Monday, January 02, 2012

The Harper Cons and the Race to the Bottom














What would you say if you worked at Caterpillar's Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, and found yourself locked out?

Because you wouldn't agree to have your wages and health benefits cut by more than fifty percent, and your pension eliminated altogether.

Even though Caterpillar is making record profits.

Its CEO ain't doing too badly himself. 

Stephen Harper greased Electro-Motive's wheels three years ago with a big wad of our tax dollars.

If London's Electro-Motive plant is closed and its jobs moved to Indiana, it'll be after having milked the benefits of a billion-dollar tax break once trumpeted on the plant floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And like every other corporate giant in Canada, the company just got another juicy tax break from the Harper government. For doing less than nothing. 

The latest figures from Statistics Canada through the third quarter of 2011 show Canadian business sitting on more than $583 billion in Canadian currency and deposits, and more than $276 billion in foreign currency.

Those cash reserves have climbed nine per cent since last year and 27.3 per cent since 2007, when the Canadian economy was booming and new corporate tax cuts were announced.

What would you say eh? What COULD you say?

Except Happy New Year corporate Canada !!!

















The tax cuts are costing us jobs, services and much needed investment in municipal infrastructure, including transit, roads, and sewage treatment facilities. And corporate Canada is not delivering on its end of the bargain.

These no-strings-attached tax cuts are causing more harm than good - robbing the public treasury of billions of dollars - and yet the Harper Conservatives continue to ignore the facts and lie to Canadians about the benefits of corporate tax cuts.

And of course, thank you Stephen Harper, you corporate tool, for leading us on a race to the bottom. 

Just like the Cameron Cons are doing in Britain...

















You know I keep hearing a lot of Canadians say oh please don't criticicize capitalism, or I'll lose my stock portfolio and my pension. But I don't believe that for a moment.

The stock market casino doesn't give a damn about their penny stocks, or whether they kick it or blow it. And if people don't stand up to the Harper Cons, the greedy hogs will slash their wages, steal their pensions, destroy social services and medicare, and turn this country into a jungle.

For this isn't politics as usual, it's a class war.

And the only thing Canadians have to decide, in what promises to be the brutal year of 2012.

Is whose side are they on?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seeing Stephen Harper crap all over the things that made Canada great really reinforces my decision to never, ever have children. After all, who would want to live in such a hellhole as the one he's trying to turn Canada into?

Simon said...

hi anonymous...well let's not be too hasty eh? If you can raise your kids as progressives, please don't let Stephen Harper stop you from having as many as possible. For we need all the help we can get... ;)

sassy said...

The Harper Cons and the Race to the Bottom

ha, at this point they would have to climb up to reach the bottom.

Simon said...

hi sassy...absolutely. But do you think they are capable of climbing up AND walking backwards at the same time? Hmmmm I doubt it... :)