Government recycling - same old ideas and tired cliches re-used again

by ScottK
(Merrickville)

At the Canada 150 conference being hosted by the Liberal Party of Canada in Montreal, former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge says that the most pressing problems facing governments at all levels is "improving productivity."

Now, aside from the fact that this line has been tossed around for decades, I have a couple problems with the idea that governments can improve the productivity of a country.

First, how does 'productivity improvement' help Canadians? Corporations generally improve productivity by reducing staff and/or cutting wages. Fewer people doing more work may be good for shareholders and tax collectors, but does nothing for citizens.

Governments are completely clueless that their priority should be meaningful work for everyone, not some illusory level of productivity.

Second, when the bureaucrats spout the same tired nonsense about the governments 'creating jobs' or 'improving productivity', they completely ignore the reality that governments do not create wealth, they consume it. At best a little of it trickles back in some expensive boondoggle job creation plan or corporate welfare handout, so that executives won't miss their million-dollar bonuses.

Dodge goes on to say that our 'standard of living' will decline if we don't shape up. I think he actually means the 'standard of taxation'. My standard of living' has nothing to do with my ability to buy the latest shiny piece of crap pushed on me by a rapacious advertising industry.

Get it through those adamantine skulls bureau-poops; citizens do not exist to be cash cows for the relentlessly bloating bureaucracy, or cannon fodder for shareholders. We don't give a rat's ass about 'productivity'; we are much more interested in having a life with some meaning.

And you can't buy that from Samsung.