Government handouts come at a steep price

Finally, the price of our souls is calculated, and the outstanding invoice comes in at $43.1 billion.

That’s how much number crunchers in Ottawa reckon it will cost to initiate a national minimum income program across this vast and wondrous land. It sounds a lot, but honestly, who knew Canadians could be bought so cheaply.

This national income lark has been merrily bubbling away in various parts of the country for a few years now. Ontario tried a pilot scheme a while back, and the B.C. government (golly gee, who could ever have guessed) is now giddy at the prospect of investigating such regulated handouts in the province that reality forgot.

So, not to be outdone, the feds did a back-ofthe-envelope calculation to figure out what it would cost for an initial 7,500,000 Canucks to be first in line for such a glorious handout; hence, the aforementioned number.

Of course, at this stage, the minimum national income chatter is just theory, but rest assured it is coming, as surely as that Monday morning will arrive in all its blurred glory after that last night of Stampede partying.

And while it may not be with us tomorrow, please understand that once governments get their assorted meaty paws wrapped around a scheme making ever more people dependent upon them, it’s just a simple matter of time until we’re merrily munching at an even more fulsome, officially sanctioned, trough.

The economics of this really aren’t what’s important — blending payments of EI, Old Age Security, social assistance handouts, GST rebates, and blah, blah to eternity. Nor whether the initial cost will be $40 billion a year or $140

It is a matter of control and the erosion of personal responsibility.

billion (though a betting person would wager quite heavily on the latter).

Money they can print aplenty until, like today’s Venezuelans, you can take it home by the bucketful yet still not buy a single sausage.

Nope, this is more important than simple cash in the hand. This whole rely-on-government-to-solve-all-our-ills movement is approaching its zenith. We have willingly become bemused victims. And victimhood is good, as it frees us all from that nasty, oldfashioned condition once described as personal responsibility.

So come on, work with me here and have a think: there must have been someone, somewhere that somehow did you wrong ? OK, isn’t that better? Now, step right up: you need an apology, then suitable compensation, and maybe a GoFundMe page will be thrown into this Faustian bargain. A minimum national income will be the final cherry on top.

Build your house in the forest, on the banks of a fast-moving river, or on a flood plain, and if it burns, collapses or goes underwater, who’s to blame? Well, certainly not you for being daft. Nor the insurance company, because they saw you coming and wrote a policy in which such natural disasters weren’t included.

But of course, it’s the government who should pay. And, gladly, after a suitable interval, they will. After all, it isn’t some politician’s own money we’re talking about: just bits of flimsy paper borrowed from elsewhere.

But there is no free lunch, even when not presented directly with a bill.

These days in Calgary, you dare not throw the wrong thing in a garbage bin outside your door or the bylaw bullies will be on your case. Or if you don’t know what strange plant is growing in your yard, then better rip it out before you fall victim to the invasive species commissars.

Want to play street hockey, let your cat roam the neighbourhood, or put a roof on your patio? Line up and genuflect to be allowed such outrageous privilege.

That becomes the real price to be paid for the insidious creep of governmental largesse. It isn’t really a matter of poverty thresholds or simple fairness. It is a matter of control and the erosion of personal responsibility, which in turn steadily strips away individual liberty. We are so far down this path there’s no going back.