Carrots and Sticks

Bloodshed, revolts, anarchy and chaos has erupted around the world, the peasants, the indigenous and plain old average folks are standing up and shouting We have had enough and we won`t take it anymore......

Flash points simultaneously around the world seemed to just erupt, this day in history has been brewing for decades and it`s my opinion that we are on the verge of world anger and conflict the likes that haven`t been seen since the mid 40s but these conflicts won`t be Nation state against Nation but Governments against their own peoples.....

Bear with me folks, this post, this story starts with Ronald Reagan and ends with ....Actually there is no ending yet...The Republican neo-con assault upon socialism and workers starts with Reagen, the trickle down affect, deregulate, look the other way, strip workers of rights and destroy unions all in the name of the corporation, at that time in history the standard of living was at it`s apex, I`m not talking about gadgets and fancy toys, back then a working man had a wife who stayed home and fed a basket full of kids, they had a car, a home, TV, radio, they take a holiday every year or two, one income, almost any job in North America at that time could deliver you that dream, home ownership and a decent life......CEO wages were about a ratio of 10 to 1 back then, now the wage difference is closer to a 100 to 1....Now in North America, in Canada regular folks need 2 incomes and no kids and a 30 year mortgage(or 40).

In Libya, in Egypt, in countries around the world Leaders, Rulers and Dictators have prospered for decades, extraordinary boom times have occurred, in the middle East prices have gone from a few dollars a barrel to over $150 a barrel a few years ago to roughly $80 dollars, now nearing the $100 dollar a barrel mark, for decades these leaders have promised jobs, security and wealth sharing and like everywhere in the world the wealth got concentrated in but a few pockets while the poor and impoverished population grew in numbers and percentage...The old trickle down affect, give large to the top of the food chain and eventually it will trickle down to the masses has not materialized anywhere...Even all the noise about China coming of age, hogwash, hundreds and hundreds of millions who live in poverty, but like everywhere the wealth gets concentrated into very few and mostly corporate hands..

In Mexico and all through Latin America stretching all the way down into South America, in Northern Mexico there are more than 10 murders per day, everyday, 365 days a year, 50,000 murders over the last three years, two days ago a bunch of people were slaughtered in Acapulco..What does drug killing and violence have to do with this story, simple answer, NAFTA...NAFTA promised Mexico and Latin America prosperity, jobs and a rising standard of living, what was promised and what was delivered are two different things, NAFTA created a disaster in Mexico, it drove down wages, protections and promises were broken,Corporate America took advantage of the situation, they used Mexican workers as slaves without benefits, corporate America used NAFTA and threats of leaving America to drive down benefits and wages in the homeland, Ronald Reagan, then Nafta...The assault on the workers and middle class has never stopped, meanwhile Government corruption swept Mexico and only bribes and corporate influence has sway with the Mexican rulers and since the people have no money the bribes and influence came from the corporation, thus the status quo betrayal of the masses continued, what hope do these Latin American young people have, a life of a peasant or the lure of easy money through gangs and drugs, Mexico is one of the wealthiest countries in the world with gold mines and petroleum and for decades the promises to the people every election, the new prosperity, the new hope are but empty words devoid of meaning, I don`t blame the young people for joining cartels and gangs in Latin America, after all , perhaps we all too will be in gangs fighting, fighting our Government for freedom and a future.

Just before the great recession of 2007...The markets around the world(except Japan) reach record highs, the Dow, TSX, China, markets are flush with cash, housing boom in the USA and Canada, easy credit, ...Oil jumps to $150 a barrel, the Arabs are rolling in money, Exxon Mobile is making $40 billion per quarter, the forecasters, the rating agencies, the over-see,ers , the watchdog and protection groups and Government itself, they all failed on their predictions......The markets crash, Wall Street guzzled the world, everybody but the few got ripped off, Governments around the world are told to pony up $trillions in cash or everything will fall apart at the seams and become even worse...

Meanwhile Americans who bought the phony dream, the promises of a service based economy while  the corporate world pulled up stakes, laid off workers who were making half decent wages and fled to the cheapest labour whore country they could find, year after year the outsourcing continued and Neocons and Fraser institutes, BC Liberals, Governments around the world for decades played the trickle down game on the people...However, the massive amounts of wealth accumulated in very few pockets and then.......

And then the markets crashed, $trillions of dollars to bail out the criminals, the whole world under threat if we didn`t pay the blackmail, the earth would open up and swallow us whole, Governments caved in to the threats from the best and the brightest criminals....In every corner of the world Governments gave the Players who screwed everyone a blank cheque....And now markets have recovered, record gold prices, oil prices spiking, S&P companies sitting on $trillions of cash and.....

And the recovery is a jobless recovery, no such animal in history has ever existed, it has been said over and over again since the end of the Great Depression in the 30s...There is no such thing as a jobless recovery, it can`t happen, the two go hand in hand, recovery and jobs, the corporate world can`t survive with a jobless recovery

That was true at one time, for now the money is so concentrated, in so few hands, with robot factories, slave labour countries, miniscule tax rates with the ability to rip-up pensions, renege on commitments to  retired workers, for now the corporate world can make a fortune with North America in the dumper.....

