Quo Vadis Canada?

It's federal election time again, and in just a short time, the electorate – amongst them over 1.3 million are still unemployed, and probably just as many working in low-paid temp jobs without benefits – is eager to figure out as to, whether or not:

• Canada is technically once more in a recession? Or, has it ever come out of the previous one, since 2008?
• The incumbent government – with its fixation on "austerity", "balancing the budget", keeping "corporate taxes low", promising to "reduce small business tax by 2% to induce jobs creation", urging the workforce to "become competitive" vis-a-vis low-wage-paying countries, "stay the course" policies, and outright refusal to participate in a "coalition government" – deserves to be reelected?
• Any of the opposition party leaders – while viciously fighting each other in public, showing less and less disagreements with the incumbent government's econo-fiscal/monetary policies, and seemingly are not capable of presenting a salient, timely economic renewal program – is really ready to become the next Prime Minister? All considering, the question should be perhaps: Whether or not, it would make any difference, which party forms the next government?

Then those who rely on the media for enlightenment, might be very disappointed because, for some reason(s), there are no substantive issues/questions raised, as to the real "state of things", such as:

• Do governments and ordinary citizens have an expenditure/spending, or revenue/income problem?
• BTOs – big-time operators – claim, but can't prove that the problem is an expenditure/spending one, and to address the same they demand that:
• Governments, at all levels, purge their expenditures, implement more strict austerity programs, and repay their debts;
• Ordinary citizens must learn to live within their means, become self-reliant, no matter what, because an insolvency on a massive scale could further jeopardize the country's delicate econo-fiscal standing.
• Others "in-the-know" argue though that, it's not an expenditure/spending but a revenue/income problem. And in evidence they refer to the province's/country's:
• Massive Social Burdens – caused by severe shortage of jobs –  manifested by the subsequent, ever-growing and urgent demands for longer El terms, and for adequate Welfare Benefits;
• Unfair Income Distribution System, especially in view of the facts that:
• Nearly 50% of Taxpayers receive less than $40,000 gross annual income, that leaves very limited purchasing/taxpaying power in the hands of the latter category of this country's consumers;
• Corporations though, in spite of the long recession – according to media reports – have managed to stockpile over $620 billion "dead money", and invested "trillions of dollars in the stock market" since 2008, instead of this country's economy;
• Corporate executives have been for quite some time accorded astronomical remuneration and stock-options, even as their respective companies drowned in red ink;
• Corporate and Personal Income Tax
• Reduction Program for the well-to-do;
• Collection Method has been cited as failing to collect more than $24 billion in unpaid taxes.
• Are former Bank Executives, and their genre, the best qualified advisory source, when governments are in need of comprehensive solutions for this provinces'/country's age-old socio-econo-enviro-fiscal problems?
• "Well-meaning" citizens may side with the notion that, after all bankers, due to their close connections to the rest of the powerful elite – are perhaps best suited for the task;
• Critics however intensely disagree with the former view, and are very much concerned, about these executives':
• Intrinsic allegiance to corporations/stockholders/investors;
• Spiteful demeanour toward employees/labour; and 
• Readiness to sacrifice the public interest.
• Do Employees/Labour – the single largest unrepresented segment of society – along with members of the opposition parties, and citizens "in-the-know" have the right to be part of the econo-political decision-making process, as co-equals?
• In Canada, they don't. The entire econo-political ruling class prefers to keep at a distance from their employees/labour/citizens, members of the opposition and particularly the citizens "in-the know". That is to say that:
• Employees/Labour – true to "19" century conventions" – should have no say in running a company. Even though, that technically, they are the ones, who do the actual work, based on target figures, issued by company executives. Figures, that are translated and developed into plans and worked out in details, by employees.
• Opposition party members – albeit, frequently representing the majority of the electorate – are treated by the governing party as losers, nobodies and as such are excluded from the decision-making process; 
• Citizens "in-the-know" – the "one in a million" types – are prevented by the multilevel "gatekeepers" of the establishment, from offering realistic/veritable solutions/models for many of this province's/country's long-neglected socio-econo-enviro-fiscal problems. Corporate lobbyists in contrast have a free access/pass to the system.
• In Europe and in a few other places, it's an entirely different story. There, the respective countries' constitution guarantees co-equal participation rights, both in the economic and political system, namely:
• Employees/Labour are represented by their own elected union members to the companies' board of directors. And as board of directors are part of the decision-making process, as co-equals cum veto-power;
• Opposition parties – according to truly "democratic principles" – are even part of the coalition government, and as cabinet ministers are also participants of the econo-enviro-fiscal and political policy-making procedure;
• Ordinary citizens even have their say via referenda. Thereby, they too can directly influence the policy-making process. As a result, citizens of the aforementioned group of countries enjoy a comparatively high standard of living.

