Ian Cooper: The foolish schoolteachers who hope to defund the defence industry - "Since it’s become a fun-filled dodge for Canada’s public sector union leaders to use their soapboxes to play Model United Nations instead of doing their actual jobs, some members of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) have stepped up to add a dash of foreign policy to their union’s agenda. For those who might think ETFO’s main preoccupations are securing better pay for its 80,000 members and obtaining classroom supports for students, the opening pages of its annual report, complete with a word salad about “systems of oppression such as colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia classism and ableism,” ought to disabuse them of that misconception. So too should the motions debated at ETFO’s annual general meeting in Toronto earlier this month, where members pushed for the usual gibberish about the Palestinian “Nakba” and Turtle Island, and demanded that ETFO denounce Israeli “apartheid.” That ought to have been enough to alienate the vast majority of their Jewish colleagues. But this group went further, asking for the union to publicly call on the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to divest from all weapons manufacturing. This demand echoes the radicals who were protesting on university campuses across North America last spring... These seven behemoths earned US$234 billion (C$320 billion) from defence in 2023, and accounted for 39 per cent of all defence revenue earned by the top 100 defence contractors in the world. They provide the tools that allow Ukraine to be the pointy end of the spear in Europe’s defence against Vladimir Putin’s fantasies of a reconstituted Russian Empire. They also give Xi Jinping pause in his plans to reunify an unwilling Taiwan with the People’s Republic of China, and make the theocratic thugs running Iran defer their nuclear breakout. Kneecapping these industry leaders by asking pensions with hundreds of billions in assets to starve them of capital would help the authoritarians governing Russia, China, Iran and North Korea realize their dream of replacing the American-led liberal order with a “multipolar” alternate. Such a world would leave these autocracies free to pursue their expansionist military ambitions and subjugate their citizens with impunity. If these rivals were to succeed in eroding the United States’ military advantage, the end game would not be a world in which all nations sang “Kumbaya” and respected each other’s pronouns. It would be one in which cutting-edge weapons were controlled by dictators who could hardly believe their good fortune that the suicidal West willingly ceded its dominance. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s defence revenues are already more than two-thirds of Lockheed Martin’s. Do activists imagine humanity would be more secure and just if this Chinese state-owned enterprise became the world’s leading maker of military aircraft? The China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s defence business is nearly twice that of HII, the largest U.S. military shipbuilder. The narrowing gap between American and Chinese naval capabilities is already a major strategic disadvantage if the Americans are ever required to defend Taiwan, where 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors are made... The U.S. hasn’t had a credible military rival since the end of the Cold War, but an alliance of sorts is being stitched together. China has provided a lifeline to Iran and Russia in flouting Western sanctions . In return, the Chinese get access to cheap fossil fuels. Canadians may pay a carbon tax for products made at home, but when we import carbon in the form of Chinese goods whose production is subsidized by Russian oil and coal, for which China is now the largest buyer , we get those emissions for free. Meanwhile, Iran needs Russian air defence systems to insulate its nuclear assets from attack, and in exchange, the Russians get Iranian drones and missiles to launch at Ukraine. And, of course, a nuclear-armed North Korea, which depends on China for its survival, is ready to menace Japan and South Korea if China ever makes a play for Taiwan... If the managers of the pension plan bother to follow this nonsensical guidance, they will only invest in weapons makers whose products are never used — unless they’re given away for free. Union members concerned about how their pensions are being invested should stay away from subjects on which their ignorance is dwarfed only by the certainty of their opinions. They might instead complain about something that directly affects them — for example, the fact that while the S&P 500 returned more than 24 per cent in 2023, OMERS returned a paltry 4.6 per cent and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan an utterly embarrassing 1.9 per cent (a fraction of its of 8.7 per cent benchmark)."
