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4 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Misery doesn't make good company
You could almost hear the shouts
of "right on" echoing across the
province as a spokesperson from the
Canadian Federation of Independent
Business talked about the layoff of
thousands of
government
workers saying:
"The private
sector has been
in pain fora long
time. Now it's
time for the
public sector to
share the pain."
There was a
certain sense of
vengeance for
many people as
they almost
celebrated the
government
cutbacks predicted to cost 11,000
civil service jobs: a feeling that "Now
they can see what it's like in the real
world." But beyond the temptation
for revenge on all those civil servants
who have ever made our lives
miserable, we should be cautious
about celebrating too much. It may
not just be the civil servants, but the
rest of us who get hurt.
Yes, government expenses must
be cut. Yes, without the normal
periodic contractions of the market
economy the civil service gets
bloated. Still, as jobs are lost and as
the salaries of the remaining
government employees shrink, the
rest of us, including farmers, have a
lot to Tose.
There's the obvious Toss since
many a farm in Ontario has been kept
afloat only because a wife was a
teacher or a nurse and brought in a
good off -farm income. Take away
that income, even reduce it, and there
may not be enough to pay for the
farm expenses. And how many farms
in Bruce, Huron and Grey have been
supported by off -farm jobs at the
Bruce Nuclear Power Development?
But it goes beyond that. Farmers
are upset that people spend only 13
per cent of their income on food
while farms go broke because of low
prices, but reducing incomes of all
those well-to-do suburbanites doesn't
help mauers much. If people have to
spend 20 per cent of their budget on
food because their overall income has
dropped, it doesn't help a farmer.
In fact it may kill one of the few
promising areas of farm production.
In recent years we've seen examples
of enterprising farm families who
have added value to what they
produce on the farm, selling it for
higher prices to those who will pay
much more for a frill than a staple
food. Elmer Buchanan, Ontario's
Minister of Agriculture and Food, has
been promoting development of
these niche markets.
But every time we lose a good
salary, a teacher or a civil servant, the
opportunity to sell some of these
luxury goods disappears. In fact,
between free trade, which is sending
high -paid manufacturing jobs out of
the country, and government cut-
backs, which are killing thousands of
white-collar jobs, our entire income
structure seems to be declining.
People keep tallcing about the
service jobs that are coming in the
new era, but service jobs are
generally low -paid; many are even
part time. People aren't likely to buy
many venison or ostrich roasts if
they're working for little better than
minimum wage. Just because they
can't afford the luxuries, however,
doesn't mean things are likely to get
better for the producers of chicken
and pork, let alone beef. Low income
people are likely to be looking for
specials and other bargains. The
pressure will come for even lower
prices, and food importers will be
happy to argue they can fill the bill if
only there are fewer trade restrictions.
Too pessimistic? I hope so
because I've been one of those urging
farmers to diversify, to look for niche
markets and ways to add extra value
before their products leave the farm. I
still believe it's an area farmers
should look at carefully.
Watching all those high paid
people suffer is worrying, though.
Misery may like company, but it
doesn't do anything to reduce the
misery.°
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice as well
as being a playwright. He lives near
Blyth, ON.