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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-06-13, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1990. PAGE 5. We’ll be lining up even at the pearly gate It’s been two weeks now since I visited Disney World in Florida. That’s long enough for initial, superficial impressions to fade. I no longer feel the ping of fresh sunburn on my nose or the ache of arches flattened by a hard day’s shuffling from exhibit to exhibit. After a two week respite it’s possible to look back at a phenomenon like Disney World and discern one’s overall impression. Wanna know what my last memory of Disney World is? Not the giant aluminum golf ball at Epcot Centre. Not the monster man-made waves at Typhoon Lagoon nor Tinkerbelle’s Fairy Castle in the Magic Kingdom. The memory of Disney World that will accompany me when I take that last Ferris Wheel ride in the sky is ... Lineups. Well, heck - I’ve been lining up for tickets or buses or gas pumps all my life. We all have. Lining up is such a natural feature of human life that whole cultures have special ways of doing it. Canadians The welfare state - too much of a good thing? BY RAYMOND CANON All the countries of the industrialized west have put in place complicated and expensive welfare systems and few would argue that the efforts to do so are not admirable ones. The amount of human suffering that is alleviated by such pro­ grams is monumental but it is only recently that the same countries are coming to the regretful conclusion that the price tag for such ameneties may be more than we can afford. For the most part the programs were put into place at a time when we were blessed with growing economies, economies that did not come to grips with environmental problems that are turning out to be both extensive and expensive. It is only when our economies have stopped growing at the same steady rate to which we had become accustomed in the past that it is obvious that we may have been too generous with our welfare. Some countries, including Canada, have to borrow money each year in order to foot the bill and any family that decided to do the same would be told by the creditors to get their financial house in order or else. At this point it might be propitious to take a look at the whole welfare program, where it came from and why and then decide if it is time for some modifications. Actually the birth of the welfare state took place in Germany at the time when Count Otto von Bismarck was running the country. It became obvious to Bismarck that, while he still favoured the capitalist system to anything else, the sufferings that seemed to take place every time that the economy was in the trough stage of the business cycle were too much to ask people to bear. In addition, it was feared that the same working class that was doing most of the suffering would be more receptive to Marxist teaching than making the rounds. In order to offset this threat, Bismarck presented the German government with proposals that called for an elementary form of accident, sickness, old-age and disability insurance. Passing the legisla­ tion did not turn out to be easy, in spite of the influence which the German leader possessed at that time but, in 1884 and 1887, the required legislation was passed Arthur Black ‘line up’. New Yorkers stand ‘on line’. Britons politely ‘queue’. Germans pretend to line up until a door actually opens or a clerk appears. Then they turn into rabid berserkers, elbowing and kicking with a passion seldom seen outside a Stanley Cup playoff game. Lineups are an inescapable fact of life on our overcrowded planet, and we all respond to them in our own way. But nowhere are lineups more cleverly diguis- ed than they are at Disney World in Florida. For one thing, Disney World lineups don’t look like lineups. They zig-zag back and forth. Somebody flying over Disney World and looking down might get the impression he was looking at a bunch of snakes digesting Venetian blinds. The serpentine line up is a brilliant invention. People who are in it get to shuffle a few feet forward every few minutes and they can never see the head of the line. Thus, they’re always under the mistaken impression that they’re almost there. But Disney World has other tricks too. There are canopies and strategically placed palm trees to protect queuers from the sun. Some lineups feature overhead videos that tell you about the exhibit you’re about to enter. Sometimes when lineups stall and tempers are fraying you’ll look around and see human-sized Mickeys, Goofys and Plutos working the line. They’re chatting, posing for photos, ruffling kids hair. The and was imitated shortly afterwards in Austria, Hungary and elsewhere in Eur­ ope. Those with an eye for dates will note that the whole welfare question has been with us now for just slightly over a century or considerably longer than most people realize. It was in Britain and not in Germany that the next major step was taken. Shortly before the beginning of World War I, or 1911 to be exact, Lloyd George, who was then what we know as Finance Minister, was responsible for introducing sickness and invalidism insurance and finally un­ employment insurance. About the same time a contributory system of old-age pensions was written into the law but, as it turned out, without the required govern­ ment financing being in place. At any rate, this was considerably beyond what Ger­ many had introduced since that country did not get around to unemployment insurance until 1927. In Britain as in Germany the passing of such legislation did not take place without conflict. It actually led to an election in Gt. Britain which Lloyd George won and thus set the stage for what was to follow later in both the United States and Canada. I shoudl point out that mixed in with all this legislation was a proposal from one economist that all those earning under a specific level of income should be sterilized since it was his conviction that poverty was something that was passed down from generation to generation; it could be Letters Ad campaign counters abortion bill THE EDITOR, The passing of the abortion bill C-43 will go down in history as the day Canada legalized the killing of its unborn children. This law will not protect any unborn children nor will it protect their mothers from unscrupulous medical practices. This law will open the doors to abortion on demand, to home abortion drugs, and to a whole spectrum of new issues like fetal tissue harvesting and fetal experimenta­ tion. Since the members of Parliament have ignored the scientific and medical evidence presented to them regarding the humanity of the unborn child we will enhance our efforts to educate the public with these facts. The national umbrella association, Alliance For Life, has announced a cynic in you knows that there’s a minimum­ wage actor sweltering inside