This is why left wingers like unions so much - it's easy to use them to push the left wing agenda
Trotskyites have infiltrated the teachers’ union - "the current wave of NEU school strikes isn’t really about pay at all. In Mr Wilson and Mr Little’s words, “struggles over teachers’ work can never be restricted to narrow questions of pay and workload”. Instead, as they put it, these strikes are part of a much broader campaign to “explicitly confront the corrosive nature of neoliberal ideology”. The book describes how, over years of hard-Left leadership, the NEU has been turned away from the “dead end” of “rapprochement” with the “enemy” (presumably the Government) into “developing mass collective action” against the “multiple oppressions of capitalism”. As it says: “The labour movement needs to engage in its own war of position ... to build working-class power by acting industrially and politically, organising at the workplace, but also in political and civil society ...[This] is definitely not something which can simply be ‘contracted out’ by unions to the Labour Party ... Workers, through their unions, must engage in mass extra-parliamentary political struggle.” It goes on like this for hundreds of pages – about the NEU’s “deliberate targeting” of Tory ministers, the need for an “essentially antagonistic relationship” with employers, how “capitalism oppresses and exploits workers in and out of the workplace” and how “the rich and powerful have been waging an open war against the working class”, which the NEU and other unions must defeat... I know the average NEU member in the average school staffroom wants absolutely no part of this Trotskyite ranting. They just want a decent pay rise, and improvements to their working lives. The pity is that the deal they were offered gives them exactly that... So why, when this offer was made, did NEU leaders reject it so furiously? Why did they run a massive disinformation campaign telling teachers to reject it? Why is the union striking again this week, even though it got what it wanted? It’s puzzled me for a while. Now, thanks to this book, I know why. Thousands of ordinary teachers and – unforgivably – millions of children are being used, without their knowledge, as chess pieces in the NEU leadership’s “war of position” against “neoliberal ideology”."
Militant RMT boss vows to 'seize control' of the UK economy - "Unions barons have vowed to seize control of the economy now that their Labour ‘friends’ are in power. Militant RMT boss Mick Lynch said the ‘prize’ union chiefs wanted was ‘the complete organisation of the UK economy by trade unions’. It comes as Labour’s first party conference back in power saw unions flex their muscles, forcing an embarrassing vote on reversing plans to axe winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners... During a hard-Left rant which will alarm employers, Mr Lynch called for a sweeping expansion of union powers which would make it easier to shut down industries if their demands are not met... He boasted that his union has gone on strike ‘every month’ since 1981, when the then Tory government under Margaret Thatcher watered down union powers to stop them holding the country to ransom... Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘At the end of the day, the unions are Labour’s paymasters. 'They will end up capitulating again and again as they always have done. ‘What we now know is that Keir Starmer’s government is going to look a lot more like Harold Wilson’s than Tony Blair’s. Wilson was a prisoner to the unions.’ Labour has been accused of caving in too easily to its union ‘paymasters’ over a string of inflation-busting pay offers to public sector workers while taking away the winter fuel payment for pensioners."
Conspicuous Consumption and Race - "Using nationally representative data on consumption, we show that Blacks and Hispanics devote larger shares of their expenditure bundles to visible goods (clothing, jewelry, and cars) than do comparable Whites. These differences exist among virtually all subpopulations, are relatively constant over time, and are economically large. Although racial differences in utility preference parameters might account for a portion of these consumption differences, we emphasize instead a model of status seeking in which conspicuous consumption is used as a costly indicator of a household's economic position. Using merged data on race- and state-level income, we demonstrate that a key prediction of the status-signaling model—that visible consumption should be declining in reference group income—is strongly borne out in the data for each racial group. Moreover, we show that accounting for differences in reference group income characteristics explains most of the racial difference in visible consumption."
Clearly, conspicuous consumption in the form of buying luxury goods is a survival strategy
The NBER Working Paper version's abstract includes this line, which tellingly got cut from the final version: "We conclude with an assessment of the role of conspicuous consumption in explaining lower spending by racial minorities on items likes health and education, as well as their lower rates of wealth accumulation."
Relevant bit from the working paper: "there is reason to believe that wealth accumulation could be affected by spending on visible goods. To this end, we show that wealth gap between Blacks and Whites, conditional on permanent income, declines by 50 percent after controlling for visible spending. Importantly, the decompositions in this final portion of the paper are not contingent on any particular theoretical account of why conspicuous consumption differences arise. Irrespective of why Blacks spend more on visible goods than comparable Whites there will be implications for other well-studied “racial gaps” in economic outcomes." But of course, we can't blame the black-white wealth gap on anything other than "racism"
Meme - Occupy Democrats: "~4 years ago the DOW Jones closed at 19,173. Today, it closed at 38,703. That's more than DOUBLE. So yes, we ARE better off than we were 4 years ago!"
Ryan Stropes: "I thought that the stock market up means corporate greed which was a bad thing on other posts?? Which one is it? It's corp greed why prices are up but it's a political great move when the profits are high and stocks are up?"
