jadero

@jadero@lemmy.ca

Just a Southern Saskatchewan retiree looking for a place to keep up with stuff.

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jadero,

Too many people have no concept of how great the change is. We got married in the late 1970s. My wife’s high school education and receptionist job was enough to get us into a decent 2-bedroom apartment, buy her a brand new motorcycle, and pay for my schooling in a trade. My trade was enough to upgrade our apartment, pay for my hotrodding hobby, let her quit to stay home with our son, buy a camper for weekend trips around the province and vacation trips around Canada and USA, all while saving enough for a down payment on a house with double-digit mortgage rates.

A few financial setbacks (extended layoffs mostly) meant starting almost from scratch (we kept our home but lost all savings and investments) in the early 90s and completely from scratch (lost our home, too) in the early 2000s. It took both of us to barely afford the same apartment of our youth. We finally gave up in 2011, changed careers and moved into a 1968 mobile home on a leased lot in the middle of nowhere. We’re back to being able to afford leisure, although on a much, much smaller scale than in our youth.

We’re still in that 1968 mobile home on a leased lot. It has apparently quadrupled in value since 2011, so if we were forced to start over again, it would be out of reach. We’d be homeless.

Divorce? Fortunately, that has never been on the table, but it’s been at least 2 decades since we’d have been able to contemplate single life from a financial perspective.

jadero,

They did eventually get around to mentioning in passing some of the reasons this particular program fails in some ways. It would have been a much better piece if they had started with the objective to compare and contrast programs that actually work (Medicine Hat, last time I looked) and those that don’t (this one, apparently).

jadero,

I agree, but a big part of whatever problems there are with this program is that the various agencies aren’t actually holding up their end of the bargain.

The program really should be primarily true social housing, not this public-private partnership, but the checks and balances should at least work.

jadero,

An interesting contrast here. Air Canada is forced to honour an erroneous committment made by its service department. Government of Canada is not forced to honour a committment made by its service department.

I could understand it if the error was discovered and acted upon in a reasonable time, but over 30 years? That’s just not acceptable.

jadero,

I don’t think it’s fair to lay current economic landscape squarely at Trudeau’s feet.

I agree. There is plenty of blame to go around. Trudeau, the other leaders, the MPs, and the very parties themselves going back to at least 1990 are to blame.

There is virtually nothing that can’t be traced back to changes in policy enacted by, supported by, and tacitly accepted by literally everyone involved.

Changes to EI that gutted the power of non-union employees.

Changes to business and labour policies such that “society owes me a business” and “nobody owes you a job” attitudes were fostered, then cemented.

Any subsidy or tax reduction or public funding of anything that generates private profit.

Complete dismantling of a world-leading social housing program.

Gutting civil service in favour of consultants and industry association advisors.

Allowing already weak anti-monopoly legislation to gather dust in a drawer.

The focus on the financial health of the stock market instead of the financial health and stability of the general public.

The idea that industry can self-regulate potentially damaging behaviours. It’s never happened. It never will.

And my favourite, running the country like a business. Every employer runs their business as a dictator. Who the hell thinks that’s the right model for running a country?

jadero,

Counterpoint: a very large fraction of the population is one unexpected bill away from insolvency. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to impose a similar fear on corporations for actual criminal activity.

Yes, that’s me saying that a corporation breaking the law should have to legitimately consider closing it’s doors. In some cases, forced closure should be part of the actual penalty.

jadero,

My (counter) point was that much lesser crimes committed by an individual would have completely destroyed the life of the perpetrator and probably their family. Yet high fives all around when a corporation has to put up with a couple of years of lost growth just because a number is too big for an individual to properly comprehend.

jadero,

I have always been suspicious of any “rights” movement among those with power. Whether it’s “White rights,” the “rights” of corporations, the rights of the property class and wealthy, or Men’s Rights. It is not that such rights do not exist or that there are no grievances deserving of redress, it’s that they too often are self-serving attempts to retain or increase power.

I am of the opinion that the vast majority of legitimate male grievance against society would be better addressed by bringing to heel the corporations, the wealthy, and those who seek political power for personal gain.

jadero,

There are people who, whatever they might gain, pursue political power to serve the best interests of society. I think of people like Charlie Angus in Canada or the former mayor of the village I once worked for.

jadero,

Saskatchewan, Canada. To the best of my knowledge, all villages and even some hamlets have mayors and councils. Many hamlets, and possibly some villages, choose to operate as “unincorporated”, essentially putting them under the control of the surrounding “rural municipality” (approximately equivalent to a county).

Rural municipalities have their own councils and Reeves (approximate equivalent of mayor).

The province has the authority to impose an adminstration in the event of malfeasance or lack of candidates.

I think that things are similar across Canada, but I don’t know for sure. This may be a historical artifact of pre-Confederation settlement or the exceptionally low population density in Saskatchewan.

jadero,

We used to have a saying regarding the many perceived negatives of Saskatchewan (climate, scenery, whatever). It keeps the riffraff out. Unfortunately, it turned out that the riffraff make up the majority of who stayed!

I stay because of the low population density. It makes it easy to avoid the riffraff 😉

jadero,

Thanks. I don’t understand much of what points they’re trying to make and disagree with some aspects of what I do understand.

They seem to be saying that intersectionality is a dilution of power welcomed and promoted by the powerful. In fact, intersectionality as a philosophy of struggle was invented by the financialists in the 1970s as they struggled for their very existence. They applied a number of different labels over time, the most common of which is “big tent conservatism”. It is how they gathered everyone from Christians to social conservatives into a battle against taxes, publicly funded social programs, publicly owned infrastructure, regulation of corporate activity, and the employee class.

