Institute’s goals are anti-democratic

Re: “B.C. must rein in public-sector wages, benefits,” comment, July 10. Readers don’t have to know that the authors represent wealth and privilege at the Fraser Institute in order to use the article’s own figures to prove how important public-sector work is.

For example, it’s fascinating to note that monied interests have eroded workers’ rights and compensation to the degree that: “In 2015, 87.9 per cent of government workers in B.C. were covered by a definedbenefit pension plan (which guarantees a level of benefits in retirement), compared with just 8.7 per cent of workers in the private sector.”

Furthermore, in complaining that “wages and benefits in the government sector are out of step with the private sector,” the authors say: “In the government sector, political factors largely determine the wagesetting process. …. Economic realities — such as productivity concerns, profitability and resource constraints — guide the process in the private sector.”

Indeed, political factors such as equitable treatment of employees, building the middle class and fair taxation are critical aspects of a healthy economy. In contrast, private-sector economic decisions that increasingly benefit the rich and widen our country’s gap between rich and poor are unsustainable for most of us.

Wealth and privilege likewise cause an almost desperate push to deny voters their right to update our electoral system this fall. A truly democratic proportional-representation system must terrify those who are accustomed to their own profitmaking as the most important issue.

Thanks, Fraser Institute, for clarifying your true anti-democratic goals. Connie More Victoria