Monday, February 6, 2012

The Canadian Dream is dust: Pensions are a political footballs

[“... the ratio of taxpayers to pensioners is declining. Has the term ‘gray tsunami’ been taken? If not, I’m coining it here, and that’s what pension funds see over the horizon. G.Harrison, Fri., Feb. 3, The Canadian Dream is dust: Thots about my pension]

I have a pension. Many readers in all likelihood don’t. My monthly payment went up in January compared to 2011’s monthly payout. Many readers will shake their head and reach for the nearest projectile... to toss at my bean.

While I prepare to duck, it seems a good time to ask again, “what can be done to support Canadians in their post-working life, their golden years (the ‘days of denim and T-shirts’ as I like to say), so that all our dreams don’t turn to dust?” (GH, previous related post, Feb. 3)

And as I said then too, “let’s throw some ideas out, like wet spaghetti against a wall, and see what sticks...”

Ideas, in no particular order...

One. A good idea. Canadians in general, are quite wealthy by global standards, and though the gap between the rich and poor is growing, we have the means (a fairly reliable parliamentary system, various policies of taxation and income distribution) to collect and redistribute some of the combined wealth to people, in a relatively fair and judicious manner. So, when discussing the hot topic of pensions, let’s consider and use those means at our disposal as fully as possible, and get our money’s worth from organized levels of government and those taxation and funding systems already in place.


["Four sailors, 1944, on their way to Vancouver Island. No pensions were granted after their years of service. What do you expect in regards to a pension?": My dad is at far left - GH]

Two. That being said, our federal Conservative government is therefore jumping the gun - and this is a bad idea - by pushing onto Canadians a new privately administered pension system called Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPP), rather than trying to correct the course with the already established publicly administered plans, the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) systems. Not just jumping the gun. Prime Minister Harper is also promoting the private plan in a most sly, sneaky and disrespectful fashion - another bad idea - by announcing proposed changes to the OAS while brunching with some of the wealthiest of the wealthy in Davos, Switzerland, and not within the sturdy, democratic hall known to Canadians as the House of Commons.

Three. A bad idea. When trying to educate Canadians about pension plans, reforms, etc., our federal Conservative government should not just rely on reports handed to them on a silver platter by the C.D. Howe Institute, a right-wing think tank made up of, and sponsored by, more of the wealthiest of the wealthy, whose chief philosophies relate to lowering corporate taxes and reducing public social programs, like pensions. Read, more for the wealthy, less for the other 99 per cent of Canadians. (Good grief, Mr. Harper. We sure know we’re in trouble when you put the foxes in charge of the hen house).

You thought pensions were not tied to politics? Oh, but they are. Always will be.

More to follow.

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