Stop the Hogs!

HARDING: HARPER GOVERNMENT ADDS SENIORS TO “ATTACK LIST”

BY Jim Harding Published in R-Town News on Feb. 3, 2012

Prime Minister Harper is coming out of the political “closet”. He has likely struggled to keep his political agenda to his inner circle; trying to appear moderate enough to slip through the first-past-the-post system to get his majority.

His reactionary agenda is falling into place. He’s already undermined international negotiations for an effective climate treaty. He’s labeled those wanting to transition to a less fossil-fuel dependent economy as “anti-Canadian radicals”. He’s embraced environmental de-regulation so Canada can become even more of an oil-exporting state and he’s breached the rule of law and “stolen” money from the farmer-elected Canadian Wheat Board. He has now indicated that spending cuts could hit $8 billion. There’s not much ambiguity left. His Canada would not be a compassionate, moderate country; ecological sustainability and social equality be damned.

TRANSFORMING CANADA

Harper gave his “coming out” speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Perhaps wanting to impress the rich and powerful present, he stands ready to be as tough on Canadians as required to give global corporations yet another boost. The pillars of his regressive “vision” are: first, to tie all policy, including on immigration, to the labour force needs of corporate economic growth; second, to fast-track environmental protection in the interests of mining and energy multinationals; and third, to cut federal services to control the deficit while turning his back on growing inequalities across Canada.

Harper uses two main tactics in his effort to remake Canada as a corporate state. He uses pre-emptive attacks and no-consultation ultimatums, as he did with healthcare funding, to drive forward his agenda and uses “wedge” issues that temporarily divide Canadians; keeping Canadians in shock, dismay and disunity. Harper recruits many of the deadly sins to “get the job done”, especially envy, pride and greed.

At Devos he attacked Canada’s long-established old-age security program as having the “capacity to undermine Canada’s economic position”. With a now predictable linguistic twist, pensions are made a “threat to social programs”. The increasing number of elderly, not increasing inequality from corporate economic growth, becomes responsible for the government having to cut spending. Seniors now join the ranks of the other groups being scapegoated by Harper’s corporate agenda.

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

Harper exploits half-truths. It’s true that with present trends the proportion of those 65 and over will double globally, becoming 15% of the population by 2040. This trend is accentuated in developed countries. It is also true that the baby boom bulge could triple expenses for old-age security here by 2030.

But statistics can be manipulated. At present Old Age Security (OAS) costs are only slightly above 2% of the GDP, which is one of the lowest of the G 20 countries. (Italy is at 10%). Even with the expected growth in seniors it would still cost only around 3% of the GDP by 2030. Meanwhile Canadian pensions have not been extravagant; in 2005 they were only 60% of the net median income, which is much lower than many G20 countries.

POLITICS OF DECEIT

But Harper doesn’t respect facts. He governs by opinion and undercuts the informed consent required for a healthy democracy. There’s lots of deceit here. Harper says he has a mandate from the last election to rule by law, as he’s done with the dismantling of the farmer-elected Canadian Wheat Board. But do you recall any mention during the last election of his plan to cut old-age security? Had Harper announced this intention he would not have won his majority. The senior advocacy group CARP has already come out in opposition to his proposed cuts.

Harper groups together rising pension costs with rising healthcare costs so that he can attack all universal programs, but there is no comparison. Based on today’s trajectory, healthcare costs could rise from 12% to 19% of the GDP by 2030, so reforming the organization and delivery of healthcare, and paying more attention to evidence-based prevention and treatment is clearly needed. The exploiting of Medicare for profit also needs to be curtailed.

In contrast, public pensions are working just fine. Harper has even had to admit that the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) is financially sound. The OAS, for which most seniors qualify, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) which provides additional resources to one-third of seniors, to help them stay out of glaring poverty, would remain viable even with the baby boom bulge, especially if taxes were made more equitable.

POLARIZING GENERATIONS

Why does Harper want to break what is working? He wants to make future seniors pay for his pro-corporate policies today. His “transformations”, in his words at Devos, are “necessary to sustain economic growth”. But what would be the consequences for Canadians? With the globalization of the labour force, our offspring are being streamed into low-paying, precarious jobs, what Guy Standing, in his recent book, calls The Precariat. It is therefore necessary to oppose cuts not just for today’s seniors, but for our children, for when they become seniors. Facing the restricted economic prospects of today they will be even more dependent on a solid public pension system than we are.

