Stephen Harper says `major' changes coming to Canada's pension system: speech
DAVOS, Switzerland - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has signalled his government will bring forward ``major transformations'' to the country in the coming months - in areas such as the retirement pension system, immigration, science and technology investment and the energy sector.
Of those reforms, Harper said, getting a grip on slowing the rising costs of the country's pension system is particularly critical.
Convert all those billion-dollar prisons being built in the context of a falling crime-rate into old-age care centres.
Replace the iron-bar gates with normal walls and doors, and use some paint and furniture to make to rooms nice.
Have room-service for those incapable of shuffling to the mess-hall.
Replace the guards with health-care workers.
I know... that would be giving the refocons a way out of the dumbness of building billions of dollars of unnecessary prisons, but actually, I really don't care who's in charge anymore insolong as they can govern with one-tenth of a chicken-noodle's strip of sense, regardless of how warped was their path to power. After all, it was a Pope who bought the Papacy to, upon achieving power, use his position to campaign against people being able to purchase the Papacy.
In the wake of Harper's speech, it now appears that the Conservative government could be poised to gradually change the Old Age Security system so that the age of eligibility is raised to 67 from 65.
*Sigh*...
The issue is whether or not people should be *forced* to retire at 65.
I know in people in their 70's who are working harder now than when they were 9-5 workers in their 50's.
The difference is, they get to pace themselves.
They get to choose when they start to work, and they get to choose to stop when they don't feel like it anymore. If that's four hours a day, then two of them do as much as one young person, so that mops up some issues about insufficient "working-age" population.
All organizations have lots of jobs where it doesn't matter what time of day it gets done, as long as it gets done.
Let elders who want to keep working but on a temporary flex-time basis form clubs.
etc. etc. The sky's the limit. I know people from Asia who wonder about the issue of forced retirement, because they strive to always find something to do no matter how old, if they can, even if it means shucking just one cob of corn per day, in order to earn their meal.
In other words... yes it's true that if one changes the age of forced-retirement/forced-employee from 65 to 67 then just those two extra years of CPP contributions will bring the plan back into balance, but *really*...
... You can get the same affect by letting those unable to work stop, while letting those who want to keep at it but at their own pace keep going.
``In the months to come, our government will undertake major transformations to position Canada for growth over the next generation,''
Growth. Growth?
Just out of curiosity... when has it "grown" enough?
At what point has it "grown" enough for the powers-that-be to lean back with satisfaction and say, "Ahh... we've grown to the perfect level of balance of our population with our natural resources."?
When single-celled eukaryotes got the idea of forming multicelluled organisms, I bet some of them went through phases of thinking they should keep their body growing forever.
Why did evolutionary pressure cause them to (evolutionarily) choose to halt things at some point for an organism to be declared an adult?
Why do the hangers-on to the notion of perpetual growth get called cancers?
said Harper. The Conservative government will table a budget in the coming weeks that is expected to set the stage for years of deficit-slashing and government reform.
Such joy.
In the old days power-rushers had to use armies to fight for a tax-base in order to build castles.
Now they just buy the people's government and buy the media to brainwash the undecided into voting for the neo-monarchist candidates, and as a bonus get the benefit of having a shield between themselves and the peasants in the form of a "government" whom the people get the goofy idea of having chosen while wondering why the government they elected does not do what it was elected to do, which is govern things into betterness.
Harper said the country's aging population has become a backdrop for his concern about how to keep the country strong over the long term.
*Sigh*...
Then mandate it for people to smoke and drink as much as much as possible, and drop all work-place safety requirements.
``If not addressed promptly, this has the capacity to undermine Canada's economic position and, for that matter, that of all western nations well beyond the current economic crises.''
Ooh... as goes the Canadian economy, so goes that of all western nations?
Is he trying to say that Canada is in a position to affect the economic flow of other western nations, or is he heading warning to them that if they don't stop taking care of the elderly, or if they don't stop letting people die young, then shareholders are not going to experience record profits there as well?
Indeed, Harper said the country's demographics - an aging populating and a dwindling workforce - constitute ``a threat to the social programs and services that Canadians cherish.''
Lemme guess... next he's going to talk about the need for investment in science and technology, without any his speech suggesting improved automation in order for fewer young people to be more productive in order to sustain the same level of economic output.
