Straight Talk About...: Part 6 - A Comprehensive Proposal for Economic Revival

In order to gain a complete insight into this country's current socio-econo-ﬁscal standing, it appears to be necessary to review a few additional statistics:

Current (June 2011) Federal Government Deﬁcit: $36.2 billion
Current (April 2011) Provincial Government Deﬁcit: $16.7 billion
Current (April 2011) Federal Government Debt: $563.3 billion
Current (April 2011) Provincial Government Debt: $236 billion
Unemployment Rate in Canada: 8.1%, or 1.488 million (3 month average ending April 2011). Note: In more than a handful of countries the jobless rate is less than ﬁve per cent.
Unemployment Rate in Ontario: 7.9%, or 580.8 thousand (3 month average ending April 2011)
2010-2011 Canada EI Account, Planned Spending: $19.75 billion.

A close review of the above-listed data leads to several conclusions:

First is the enormity of the socio-econo-ﬁscal problems that Canada is faced with. This becomes even more evident and begs for equitable, rational policies, and immediate corrective actions.
Second is that, much of the stimulus programs initiated by the federal and provincial governments have produced negligible results.
Third is that, in the absence of a foreseeable marked increase in consumer demand, business has no realistic reason to expand operations, let alone to hire new employees.
Fourth is that, there are more than a handful of countries around the world, where the jobless rate is less than ﬁve per cent; hence one might ask, why doesn't someone study those country's MOs'? -- and
Fifth is that, the establishment doesn't seem to have an effective plan to deal with the crucial unemployment problem, and the government appears to be resigned to spend ca. $20 billion this year on the El program, essentially keeping the unemployed off the active workforce.

Potential Solutions

Unfortunately there are many within the intellectual circles who regard the citizenry as mere subjects, whose role is to abide by the decisions of the establishment, as their trustees, no matter what the consequences are. However, since there is more than enough proof to conclude that, in order to reduce the unnecessary human suffering and effectively deal with this country's socio-econo-ﬁscal problems, the establishment must:

Set aside its decade old exclusionary “keep-out" protocol and seek out the advice of the few and far between realistic, interdisciplinary thinkers and experienced problem-solvers, who are in the know.
Initiate an Affordable Housing Construction Program aided by the power of volunteerism. This has already proven to be very effective, mostly in the ﬁelds of education, health care, politics, and sports. Such a program, if introduced, would ﬁll the needs of a significant segment of the public, particularly:

The young singles and couples with limited, but relatively stable ﬁnancial resources, who would like to create their own nest egg, i.e. buy a home and join the middle class. Or the retirees who are ready to trade down their home for a smaller, yet functional condominium, and gain access to a certain amount of spending money in the process.

The unemployable school dropouts, who are willing to participate in various construction related job training programs, and are eager to ﬁnd gainful employment in the industry.

Contact foreign companies, involved in the development and production of advanced, clean electric power generation equipment, energy saving appliances. Offer such companies, interested in serving the North American market, the opportunity to set up manufacturing and distribution facilities in Canada.
Provide grants and forgivable loans for promising, independent innovators and inventors, enabling them to convert their concepts into saleable products, services and employment opportunities.
Create a much needed economic expansion plan, to considerably reduce the perpetual unemployment and poverty crises by taking the following steps:

Grant a $5,000 - $10,000 tax credit to reliable employers for each additional employee they hire for a minimum of a one year period. The introduction of such a tax credit could be ﬁnanced from the EI budget and would save the federal government a $7,000 - $12,000 per each unemployed individual hired. That is to say that by creating l million jobs, the federal government could save $7 billion - $12 billion a year on El payments, not counting the new peripheral employment opportunities, and the additional tax revenue gained in the process.

Replace the ﬁxed corporate business tax with one that is prorated to a given company's contribution to reduce unemployment.

Use the "patriotic card" by asking the business establishment to increase the size of their workforce, in lieu of temporary payroll tax exemption and for other sound ﬁscal incentives.

Diversify the Canadian economy in order to minimize the devastating effects of a potential saturation or even collapse of the IT market.
Widen the scope of the age-old concept of partnership and co-op system, whereby individuals with all types of occupational backgrounds could form an alliance, working together to provide marketable services, share the cost of operations, and apportion their revenue according to the rate of their respective input.
Apply a mathematically and theoretically proven program for literally eliminating unemployment, without any loss whatsoever in personal income.
Raise wages of low income earners strategically, with incalculable positive socio-econo-political results, to boost the economy, create nearly full employment and generate tax revenue for all levels of governments, and yes, even to increase the bottom-line.
Legalize the right to form and join employees‘ associations for all members of the workforce, -- just like business is accorded with organizations like the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, Chamber of Commerce, Employers‘ Advocacy Council, Home Builders‘ Association and many others -- to promote the interests of its members. It is expected that the legalization of such a right would create a much needed balance of power between employers and employees, just like in many other developed countries and would create a more stable working environment based on mutual trust and respect.
Dispose of the age-old myth, and vestige of the era of slavery, that suggests that labour cost and beneﬁts should be minimized in order to make a business operation more proﬁtable. Those who espouse such views should remember Henry Ford's discovery: employers are not only workers but also consumers. That is to say that low wage earning employees will automatically become meagre consumers. A situation that's not in the best interest of business, let alone the economy.