CERB recipients not deadbeats
Re: Stimulus or just money for nothing? John Ivison, April 28 Both Mr. Ivison and the C. D. Howe report he relies upon show a remarkably tone- deaf understanding of what life is like for the recipients of the CERB program. To suggest that they will become dependent upon the meagre payment and avoid work is part of the classic austerity agenda where people needing government support are seen as deadbeats.
As the austerity programs in England show, it is the destruction of public support programs that increase social alienation and ramp down job opportunities as local economies fracture.
The real people Mr. Ivison and the C. D. Howe speak of, are people I know. The mother in one of my classes working three jobs while also trying to get child care. The lady who works two jobs as a cleaner but who is presently laid off from both — as is her husband. The immigrant family who has three generations living in the same home — with all but one person in the household still working.
Yes, there are people who are dependent on the public purse like the fellow I see walking Calgary streets with crutches having been severely injured in a work accident years ago. Or the veteran in a wheelchair who lives down the street. But the most egregious elements are that the people being maligned are those who society has failed to support for years — traumatized people with mental and physical disabilities for one. Immigrant and refugee families. Those for whom opportunity had long been denied — the racially and economically marginalized. Ivison and the C.D. Howe economists would do well to meet these people who are not economic numbering models but real people.