Looting the Commons

You have to be pretty blind to not accept that economic activity at the start of the second decade of the new millennium is focused on looting the public commons. When I say commons I mean the ways that humans (and in some cases other sentient beings) come together and share resources. At least in Canada this means shared resources which could be read as public coffers or tax dollars. For the most part taxation is fair, taking more from those who can pay and less from those who cannot and then building up a reserve which is used to cover collectively valuable things like healthcare.

Unfortunately it’s becoming clear that the behaviour of elites in recent years (and arguably starting a long time ago but at least when Jean Chretien and the gang took over federally and Mike Harris et al in Ontario) is about looting the public commons. I guess they decided that there never is enough and should take from everyone.

Take for example the recent big bailouts of 2008-2009 but of course they are ongoing, despite what Barack Obama says or does. Basically our elected representatives took collective money, our tax dollars and even tax dollars that we haven’t generated yet (debt) and gave them away to the richest segment of society. The joke is that this segment, the folks that run the hedge funds, dodgy loan companies and wasteful corporations like GM, don’t show any signs of slowing down and continuing to collect massive bonuses which are basically collective money that they have received and handed out to shareholders or upper staff. And no one seems upset by this. What a lovely system they have created for themselves.

The Vancouver Olympics are quickly becoming another major cash grab, wrapped in the flag like a bow. Billions of dollars are flowing for developers to build numerous buildings at a dreadfully inflated and just asking to burst prices. We’re told that the Olympics will make money and generate income but realistically most cities and countries are left to clean up the economic mess after all the popped balloons and streamers have been swept up. Debt, debt, debt for the commons and just more pillaging for the elites.

I wonder at this behaviour. I wonder if it’s related to the glaringly obvious fact that our days of lavish living are numbered. The long emergency begins. Maybe the ones who have lived so high on the hog are living it up at the end of the world (from their perspective anyway). And the central pillar of their plan is to rob the public commons blind.