Karma is coming for our government

RE: CHCH settlement nothing to celebrate (April 5)

As someone who spent more than 40 years in telecommunications, I can empathize with Matt Hayes. As the multinational corporation I worked for made record profits and rewarded the CEO and board members with million-dollar bonuses and stock options, they set about terminating tens of thousands of jobs in the ’80s and ’90s. The excuse was that technology made the jobs obsolete, but in truth most went overseas to countries like India and the Philippines. Governments did nothing.

As our prime ministers chastised China for human rights violations, they allowed business to defer billions of dollars in unpaid taxes, bust unions, slash pensions and operate sweatshops overseas. Out of sight, out of mind. Now as the massive influx of baby boomers are preparing to retire, politicians are in a quandary. With corporations opting out of workplace pensions and benefits, how will the government pay for the old age pensions and the medical costs as this generation ages? Karma has a way of biting you in the rear, and no one deserves it more than government. Pat Howse, Hamilton