Columnists
Sticks and stones
So, did you sit through the Inauguration? It’s Sunday morning, as I write this and I doubt I’ll tune into the event on Monday. I feel as if I might have far better things to do. I might tidy my sock drawer. I might go for a long walk and think about carbon taxes. I could shoot the breeze with LOML. I may make a dental appointment. Don’t get me wrong, I understand just how important this newest era of Republicans in the White House will be to the whole world. The thing I’m not interested in is hearing the President- elect talk about all of the things that are wrong with the good ole U.S. of A. Clearly it is a great country without having to be made “great again”. I feel as if (and remember this is Sunday) the Presidentelect is trying to appeal to people who already believe he’s going to “Make America Great Again”. He’s preaching to the converted. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I think his mission should be to preach to the folks who don’t believe “America” needs to harken back to the good old days of coal, no healthcare safety nets, demolition of unions, the “right to work” and survival of the fittest. It sounds like that’s the direction he wants the USA to head in.
When we take that stance of wanting to harken back to the “good old days” we essentially tell ourselves it’s okay to be underpaid, underfed, under-housed, under-employed, undereducated, unacknowledged, under-represented and under the thumb of the wealthy one per cent. In the USA, close to fifty million people live in poverty. That’s about 15 per cent of the population. Of that fifty million people, 43 per cent of them live in what is referred to as “deep poverty”. The poverty threshold in the USA is just over $12,000 per year. Persons living in “deep poverty” have an annual income of about $6,000. That’s about $17 per day for food, accommodation, medical needs, clothing, etc. Most people struggle in “this economy” to make ends meet. But if you live below the poverty threshold it isn’t even a matter of ends meeting. There isn’t any meeting. The ends are never in sight.
The Republicans are building a platform to “Reduce Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility”. This “executive order” will demand that all federal welfare agencies give power to individual states to determine “work requirements” for those receiving social assistance and are heavily in favour of mandatory work for those benefiting from social assistance nets. It is incredibly easy, when you have a decent income, to sit back and pass judgement on people who are struggling with low income, perhaps mental health or physical health issues or lack of education and skill as it relates to undertaking a job. On top of the obvious problems, with the mandate to reduce social spending, Trump will be calling for a nearly nine billion dollar reduction in affordable housing. And, while it makes sense to raise the minimum wage, the Republicans are poised to remove their minimum wage legislation altogether.
No, I’m not interested in watching the Trump Inauguration. We have our own special set of concerns, right here in Canada. The thing is, while Canada has a much lower percentage of people living in poverty, we still have huge gaps in our social assistance programmes. There are huge waiting lists for affordable housing here. If we take a page from the Republican playbook (and sometimes it seems as if we do) we will continue to have social welfare problems, mental health ignorance, an abundance of unskilled workers, reliance upon fossil fuels and system of income taxation that favours the very rich and targets the working class and the working poor.
Nope, I won’t be watching as the USA throws the match into the dumpster and collectively points their fingers at the people who made the matches for minimum wage. I’m going to put on my fire-proof underwear and prepare for the H E double hockey sticks we have been brewing right here.
Comments (0)