A Frank Assessment

Pollster Frank Graves offers this assessment of the state of the public's attitudes to their economic prospects.  Increasing pessimism begs many questions.  One that comes to my mind is how Canadians are going to react if the Liberal government's happy talk and moneybags financing fails to produce results.  But this is the risk we decided to take to rid ourselves of the  Harper gang's distorted interpretation of Canadian values.

Make no mistake:  we are on a course that we freely chose.  We will have to see it to its logical conclusion.  The odds seem to have changed since election day October 19, with the collapse of energy prices and the relative value of the dollar.  But the world has a way of offering unexpected new opportunities.  So hang on and enjoy the ride.

Meanwhile, we need to ask how we can insulate ourselves if global market forces turn out to be too resistant to the  Keynsian bargain.  The question for individuals is this:  does it make sense to abandon ourselves to deficit financing just because we've chosen that option collectively?

This University of Calgary analysis of public attitudes seems to line up with the facts.  Consumer-driven economic theory is creating fortunes at the top of an increasingly hierarchical heap, while the rest make do with the small money.  If Canadians are already pessimistic, will we continue to mortgage ourselves to the future, especially if  Justin's "beau risque" turns sour?

The message of this study seems to be that Canadians no longer buy into  right-wing economics any more than they did the expediency and ethical lapses of Harper's approach to governance.  Right-wing economics plays itself out most vividly in America.  The broken promise of "trickle-down" prosperity seems to be driving the campaigns of the most ardent iconoclasts.  You  have to wonder what  lesson Canadians are taking from that circus spectacle.  

          

The Universal Basic Income Sham

The notion that a universal basic income can plug the gaps in an economy built on myths and techno-hype are a cover for the  guilty minds who  have put America in this  position.  For every new digital innovation that creates fortunes for a few, jobs are disappearing by the thousands.  This discussion between two knowledgeable columnists makes me think all the more that a UBI is simply an escape hatch for dream-weavers from the inevitability of a jobless future.  

Meanwhile, the world's most robust engine of innovation is toying with leadership choices who would prolong the dream-induced fantasy that America can be "made strong again" by  the  same old lies.  Wealth doesn't trickle down.  Mostly it sticks to the innovators as real estate, luxury goods and investment portfolios.  

Nobody  seems to be  able  to answer the obvious question:  where is the  wealth going  to come from  to pay everybody  a basic income to be unemployed and like it well enough not to  revolt?  Surely nobody  thinks that the same folks who hoarded their wealth while the public bailed out  the economy in 2008-9 are going  to  underwrite  a new economic reality.