If you get it right, you can have fewer young people driving factories of manufacturing robots and mine workers, with the right technology.
If you get it right and you have too many young people, everyone bitches about automation taking away jobs.
For that reason, he said his government will ``be taking measures in the coming months.''
Harper did not specify what those measures will be, but he said they are necessary - not just to bring the government's finances back to a balanced budget in the medium term, ``but also to ensure the sustainability of our social programs and fiscal position over the next generation.''
But he won't tell anyone what they are.
Either he's secretly pro-Canadian and was giving mouth to the Biltenburgers, or he's speaking in code language only Biltenburgers can understand, telling them to get ready for a lot of whining from Canadians.
``We have already taken steps to limit the growth of our health care spending over that period,'' said Harper.
Oh really... and what would that be?
Licensing veterinarians to practice on humans, so vets can administer lethal injections or a bullet in the head if the case is terminal?
``We must do the same for our retirement income system.''
Of course nobody's going to look at what Sweden did when faced with a similar dilemma in the early 90's.
That would be because Sweden made lemon-aid out of a seriously impossible lemon, requiring consensus on all levels of society. In North America, the last people to seek consensus are those taking joy in how north American freedom enabled twits who never would have got power in Europe to get power here, and now had never been required to demonstrate worthiness of it... all they used to have to do was show up at social functions.
Harper said the centrepiece of the public pension system - the Canada Pension Plan - is fully funded, actuarially sound and does not need to be changed.
That's interesting. He actually said that. The US used to have a fully-funded retirement system, but their unworthy-twits-in-power found ways to tap-and-make-faulty theirs.
But he added: ``For those elements of the system that are not funded, we will make the changes necessary to ensure sustainability for the next generation while not affecting current recipients.''
Hmm... I know this might sound a bit crazy... but historically there were Albertans more conservative than blue-blooded Ontarioites... convinced they could manage things into livable and humane stability better than great-grandchildren of the Eatons-Bay Trust.
Anyway...
So far, the government has come forward with a plan to create a private pooled pension system to encourage Canadians to prepare for their retirement.
Private how?
That people get to deduct from their taxes that which they put into the pool, in order for the private pool managers to skim off in order to add to their buy-up-and-take-over-the-world fund?
Why private?!?
If public we get to keep an eye on the fund managers, and if public we can pay them as much as they would be paid as private fund managers, namely, what they are worth, without the overhead of feeding dividends to the while wales on the beaches of Bermuda, so it will be cheaper, which means more payout to the retirement investors.
Did you think those white whales on the beaches of Bermuda were actually managing those funds themselves, worthy of their position as dividend-collecting shareholders because only their brains could keep the fund working, or did you not notice how they paid the election funds of legislators willing to pass laws saying that fund managers must maximize dividend profits regardless of the heartfelt sense of the investment?!?
If you go back to Nuremberg, where it was declared by the victors that following orders is not excuse enough, then does it not follow that an Executive, VP, or Fund Manager can refuse to make an evil investment just because it boosts shareholder profits for the white whale on the Bermuda beach?
Still, there are concerns that as baby boomers approach retirement, the cost to government of providing public pensions will skyrocket.
Not if you let them stay healthy in a healthy environment and healthy food surrounded by family and friends in a place where they get to work as much every day as they want/can.
There are villages in Mallasia where the 70-year olds bounce around playing volley-ball. They are thin, eat balanced diets, get agitated when not allowed to do work when feeling like it and can. They live among family and friends they grew up with since three. They are hated by those raised in families with it drilled into their heads that they would never have achieved such success if not born in north America.
In December, the National Post reported that there was internal debate within the government about increasing the age of eligibility for the other major element of the public pension scheme - Old Age Security - from 65 to 67.
Internal government documents project the cost of the OAS system will climb from $36.5 billion in 2010 to $48 billion in 2015. By 2030 - when the number of seniors is expected to climb to 9.3 million from 4.7 million now - the cost of the program could reach $108 billion.
Among the other priorities where change is coming:
Energy
The Conservative government will make it a ``national priority'' to ensure the country has the ``capacity to export our energy products beyond the United States, and specifically to Asia.''
Something about that is so twisted.
It blows in the face of NAFTA, and... I dunno... it's like... earlier PM's would have ensured that in combination with that guarantee of tar-oil to Asia would be a multi-lateral defense treaty making it impossible for anyone to attack Canada without it causing a global war (I think Laurier was best at that).
