HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-10-13, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1993. PAGE 5.
In search of
the perfect
scapegoat
The world has benefited greatly from the
Hebrews. They gave us the Torah and
Doctor Seuss. They also gave us Albert
Einstein and Lenny Bruce; Yehudi Menhuin
and Bob Dylan; bagels and lox.
But I think the greatest gift the Hebrews
bestowed upon us was the concept of the
scapegoat.
You can read about it in the Bible. It tells
us that on the Hebrew's Day of Atonement,
Aaron selected two goats. One was
slaughtered ritually as a sacrifice to the
Lord. Then Aaron turned to the other goat
and said something like: "You! Look at you!
You call yourself a goat? You're a joke! A
disgrace to goatdom! Not only that but I
hereby saddle you with all the sins and
transgressions my people have committed in
the past year. My people are now pure and
innocent. You on the other hand are a mess.
Now get outta here already!"
And the goat was banished. Driven into
the wilderness.
Which personally I think is a helluva lot
preferable to having your throat slit on an
altar, but that's not the point. The point is:
the Hebrew ritual gave the world the
The black
economy
Over the years we have gone through a
succession of cleaning ladies; I use the term
"ladies" advisedly since the current cleaning
of the Canon household is being done by
two men. They are the first male hands
(other than my own) to dispose of dust in our
house and, while they are not the best, they
are some of the better cleaning engineers to
set foot in our premises.
However, one paragraph and already I am
coming close to digressing. What I wanted
to say was a number of years ago we were
approached by a Polish friend who wanted to
know if we could use a cleaning lady. As we
were between them at the time, my wife
replied that she would be interested. It
turned out that the friend's sister was visiting
from Poland and wanted to pick up a bit of
spending money. What better way to do that
than to clean houses?
My wife finally agreed and was informed
that unfortunately the sister did not speak
any English. What did she speak? Only
Polish and Russian. "That's no problem,"
replied my wife, "my husband speaks
Russian and I'll get him to tell her what to do
when she comes."
I was duly warned to be present on such
and such a morning and when "Olga"
arrived, I translated all the things that my
wife wanted cleaned. At the end of the
conversation my wife asked me to inquire
how she wanted to be paid. "Kak yam
zaplotyat?" I asked Olga.
She replied immediately "Ya xachu cash."
She did know one English word after all
and she was going to make sure that I did
not misunderstand. Cash was what she
wanted and cash was what she was going to
get.
principle of the "scapegoat" — picking some
poor shnook out of the crowd and blaming
him, her or it for everything that's bad.
Humankind has been using scapegoats
ever since. The English treated the Highland
Scots and Irish as scapegoats. The Nazis did
the same to the Gypsies and the Jews.
On a less bloodthirsty scale we all use
scapegoats. The Newfie joke, the Mulroney
dartboard, the Toronto Maple Leafs — all
variations on the scapegoat theme.
Trouble is, good scapegoats are getting
hard to find. The Toronto Maple Leafs are
beginning to play respectable hockey. Brian
Mulroney is mercifully off the front pages
and out of our lives. And Newfie jokes just
ain't funny.
It is no longer politically correct to wax
lighthearted about ethnics, gays or women.
Hell, you can get in trouble telling jokes
about folks who are short or bal...00ps — I
mean follically challenged.
As a matter of fact there's a politician in
Albany, New York who is trying to get a law
passed "banning weight bigotry". If
Assemblyman Daniel Feldman has his way,
any employer who refuses to hire someone
as...oh, say a ballerina or a fashion model or
a trapeze artist just because said person
weighs as much as and is built like a Dodge
Minivan — well, that employer would be
subject to prosecution.
As I said, it's getting tough to find a decent
I had a pretty good idea what she was
going to do with it and just as good an idea
that it was never going to end up on some
income tax declaration in this country or any
other. Her earnings were a part of what we
know as the black economy, a term that has
found frequent use in Canada of late as the
tax level of the country's workers goes up
and the social contract starts to take its, bite.
In short, people are prepared to moonlight
and be paid cash for what they do or sell,
which will give them about twice as much
buying power with the money than if they
had put it in a tax declaration.
You can probably guess- (and you would
be right) that such a thing goes on not only
in Canada but in any country with a high tax
load. One can even make a general rule that
the higher the level of taxation is and the
more onerous the regulations are in the
normal economy, the bigger the black or
underground economy is likely to be. This is
only an educated guess but at the present
time this economy in Canada is running
close to 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic
Economy, the form of measurement we use
to calculate spending in all segments.
I won't bore you with a lot of figures but,
if taxes were paid on all of these black
earnings, we could remove with one stroke
almost all of the federal deficit.
Even at that, Canada is one of the least
affected by such clandestine earnings. A few
years ago when I looked at it, Spain and
Italy were the leaders but they have been
exceeded in the latest tally by Greece, where
a good 30 per cent of all economic activity is
under the table. One of the reasons for this is
that the country has a high rate of self-
employment which gives more scope for
hiding income from the tax authorities.
Spain, Portugal and Italy are still pretty close
to the Greeks since conditions in these three
countries are similar to those to be found in
Greece.
If you think about it, you can make quite a
scapegoat these days.
But I think I've managed to turn one up. A
scapegoat, I mean. I found it in the pages of
Harpers Magazine.
