The urban protest campout that has taken place in many North American cities has garnered a lot of media attention, but it seems a little light on participants in Canada. Perhaps the message is lost on rational Canadians because most of the message does not apply in this country.
One of the biggest concerns for the protestors is the Wall Street meltdown and subsequent bailout of several major US banks. The US housing bubble burst because it was a dog and pony show that allowed unqualified buyers to purchase houses that were well beyond their means.
The mortgages themselves became a commodity even though they were, in fact, toxic liabilities. The amount of the mortgages far exceeded the value of the properties and this information was not exactly forthcoming in the investment package.
Government intervention prevented a collapse of the banking system due to depositor panic similar to the frightened townspeople in It’s a Wonderful Life.
“Too big to fail” became a familiar buzzword as Uncle Sam and many other western countries threw a lifeline to major corporations and banks to prevent a collapse, but not a major recession.
Fast- forward to 2011 and a new era of protest in which successful overthrows of Middle East dictatorships fanned the fire of protests that produce successful results for the protestors. Suddenly a host of inter-generational leftists have found their mojo because of successful political protests in Africa and the Middle East.
But exactly what are they protesting in Canada, besides the same tired dogma about the “tar” sands, greenhouse gases and economic imbalances here in Canada because the “rich are getting richer,” apparently on the backs of the poor?
I am decidedly not rich, but I understand one basic truth about wealthy people: most of them had a great idea, ran with it, and worked very hard to get to a comfortable place in their lives.
They employ many other people and provide a means for them to purchase some of their own dreams along the way. It is called free enterprise.
So I am definitely not onside when I see a tent city full of young and old idealists who are willing to graft onto basic Marxism as a solution to the world’s political, economic and social ills in 2011.
Have they conveniently ignored the huge mess in Europe where insanely high government employee numbers and state-mandated employee perks have brought countries such as Greece to its knees?
Greece and other European countries’ economies are almost a Ponzi scheme because they rely heavily upon taxpayer investment and deficit financing to keep the doors open.
The protestors in Canada may want to have a long look at a failed system that promises to bring severe hardship to the entire European economic region if it implodes.
An argument could be put forth that the European system of entitlement is a better model of equality for all of its participant countries’ citizens. However that model takes on water and sinks very quickly when it is exposed as an incredibly flawed system doomed to harsh failure as an economic system.
The problem with the Canadian protestors is they have no real hill to die on, politically speaking. They simply appear to be a small collection of 60s-era protestors and their grandchildren finding a common bond in a stale-dated socialist manifesto, camping in city parks and possibly enjoying a few joints together.
This is not a protest movement, it’s bad nostalgia.
jim@mystarcollectorcar.com