The Wall Street Corporate criminals get bailed out for $trillions of dollars and Governments everywhere tell their people that the benefits are gone, wages are going down, work longer, pay more, user fees, taxes, promises made  around the globe are broken, the public was betrayed and again, after this so-called last economic boom there are more people living in dank, dark poverty then ever before and if these leaders, Dictators, Czars, Prime Ministers and Premiers, even Corporate bosses think they can take take take more more more from Joe average who is drowning in debt while sitting in their ivory towers drinking Saki and counting their ill-gotten gains...Well..

No one is safe anymore, teachers in Wisconsin, teachers who make $32k per year are getting their benefits and bargaining power stripped away from them, 25 other states are proposing the same thing, take from average joe his pension, his benefits, his buying power, the people got screwed by Wall Street and world finance scams, the people bailed out the crooks, "no good dead goes unpunished" now it`s the people paying the price again!

Here in BC we have the highest child poverty, the largest personal debt loads in North America, the highest gas prices, the HST, hydro asking to raise prices by 60% over 3 years, MSP premiums up, user fees, property taxes, road tolls and the BC Liberals beat the drum about health care being unsustainable, education is woefully under funded, something has to give, wages have been flat ever since Ronald Reagan, buying power has never been lower, a frozen minimum wage, frozen middle class wages or cuts, no more company pensions, the game is..

The game is almost over, like monopoly, once one player has all the money and owns everything it`s time to pack it in, that`s capitalism....

Corporate greed has taken over Governments.....Let me finish with this...Two small business owners start out...One business owner works very hard and because of location and customer flow barely makes a living, he pays his employees and makes a modest living, the other business owner strikes it big, a a giant casino and transportation hub open up across the street from him and he has tremendous customer traffic...He/She makes a fortune....

Are either businesses a failure?....Absolutely not, the Corporate world doesn`t understand that sometimes it`s okay to run a business, pay your expenses, your employees and make a decent living, you don`t always have to make a killing, but Governments through threats and bribes have caved to the corporate world, you know what friends, I know we are right on this one, unless as a people we unite, in every corner of earth, the internet, citizen media, twitter, tweets, Iphones, cameras, Facebook and so much more, the peasants can`t be silenced anymore, students, terrorists, fathers and mothers, in the country, the mountains, on islands, in the damn desert, there is an encyclopedia, computer, social media,CNN, Google, there is access to every study, every voice, every dissenting point of view is at one`s fingertips and never again in history will the people of earth be left in the dark and starved of information while being force fed propaganda, the age of awakening is here....

Lastly, you remember our big fight with Tesako`s prosperity mine, imagine this, back when that area originally was accessed for ore, the price of gold was but a few dollars per ounce, the most profitable way to extract that ore (at that low price) and make any money was to avail themselves of Fish lake, a man made freebie tailings pond...Right where they need it, how convenient, environmental assessment after environmental assessment rejected the project over the proposed watershed destruction...continued past the next image...
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OK Kootcoot, Gold wasn`t a few dollars but a few hundred dollars, never-the-less...Gold was but a couple of $hundred dollars.
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And along came Gordon Campbell and his look the other way policies, Tesako mines gave Campbell some cash to push the project through, thank goodness the Federal environmental branch hasn`t been corrupted like Campbell`s gang in BC....

Never the less, I wrote in one of my Fish lake posts that Gold was cheap when Prosperity mine was first proposed, but at $1200 to $1400 per ounce Tesako mine can make money at the Fish Lake site without destroying the watershed, isn`t that interesting, Tesako mine terrorized first nations people, they attacked environmentalists, they spent a fortune advertising and spinning, they brought people to tears and heartache, literally $millions have been spent fighting this project but Corporate greed.....

Remember the small business story I started with, the one business who pays his employees, expenses but only makes a modest living, the other business owner who had some luck makes a fortune, both enterprises are winners.

So let`s take two mines, company X makes $100 on every tonne of ore extracted....Company Y makes $30 dollars on every tonne of ore extracted, they are both winners and......

corporations need to be treated like teenagers, sometimes you must say no, I know every teenager thinks their right, so does every Corporation, like the teenager bitching for $20 dollars on a Friday night, if the teenager can`t get the $20 because you have only offered $10 dollars, trust me, the teenager will take the $10 dollars...

It has come to my attention that miraculously Tesako mine has figured out a way to extract the ore at the Fish Lake site without using Fish Lake and without harming the surrounding watershed, the story Tesako mine is saying that commodity prices are high enough to make money without all the destruction, Tesako mine has resubmitted the plan with the changes to The Federal and EA agencies....I can`t comment on the plan itself but what I can comment on is corporate greed....

If governments play hard ball, if corporations have to make a choice of making some money or none, they will choose the SOME MONEY option, Tesako mine is a perfect example, Tesako terrorized a people for years and caused all this strife because of what Gordon Campbell promised Tesako when the whole time the company had the ability to make money without the harm, and only until backed into a corner did the corporation concede and now will do it differently, perhaps we can get jobs without killing the environment, we, BCers, our new Government must play hard ball, the same goes with the salmon farmers, if their told to become self contained and land based or go away, the same thing will happen, some money is better than none.

I hope every Government pays attention to this reversal by Tesako, Corporations for too long have been giving us the stick while eating all the carrots.

Time for Change, Time for Corporate reform, both of environment and taxation, time to stop getting trickled on!


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open