Harper will nevertheless try to drive a wedge between the generations by arguing that it is unfair for those in the shrinking workforce to support the growing senior population. Yet it is high youth unemployment - particularly among young men, and not seniors who have paid taxes throughout their lives, that is responsible for this imbalance. The solution is to green and diversify the economy and create compassionate public policy to give youth more social security. Some form of base income needs to be brought back into political debate. The growing old-age dependency ratio can be managed by progressive policy, including progressive economic policy; that’s what governments should be for. Except for Harper! For him society serves the economy rather than the reverse.

Harper’s plan to extend the age of retirement will also be justified by the increases in life expectancy. Yet we already see seniors, before 65, suffering from the stress and disability of our “one against all” economic system. The solution to growing life expectancy is not to drive future seniors into poverty but to transform the economy to better distribute wealth to meet human needs.

TAKING BACK CANADA

Such progressive policy is not on Harper’s agenda. Projected back in 2010 to receive a parliamentarian pension of at least $150,000 per year, it is easy for him to call for cuts to old-age security. Cutting and privatizing pensions is part of the overall post-2008 recession strategy to further reduce corporate costs and increase CEO/shareholder entitlements. Yet, as the experience with the mean-spirited Tea-Party politics in the US shows, fewer corporations are actually paying into worker pension plans. The attack on public pensions while unemployment is high is simply not sound fiscal or social policy. The neo-liberal claim that this is needed to create jobs is disproven by the outcomes, such as a jobless “recovery”, which stare us in the face.

We shouldn’t underestimate the political tricks Harper has up his sleeve, especially when the stakes are so high for senior citizens, today and tomorrow. It is likely he will try to polarize Canadians with his anti-democratic “transformations” early in his present term and then return to a more covert politics as he approaches the 2015 election. Let’s think big and not let this happen. Let’s join together to take Canada back from the brink.

MORE at
http://jimharding.brinskter.net and
www.crowsnestecology.wordpress.com

HARDING: WHY PENSIONS SHOULD REMAIN A “HOT TOPIC”

BY Jim Harding Published in R-Town News on Feb. 17, 2012

“Pensions” have been the hot topic on coffee-row ever since Harper announced his plan to cut Old-Age Security (OAS). I can’t remember as many people engaging me about my R-Town column as on this.

This is good for we’re going to need all the public participation we can muster to convince Harper to back-off. And it’s mandatory that our collective memory about this lasts until the 2015 election. Canadians needing OAS at that time will be much more vulnerable unless Harper is stopped in his tracks now.

THE BIG PICTURE

We need to know his end-game. It’s quite simple: to shift pensions from the public to the private market. This means shifting pensions from the government to the individual, who will then be at the mercy of the profit-hungry financial sector. It’s no different than what Harper is doing in other sectors. By undermining the farmer-elected Canadian Wheat Board, without consultation or respect for the rule of law, Harper leaves farmers individually more vulnerable to the profit-seeking grain and rail companies.

Harper’s game-plan is to turn back the clock on progressive social programs. He can’t directly attack Medicare, so he tries to undermine it indirectly. His recent arbitrary decision to only provide per capita funding to the provinces, regardless of the proportion of seniors, who naturally require more healthcare, could balkanize Medicare and make it more vulnerable to encroaching privatization. Harper is always trying to use divide-and-rule politics to undermine the federal commitment to social programs. Playing generations off against each other over pensions is his latest ruse.

IGNORING FACTS

Facts don’t matter. This is an ideologically-driven agenda and Harper will continue to lay the ground for OAS cuts regardless of the overwhelming evidence otherwise; just as he did with the omnibus crime bill. The Department of Finance, the OECD and Parliamentary Budget Officer have all said that the OAS is not threatened by the aging of the baby boomers. The number of seniors on OAS will certainly double by 2030, but the cost of pensions will only rise from 2.3% to 3.1% of the GDP, which is the most relevant figure. And the cost will then fall to 2.6% by 2050. These are among the lowest costs for pensions in the G7. When it serves his purposes, even Harper admits how low our public debt is relative to GDP, compared to other countries.

