Current economic model is broken

Re: “Be more modest in salary demands,” comment, July 14. A brilliant comment about the flipside of this issue was in the Times

Colonist a few years ago, from columnist Dr. Trevor Hancock. He said it’s not that public-sector wages and benefits are too high, rather that privatesector wages and benefits are too low.

He went on to say that corporations too often re-invest their profits into expansions, mergers and takeovers without re-investing in their own employees.

The B.C. public service has been recognized as an employer of choice because of its support for employees in training, leadership development, and competitive salaries and benefits.

Of course, provincial employees have also taken their share of salary freezes. The B.C. Public Service Pension Plan has been recognized as one of the healthiest plans in Canada; however, effective April 1 this year, there’s been a major reduction in plan benefits.

The current broken economic model leaves me with many questions. With enormous corporate profits and high-salaried executives, why are many businesses not able to afford to pay employees a living wage or provide a pension plan? Why do we still need food banks?

After more than 10 years of low to zero interest rates on bank accounts, are we ever going to see adequate investment rates again? Why are we allowing increasing concentration of ownership of large corporations, resulting in less competition and decreased quality of goods and services?

Is it time for the masses to rise and advocate for a new economic system?