Was down at the park today and so enjoyed a ride on the train. So many other happy tax payers and kids. Glad this is one cut that never happened at City Hall

My little girl loved the whistle. We were at the park this weekend and every time it came on she would look at it and be mesmerized. I agree with Luna, glad this didn’t come as a cut to the “core review” that we paid so much for.

Lol. Nobody wants anything cut, outside of those darned politician salaries! Oh yes, and low taxes please.

That’s largely because those who DO want everything cut, (except their own salaries, whether they’re politicians or not), don’t fully understand how money systems actually work. Or tax systems either, for that matter.

The proof of that contention is to ask where any nation or other collectivety, province, city, etc., has ever yet achieved prosperity through austerity?

There is an assumption that what is true in regards to the financial affairs of an individual is also true in regards to the financial affairs of an organised community.

This is not, nor has it ever been, the case. Though we seem to go out of our way trying to prove that it is. By trying to make the ‘facts’ of what we can actually DO, things often needed and/or highly desired, fit pre-determined ‘figures’ with dollar signs in front of them.

And then saying endlessly that such and such “can’t be done”. Not because it actually ‘can’t’, (which is obviously not the case with the Little Prince, which CAN run, when steam can be raised and there’s someone available who can run it and people still want to ride it).

In doing so we completely overlook that there is currently no way in which the financial affairs of the community as a whole, however it is described jurisdictionally, e.g. city, regional district, province, country, are able to be properly recorded so that they always ultimately REFLECT what is actually physically possible to do, if that is what we want done, rather than being a separate, all-powerful determinant of what will be done and removed virtually completely from public control.

Until we try to understand and correct this, we’re going to continually fail to achieve the full potential we’re already more than physically capable of in being able to provide things (even minor things, like a ride on the Little Prince) that are obviously still highly desirable.

“The proof of that contention is to ask where any nation or other collectivety, province, city, etc., has ever yet achieved prosperity through austerity? “

I’m surprised to hear this coming from you. So continuing to rack up debt and raising taxes is the way to go? Good to know.

In the case of the Little Prince, it doesn’t make enough through the riders to make it viable. So it requires taxpayer support. There are a multitude of ‘little princes’ in PG. We simply can’t keep them all. It is not sustinable.

So if something in itself is not viable it is supposed to be dumped. What about if that not viable what ever it may be, produces economic benefits and spinoffs that make it viable.

seamutt: “So if something in itself is not viable it is supposed to be dumped.”

Not at all. Just don’t complain when you have to pay for it through your taxes… which by the way are going nowhere but up.

How viable are playgrounds? Thousands of people ride the train and thousands more with the memory of that. Kids just love it.

Speaking of viable what about the electric car, the hybrids, the propane conversions and lets not forget the downtown energy system. Taxpayer funded toys for the few. Why is the city even dabbling in these costly ventures?

“So continuing to rack up debt and raising taxes is the way to go?”
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No, it definitely is NOT the way to go, Johnny. But it’s currently the way we DO go, because we refuse to correctly account publicly for Assets, Liabilities AND CAPITAL.

So meaningfully trying to compare services being provided by governments with services provided by the private sector is a financial impossibility.

At present, the ONLY way the collective ‘floating’ debts of the private sector can be amortised as contracted, in their totality, is to constantly convert a larger and larger portion of them into the ‘fixed’ debts of the public sector. On which our taxes pay the interest, in perpetuity, or so long as we are able.

We can’t solve the problem through ‘austerity’, or ‘user pay’, or increased ‘privatisation’, even though in respect of proper fiscal management there may well be some merits in all of them. Under the current financial set-up, each one of these things will end up having more disadvantages than advantages in correcting what’s really wrong.

“How viable are playgrounds? Thousands of people ride the train and thousands more with the memory of that.”

Agreed. Just remember that keeping that nostalgia isn’t free. Nor are playgrounds.

socred: “At present, the ONLY way the collective ‘floating’ debts of the private sector can be amortised as contracted, in their totality, is to constantly convert a larger and larger portion of them into the ‘fixed’ debts of the public sector. On which our taxes pay the interest, in perpetuity, or so long as we are able. “

It doesn’t sound very sustainable to me.

jb: now u r getting it.

socredible does use a lot (really a lot) of polysyllabic words, but his explanations of the monetary system are bang on the money, so to speak.
socredible might get more acceptance and understanding if he “dumbed” it down a bit for the lay folk. Not everyone is university educated.

Once there were few “free” citizens. Now there are a few more.
Once, most people were either slaves or feudal serfs.
Now, most people get paid a wage, so they think that they are not obligated as a slave or serf. That thought is incorrect because the system as accurately described by socredible tends to keep the workers in their place. People are still required to be employed.

The difference between slavery and employment is that with slavery, the slave owner is liable for maintenance and upkeep of the slaves. In other words, the slave owner must feed, house, transport, clothe and train.
With employment, those responsibilities have been off loaded to the now “employed” workers.