Harper controls politics by controlling messages created out of half-truths or non-truths. Message control is how he divides to win and rule. In the aftermath of his announced OAS cuts his Ministers reassure today’s seniors that they won’t be affected; Finance Minister Flaherty tries to deflect the matter by saying nothing will happen until 2020 or, when pushed, until 2025. But think about it; this means that someone who is turning 57 might have to work to 67 before they qualify for old-age security.

TARGETTING THE VULNERABLE

The OAS is not vulnerable to Harper’s predictable attack on public programs for wasting taxpayer’s money. The OAS is one of the best examples of the taxpayer protecting the taxpayer; citizens pooling resources for the common good. You have to live in Canada for ten years after turning 18 to qualify, and full benefits only come after 40 years of residence. (The GIS remains available for low-income immigrants.) The OAS is also income-tested; full benefits don’t accrue if one’s income is above $69,000.

Harper will predictably try to undermine the progressive, universal aspect of the OAS by saying wealthier seniors who don’t need public pensions are driving up the costs for the taxpayer. Seniors may even be scapegoated for jeopardizing pensions for future generations. But this is utter hog-wash, for there are hardly any wealthy seniors; only 6% of all Canadian seniors are subject to the OAS clawback due to higher income.

Further, one-third of seniors require the income supplement, the GIS, which provides additional income for those in need. The OAS simply works! It stabilizes senior income security. It provides up to 75% of the income of low-income seniors. Most compelling, it provides base income for women who have done unpaid domestic work their whole lives, and don’t qualify for the CPP.

All OAS benefits are taxable. Not only did all the baby-boomers pay taxes all through their working lives, but they will continue to pay income taxes on their pensions. Seniors also pay property taxes and the GST; they more than pay their way.

The biggest impact from raising the retirement age would be on the lowest-income seniors, especially those with ill health. Harper’s handlers will talk of our growing life expectancy as if we are all in the same boat. We aren’t. The lowest 20% of earners have, on average, six fewer years of life compared to the top 20%. If the retirement age is raised it will adversely affect those struggling the most.

POLARIZING GENERATIONS

The viability and fairness of the OAS is not Harper’s interest. He wants to use wedge politics to compound conflict between the generations to try to turn more young people, already struggling with low job security and incomes, against “seniors’ entitlements”. As one Harper-supporting financial advisor, appealing to the myth of “Freedom 55” put it, “If I was 25 I’d be really mad.” We hear it over and over in his Ministers’ scripted messages: “we must be sure that the pension system is there for the next generation”. If this was their concern then they’d strengthen the OAS and CPP. But it is not. Harper wants to can get younger people to resent seniors getting pensions; he wants to convince youth that they will face a huge burden paying for baby boomers. Then he can manoeuvre the cuts he wants.

Harper’s desire to shift public pensions to private savings is totally unrealistic. At present there are 11 million Canadians without workplace-based pensions. The up-and-coming generations will have even less workplace pensions available to them; corporations are already cutting these back. Furthermore, the ability to personally save for retirement is becoming even harder; only one-third of those presently eligible for RRSP’s use these to their limit. And the new Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) which benefit those with the necessary cash-flow and are excluded from the OAS income test will reduce taxes available to fund seniors’ programs. You can see how Harper’s appeal to narrow self-interest undermines our true public self-interest.

STOPPING THE WEDGE

Harper’s politics is built on base emotions such as fear, anger, blaming and resent. Fueling these distracts the public from an evidence-based politics. It enables Harper to rule by the force of law rather than the rule of law. It’s insidious but, so far, it’s gotten Harper from the Canadian Taxpayer’s Association to the PMO’s office. The only antidote is to enhance knowledge and solidarity so the wedge doesn’t work. Today’s seniors not only have to fight for themselves but for their kids and grandkids.

Harper will have a publicly funded pension of, perhaps, $200,000 a year. He won’t need or qualify for the OAS. It is easy for him to say that sixty-five year-old seniors getting $6,000 taxable OAS benefits a year isn’t sustainable. Like CEO’s who continue to give themselves pay hikes after public bail-outs and job-cuts to workers, Harper is headed for the 1%. Farmers, First Nations, Métis, environmentalists, artists, workers, seniors and youth are all going to feel the brunt of Harper’s wedge. These groups should consider creating a progressive democratic alliance so that Canada can rid itself of Harper and his wrecking-ball crew. We owe it to our country.

MORE at
http://jimharding.brinskter.net and
www.crowsnestecology.wordpress.com