The private sector in Canada is going through very tough times. I think it is time the public sector started to share some of this economic pain.

It looks to me like the State of Vermont has a similar problem to us folks up in Canada.

The following are snippets from an article titled "The ruling class"

"There's an ongoing tension between those who work for the people – government employees – and those whom the government works for – taxpayers.

That relationship gets particularly strained during tough economic times, when taxpayers struggle to make ends meet and government employees cling to jobs."

"One of the underpinnings of democracy is that government is of the people, not elevated above the people. As wages and benefits for public service pull steadily ahead of those in the private sector in Vermont, that basic underpinning is threatened.

All Vermonters deserve a living wage and a comfortable retirement … even taxpayers."

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20091117/OPINION01/911170340/1021/OPINION01

The following is from an article on thestar.com web site titled "Food bank visits soar as jobs disappear"

OTTAWA–More Canadians than ever before are turning to food banks to make ends meet in recession-ravaged households, Food Banks Canada reports.

Close to 800,000 individuals, roughly the equivalent of New Brunswick's population, visited food banks in March, according to the HungerCount 2009 survey released Tuesday.

That represents an increase of 120,000 users – or about 18 per cent – over March 2008.

"This is the largest ever year-over-year increase in food bank use on record," Katherine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, a charitable organization that represents most of the country's nearly 700 food banks and works to raise awareness of hunger.

Daily Bread is Canada's largest food bank, with 800,000 client visits a year, so an 18 per cent jump equals a "huge number" of people in dire straits, said Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank.

"It's distressing and it is dramatic," she told the Star.

"The people we are seeing now are people who were working, who have lost jobs or had hours cut so severely that they are now forced to used food banks."

Nyberg recounted how friends of hers in the newspaper business went from being fully employed to losing their jobs and having to depend on a food bank within an 18-month period.

"He was laid off, she was laid off, EI (employment insurance) ran out," she said, admitting it "did make me cry" to learn of their predicament.

Nyberg said the government and bankers can talk about the recession being over, "but it's not about the recession, it's about the recovery and it's about employment opportunities and those employment opportunities are not there."

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/727254--food-bank-visits-soar-as-jobs-disappear

I like it when it doesn't snow so much.

Charles I think the government plans to set off an inflation bomb at some point to pay for their ponzi scheme financing for big government. Those who are elastic will thrive and those who are not will be left holding the bag when it happens IMO.

Have to agree with you Eagleone. Sure makes live alot easier. Have a great day lookin forward to +30C, Keep on smiling everyone.

I also have to agree with Eagleone. I prefer when my car is visable in the a.m.

I like when ( or if ) YRB ploughs the highway and secondary roads. On the whole, though, it is good to have contrasting seasons, those who disagree can always move to the wet coast, and wait for the tsunami.
metalman.

Talk about the economy skating along on thin ice, check out the globe and mails story (Oct 21/09)on CMHC, over 600 billion dollars in guaranteed mortgage loans outstanding and CMHC only has 60 billion in cash reserves to cover things off. The average down payment on a house as fallen to 6%. If things start to go sideways with interest rates we could be in the same situation as the states went through over the last year. Fire sales and foreclosures would be right around the corner. I think in Canada were still along ways from being on solid ground when it comes to the economy.

In the present financial scenario you'll either have "deflation" or "inflation".

The former is ruinous to Producers, since they can't fully recover their 'costs of production' through prices for their products that have declined below those 'costs'.

And this being so, are then unable to fully amortize the bank loans that have enabled those 'costs' to be incurred in the first place.

In accounting, the repayment of bank loan principal is not a business "expense", as is interest, but rather a sharing of profit between the banker and the business. And when there is no profit to share, and the loan is not being amortized as contracted, the bankers are quite reluctant to "throw good money after bad". (Unless they can see that doing so will eventually be in their favour ~ which nearly always results in the 'consolidation' and 'concentration' of Producers toward monopoly.)

