THE RECORD
March 01, 2000

THE RECORD

March 01, 2000

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Living out in the boondocks and no wish to waste our money and time on a satellite dish we only have access to two TV channels, CBC-TV and BCTV. Both my wife and I hate TV commercials with passion, therefore our total daily viewing time are the 50 minutes of BCTV's 6 o'clock news. We'd prefer to watch CBC, but by the time their news comes on we're usually into some movie on the VCR. Both of us being workaholics we need some time to switch off before going to bed and we find our nightly movies the best way to do it.

Deducting the time wasted on commercials, the crime reports, plus the mandatory political propaganda forced on us by BCTV's management, we estimate that about 40 to 45 minutes of our daily TV time is total waste. The "mute" button on our remote control is the shinyest of the lot. Nevertheless, the remaining 5 to 10 minutes do give us some visual reference of what is going on in the outside world. Apart from that all our news come from the Internet, where one can still find sources not censored by the likes of Conrad Black and whoever controls the airwaves.

Right now BCTV is running a series on what to do with the federal budget surplus with a surprisingly small amount of propaganda. It must have shocked them to find that a good percentage of Canadians still want to see some of the money stolen from the provinces returned and used for the rejuvenation of public services, instead of more taxbreaks for the wealthy.

The misinformation pushed out by our politicians and media is mostly based on mandatory ideological dogmatism. All paid for as tax deductible expenses by the major corporartions. They're still trying to sell us the idea that Seattle was just a sideshow put on by a few thousand troublemakers and it will be business as usual once they are shut up. Then everything in the global village will be privatized, governments will disappear into mouseholes and democracy will become a commodity to be sold on the competitive markets to the highest bidders. Without the people having any say in the matter.

There was a statement from the Business Council on last night's news that the road to prosperity leads through major sellout of BC's publicly owned properties and infrastructure. This alone shows that their idea is not to bring prosperity to the citizens of BC, but to strip them of their valuables and pocket the profits. Then when they have nothing left and are begging for crumbs they can be pushed around at will.

If there's one thing that I've learned in my 43 years as an independent businessman it is the rule not to sell, but to buy and build up equity and borrowing power. Once you sell property and spend the money, what do you have left? Poverty. This applies not only to privately owned businesses, but also to governments who are supposed to look after public property and use it in the best sustainable way for the public's good. Rotten, commie, pinko ideas the Business Council is determined to stamp out.

It is not publicized by these good people that when people borrow against a real collateral they are in fact borrowing from themselves by temporarily converting part of their property into cash. Like all small business people, I must have done it a hundred times, repaid every penny and still had the property left. If I'd sold, now in our old age we wouldn't have anything and would be eating dogfood to survive.

Of course, Jimmy Pattison with the other patron saints of the Business Council and the Board of Trade would never admit to these facts and keep on pushing the brainwash so they can buy and sell BC and demand taxbreaks on the profits. I would say Jimmy has by now hoarded enough goodies to disappear into the sunset in his new, tax deductible yacht and very few would miss him. Least of all his employees.

I have yet to see BCTV or the Conrad Black machine mentioning the simple fact that it makes no difference whether it is politicians or civil servants or corporate executives who travel, wine and dine on so called "taxpayers money." It all comes out of the same pocket. The private jets of corporations and the fancy stuff are all tax deductable and paid for by the public exactly the same way as government expenses.

The funniest part is that when governments invest, or spend money on something it is denounced as waste and screamed about to high heaven, but when corporations build skyscrapers and fancy offices it is called "economic growth." Figure it out..........

Copyright (c) 2000, West's International

Copyright (c) 2000, West's International