What is Harper guaranteeing? That China gets accused of adding to climate change faster by burning more tar-oil?
``In this regard, we will soon take action to ensure that major energy and mining projects are not subject to unnecessary regulatory delays - that is, delay merely for the sake of delay.''
Delay for the sake of delay...
That means Harper's speech-writers don't know the difference between sustained versus catastrophic nuclear reactions.
Harper did not explain what he has planned, although he and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have complained that foreign-backed ``radical'' opponents of the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project have threatened to slow down hearings by the National Energy Board.
Nobody talked to natives all the way up to fort Chip about how they might find it within themselves to look the other way about contamination of the Mackenzie river system from leaky ponds if they were trained and hired to work refineries to sort the ingredients of the tar-sands into stuff members of other industrial nations will have to pay if you're the only provider.
Nobody ever noticed how the first thing to happen when whites landed in America was Natives traded, before European idiots showed up after being kicked out or let go by Europe.
Not one of those pin-hole MBA brats unqualified for their position noticed how Natives said if you want to trade, then let's trade, and let us take over pipe-line/tar-sand security (aka the guys walking around in suits with handheld devices protecting against terrorists instead of being accused of being them).
Immigration
The system faces ``significant reform,'' said Harper.
Why does it require reform, and what is "significant"?
``We will ensure that, while we respect our humanitarian obligations and family reunification objectives, we make our economic and labour force needs the central goal of our immigration efforts in the future.''
Which means, I cannot get in a cousin, and I cannot get in a smart friend, but if I know a smart-cousin, he gets in?
Science
The government will continue to make ``key investments in science and technology'' that are necessary to sustain a ``modern competitive economy.''
``But we believe that Canada's less-than-optimal results for those investments is a significant problem for our country.''
We will ensure that every time we make a breakthrough it gets fed to the US more efficiently, and with better return on the royalties in order to lower taxes as a return on investment compared to blunders like getting ahead with the Avro Arrow without offering to sell it all to Uncle Sam before destroying it.
In future, he said, there will be changes to rectify that problem.
Trade
Harper expects to complete negotiations on a Canada-European Union free-trade agreement this year.
Furthermore, he said, his government is committed to also completing negotiations for a free-trade deal with India by the end of 2013.
And Canada will begin talks to become a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership while also pursuing opportunities to trade in the emerging market of Asia.
So stupid.
No sense of timing... no sense of history.
And clearly no intelligence.
Right now... at this moment... as we speak... Japan is prepared to enter into a free-trade agreement with Canada... and I do mean only Canada (such that certain future natural throttles shall have to be put on trade with other nations)...
Japan is prepared to enter into a whole all-out trade agreement with Canada... and only Canada... like unto nothing that has eer been engaged with nor traded with any nation on the planet.
The world's strongest, most quality and best-advanced product makers on the planet... first dibs on goods ten years before anyone else except Japanese get it... in exchange for mineral resources.
They do not want to all emigrate here.
They want it to stay pristine as Banff in order to visit.
And diplomats on both sides are hanging over their rye and sake weeping about how it's not going to happen, because the job of a people able to get a dumb kid into power never counted on that power becoming a global influence.
Harper arrived Wednesday at the World Economic Forum determined to tout Canada as a trading nation with a solid economic record and massive oil resources which are ready to be sold and shipped to customers worldwide.
Will *some* reporter please ask him what he's going to burn to keep us warm after the hydrocarbons are gone?
Uranium?!?
Other members of cabinet who are attending the conference in the exclusive mountainside resort in the Swiss Alps are Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, International Trade Minister Ed Fast and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Harper issued a scathing criticism of countries in the developed world, which he suggested had forgotten about the importance of creating economic growth. ``Is it the case that, in the developed world, too many of us have in fact become complacent about our prosperity?'' Harper asked.
Growth growth growth.
Is it growth if after achieving size one starts applying the same energy to quality, such that your civilization starts becoming more beautiful?
He suggested that developed countries had taken wealth ``as a given . . . assuming it is somehow the natural order of things.''
Stephen Harper says `major' changes coming to Canada's pension system: speech
Actually it is... when properly managed.
Poverty is when idiots get in charge.
