Bill #C-428 And Today's Canada

A good friend I hadn't heard from in two weeks sent me an email this morning that had to do with Bill #C-428 about Old Age pensions being awarded to refugees after only 3 years of their living in the country, when the current timespan is 10 years.

Now, I already knew about this, but in case you didn't, here's an edited version of his message that underlines the big points:

Bill C-428 will allow recent immigrants to apply for OAS in 3 years instead of the existing 10.

This bill had first reading in the house on June 18, 2009. It was seconded by Bob Rae! MP Ms Ruby Dhalla, who introduced the bill, represents the riding of Brampton - whose population is mainly East Indian. Not of East Indian descent, just East Indian.

Right now you have to have lived in Canada for 10 years in order to qualify for Old Age Security. She wants the time reduced to 3 years. Thousands could come to Canada when they are 62 years old, never having worked or contributed to this country's tax system, etc. - and qualify for full Old Age Security benefits. 10 years minimum is reasonable - 3 is not!

Look this up, Google C-428 and you will see this bill has only one purpose, and that is to 'featherbed' a select group of people for votes. 

Now, if this seems unreasonable to you in any way, check the math out:

It is interesting to know that the federal Government of Canada allows :A monthly pension of: $1,890.00 to a  simple refugee  plus :                                580.00   in  social aid

•   A grand total of :        $2,470.00    monthly

                                                 X  12       months
                                            ==========                                             $28,920.00  annual income 
         By comparison, the Old Age Pension of a senior citizen who has contributed to the development of Our Beautiful Big Country during 40 or 50 years, CANNOT receive more than :

•      Amount/month          $1,012.00    in Old Age Pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement

                                              X  12 months
                                          ============                                                                          $12,144.00          annual income
    A difference of :        $16,776.00          per year

And that's where it starts being unfair.

The ''ideal, humane, social'' solution is simple: start by giving more to our own senior citizens, veterans and wives of veterans, and keep everybody happy and living under normal humane conditions.

Unfortunately, we- I - live in a country that was great from 1966 to 1976, when baby boomers came in with their great, big ideas and ideals and made this the ''plus bestest country on earth'', with free health care for all, free education, amazing infrastructures, pensions for old people, decent welfare, a steady flow of immigration both for the workforce and refugees to help out the rest of the planet 'cause if you can afford to help out you should - all paid for by peoples' taxes. There were so many boomers and the economy was booming as well; it was all about expanding, growth - there was no limit to where it could all lead.

And then the boomers stopped fucking. The babies stopped coming. But the boomers kept feeding the system, so it seemed sustainable. And if immigration would have been done right, the workforce that was no longer supplied by breeding would have been compensated by outside help. Except the boomers made laws that our schools were better than everyone else's and doctors from Haiti had to resort to become cab drivers and lawyers from Pakistan had to start out as janitors in decrepit buildings - and the workforce was never replaced.

30 years down the line to come up with solutions, but now they say Social Security in North America will be gone by 2040 - maybe even 2025 in Canada. But the boomers are 50-65 right now, and they have no fucking desire to retire any time soon. And when they do, heck, they can just get into politics: it seems you have to be 80 to enter that fucking field anyway.

But that's the thing: they retire in 10 years, soak up the rest of Social Security for themselves, and leave the rest of us to deal with the deficit - already at 500 billion in Canada, which you probably didn't know, because They hide it from you.

The noble thing would be to stop it right now and just grandfather in those who have had it for over 5 years, i.e. those who retired 5 years ago or more. You gave them these rights, pay for them - these were your ideals. They're mine too, but realistically, we can't afford them, so they kind of have to be on the backburner for now. But boomers - most of whom have divorced and re-married, making 4 parents for 1 or 2 kids - should not - cannot - expect the math to work out for them in this scenario.

Maybe when they die - the sheer number of them no longer a problem to the rest of us - we can afford to realistically re-instate their dreams in the system. When you can support it well enough, it truly is a wonderful system: education should be available to everyone from every walk of life in every field; health care is as basic a need as food and lodging; the poor must be provided the means to survive humanely; the elderly have to be taken care of for all the hard work they've put in to make this country work; public transit can be an efficient way to get around in crowded cities that would reduce pollution and help people get along.

But where some had dreams, they lacked the vision to make them sustainable, and instead of looking for solutions to make it work, they're just trying to milk it for all its worth in the meantime.

And on the side of that, you ahve what we have right now: a minority government full of individualistic thieves looking out only for their best immediate interest, not just at the expense of everyone else, but also of their own future.

Minority governments; while - in theory - they should lead to greater compromise and common sense prevailing, in fact it's usually the opposite that happens: common-sense laws are put in the backburner and repealed so as to not ''scare voters away'' and the dumbest shit goes in unopposed, because if the population isn't stirred up against something, no need to get their attention, 'cause they might find something else they don't like that your side is promoting. Better just do everything in the dark.

In that respect, mostly because of greed, humans are quite possibly the lowest form of life on the planet. Take greed away and we might be incredible creatures. Might.

The problem with the way Canada works these days is exactly this: 3 of the 4 parties that are part of this minority government claim to act for the good of the people, but instead they let the ''party in power'', which 3/4 of the country didn't vote for, govern as if they were Kings - unopposed. And they have backroom deals where they agree to let one Law pass in exchange for another, but when it's time to pass something that makes sense - say extending Employment Insurance to those in need who don't qualify for welfare - that gets shot down because the minority parties are afraid that if stand up for their beliefs, they might scare Conservative voters away. The same Conservative voters that wouldn't vote for them, that make up 10% of the country - and is currently running it.

That's why bills like #C-428 pass: so an MP can get re-elected and stay with her tax-free $125K for 4 more years desecrating the hard work she, herself, and her parents have made and let our own elderly people live below the poverty line (officially at $15,00 a year, but it's almost impossible to make ends meet nowadays under $20K unless you're in a fixed-revenue housing community).

I have nothing against providing other people with the benefits we have invented for ourselves, everyone on the planet should have the right to Human Decency. The problem lies with the fact that we don't even give our own citizens half of what we give others. And we can afford neither. And not only that, once the boomers are done, we'll even stop giving it to our own.

They should invent wars that only people aged 48-60 are allowed to partake in, and we should volunteer the biggest fucking army. And we should institute a draft for males in that age range who have made more than $200K a year for more than 3 years in their lives, and give someone else a shot at their job while they're gone.

And we should institute a law in parliament: revert all laws back to 0, and have mandatory retirement from politics for every politician who comes up with 5 laws. Then, only the really important shit would get done. Women's and Gay and racial rights would be a given - same laws and rules for everyone, we're all equal from the get-go. And if we must, give a free pass to the 2 obvious ones: 1. don't kill; 2. don't steal. Anything else - start counting, fuckers.