Trade Pact Would Make Region More Competitive, Speaker Says

What these blundering idiots never say is that "more competitive" means "more poverty" because all forms of competition increase costs and we can see this, especially, with economic competition with our living costs going out of sight.

Since the forced introduction of neoclassical, "competitive" market economics, the costs of living went up over 1000 % in 30 years, while incomes stagnated.

Ed Deak.

"competitive" in this case means "Goddamn gimmee that, it's MINE!!"

They'll plunder the Earth until it's nothing more than a dead husk

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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

"The Weapon" - Rush

And over 2000% in the last 50 years.

Did some looking into it, and posted it ona thread here sometime last Sept=Oct.

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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

"The Weapon" - Rush

It is not the private sector that keeps increasing the cost ofliving, it is the government. Since the early 70's our tax burden has gone up over 2000%. It is nice to have some laws but the more laws and regulations you have the more your tax burden goes up. it is nice to sue a company for polluting a valley but the costs of it are nuts, I would sooner like the chance to socially exclude the company or jail the leaders of the company directly. Revoking a corporations right to charter is a start, why people think a corporation should have the same rights as a human is beyond me. As for the trade agreement, good, I hope we have more but we need to get the government out of trade, true free trade does not involve the government protecting their big corporate buddies. I know a lot of people on this website would love it for example if Alberta went back to owning the liquor stores so we could have the stupid big union mentality, or how about when you could not buy beer x because your province restricted it's sale as it was from another province? This is the old mentality that if you work for someone, I will say that again, that if you work for someone, the job they give you, is yours. What? Excuse me! If I hire someone to work in my company the job I give them does not belong to them it is not "theirs." If I treat them well I get the best people working for me, if I treat them like crap I get crap employees, I don't need any government regulations to tell me that. Case in point, I live in Calgary, right now companies that treated employees bad in the past are finding it impossible to find employees, what goes around comes around so long as the government stays the hell out of everyones business. We are offering a starting wage of $16.50 an hour, more than twice the legislated minimum wage. Government did not need to force us to pay more, our red hot economy did. Our economy is red hot because government is staying the hell out of peoples business. We have wholesale environmental destruction because we have given our government to much power via the ability to tax us. If they could not tax us then the oil companies would not have been able to get all those leases for next to nothing as all that land would have been held by private individuals, not the f****** crown.

I do not believe in the government using force and I don't believe in you or I using the government to force our social and political goals upon others as that increases our tax burden, someones f****** bright idea becomes a government program, thank you so much. The less trade barriers we have the better, if you don't like the fact that governments can then take away some more of your freedoms then stop asking the government to take care of you from cradle to grave. Do you honestly think the government will stick to it's mandate of helping you? Might they not make power grabs in other areas? If you are afraid of government and corporations polluting or destroying our lives then why do you vote for big government to get even bigger and have more power which can then be bought by major multi-nationals? If those idiots in government have less money they have less power to farm out to all those evil multi-nationals you lot hate so much. Think of your favourite government program, now ask yourself, would you love that program so much if someone told you you would never have to pay another cent in taxes again if you let that program go?

I believe that every person has the right to live and responsibly act as they choose, so long as they don't interfere with the equal right of anyone else to live and responsibly act as they choose. I want to reduce government to the smallest level possible without leaving the door open to chaos. As we have seen with the Russians, the Nazis and now our government, nothing changes. Government loving idiots are called "the cult of the omnipotent state," I want to dissolve the widespread fallacy that government, rather than personal responsibility, is the answer to all our ills. It has not worked before and it is not working now, it does not matter who you elect, they are all the same. But please, stop bitching and moaning everytime something is put into place to reduce the amount of government in our lives otherwise you are nothing but a bunch of hypocrits.



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My freedom is more important than your great idea.
– Anonymous

"What these blundering idiots never say is that "more competitive" means "more poverty" because all forms of competition increase costs and we can see this, especially, with economic competition with our living costs going out of sight."

You keep saying this, but you never describe how your ideal economy avoids the arrogance, price-gouging, poor quality products, inefficiency and complacency that typify monopolies. What about consumer choice?

You say you're a "private enterpriser", but you don't seem to want to have to compete with anyone. If there's no competition, how do you decide which company gets to serve a particular market. Is it in the style of good old Liberal "industrial policy" (i.e. award monopolies to your friends and cronies or to companies in your home riding)?

Two people wish to serve a particular market. In a no-competition economy, who decides which one gets to do it?

I don't expect to get an answer this time either.