that felt suit, but somehow it works. It makes you feel better and restores your patience. Yep, I reckon that Walt Disney experts have made lining up just about as painless as it can get. And yet, and yet ... It’s still a helluva way to spend a substantial portion of your life. Standing. Waiting. Fingering the loonies in your pocket or riffling through some tabloid for the brain dead at the checkout counter. It’s not very - I don’t know -- heroic? Can you imagine Sir Lancelot waiting for his turn at a Green Machine? Did our grandparents put up with this? Probably not. The simple fact is, we human beings might have been better off if we’d spent more jime lining up and less time lying down doing what we do best — multiplying. There are too many of us. The party’s getting crowded. And that means more lineups. Experts have calculated that by the middle of the next century, humans will be spending up to 20 per cent of their waking hours lined up waiting for some­ thing or other. Well, I probably won’t be around in 2050 to see how long the lineups are, but I’ll do what I can for you youngsters. I’ll put in a word with St. Peter when I meet him at the gate. Mind you, I’m taking a good book with me. Just in case there’s a lineup. eradicated only by preventing the poor from procreation. However, it was the impetus of the teachings of the most famous of 20th century economists, John Maynard Keynes taught that under certain condi­ tions deficit financing could be a good thing, a point of view rejected by much of the economic establishment of the time. However, in due course deficit financing became respectable which meant that the massive welfare programs put into the system could be afforded during the trough phase of the cycle. In due course the universality aspect of these programs became the norm and thus, as I indicated above, when the true cost of this universal­ ity became apparent, the same govern­ ments that had been so eager to promote them earlier, now were forced to find ways to cut back, a task that has not been marked with any degree of success. Holland was one of the first to make the attempt but most countries, including Canada, have done little but scratch the surface. Nobody wishes to undo the work that Bismarck and Lloyd George were instru­ mental in introducing; taxpayers are anything but agreeable to give up what they appear to be getting for nothing or next to it. If the Dutch, or any other country for that matter, can come up with the answer of how to keep such welfare programs as hospital costs under control, Canada and the whole western world will be eternally grateful. television advertising campaign to chal­ lenge Canadians to recognize the humanity of unborn babies as well as the consequen­ ces of abortion to women. This ad campaign is in its fundraising stages and is aiming at broadcast this fall in designated provinces. Jim Bakelaar President, Wingham Voice For Life RR 2, Blyth, Ont. N0M 1H0 Volunteers needed THE EDITOR, The Wingham and District Community Living Association is actively seeking volunteers for Residential Services (Group Continued on page 18 Letter from the editor Is the marriage over? BY KEITH ROULSTON 1 wish I could have joined the sense of euphoria that some of the political leaders tried to create Saturday night as they sat around in Ottawa and congratulated each other on saving Canada. I wish I could be sure they’ve done what they set out to do. My sense watching that ceremony, and apparently the sense of a lot of other Canadians from listening to what people have had to say since, is that all the turmoil and agony of last week was really only delaying the inevitable. For one thing, the haggling didn’t solve any of the real problems with the Meech Lake Accord. We still face the problem of having to have unanimous consent for most future constitutional changes including senate reform. It means, if there are to be any constitutional changes at all, facing more agonizing times like we’d just gone through as the majority of first ministers pressure the unwilling minority to go along with whatever the next proposal is. The new agreement means that senate reform will be next on the priority list and that means more turmoil because the interests of the western provinces and Quebec are diametrically opposed on the issue: the West wanting more power while Quebec wants to keep at least as much power as it has now. But more than that there is a sense of futility in the land. There is a sense, that Meech or no Meech it’s just a matter of time before Quebec separates and there is nothing the rest of us can do, no matter how much we want to change it. Someone mentioned to me the other day that Quebec seems like the partner in a marriage who has decided the marriage is over and is just waiting for the appropriate time to ask for the divorce. English Canadians, at least those in the majority who don’t want to slap Quebec back into its place and tell Quebecers to “speak Canadian”, feel like the other partner in the marriage who knows the other partner is slipping away but has already done everything that can be done to try to save the marriage. Ordinary Quebecers seem to think the disagreements over Meech Lake are proof English Canadians don’t understand them and don’t want them. Ordinary Canadians outside the province in many cases just can’t understand what’s demeaning or insulting about what Clyde Wells wanted: an assurance that in Quebec’s efforts to protect its distinct society, the rights of individuals given in the Charter of Rights, will be protected. Those English Canadians who have supported bilingualism, who have sent their kids to French immersion schools or have sent their children on exchange programs to Quebec to build bridges, find it hard to understand who they can ever mend the rift with Quebec when people like former cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard say Meech is only the prelude to a full scale negotiation with Canada on Quebec’s future. There’s a feeling of being powerless, of having to sit on the sidelines and watching 11 politicians reshape the country in ways many of us (the majority by many polls) don’t approve of and yet knowing that no matter how much the leaders bend over backward not to allienate Quebec, every action can be turned into a political slight. It would be so easy, tired as we are of the wrangling, to just slide into this divorce. Let’s just end it all, we’re tempted to say. And yet before we do we should look what happens in so many divorces. What starts out to be an amicable parting ends up in bitter confrontation when it come to deciding who gets the kids and the house. Just imagine how nasty things could get deciding who gets the national debt, and who gets what share of federal properties in Quebec and outside. Look at the cost of the divorce then maybe another attempt to make it work will seem worthwhile.