CBC reporters used the figure of $1.2Billion as the amount of Canadian government dollars spent on just one very specific type of welfare - "corporate welfare for oil and coal".
Of course it is not called that. It is Canadian government money in the form of cheap loans, royalty holidays and rebates, and even grants to new projects and old for producing coal and oil. Even coal, yes, it gets a lot of welfare due to international currency factors and so on.
We hear a lot from the right about welfare and how it drains the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth - the recipients of welfare spent it right away, on basic things that keep the basic economy going. The problem for the corporate-pandering right is that it is not going to the wealthiest Elite people or their industries.
The will of the people, if it were being obeyed by the elected reps, would have NOTHING from the government coffers going to coal and oil production. The will of the people is not what government serves though is it? - they serve the hand that feeds them, which is corporate. The wealth of our great nation of Canada is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy, as it is in almost all developed nations. American dominacne has a lot to do with this situation... but thats another issue.
Boycott? Consumer power is underused...
The posters here at these forums have a good attitude, willling to reduce their emissions with real actions like not driving and creating effiencies here and there.
If more people had the will to make Kyoto real, they would find ways to avoid using fossil fuels. There are alternatives*
Dont be a Fossil FOOL!!
Karlin
* Alternatives: ...its interesting to note that there are also alternatives to using pharmaceutical products, almost all of which are dangerous to our health, ironically.
Those pills also have a fossil fuel basis - did you know that? yup, the base stock for the chemicals all comes from fossil fuels,... coal tars are a common source of "medicines" from the pharmaceuticals.
And alternatives to them, the non-patentable natural sources of medicines that are effective and not as dangerous, have been cleverly shoved to the back of our mental medicine cabinets.
Of course it is not called that. It is Canadian government money in the form of cheap loans, royalty holidays and rebates, and even grants to new projects and old for producing coal and oil. Even coal, yes, it gets a lot of welfare due to international currency factors and so on.
We hear a lot from the right about welfare and how it drains the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth - the recipients of welfare spent it right away, on basic things that keep the basic economy going. The problem for the corporate-pandering right is that it is not going to the wealthiest Elite people or their industries.
The will of the people, if it were being obeyed by the elected reps, would have NOTHING from the government coffers going to coal and oil production. The will of the people is not what government serves though is it? - they serve the hand that feeds them, which is corporate. The wealth of our great nation of Canada is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy, as it is in almost all developed nations. American dominacne has a lot to do with this situation... but thats another issue.
Boycott? Consumer power is underused...
The posters here at these forums have a good attitude, willling to reduce their emissions with real actions like not driving and creating effiencies here and there.
If more people had the will to make Kyoto real, they would find ways to avoid using fossil fuels. There are alternatives*
Dont be a Fossil FOOL!!
Karlin
* Alternatives: ...its interesting to note that there are also alternatives to using pharmaceutical products, almost all of which are dangerous to our health, ironically.
Those pills also have a fossil fuel basis - did you know that? yup, the base stock for the chemicals all comes from fossil fuels,... coal tars are a common source of "medicines" from the pharmaceuticals.
And alternatives to them, the non-patentable natural sources of medicines that are effective and not as dangerous, have been cleverly shoved to the back of our mental medicine cabinets.