The usual thing is for the right to steal the language and symbols of the left and turn them into insults and symbols of their own power. It happened with the swastika, it’s currently happening with the Canadian flag, and “woke” has been turned into an insult so egregious that the original owners now fear to use it.

Intersectionality is, for a change, the left stealing from the right. Given that the financialists invented this philosophy, it should come as no surprise that they know how to twist it to their own ends. But that doesn’t mean we should let them divide us for conquest.

jadero,

That is just a natural consequence of the length of time spent in the struggle and in the study of the problems faced and the most effective strategies and tactics for addressing those problems.

As men’s movements come to understand their goals and the true causes of their problems, they, too, will develop effective strategies and tactics to achieve those goals.

I only hope that as the variations rights movements mature, they come to realize that the problem is not who limits our opportunities for success on our own terms, but that anyone does. The intersectionalists get closer than “closed” groups, but many still make the mistake of trying to gain access to the halls of power rather than destroying the very halls themselves. The powerful don’t actually care who finds their way into positions of power as long as the power structures themselves remain intact.

jadero,

We only alter those halls by gaining access to them

To a first approximation, no person or group who has entered the existing halls of power has done more than cosmetic redecoration.

We need complete renovation or destructive replacement. We do not get that by playing their game by their interpretation of their rules, but by forcing the creation of new interpretations, new rules, and even entire new games.

We do that not by aspiring to join their club, but by exercising the power inherent in mass movements in opposition. We don’t need to change who holds the reins, we need to discard the very harnesses that bind us.

jadero,

And here’s me over in the corner thinking that maybe those with a monopoly on state-sanctioned violence should be held to a higher standard than the general public, not a lower one.

If that had been a gang of thugs (🤔), you can bet that everything would be done to pursue the case. And not just two people, but the whole gang as participants in a criminal activity.

jadero,

And this isn’t even lemmy.world, it’s lemmy.ca.

So (drum roll) it’s even weirder than you thought! 🤣

jadero,

I’ve read a number of articles claiming to demonstrate how many of the negative things our governments and corporations foist upon us were first used in prisons. They were then rolled out to the general public, starting with disadvantaged and marginalized communities.

It’s time for organizations like the John Howard Society to get more support so that they can be more vocal and more active.

jadero,

It was never sustainable right from the beginning. Food banks are supported and funded mostly by those just a paycheque or two from being a client themselves. If the actually well-off were doing their part, food banks would mostly disappear because wages and social assistance would be up to the task of making sure people can afford to eat.

jadero,

There is a really easy fix for that. A proper training program instead of just expecting that people are born with the necessary skills. Having worked IT in a variety of capacities, including training and end-user support, I’m pretty sure cluelessness is a function of training and experience, not age.

jadero,

Holy crap, I missed the /s😠 off to fix it…

jadero,

We’ve been trying to go EV for 20 years. The first obstacle was lack of workspace to convert our little Japanese mini-truck (apartment dwellers).

The next obstacle was cost. We moved to where we had workspace, but then we couldn’t afford either the conversion or an equivalently price used Leaf. It’s also still a charging desert, with the nearest charger 150 km away and it’s not even on the way to anywhere we go often enough to matter.

Then time became an obstacle. Our current vehicles will likely see us to an age where we have to stop driving. Does it make sense to live several years of our retirement as paupers to pay for a decent used EV? We’ve decided that it doesn’t. For our current driving patterns, getting 100km of winter range would cover 50-70 percent of our driving. 50km of winter range would cut that to 20-30 percent. I keep my eye out for something under CA$10k, but haven’t seen anything yet.

jadero,

Government sources say they’re puzzled by Canada Post’s refusal to receive the weapons, since the corporation already delivers guns that are sold online.

Are those online sales from just random people or from shops that can be mostly trusted to ensure that the gun is safe to ship?

jadero,

I haven’t really followed that closely in recent years, but pretty much everything to do with guns is handled so badly, no matter who is in power. This is just one more in long line of screw ups.

The last few decades have been just a mess. Way too many emotions on every side. Way too many people with little grasp of guns and their legitimate, harmless uses. Way too many people who think that guns are some god-given totem of freedom as opposed to a tool or recreational skill. Way too many people who see a path to power by inflaming the passions of one side or the other.

Nobody seems interested in conducting actual research into what actually works for the safety of individuals and society. It’s all intuition, gut feelings, different versions of “common sense”, “just so” stories, and emotional attachment to an immovable opinion.

jadero,

You still can. I do it all the time.

It’s entirely possible that I’ve missed more recent legislation, so take this with a grain of salt. Canada has a “blank media tax” courtesy of the record lobby back in the recording tape days. There was much pushback from consumers when that fee was applied to things like video tapes, recordable CDs, hard drives, etc, but still exists as far as I know.

The recording industry was pushing for laws more in line with other jurisdictions, primarily the US. The government was open to it, but would then abolish the fees on blank media. Industry backed down because they get more from that fee distribution than they would ever get by having more restrictions. Of course, that doesn’t stop them from trying to shame us or blow smoke up our asses.

That means we are already paying a licence fee allowing us to copy recorded or broadcast material for personal use. “Personal use” is defined by what it’s not: rebroadcast, playing for the general public, and reselling. Thus, making a strictly personal copy is fine, as is making a copy for a friend, copying from an original you’ve borrowed (from a friend or from the library), recording legal broadcasts (like from radio, etc), and recording concerts unless the terms of admission expressly forbid it, etc.

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