Meme - "Facts Do Matter. Dow was at nearly 31,000 and rising. Unemployment was 6.2% and dropping
You've gotta love the Left using the Ultra-Wealthy who rely on the stock market as a determination for being "Better Off"
4 YEARS AGO TODAY: DOW at 19,000. TODAY it closed at 41,250. 4 YEARS AGO:
unemployment was 9.2%. TODAY: 4.2%. FACTS MATTER!"
"Are we better off? Costs have Skyrocketed and Unemployent is rising"
That Duke Cat on X - "Trying to show the poor that they're better off by pointing out how well the stock market is doing is like my boss telling me I don't need a raise and showing me his brand new Mercedes as evidence."
From 2019. Of course, now that it's Democrats controlling the White House, we are told that the fact that the stock market is so much higher than in 2020 proves that Americans are better off now than 4 years ago
Meme - "Trump supporters be like: "Stock market's an all time high! *shack in forest*"
Uploaded in 2021. Ironic, given that Trump wasn't in office by then
Meme - "Celebrity leftists on their way to tell you capitalism is bad. *Scrooge McDuck and nephews having fun in bank vault*"
Meme - "Map of the US states that pays more tax than what they receive from the government, courtesy of CGP grey
Pays into Washington more than it receives. *largely blue states*
Receives more from Washington than it pays. *largely red states*"
So left wingers are now saying it is wrong to take from the rich to give to the poor? Ironic
Also this is apparently due to farming subsidies
NDP pivots from losing to Liberals to losing to Conservatives: Ivison - "Reasonable people can disagree on whether the country should be introducing free dental care and a government-funded drug plan at a time when the finances are strained. The latest budget figures from the Department of Finance for the first three months of the year show a $6.6-billion deterioration in the public finances since this time last year, with program expenses up 14.6 per cent year on year, even though the Liberals have promised the budget deficit will narrow this year. But hats off to the NDP. There’s no doubt that Singh used his influence in Parliament to implement his party’s priorities, without having to worry about how to pay for it all. If the New Democratic Party was a lobbying organization, it would have hit a home run. But it’s not. Its job as a political party is to elect New Democrats — and on that score, the party and its leader are in a worse place today than they were when the deal was signed in March 2022. In the recent Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection, NDP support plunged to less than six per cent, a 10-point drop from the 2021 election... In his press conference, he barely mentioned Trudeau, beyond saying he is “too beholden to big corporations.” He presented the next election as “a fight for the Canada of our dreams,” between Poilievre, who he said will “cancel dental care, pharmacare and tear down health care brick by brick,” and the “hopeful future” the New Democrats can offer. That is presumptuous in the extreme. Past NDP success under Jack Layton relied on persuading voters that the Liberal party is an arrogant brokerage party that stands for nothing... Singh does not seem to realize that he is in the equivalent of a U.S. primary, fighting for the right to be progressive standard-bearer. Trudeau may be reviled by three-quarters of the electorate, but he is still out-polling Singh... When the inevitable non-confidence motion comes forward, New Democrats will be like Macavity the Mystery Cat — that is, not there. There are three provincial elections this fall (B.C., Saskatchewan and New Brunswick) and the NDP provincial parties, more so than the others, rely on federal resources. Then there is the not-so-small matter of finances. It would be suicide for the New Democrats to spark an election now. A look at the audited results for fiscal 2023 filed on the Elections Canada website shows the NDP at a significant disadvantage to its competitors, with revenues of $6.89 million, compared to $15.71 million for the Liberals and a whopping $41.08 million for the Conservatives... The ceiling on Singh’s ambition will always be the limited audience for his politics of envy. At his press conference, he laid all the nation’s problems at the door of the “billionaire class” of grocery giants, land developers and corporate landlords, who are “raking in record profits.” Most Canadians recognize that markets — balanced by regulation, transparency and compassion — are the best instruments for efficiency. Canada’s problems are not rooted in greed, as Singh would have it, but in poor productivity and lack of innovation. The NDP has nothing to say on these subjects. Its leader should sit down with a copy of Engines of Growth, a new report by the Business Council of Canada’s senior vice-president, Robert Asselin. Among its many recommendations, it suggests pushing the problem of sliding GDP per capita to the top of the government’s agenda; reviewing the tax system to incentivize private sector investment; reforming innovation tax credits; creating a new advanced research project agency; integrating the efforts of the various regional development agencies and granting councils; and designing an immigration plan to prioritize long-term growth. Singh’s efforts to provide dental coverage for the mother of five and the cancer survivor should be acknowledged. But so should the inevitability that sooner or later, if you’re not productive, you run out of other people’s money."
