Canada's choice: Austerity or prosperity
Imagine for a moment two societies living side by side. One has discovered and uses the wheel effectively -- a technology that makes life easier for workers and boosts the economy for everyone. Prosperity reigns. The society next door is well aware of the wheel and watches as its neighbours move inexorably ahead -- wealthier, more efficient, healthier and with more leisure time for cultural activities. But it is not those who do the work in this society who reject the wheel -- it is the governing elite, the priests, the official advisers and scribes who have incorporated a moral objection to the wheel into the state religion. Use of the wheel is thus proscribed by faith, not reason. All practical arguments in its favour are rendered useless.
While Canada and Norway (or more generally the Scandinavian countries) are not exactly next-door neighbours, technology makes the distance largely irrelevant. Replace the wheel in the story with robust government engagement in the economy and you have pretty much all you need to understand why Norway, Sweden and Denmark are doing so well economically and socially, and why Canada is destined for inexorable decline -- so dedicated to the religion of austerity that it could easily appear to some future anthropologist that our civilization declined in relentless pursuit of downsizing itself. Unlike the Maya, who apparently outgrew their social and economic structures, we seem determined to deliberately dismantle ours.
READ MORE: http://rabble.ca/columnists/2015/01/canadas-choice-austerity-or-prosperity
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