It was an ad for a new book by one June
Stephenson. The ad copy says "Why do so
many boys grow up to be criminals?
Whether it's murder, rape or the S & L
scandal, crime costs $300 billion a year.
Prison inmates are 94 per cent male. Why is
crime essentially a male pursuit? Read MEN
ARE NOT COST EFFECTIVE: Male Crime
In America."
There you have it kiddies. The perfect
patsy. No question of race or religion, or
custom or belief or short or tall or fat or
skinny. Just...man, the fall guy. Half the
human race ready, waiting and practically
crying out to be pronounced Guilty As
Charged.
Hey, don't laugh. It's already happening.
The Lingo Police are out there as I write,
scouring the English tongue to eradicate
every filthy foxhole of male-tainted
language. We've got personhole covers in
the streets now. We've got chairpersons and
fisherpersons and if you think I exaggerate,
go look it up.
In your Herstory book.
Man. The ultimate scapegoat.
I'd whine some more but I've gotta go. I
promised I'd meet my buddies out in the
Wilderness for a couple of beers.
list of clandestine activities. High on any list
would, of course, be prostitution but there is
a lot of tax-free baby-sitting and cleaning
done all over. Tradesmen are coming in for a
generous supply of extra income while
bartering gets into the act where you do
something for somebody else in return for
some work done for you. Nor would any list
be complete without the usual cigarettes and
alcohol.
It is a little hard to get a handle on the
black economy during the normal business
cycle. One indicator that should lead to an
increase in underground activity would be
unemployment but as the joblessness
increases, the number of households that
would normally hire someone to paint their
house, cut their grass, do all kinds of repair
work actually decreases due to the shortage
of money for such purposes. My own
findings are that, while there may be
fluctuations in the Gross Deceptive Product,
over the long run it hasn't changed too much.
I have told you about the countries with a
high rate of illegal activity. What about the
ones with the lowest rate? You may be
interested to note that, according to recent
figures, the two lowest are Japan and
Switzerland with less than five per cent. The
next lowest country, the United States, has
almost double that. If you have read this
article carefully, you should be able to figure
out why.
Letter to the editor
Continued from page 4
some research and read the scientific
evidence into the "crimes" he speaks of, it
may be found they are directly linked to the
attitudes and beliefs derived from the
teachings of his religion deeply imbedded
into the fabric of our society.
After all, we do use scientific material,
evidence, or the end result of that research
six days a week and for some reason regress
on the seventh. Perhaps that is worth some
investigation also.
D. Trollope.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Something
to believe in
Driving to work on Monday morning was
a special experience. You couldn't help but
be thankful looking at autumn's collage of
colour sparkling under a brilliant azure sky.
Even the future seemed bright.
Then the radio DJ reminded us that it was
two weeks until election day, a comment
that cast some cloud over the lustre,
especially as I'm still uncertain what my vote
will be.
I've heard all the arguments about my
civic duty, so I know I must make an
appearance Oct. 25 or keep quiet about the
eventual outcome, but I just wish I had some
direction. In my family before me it has
always been easy. I remember asking my
mother following the last provincial election
how she voted.
"Well, you know what Grandma always
said, 'If you don't vote Liberal you might as
well not vote,"' she replied.
I wish my convictions to a specific party
could be that strong; it would make things a
lot easier. The problem is, I guess, that I
really can't, or don't, believe in anyone
anymore. Like so many of my generation, I
am disillusioned, I have seen too many good
intentions ignored, too many promises
broken and the best laid plans buried under
doo-doo.
What's even worse is knowing that same
generation is in a large part responsible for
the morass soon to be left for others to
untangle.
The other evening I attended Madill's
commencement. As I looked at the young
people who worked so hard to achieve this
milestone, it seemed a bittersweet occasion.
Undaunted by the dismal predictions, they
continue to plan and celebrate their future.
The valedictory address was inspiringly
optimistic in light of the employment
uncertainty they face. If they are daunted, it
didn't show that night as they accepted the
recognition they deserved. Their faces made
me almost believe it will be alright.
My youngest child had that same effect on
me recently as well. Having seen one of the
federal candidates on the television, he
expressed his dislike with the typical
ingenuousness of a 10 year old. Curious, I
asked him who he would vote for given the
opportunity. His answer was immediate and
based simply on a campaign slogan that to
him inspired hope and a solution.
At first I laughed at what I perceived to be
his artlessness, his innocence. After all, a
decision depends on much more than
instinct, I rationalized.
Then this morning after mulling it over I
began to wonder "Or does it?". Certainly, it's
wise to know what a party stands for, to
understand its policies, but what does that
ultimately accomplish? Not much if history
is any judge. It seems they've all promised
the Earth and given us dirt at some point.
So maybe it might be a good idea to
recapture some of my old idealism; not too
much, I don't want to get silly, but just
enough to dispel some of the disillusionment
I harbour lately.
Let's begin by assuming, easier with
Mulroney gone, that the politicians really are
on our side. So maybe a little stronger faith
in one person's ideas, maybe a little less
rationale and more instinct, will help make
my choice clear.
W need something to believe in so maybe
by next Thanksgiving the future will be
brighter.
Arthur Black
International Scene