Time for fairness

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies is complaining about government short sightedness in raising the minimum wage. Agriculture and the service sector will be noncompetitive and consequently jobs will be lost. In the long term there is no evidence that the raising of the minimum wage leads to a loss of jobs. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

The fact is, although I am a free enterprise guy, it’s time for the free market to introduce some values. A living wage. There are lots of economic models out there that achieve this.

The Americans subsidize many sectors of their economy. They tax bank profits, the oil sector, the defense industry, big pharma and other very profitable multi nationals at 35 per cent (Canada`s rate is 17 per cent), and subsidize agriculture or whoever needs help to create a balance across all sectors of the economy and society.

Norway, which has 1/6 of the oil resources we have, kept control of their oil for the people’s purse, hired their own experts from the petroleum sector and now have a fund with $1.3 trillion in it. Alberta is in deficit after only a couple of years of low oil prices. The myth that low wages and low corporate taxes will help more money trickle down are over.

We now live in a world where information is at our fingertips. We know the game. We just need a fair slice of those billions of dollars that just seem to disappear.

Roger Greaves, Stratford