A nice propaganda message wasjod, but we can read this crap in every paper and some of us still believe in democracy. When a sector is permitted to run over anybody for its own self interest, or profit, democracy is dead.

In short, my friend, I have lived under fascists, nazis, communists and capitalists and the only difference I can see between them is the colour of their flags and the methodology they use to enslave others. I've been sentenced to death by the nazis, to the gulags by the commies whom I fought for 45 years with everything I could. In other words, I have seen the realities, have been an independent business and property owner in BC for 50 years, and as far I'm concerned all ideologies and their purveyors can go to hell.

I don't like government any more than you do, but at least we can demand some accountability from an elected government, but none from a dictatorship, whether it is called a politbureau, or corporate boards of directors.

The purpose of phoney "globalized free trade" is collectivization, very similar to the Soviets, and colonization to permit the takeover of the control of the economic systems of societies and nations. Here in BC the government is selling off public properties without any information to the owners, the people of BC. When we ask for details under the freedom of information act. all we get are blank pages to "preserve the competitiveness" of some goddamn carpetbagger foreign corporation.

The present inflation is caused by deregulated banks, creating huge amounts of imaginary capital to collectivize the economy into the hands of the multinational corporate mafia.

The only system that can fight this crime wave is democracy, which means government controlled by the people, and not more power into the hands of these crooks. May they all rot in hell.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

Small businesses have to remain honest and truly competitive with the quality of their products and services to earn the right to stay in business.

Big businesses survive and thrive on lies, fraud and theft.

These large multinationals are dictating to the public on what they can buy and how much the have to pay, dictating and buy politicians to follow their orders. The present US and Canadian governments are the best examples. They allow these crooks to get away with murder, then cover up their crimes by allowing them to pay fines, which they can account as "business expenses", without any criminal records. I won't mention names, but I can read when companies pay hundreds of millions in fines, and yet they're welcome to stay and migrate all over the world, ruining the long established economies of countries. As NAFTA has done in Mexico and ta great extent both in Canada and the USA.

I've been competing in many sports, internationally in 2, am under nomination into a Candian sports hall of fame, competing in business and arts and need no brainwashed armchair theorist tell me about conpetition.

We have 3 corporate supermarkets in our neighbouring Williams Lake, competing with each other who can raise prices faster. My wife knows all the prices and tells me what went up in 2 weeks between our shopping trips. It is disgusting, but we're stuck, because under the present "market capitalist" system, the stockmarkets punish every corporation that doesn't show increased profits every quarter. Now the idiot city council wantd to bring in Wal-Mart to ruin what's left.

This is not private, but "free" enterprise, designed and legalized to steal from the public and each other with the power of freshly created imginary capital.

What happened to the anti trust and anti cartel laws? If these oligopolic crooks aren't cartels, what the hell are they?

I have to do some work now till tonight, so think of some good excuses of how multinationals and cartels can be called "individualists" ?

Ed Deak.

<p>"We are offering a starting wage of $16.50 an hour, more than twice the legislated minimum wage. Government did not need to force us to pay more, our <b>red hot economy</b> did. Our economy is red hot because government is staying the hell out of peoples business."</p> <p> The Alberta economy should not be referred to as "red hot". Right now in Alberta, we have gouging. Gouging by individuals, by business and Government.</p> <p>Case in point... I've lived, worked and paid taxes in Alberta for 2 years now and have yet to make as much as I used to in BC. My property taxes are triple and we live further from any real town than when back in BC. My auto insurance in double for less coverage and last winter, I paid twice as much for heat as I did in BC for heat and lights. Last spring the rear end in my pick up calved on me. One used rear end in Edmonton... (sit down now) $1200.00. I called home to southern BC and had one shipped out and including PST and shipping, it was still half the price. This is not a hot economy at all. And $16.50/hr is SFA in this economy even if you live rurally.</p> <p>---<br>Everybody got to deviate from the norm

"You keep saying this, but you never describe how your ideal economy avoids the arrogance, price-gouging, poor quality products, inefficiency and complacency that typify monopolies. What about consumer choice?"

What consumer? All the decent jobs were shipped overseas, downsized out of existance, or are being allowed to go vacant due to attrition and "outsourcing".

"Two people wish to serve a particular market. In a no-competition economy, who decides which one gets to do it?"

Piece of cake: "A" absorbs "B" by hostile takeover.

"A" now serves market.

Enjoy your choices.

Next case.

