To the Editor:
Re: That ‘70s political show (B.C. Views, April 30).
Tom Fletcher’s article covers quite a range of topics and makes some rather strange assertions. It seems that in his opinion if certain professionals and workers are asking for a pay increase, we are making arguments for a class war and our thinking is stuck in the ‘70s. Perhaps we can’t call it a class war but there sure is a different agenda for those who create their wealth with capital appropriated from the public versus those who work for an honest living.
There is a conspicuous lack of comment on Fletcher’s part about politicians voting for large pay raises for themselves, or for other arbitrary taxes raised and inflicted on the public at large. Also, there is no mention of the fact that all businesses set their own incomes to the highest levels possible as a matter of general practice (I guess we are to assume this is a good thing).
And yet, he does believe in miracles! After the market economy and its strongest adherents have proven themselves to be as the main sources of recent global financial disaster, he still want to argue for the market economy and the trickle-down effect, as the way for salvation.
If the market economy was going to deliver on its promise, it has had ample opportunity to do so. Governments should not be lamenting the cost of health care and education – are we supposed to accept the double standard that the economy is doing fine but we can’t afford anything that matters?
The fact that so much retirement funding has been manipulated into the hands of capital interests illustrates, rather than detracts from the fact that there are competing interests in society. For example, capital interests benefit from warfare, whereas it is hard to argue that the casualties of war have gained anything, except perhaps the peace of death and the exemption from paying taxes.
Why doesn’t Fletcher get radical and take up the cause of a sustainable economy based on improving our environment and making a more peaceful world for the generations that follow?
What is there to risk? I can assure him we are going to hell in a hand basket on our present course anyway.
Canada a military power in the Middle East! What will these lunatics think of next?
Keith Kleinsteuber, Maple Ridge
Dear Editor:
Tom Fletcher manages to throw mud on public schools, minimum wage earners, anti-poverty advocates, and anyone opposed to corporate tax cuts all in one column. Perhaps he should change his flagstaff from “BC Views” to “BC Right Wing Views” or simply spell out BC as Before Christ.
Fletcher is right, however, to suggest that some people on the left tilt toward windmills and imagine that money grows on trees. There is no answer to difficult issues like the minimum wage other than to consider the interests of both businesses and low income earners.
Jim McMurtry, Surrey