THE RECORD
July 16, 2003

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Well, it is hard to believe, but this is the one hundredth column since the first one darkened these pages in April '99. I have been a contributor to and even a columnist for various publications for many years, but never for this long.

My funniest departure from a paper happened about twenty years ago when a new editor of the Williams Lake Tribune declared that he didn't want anybody who was thinking. He only wanted reports on local happenings and fired all contributors who didn't fit his ideas. He was fired in short order himself, but not before he ran the paper into the ground from where it took years to recover.

I thought it was a joke when the editor of this paper asked me if I'd wanted to write a column. I took it on mainly because I thought that once people started reading my outrageous offerings I'd be fired in no time. I still believe that the only reason I'm tolerated in decent company is because nobody bothers to read what I write and the lack of comments seems to support this position.

So, let's revisit some of my perennial complaints against the present fraudulent economic system
As and independent businessman in BC since 1957 I have seen very few companies put out of business by government actions, but literally hundreds and whole industries destroyed by so called "free trade" forced on by multinationals and their fully owned politicians, destituting millions in Canada and around the world. In other words, the biggest enemy of legitimate business is not democratically elected government, but the insatiable collectivization greed of big business.

When I hear governments and politicians beating their chests as "Business friendly" I want to ask: "What business? The human kind, responsible for their actions as part of communities, or the multinational criminals who move into regions to strip and destitute them?"

Some of the companies welcomed in this and other countries as so called "wealth creating foreign investors" have criminal records and fines against them going into the hundreds of millions of dollars and executives who can not show their faces in certain countries for fear of being arrested and jailed on multiple charges.

All forms of economic competition, deregulations, privatizations, so called "free trade" like NAFTA and the WTO, mass firings, downsizings, pushed by the so called "market economy", allegedly to "reduce costs and prices", are increasing costs and transfer them on to a wider base. Costs can not be cut, only transferred to others.

It is generally agreed among the still remaining honest economists that the standard of living around the world has been going down since about 1974 when the neoclassical theory was forced on North America by powerful special interest groups. The figures show that living standards increased by 48% in the first 25 years after WW2 and then stagnated, or declined ever since.

Once governments around the world worked to increase services for the well being of their citizens, but now they are cutting them back, causing incredible damage to the environment and humanity in the process. This, however, is taught in our universities as "good, responsible economics and fiscal management."

As the result of these irresponsible actions, costs, prices and deficits have been going up, and services for the public have been disappearing for the past twenty years, especially since the FTA and NAFTA have raised their ugly heads. Everything costs more every day, incomes are shrinking and food bank lines doubled since I started writing these columns four years ago, yet the Fraser Institute, the Alliance and its BC branch the Campbell gang, demand more of the same.

How many people have heard of the GATS, or General Agreement on Trade and Services, negotiated in secret by the federal government for three years under the auspices of the WTO? How many have heard of the FTAA, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, also under secret negotiations for about eight?

The purpose of both of these treaties is the complete dismantling and eliminating of public ownership and control of all services, like water, education, healthcare and 160 more, including government procurements.

They also seek destruction or restriction of all democratic decision making by local and national governments, and the complete control of all resources and economic activities by multinationals.

Our politicians, like Paul Martin and Stephen Harper think that such so called "globalization is inevitable" and we must submit. to it or be left behind. Left behind in what? The downhill race to self destruction?

I think people who are selling this idea are either nutcases, or crooks. Anybody who still believes that this fraudulent free trade and globalization will bring overall wealth and prosperity should have their eyes, ears and brains tested.

Copyright (c) 2003, West's International