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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

"The Weapon" - Rush

Oh, and by the way: all the jobs at "B" are now considered rendundant and the staff let go.

"A" moved it's production/customer service divisions overseas, cut it's domestic Canadian employess down to a skeleton staff at corporate HQ in Calgary, and declared record profits for the year.

The Board of Directors gave themselves raises and bonuses of more than 50 million dollars.




And now, Individualist, I will tell you the deep dark secret behind "consumer choice".

None but the wealthly have it.

The rest of us have to budget our monetary reasource and have to take into account such trivialities as rent, food, mortgages, monthly bills, raising children, and perhaps even having some small pittance left over at the end of it all that we can TRY to save, but know will be swallowed up the next time any of a thousand other things either break down, and need either repair or replacement.

Of course, if you have medical problems, good luck even doing that much.

Now the wealthy, they can take care of all the above, and have all the CHOICE in the world about what to do with the surplus.

I have made it as simple as possible in the hopes that you will finally understand.

So why do I have the feeling that I have just wasted my time?





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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

"The Weapon" - Rush

Ed, we would not need government to control corporations if we did not give corporations so much power in the first place. In my last post I said we need to revoke a corporations right to charter, I am sick of seeing CEO after CEO get away with murder (literally). There was a time just after America had gianed its independence from the British when people who worked hard got what they deserved and those who thought they could screw people got screwed themselves. Government had not become big and influential enough to become a target for big business. You said you were in gulags Ed, why was that? The government had become to powerful. Do you honestly think that if the NDP, Green's or CAP had a majority in the Federal government that corporate corruption would go away? That our government would become "nice?" I want all land owned by the government to be given (not sold), to the taxpayers of that particular province, every tax paying Albertan would get so much land, every tax paying british Columbian etc. That way the people can decide if they want to sell their land to some oil company to crap all over. I want people to be free, free from government and free from corporate control. We have facisim right now Ed, all the rules and regulation in the world will not make any bloody difference. Corporate control of government via lobbyists and special interests groups, give the government more power and you get a stronger facist government. In regards to your grocery store comment, I run a small herb/veg farm, it is increasing government regulation that is raising our costs, we don't sell to any chain stores, nor would we, we do local farmers markets and are trying to start an online box order service but the government regulations that have been put into place are killing us. These regulations always start out as well meaning but are used by established players to kill competition. Everytime you say you want more regulation you kill another small business. We are organic but still need to kiss so much ass I feel the need to throw up. The ass we kiss belongs to the government, not the consumer. If you run cattle Ed do you not think you could do a better job of bringing in standards for the meat you sell than the government? A lot of people don't like true consumer power because it means they have to work harder or may even lose their job but I would sooner kiss consumer ass rather than government ass. Go ahead Ed, get more government regulation on the environment, soon I will not be able to grow any veg as it is not a native plant species (environmental nutheads are already thinking about this one), you won't be able to run cattle as they shit to much, perhaps you will need to add a bag to each cows ass driving up your operating costs and forcing you out of business. I have seen 14 friends go out of business in the farming and ranching industry in this province due to government regulation, not competition. If you give government more regulatory powers Ed then you will soon be back in a gulag. We need freedom and it needs to begin with taking power away from corporations via less government, not more government. In Calgary we have some alderdorks calling for transit security to be armed, here we go again, when will people start to disappear? After all you have been through Ed I thought you would call for land to go back to the people before you would call for government regulation. Let the people who live in a valley own the land around them and decide for themselves what will or will not take place on that land.

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My freedom is more important than your great idea.
– Anonymous

Perhaps you need to move back to BC if Alberta sucks so much.

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My freedom is more important than your great idea.
– Anonymous

I still meet idiots who want Telus to revert back to government control, oh joy, I could just imagine how many kilos my cell phone would weigh if AGT was back. Like Telus is not a crap enough company already. At least now I can go with SHAW or Vonage or Rogers or Bell or Virgin, get the point people? I like how people complain about energy deregulation but I still need to get permission from Enmax to install solar panels on MY home. Some people need to look at what they use in their everyday lives, car, computer, bank card, credit card, bicycle, cell phone, pen, pencil, none of these items were invented by the government and none of them came about as the result of government regulation. Could you imagine if government regulated the speed at which computers functioned? The Apple II e would still be the crowning glory of the computer industry. How about video games regulated by the government? Pong would be the pinnacle of our society.

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My freedom is more important than your great idea.
– Anonymous

"I still meet idiots who..."

Call nonsensical rants an argument?

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Everybody got to deviate from the norm