In general, though, when the banks increasingly can not be repaid what has already been lent, they become very reluctant to lend 'more'. And this contraction of credit further depresses prices, eventually causing producers en masse to stop producing.

Given the alternative between the two, governments and cental bankers will choose 'inflation'. There is a stimulus for Consumers to "buy now" if the thought can be implanted in their minds that the price of whatever they're buying is going to be higher in the immediate future.

However, 'inflation' is also ruinous, since the continual erosion of the purchasing power of your currency makes savings impossible. And while there well may be 'full employment' from renewed and increasingly frenetic economic activity (for awhile), many people are working themselves straight into the same kind of bankruptcy, struggling to make always insufficient incomes meet prices that are always advancing faster than they can earn enough to pay them. A raise in pay will not solve their problem, since every increase in their income is simply 'costed' into the increased prices they'll have to pay.

The solution is to provide Consumers with an "augmentation" to their earned incomes which has not been 'costed' into 'prices'.

This could easily be done by "compensating" overall retail prices with a rebate paid by the Bank of Canada to Consumers on each purchase, effectively lowering the price of all consumables to the Consumer, while maintaining an adequate profit margin for the Producer, both without causing 'inflation'.

Hello, thanks for the opportunity to introduce some blogs which my other Northerners may find of interest:

http://54-40blogspot.com
http://northcoastmtenergy.blogspot.com

These are blogs which I've been working in collaboration with people in BC, Alaska and Yukon.

Please have a look and let them know what you think.

For a better North!

Tax collectors are out in force this week. Keep your eyes open.

With our prime rate being so low, I think it is prudent for people to get their personal finances in check with in the next few years.

The Prime Rate will go up. When people ask me, if they should buy a house with 5% down, I tell them, the first three to five years will be tight, But make sure you can afford the mortgages of at least 6%. Do not walk into a house because you can sneak in with 5% down and relying on a 3.5% mortgage.

If your in your in your mid thirties to fifties, and have accumulated debt, but own a house with room. Remortgage. and stop using the line of credit, credit cards etc. Tie it up on a fixed rate for five years and start knocking down the principal.

Inflation is coming. 6 to 7% inflation starting 2013, brace yourself for it. its coming, we need inflation to pay for past debts. We are all only worker ants to feed the masses. All we can hope for is to be able to live comfortably and die peacefully.

Do you mean the Queen's Cowboys and girls
EBS&L?
metalman.

Yep. Passed 4 radar cars this morning & 3 last night.

A couple living in a $200k probably should have at least 10 to 15% equity, after about 3 to 5 years of ownership.

While a couple living in a $350k home should be having at least 35% equity,otherwise, what is the use of owning it. Every single dime that you could spare would go to payments. Any one little hick up on your income, and poof you start loosing your house.

To all you young couples, read this and learn from a old coffin dodger like me.

If you don't want the ticket, lift the right foot
Such an easy concept.....I thought...

http://54-40blogspot.com


Sorry if this didn't work

Good advice He spoke!

Property values always go up in the end. You guys probably all bought your first houses for well under $50,000. My advice is to get in the market as soon as possible.
Oh right, no one under 60 reads this stuff.

EatsBush, not really, I got in the market under 100k sold shy of 200k and built.

One does not succeed with out taking risk, Its just a matter of managing that exposure, and time of exposure.

Property always go up, or is it the buying power going down. eitherway, you gotta live somewhere anyway.

Damn, He spoke, I got in at $56,000. Now I feel old! :-)
Banks are pretty tight with their cash right now, anyway. It would most likely take at least 15% to get into a mortgage, hence 15% equity after 0 years. Or did you mean additional equity?

Whats with our Cougars. The Leafs are doing better than them.... name change.

The Prince George Kittens.

PG MILFS.

Please: milfs have skills, value and are desired.

Staying with the feline theme: PG Pussies