Derek Burney: A wake-up call from RBC’s Dave McKay - "Moves to increase the tax rate on capital gains over a certain threshold for business and individuals may increase tax revenue by tens of billions of dollars over several years — funds a profligate government desperately needs. But these changes have been broadly condemned by many business groups, as has the phasing out of tax breaks on new business investment by allowing quicker write-offs for certain assets — a reversal of earlier measures intended to help firms better compete with the U.S. According to McKay, as an export-driven nation of 41 million, our tax policy must be “more favourable, not just equal to” the U.S. He also reported that “very senior people” in the U.S. had told him politely that they don’t believe Canada is “creating enough value,” economically. One stated “you are not serious people … about addressing the issues facing the two countries.”... McKay also advocated a more rational approach to developing national resources projects in a timely fashion. America needs Canadian energy and critical mineral resources. Germany, Japan and India, among others, want our LNG. Yet Canada’s regulatory processes are “slowing us down.” (The average federal regulatory burden has risen 20 per cent over the past decade.) Given the obstacles, it takes several years to build a mine in Canada. Investment funds inevitably go elsewhere to more receptive markets. He further declared that “Recent tax policy is penalizing risk takers … We start companies but then we sell really early to Americans … who come up and get this amazing (intellectual property) for free, almost.” Yet limited access to capital at home constrains our startups from sustaining growth. Our GDP per capita will fall to a record 30 per cent below U.S. levels this year with grim implications for income growth and pay cheques. McKay suggests we should “figure out what the U.S. needs from us” and derive value from that. “We’re not in sync with the United States … As you think about what the U.S. needs, it actually lines up really well with what we are good at; we are just not getting it done.” He added bluntly that the U.S. “needs less rhetoric from Canada and just more getting stuff done.” Canada’s youth unemployment rate ( 14.5 per cent in August according to StatCan) prompted McKay to add, “They are disengaging from our economy. They’re worried … that they don’t have a job. They don’t think they’re ever going to own a home.” McKay could have added much more, namely that the well-paid public sector is the fastest growing sector of our economy. The lack of foresight and planning by the government on the recent flood of immigrants was appalling, adding more stress to our already overwhelmed housing market and health facilities. Yet no one took responsibility nor was held accountable. Despite substantial salary increases, along with bonuses, the tide of bureaucratic incompetence rolls on, unmeasured and unchallenged. Billions of dollars in subsidies for companies to build battery plants for already waning EV demand constitutes the latest example of dubious government-driven industrial policy. The carbon tax is demonstrably not meeting expectations and yet, instead of acknowledging its folly, the federal government doubles down, as per Einstein’s definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It also violates McKay’s thesis that we need a competitive tax regime with the U.S. Our “universal” health-care system is on life support and urgently in need of reform but governments at all levels do little more than tinker on the margins, lacking the will to make substantive change. We need structural reforms that will deliver more and better care facilities. Unquestionably, America faces daunting economic and security problems, but resilience is one of its greatest strengths, along with an unmatched record of innovation in a world whose future depends increasingly on advanced technologies."
Liberal capital gains tax hike could cost nearly $90B in lost GDP, over 400K jobs - "New analysis shows that the capital gains tax hike introduced by the Liberals will cost the Canadian economy even more than expected, resulting in almost $90 billion in lost GDP. Conservative MP John Barlow cited a recent study highlighting how the tax hike could deal a crushing blow to the country’s finances.. “This is a devastating tax increase, and the impact on Canadians right across the country will be substantial,” said Barlow. The study estimates that Canada’s GDP will fall by nearly $90 billion, 414,000 jobs will be lost, and real per capita GDP will decline by 3% due to the capital gains tax hike... According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, more than half of Canadian small business owners said the inclusion rate hike would affect them. Despite the Liberals claiming that the tax increase would only affect 1 in 769 Canadians, previous polling showed that almost one in four Canadians expected to feel the hike’s impact... “By pushing assets to be held at the individual level, some of the benefits of incorporation can be lost,” said Mintz. “Further, the increase in the capital gain tax rate encourages investors to hold on to assets longer rather than replace them with assets that provide superior returns to equity. Capital gains taxes also discourage risk-taking since the government taxes the nominal gains but does not provide a refund for potential losses.”... An August report from the C.D. Howe Institute revealed that Canada’s productivity crisis is already “getting worse” and falling further and further behind the United States."
