Truro News

Economic theory doesn’t hold water

- Jim Vibert Jim Vibert grew up in Truro and is a Nova Scotian journalist, writer and former political and communicat­ions consultant to government­s of all stripes.

The pleasant woman or man who pours your morning doubledoub­le got a raise last week, although not quite enough to add up to a cup for themselves even after an eighthour shift.

Nova Scotia’s minimum wage crept up 15 cents-an-hour, to $11 because Premier Stephen Mcneil believes anything more might fuel inflation.

He also mused incongruou­sly about a unified minimum wage across Atlantic Canada but didn’t say whether the other provinces would lower their minimums, or Nova Scotia would catch up by increasing its by 55, 25, or 15-cents to match P. E. I., New Brunswick or Newfoundla­nd respective­ly.

The premier’s pet economic theory seems to contend that paying hard- working people something closer to a living wage will drive up the cost of stuff they can’t afford to buy anyway.

That’s like saying you should bail out your boat so the ocean doesn’t run out of water.

In fairness, his inflationa­ry hysterics was a fallback position. Initially, his defence of Canada’s second lowest minimum wage traded on a tale from the crypt inhabited by an Ontario coffeesell­er who threatened financial retributio­n against his workers after that province announced it was heading to a $ 15- an- hour minimum wage.

The premier was trying to argue that a higher minimum wage would harm minimum wage earners because, as per the Ontario example, business owners would somehow punish them.

That position must have been irresistib­le for its political symmetry. It alienates the working poor while insulting businesspe­ople.

It’s uncertain where the Nova Scotia government looks for its economic advice, although last week the premier seemed to be relying on some research from the Royal Bank.

Generally, banks generate research to help their investors, and very few minimum wage earners are in blue-chip stocks, opting to keep their money in shorter- term investment­s, like dinner.

A comparison between the poorest workers in the province and the relative fat cats who impose the poverty policy on them is worth considerin­g, if for no other reason than to confirm the Peter Principle.

Nova Scotia’s senior civil servants, deputy ministers and such, unlike the province’s lowest paid workers, are not at the bottom of the national heap, but somewhere in the middle.

Senior deputies are paid north of $200,000 and the premier has more six-figure earners hanging around his offices than Tims has donut flavours.

The premier himself is the fourth or fifth highest paid first minister in Canada, depending on how you crunch the extras. Suffice to say, unlike minimum wage workers in his province, he is a long way from the bottom.

The powerful taking care of themselves, while keeping the masses huddled, is a time- honoured tradition, particular­ly in unciviliza­tions courting revolution.

In present-day Nova Scotia, the peculiarit­y extends across public sectors.

Readers have been critical when it was noted in this space that Nova Scotians family doctors are the lowest paid in the nation.

The correspond­ents would point out that wages in Nova Scotia are lower across the board. The case has some validity unless the board is the authority.

Unlike Nova Scotia doctors, pay scales for the senior administra­tors at the Nova Scotia Health Authority were establishe­d at a level deemed nationally competitiv­e.

The bottom line is a good one for those bureaucrat­s at the authority whose pay falls in the mid-range for similar jobs Canada-wide.

Reaganomic­s — the belief that when those that have get more some will tickle down to those who don’t have any — was once described as voodoo economics by the elder George Bush, who eventually tempered his rhetoric enough to become Ronald Reagan’s vice-president.

The economic theory is still bogus, but Bush got to succeed Reagan as president.

Nova Scotia’s cheap labour policy, whether for minimum wage earners or family doctors, doesn’t have a catchy epithet like Reaganomic­s, nor has anyone yet labelled it for religious cult.

It’s enough just to know that austerity and parsimony around here doesn’t start at the home of those who impose it on others. But then, it never does.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada