised to solidify its position as an economic leader in a world that needs the food security and the energy security we can provide.  How can we take full advantage of this reality if we are distracted by interminable national political machinations and constitutional wrangling?

The party that wins the most seats on May 2 should be recognized as the government, period.  If that were to be the Liberals, I would join with other Canadians in accepting this result and recognizing Mr. Ignatieff as our next Prime Minister.  However, if the Conservatives win the most seats but come up short of a majority, I would expect Mr. Ignatieff and his party to accept that result.

The notion that Mr. Ignatieff may choose to not recognize the democratic result of the election and may try to seize power with the support of the other parties, including a party dedicated to the breakup of Canada, is offensive to me and I believe, to most fair-minded Canadians. Voters should choose the government, not separatist MPs.

Ironically, this election was caused by a confidence vote over “contempt for Parliament.”  I can think of no greater contempt for Parliament or for Canadian voters than the spectre of a party leader refusing to recognize the democratic outcome of the election.

h/t sda

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Apr
18

Health Care and Election 2011

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To my faithful readers – all four of you – I apologize for my lack of posting this election season.  Like many, I find this fourth election in 7 years a little uninspired.

Scratch that – I find it insipid and depressing.  From all sides.  The issues that concern me are those that concern most Canadians – but our political classes, and the media that cover it, aren’t discussing the real issues.  Or at the very least, discussing the issues on anything approaching an intelligent level.

Health Care consistently polls as the number one issue in Canada and yet all the major parties, including the Conservatives, refuse to have an adult conversation.  I hope SunNews will start a real conversation, but for this election it is already too late.  The Liberals and NDP are demonizing the Conservatives, even though the incumbents under Harper has pledged to continuing pouring good money after bad into the black hole that is Canadian Universal Heath Care.

Why is it none of the major parties will point out the following:

  • The waiting lists for most procedures, and emergency room visits, have lengthened considerably since 1993?  We spend a higher percentage of GDP than ever before on health care and the system keeps getting worse.   We can’t continue to spend 6% more per year on health care when the economy is only growing at 3%…  It already exceeds 50% of government in more than half of the provinces…
  • Waiting lists, or rationing of care, basically become the “death panels” that were raised and ridiculed in the US during the ObamaCare debate.  There are only three ways off of a waiting list in Canada:  you get to the front of the queue and get treatment, you seek treatment privately (outside Canada), or you die.  Since some people have to get off the list before treatment and we don’t see a mass exodus of people seeking treatment elsewhere, then some people MUST be dying on the waiting list.
  • Why will none of the political parties point out that countries like France and Sweden have no waiting lists, have mixed delivery systems and mixed insurance systems, and still spend LESS than per capita than we do?  Many European countries saw the light years ago, and moved to fix it.  They still have massive fiscal problems, but spirally health care costs are not as substantial a part as they are in this country.  But in Canada, even Stephen Harper has learned to ignore the problem, promise to fund it in perpetuity and hope it doesn’t implode on his watch.  But the implosion is coming…

And finally, when the going gets tough for the Liberals, they always use the “fear” card and try to scare the populace into running from the other party.  They are not treating Canadians like intelligent voters – they are treating us like children who are worried about the monster under the bed.    And Ignatieff has the gall to say that Harper has disdain for democracy…

Ask our politicians to treat us like adults, and not pander to the #votemob…

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