Meme - Trojan Horse: "Tax the Rich"
Soldiers inside: "Tax Everyone"
Meme - PC Gamer @pcgamer: "Watch a latex-clad billionaire punch out poor people in the debut gameplay trailer for Batman: Arkham Shadow."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Batman does not punch random poor people, as the tweet suggests. He specifically attacks criminals."
SirLazyCat @SirLazyCat: "PC Gamer would do well to fire this "journalist""
Meme - owen cyclops @owenbroadcast: "internet: making art is a luxury, i have to work and do my dishes
poor janitor in the 1940s who allegedly went to church (mass) every day:"
"Henry Joseph Darger Jr"
michael wave @SzMarsupial: "not dunking on neil’s joke here, but something i think about a lot is that, with vanishingly few exceptions, the great artists, thinkers etc of history who have entered the canon simply never did their own housework"
Brad Wilcox on X - "Truly astonishing indictment of our welfare policies fr @AtlantaFed. A single mother in DC can make no gains, financially, as her earnings rise from $11,000 to $65,000 because benefits like food stamps & Medicaid phase in/out as her income rises. Terrible for work/marriage."
Wilfred Reilly on X - "A side note here that even Brad doesn't much focus on is that the starting value of US welfare benefits, at least in urban blue metros like ATL, is apparently ~$55,000 per year. That's...insane."
Clearly, disparate outcomes show that even more money is needed
The state becoming the father surely will not lead to a rise in single motherhood rates, because humans don't respond to incentives
The Bloc's supply management trade bill is getting a rough ride in Senate - "As the House of Commons debated the Bloc Québécois' demand for an increase to pensions for younger seniors this week, the dysfunction driving the second condition in Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet's ultimatum was hiding in plain sight. During question period Wednesday, Blanchet reminded the House that Bill C-282 — a Bloc private member's bill that would prevent Canadian trade negotiators from giving up any more concessions on Canada's highly protected dairy, egg and poultry sectors — has been in the Senate for "a year and a half," and accused the "illegitimate" Red Chamber of "leading the prime minister around by the nose."... Ever since Blanchet added this bill to his list of conditions for supporting the government on a future confidence vote, International Trade Minister Mary Ng has been insisting the Liberals aren't stonewalling... "I oppose the bill," said Ontario Sen. Peter Boehm, a former diplomat, as the Senate foreign affairs and international trade committee heard from its first witnesses on C-282 on Sept. 25. "I do not think it is in the national interest to pass it, as it divides the agricultural community across the country and will have implications for future trade negotiations, particularly in the context of the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in 2026." As chair of the committee, Boehm isn't participating in debates. He's also declining media interviews. But he's been very clear about where a private member's bill stands on the priority list for a committee that's also in the middle of two major studies on sanctions and the future of the foreign service, and recently started a third on Africa... Harder's grilling of C-282 witnesses made his disdain for the bill obvious. "Are you saying that our negotiators haven't done Canada well?" Harder asked its Bloc proponents, questioning why other economically significant industries — like automotive or steel — wouldn't also be worthy of special protection. "I'm very concerned about this bill," he added. When farmer representatives appeared as witnesses at the next meeting, Harder asked why this bill would use a "sledgehammer… to protect [their] interests at the expense of others."... "The speed and popularity of this bill, depending on the region, depending on the House, certainly has raised alarm bells for me," said Ontario Sen. Marty Deacon. "It raises concern that this bill is good politics but not good policy." Senior officials at GAC offered similar warnings in their testimony before the Senate committee... "I think it would be reasonable to expect future negotiating partners to adjust their own approach to negotiations with Canada, which would very well limit our opportunity to maximize the overall commercial significance of new trade agreements."... Newfoundland and Labrador Sen. Mohamed Ravalia asked whether a protectionist bill like this could undermine Canada's ability to negotiate future deals to open markets for Canadian exports... Government officials told senators on the committee that agriculture accounts for about two per cent of Canada's gross domestic product. Most of that is export-oriented crops and livestock, not supply managed products for domestic consumption... B.C. Sen. Yuen Pau Woo also questioned whether supply managed agriculture is really vulnerable. He noted that even though the dairy sector lost market share to foreign competitors in recent deals, cash receipts and operating income went up over the last decade... export-oriented farm groups from the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) warned that passing this bill would signal Canada isn't sitting down to bargain in a serious way."
Damn greedy companies keeping groceries expensive!