In contrast, in Canada – supposedly the best country in the world – a large segment of the public is struggling, just to barely survive, and wondering, where is this country heading? 

But, at the same time, hoping that the age-old mentality – adopted by a self-appointed elite – may be characterized by a Roman mawkish maxim of "Odi profanum est vulgus", in the near future will be replaced by a law of "No one shall be left behind."

In this context, considering this province's/country's undeserved, ill-fated state of affairs, one would expect that, – in order to put substance into this latest chapter of the federal election campaign, some might say, political gamesmanship – at least one notable, "Independent Thinker" would publicly call on all "prime ministerial candidates" to pay attention to the following pro forma, "Public Wish List" or a facsimile, and urge them, if elected to pledge to:

1. Form a Coalition Government, to represent at the minimum 67% of the electorate. After all, shouldn't in fact a truly democratic government serve the interests of the vast majority of its citizenry?
2. Establish an Economic Counsel, in the image of the Supreme Court, with:
• The Authority to Transform the country's inefficient, disaster-prone, and import-based "free-market economy" – that leaves behind a large segments of society – to a stable, "Social Market Economy" that benefits the entire Canadian public;
• The Responsibility to counsel/guide/oversee the latter described economy. This 9-member Counsel should be assembled of:
• Three Members representing Corporations/Business/Employers; 
• Three Members representing Government; and
• Three Members representing Employees/Labour cum veto-power – just as in some democratically well-advanced countries permitted so. 
3. Replace the Competition-based Management Model with a Cooperation-based Model. After all competition has a built-in unpredictability factor with a potential for creating havoc and ill-fated international consequences. However, a cooperative model is verifiably the most efficient, stable, even lucrative and all-around win-win choice. 
4. Build an Exploitation-free Continental Economy geared to serve the North American Marketplace and all of its Consumers equitably. An all-inclusive and self-sufficient economy that is capable of:
• Producing long-lasting and reasonable quality of products, as opposed to the current import-based economy that dumps inferior merchandise, that in turn becomes throwaways – just few weeks after its one year warranty expired – and eventually ends up as overburden to the already unmanageable mountains of trash in every community and beyond;
• Providing steady jobs, paying livable wages/salaries, sufficient tax-base and there-from adequate social/welfare and retirement benefits for all. 
5. Accede to the Ford Principle. A proven theory that is based on Henry Ford's discovery, i.e. every employee has two parallel functions in life, in any type of socio-econo-political order:
• One is that, he/she is a worker; and
• The other is, that he/she is also a consumer.
  Translation: A low-wage earning employee is inevitably relegated to a consumer of very limited buying/taxpaying power, which is the veritable cause of this country's and many others' econo-fiscal failures. And to test his theory, the automaker in 1914 raised his workers' wage from $1-a-day to $5-a-day. As a result, Ford Motors' ordinary employees just within a year were able to "own" a $650 car and within few years also became "home owners". A status that is institutionally denied, these days to millions of low-income families in Canada, by irrationally keeping wages low, and thereby artificially reducing the market by half.
6. Invite Inventive Elements of Society, capable of developing new approaches/solutions for this country's most neglected, unnecessary, damaging and costly socio-econo-enviro-fiscal problems.
   It must be noted though that the Canadian establishment, at least for over the past six decades hasn't been exactly sympathetic, let alone altruistic to independent innovators/ inventors – in terms of at the minimum giving an audition, and/or willing to provide technical, fiscal and marketing assistance – who have the innate capacity to develop highly valuable products and tangible proposals, according to innumerable accounts.
   In contrast, multi-billion dollar corporations have been unnecessarily showered with multi-million dollar grants and benefits by all levels of government with very little, if any to show for in return.
   It is estimated that once, the econo-fiscal-political establishment recognizes the immense value of this ignored human resource and decides to tap into the same, via a proper forum and methodology, the ensuing policy could generate hundreds of billions of dollars per year worth of activities and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the land. Not to speak of the consequential government revenue potential.
