Clinton News Record, 2013-11-13, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
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editorial
Being poor provides a
wealth of experience
People in poverty are among the best household
budgeters.
With minimum wage set at $10.25, there is no way
a person working full time on this amount can save
anything. Typical rent in Huron County is around
$600 for a one bedroom.
And so, people with no money have to cut corners,
prioritize their utilities, and decide what to go with-
out and what needs immediate payment.
The County Warden and CAO recently undertook a
three-day challenge to live on food bank staples.
To be sure it was probably no treat, but one can be
equally sure that three days - even a week - is not
long enough to understand how it wears you down.
It's not fun - that should go without saying.
But, it is also hard to get governments of any level
to understand this.
When you are pulling in $100,000 -plus a year with
full benefits and pension, how can you possibly
relate to someone who doesn't even have $100 to
buy food for a month?
It's been said time and again, but the amount of
government waste that occurs - mostly at the federal
and provincial level - could feed the entire province
or country if that's what they decided to do. But, pri-
orities are skewed. Somewhere along the line, being
stewards of society became being managers of the
private economy. Taking care of individuals was
replaced with taking care of spreadsheets, keeping
taxes low so that profits could soar. However, as the
recession has shown, in order to turn a profit, human
capital is shed. Rather than measure the strength of
economy in overall quality of life, it is instead a shell
game of indexes and quarterly reports.
Individuals on the lowest end of the income scale
have no opportunity to profit, though they are the
front line in the bottom line, so to speak. People who
stock shelves or work the cash register are absolutely
fundamental to products leaving stores. Yet, they are
treated as the lowest common denominator and the
most expendable when numbers need to be kept in
line.
It's a sad reflection on a society that has become
increasingly fixated on wealth as a measure of per-
sonal success.
While there are those who tend to look down on
people in poverty as wasteful or negligent, the truth
is, they do far more with far less than most want to
imagine.
In reality, the poorest thing about poor people is
the treatment they receive from a system designed to
limit their opportunities.
- Gerard Creces
letters to the editor
A simple man's thought's
on policing the Internet
To the Editor;
I will always be a simple man in
many ways. I'll try to keep this short
and to the point as we are all busy
people in this age of thought. Hackers
Anonymous are the Justice League of
the Cyber World. We need no other
form of policing on this system. They
protect our freedoms and punish
those who abuse them and they have
proven this. It's a shame they cannot
come forward to provide this service
more openly.
I saw a picture on Facebook recently
that sparked this article. It was Super-
man's symbol with the words "This
means hope". Beside this image was
Batman's symbol with the words "This
means your about to be fed your own
knees". This is why I compare them to
the Justice League as they have done
both for me at least. They protected
the internet's freedoms from stupid
politicians who only know how to look
good and not think about anything
but themselves. This brought me hope
for this world. Then they brought the
bullies of Amanda Todd to justice in
essence feeding these bullies there
own knees from their digital domain.
These people are heroes and deserve
respect in my eyes. As much as any
police officer, more so as they do what
they do for no pay.
The Internet has the guardians it
needs. They could work from the light
instead of the shadows if society
would accept them. I was thought a
hacker in high school I know how they
are percieved. I'm not nor ever will be.
I love words not code. So I will do my
part to support them here in print as it
is my realm. I'll close with another of
my favorite quotes as per usual. I hope
it will become a motto for my heroes if
they do not have one already. I love
this one because it tells you to look at
all parts of yourself honestly to find
your soul: A smart man knows his
strengths but a wise one knows his
weaknesses.
Jeremy John Verwey
Carbon tax best way to
pay our share, reader says
To the Editor;
Mr. Carl Rutley of Clinton (Nov 6,
Someone give Pierre's kid a shake) com-
plains that politicians get to "walk away
with a goodbye and a pension" while
"we are left with a financial and social
mess to clean up"
He is frustrated that those who make a
mess are not required to clean it up.
I think that's a principle we can all
support.
It's called Polluter Pays. So let's apply
that same principle to the mess we are
making of our environment. Many of us
now accept that carbon dioxide pollu-
tion is having far-reaching, negative
effects on our environment.
Global warming is making a mess of a
lot of things, and the true extent of that
mess is just starting to become apparent.
If we accept the Polluter Pays princi-
ple, then those of us who benefit from
the burning of fossil fuels have some
responsibility for paying the true costs of
the damage that burning is doing.
This is just a matter of fairness. I was
not aware of the fact that Mr. Trudeau
was proposing a carbon tax, but if he is,
I'm all for it.
As a society, we are far from paying the
true environmental cost of the energy we
use, and a carbon taxis a simple straight-
forward way to move us closer to doing
so.
John Thompson
Goderich
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