Democracy and Subsidization

Subsidization and Democracy
January 20, 24, 2012


For Your Information, there is a survey that is or may be being circulated regarding “community transportation”. Please note that the questions are geared towards producing the answers that they want.
As a person who has lived 56 years, but never particularly much involved myself in the political system, I have nevertheless acquired the knowledge that democracy's economic system is the free enterprise system, based on the fair competitive market. You may have also realized that governments that have everything State-run in them, is *not* a democracy. It is something else. Something that we fought against in the first, second, and remember the Cold War? On Remembrance Day, we remember that our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, friends and relatives paid the price for fighting against these governments and for our freedom from them, with their lives. Do you wear a poppy?
I have been watching, if you haven't, the erosion of democracy. It is being-stunningly-replaced by CEOs and government types, which are part of the 1% of society gearing the world towards their wealth. The rest of the populace is being subjugated by them, as this 1% appears to be running our governments. The detriment of the environment, and the diversity of our wildlife and also our free enterprise system, is not really their concern. Democracy is not their concern. They want a hold on that 1% or extreme wealth and control. And they don’t want a bunch of other people up there with them. This 1% of people managed to gather a 256% rise in income over recent years. Did you? Aren't you then in the 99% of the population that’s not making headway or is getting poorer ?
If you allow yourself to be sucked out of the free enterprise system and into state-run subsidized services, what are you doing to yourselves and our world? Yes, the poor can't pay for lots of things. But it's not only the poor who go for subsidized services. It's anyone who will go for a buck cheaper. Even the well-to-do are, notably, sucked in by a buck cheaper.
So, what if you’re offered half price for something? If the government offers you half price for a service, are you willing, for this subsidized rate, to be run by the state (our governments) which are controlled by big business? (IMO). Is the general population in the countries where everything is state or government-run, are they wealthy? Or poor? Are you willing to leave that legacy to your kids?
Your kids may be out there with the Occupy Movements. What are they fighting for? Even if we are so enmeshed in “the system”, our kids are the ones who are acutely aware of it. They are fighting against the control of government and our world by big business. They don’t want to be under their thumbs, controlled by the Corporate State and government-run activities.
The small business owner- your friend, neighbour, son or daughter-will be (and is being) crushed out of existence. The freedom of opportunity, or free enterprise, will be gone. You will-we will-all except the 1% be on state or government run activities. That were once small businesses of free enterprise in your area, in other areas.
Will you look back and think “oh I should’ve seen it coming..I didn’t really see the big picture…and..well shucks..I’m sorry kids. I knew the big corporations didn’t care about the kind of environment which they would leave you…well, we’re sorry we left you without a democracy but a Corporate State, and we’re sorry we left you without a world; a world without drinkable water, breathe-able air, uncontaminated food. May the lord take care of you and whatever animals may survive”.
I’m not kidding. I’m not being dramatic for the sake of drama.
Your kids, other people’s kids, are out there fighting for a truer democracy. Or a return to one. Maud Barlow, Silver Donald Cameron, Moyers and Company on PBS, Surette in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, and Marissa Stephenson of the same paper are trying to tell you too: Big business can run the state better if small business, the heart of the fair competitive market and free enterprise system of democracy, is put out of business. Ergo, the Half Price Sale to go onto a government or corporate–run program instead of using a local small business.
Here’s a relevant tangent: Did you see the documentary about agriculture in our countries? The seeds, and therefore what you eat, regardless of what’s in it, is being controlled by 3 major chemical companies. With the seed controlled, the farmers are controlled about what they plant, how they plant it, etc, etc. The food –and its content-is controlled by a big corporation. You might like to choose to not eat Genetically Modified Organism food, but the federal gov’t, is not listing what foods are. Why aren’t they? Can you imagine that the 3 chemical corporations have something to do with it? And then, YOU are controlled because the free will in what you used to choose to eat is no longer there. The little free enterprise guys or gals can’t compete with the big bucks involved with those big companies who run the farmers growing their altered food.
The answer to this, of course, is to find and buy from any farmer that is not under the control of the corporate CEO. *We don’t seem to have government-controlled corporations. We have corporation-controlled governments*.
The answer to saving our democracy is to buy from any local small business you can find. The answer is to not patronize a subsidized service which is operating in the same type of endeavour as a local small business. Patronize the small business.
Nova Scotia is pushing subsidized services. There are small businesses, the backbone of Nova Scotia communities, being hurt by this. It’s not a level playing field if the government gets into business and then offers the service for half price to use *their* subsidized service. Is it fair competition? Is this the free enterprise and fair market competition structure of our democracy? No. You might ask yourself why is the government getting into small business. If it drives it out of business. It drives free enterprise out of business.
This is happening even in Digby County. Our municipal and other governments are advertising that there is free money available (is it “free” if it is tax money?) for something they call “community transit”. At first, agencies promoted this (and some still do) as a service for seniors, the poor, and the “disadvantaged”. These groups can be better served by putting more money into the organizations that directly help them- eg women’s groups, higher guaranteed income supplements, etc., more credits and deductions on taxes, services that reach and help the truly poor. If these groups got a little more money, they could use local businesses more and then the whole web of our society would be supported. But they’re not doing that. They’re not even or are rarely advertising it like they did before as services for the poor, seniors, and the disadvantaged because knowledgeable people know that they can be better served by other means. Instead, they are advertising that there is money available (your money) for these government subsidized services.

If we lose our free enterprise system, if we choose to go where everything is state-run, we lose our diversity of life. Everything becomes the same, and same old. Not only do we lose our diversity, we lose our freedoms. Our freedom to choose. Our freedom to be in a democracy, and the founding principle: free enterprise. We lose the freedom of opportunity.

Please support your local small businesses.

My opinion without prejudice, Blogger Kathleen