7. Reduce the Daily/Weekly/Yearly Working Hours, to provide full-time employment, without any loss of income, potentially for everyone and, thereby resolve the entire country's crucial unemployment problem – as it had been repeatedly and verifiably suggested –  but might have been rejected by overly-cautious policy advisors on the ground that it would increase the much dreaded "pay-roll tax". A totally baseless assertion that could easily be neutralized by proportionately adjusting the latter form of tax rate that, at one point, in the future may even be rendered an unnecessary source of government revenue. 
8. Remind Corporations that by continuing to outsource jobs, suppress wages, eliminate benefits and generate huge profit margins in the process:
• For demographic reasons, (i.e. the rapidly shrinking purchasing power), in the foreseeable future could lead to implosion of the entire "free-market and private enterprise system" – according to lengthy research, validated by in-depth analyses, and supported by academics; 
• Could provoke a backlash, in the form of a surge of Cooperative Enterprise System, wherein "society owns and operates" a chain of vital production/distribution sectors, and thereby creating an equitable and harmonized economy. 
9. Call an International Economic Conference – with the participation of representatives of corporations/business/employers, government, labour/employees – for discussing and resolving the current crisis, for as the present format of worldwide, and integrated economic system, that is according to many observers, sustained by low-wage earning labour, does not prove to work efficiently and equitably.
   Basically, because on both ends of the economic spectrum has been disproportionately benefiting the operators of the system. And without intervention, the situation could lead to economic feudalism, creating uncontrollable socio-econo-fiscal and political tensions, the world around, with unpredictable consequences.
10. Urge this Country's:
• Political Party Leaders and their advisory staff to take note of, and eventually espouse the following scholarly works:
• "The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them" – by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz
• "The Economic Problem" – by Professor Dr. Robert L. Heilbroner.
• "The Entrepreneurial State" – by Economist Mariana Mazzacuto
• Media to lift the over a decade old prohibition on accepting op-ed page articles, written by independent/non-ideological serious thinkers and problem-solvers. In doing so, the public would once again learn the verifiable truth about the unbiased version of the "state of things", such as whether or not:
• Austerity programs, balancing budgets, keeping corporate taxes low, or even eliminating taxes altogether, enticing and showering corporations with all sorts of privileges/benefits, grants to create a "business-friendly environment" are justifiable policies just to retain the status quo, in this country?
  Or, as more and more suggest: It is only to gain corporate endorsement?
• Governments have any authority to prevent corporations from:
• Exporting manufacturing jobs to foreign countries and selling those products back to this country's consumers?
  And if governments don't have the authority, why don't they apply tariffs, payable by those "cut and run" manufacturers?
• Price gouging, especially in the area of lifesaving medicines?
• Ignoring the minimum wage law and pay $75-a-week salary to interns?
• Maintaining the 400:1 income Scale is really essential for preventing the 'defection' of top corporate executives to the competition?
  And, what if they defect?
  Or is it just to sanction the "nouveau riche" to an aristocratic status?
• Reducing Wages and eliminating social benefits, to make the Canadian workforce competitive worldwide is realistic, let alone feasible? And to what end?
• Raising the minimum wage to a range of $14 - $15 per hour is unaffordable, and would lead to huge job losses?
  Why opponents of raising the minimum wage are not required to mathematically verify their claims?
• FTAs are essential/realistic elements to the Canadian economy?
  Has anyone ever come up with a demonstrable, proven theory and a costs/benefits analyses to justify such tenet?
  Or was the image of the extractable astronomical profit margin convincing enough to approve such venture, regardless of the damage to the public interests?

Summary

All considering, it becomes evident that if the gist of the latter "Public Wish List" – a composite of many cogent/edited/formatted personal views – were implemented by the next coalition government, Canada could be reformed and become a truly democratic, effective, stable, prosperous equitable country, the envy of the world.