The non-OWS population also has the right to enjoy those parks and open space just as much as the protest group.
There is no 'rule' that allows a person who qualifies as a 1%er based on his income from not supporting the OWS movement.
Nor is there any rule that states that these protestors are prohibited from earning an income and joining the 1% group.
Corbella: Little learning or knowledge at Occupy Calgary camp
“Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.” — Alexander Pope.
That famous quote by the great Augustan-era English poet and satirist popped to mind on Tuesday when I spent about four hours at Occupy Calgary’s camp at Olympic Plaza.
So, too, did another line from Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
Shane, a 20-year-old man at the camp, approached me and wanted me to interview him. Being an accommodating sort, I did. I asked this bold and initially friendly fella why he was protesting.
“This is about corporate pigs,” the drywall taper said. “I’m here to protest high interest rates,” he added. “Debt equals slavery.”
Catchy slogans to be sure, but do they hold up? “You want to lower interest rates?” I asked, perplexed. “The prime rate is three per cent.”
“Really? I thought it was 12 per cent. Guess I should have done my homework,” he said with a disarming smile.
“It’s usually a good idea,” I offered, returning the smile.
“Why do you want interest rates to be lowered?” I asked.
“So more people can own their own homes,” he answered. “High interest rates is why so many people lost their homes in the United States,” he said.
Which is exactly opposite of the truth. The reason people lost their homes in the U.S. was multi-fold and sub-prime mortgages had a lot to do with it. It’s not just big corporate CEOs who were greedy. The U.S. masses were too and U.S. government policy helped fuel that flame. Several U.S. administrations made it easier for those who couldn’t afford a mortgage to get one, through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. People got greedy and either bought houses too big for their incomes or several houses they couldn’t afford, betting that the housing market would continue to rise. It was a kind of Ponzi scheme, I pointed out. But what goes up, must come down. Many people were caught with houses that they bought to flip, or that they used to finance yet another loan to buy more stuff they didn’t need and when housing prices went down, they got caught. That all happened when interest rates were low, I said.
Indeed, renowned economist Jack Mintz, who was reached in Israel on Friday, said the situation between Canada and the United States isn’t comparable — at all.
Sound Canadian fiscal policy has protected Canadians from the housing market collapse and a deep recession. In fact, housing prices in Canada are, for the most part, higher now than they were in 2007.
“The government should make it easier for Canadians to own their own homes,” argued Shane.
But Mintz, the Palmer Chair in public policy at the University of Calgary, says that’s exactly what got American homeowners into trouble. “They kept the interest rates too low,” he said. Couple that with mortgage interest deductibility in the U.S. and homeowners south of the border keep refinancing their homes rather than paying off their mortgages, like Canadians do.
Shane points to a sign that says: “Print books not FIAT currency.”
“So, you don’t want paper money? You want to carry around gold bullion?” I ask.
Shane decides to change his focus. “The government is breaking a lot of our fundamental freedoms,” he said. Like what? I asked.
“We have the right to equality under the law,” said Shane.
That’s a right, not a freedom and you’re entitled to equality of opportunity, not outcome, I point out. That’s why we have publicly funded education, health care and a host of other social programs, paid for by hard-working taxpayers. What freedoms are being broken, I pressed.
“People should be given the power to determine policy. We’re making change here. We demand change,” says Shane.
“You have that right now,” I counter. People are given the power to determine policy. It’s called democracy,” I state. “Policy gets made by elected officials in our legislatures. Our laws are upheld by the rule of law. Our system of government may not be perfect but it’s the best system out there,” I say.
“We want our policies to be tried. It’s our turn,” said Shane.
“That’s mob rule,” I counter. By the time we finished talking, Shane wasn’t as friendly anymore. While I was talking to James Louden, 38, Shane interrupted to tell me if I used his full name in the paper, he would sue me. Why? I presume because he realized that virtually everything he said was baseless and nonsensical.
Louden agreed that the meetings that went on at the camp that day were ineffective.
“This is only day four of democracy school,” he said on Tuesday.
Not really, James. It was day four of camping and of speaking out. The reason people like Shane and Louden have the right to free speech and free assembly is because of democracy. They have nothing to do with creating it. They’re merely practising the rights derived from it.
On the contrary, many of the Occupy campers are calling for the overthrow of democracy so that their mostly incoherent demands can be implemented instead.
These protesters don’t, as they claim, represent 99 per cent of Canadians — those who work hard and pay taxes that fund the social programs and services that keep the Occupy campers healthy and happy with working washrooms, clean water, emptied garbage containers and the like.
Alexander Pope was right all those years ago. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Thankfully, for Canada, the 99 per cent are fairly well educated. It’s this less than one per cent at the camps who need a lot more.
Licia Corbella is a columnist and editorial page editor.
lcorbella@calgaryherald.com