Canada Post on Strike

[Ginger_Warrior]

There's nothing ironic about public sector workers paying taxes. They are citizens like anyone else and therefore should have to shoulder some of the tax burden.

 

In that one sentence alone you've shown me you know nothing about the basic principles which underpin tax systems. The burden on individuals in any tax system should be decided by how much they earn, not who they happen to work for.

 

As for the corruption comment, you must be incredibly naïve to think corruption only exists in local government. Only difference between private and public sector there is we get a chance to vote them out democratically. The same cannot be said for consumers and CEOs.

[Kaida23]

There's nothing ironic about public sector workers paying taxes. They are citizens like anyone else and therefore should have to shoulder some of the tax burden.

I realize that it's not ironic, that's why I said "kind of", but think about it: tax revenues pay their salaries for these people who then give part of that money back as income tax; the circle just goes around and around (perhaps humorous might have been a better word). I'm not suggesting that public employees shouldn't pay taxes, but I am getting fed up with the mismanagement of the tax money that pays their salaries.

 

In that one sentence alone you've shown me you know nothing about the basic principles which underpin tax systems. The burden on individuals in any tax system should be decided by how much they earn, not who they happen to work for.

I doubt that even most government officials understand basic tax principals. If they did, they would certainly be better at managing how tax revenues are spent.

 

As for the corruption comment, you must be incredibly naïve to think corruption only exists in local government. Only difference between private and public sector there is we get a chance to vote them out democratically. The same cannot be said for consumers and CEOs.

When did I say that the corruption only exists at the local level? I was merely commenting on the Ottawa City Council in particular. Since you brought up private corporations though, it's true that we can't vote out the CEO's but if a company completely mismanages it's finances it eventually runs out of money; the same cannot be said about governments that seem to constantly be running budget deficits while giving no consideration for cutting back on superfluous programs to try and curb spending but simply resort to raising taxes to try and make up for the shortfall.

 

As for dealing with the problem democratically, Canada doesn't have recall legislation so we are stuck with which ever politicians do the best job of blowing smoke up our backsides until the next election at which point the sitting government simply rolls out a round of minor "refunds" or other such nonsense (the current provincial government of Ontario is debating relaxing laws on public alcohol consumption to hide the great unwashed of this province to the fact that they've completely mismanaged us for the last 4 years) to cloud the voters minds long enough to get voted back in.

 

Really, it's a result of our own ignorance in the very political system that we're (over)paying for. It's not taught properly in the schools and most people don't care about politics (as evidenced by continually declining voter turn out). They say people get the government they deserve, and I guess that's true but it doesn't stop the small majority of us who do care from tilting at our proverbial windmills to try and change things.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Then if you're fed up with mismanagement, blame the managers. Stop blaming workers and irresponsibly demanding an end to their basic democratic right to ballot and protest, and target those who actually deserve to be held to account.

 

Like it or not, your local postman isn't responsible for the local allocation of tax budgets and their accountability thereof. That you seem to think otherwise indicates to me your intentions are well-meaning, but thoroughly misguided.

 

At the end of the day, no credible trade union decides to strike 'for teh lulz'. They too are fed up with mismanagement, so why aren't you trying to explore what they're trying to do to bring local officials to account?

[Kaida23]

I'm not asking them to give up their rights to protest, strike or try and coerce more money out of their employers, but the public service unions in this country have been doing this with alarming regularity of late. That's what I'm getting fed up with.

 

I suppose at the end of the day, as the song says, I'm just a lonely little petunia in an onion patch and all I do is cry all day.

[Will H]

I don't think government workers should be allowed to strike. Their wages and benefits may be less than the private sector, but the tradeoff is the stability they get from the government (which, up until recently is why I think government bonds should pay less than other bonds - theoretically they're more stable).

 

But what do I know, I'm a right-wing right-to-work nut job.

 

I think it would be better if we dismantled this system and made public sector workers get their pay in exactly the same manner that private sector workers get theirs. The average pay should be equal for the equivalent job, and the average pension should be equal for the equivalent job.

 

If the employer and employee can't agree with the pay, then they can decline to work and don't get paid. Let market forces sort it out. Forget unions, let every single worker make their own decisions, because unions are intrinsically open to corruption and greed.

[obfuscator]

 

You dont deserve the right to band together and demand a larger chunk of the tax dollars, if you wanna strike go to the private side. Governments overpay their employees compared to similar jobs on the private side anyways.

Don't make me laugh. By and large government employees are grossly underpaid.

[Furah]

You only get good amounts of money if you work in councils since it's in their interest to spend as much as possible. That or get high enough up the political ladder to have power you can abuse.

[Guest Rob]

I can't order my Yugioh cards until this thing's over D:

 

The government needs to give them a few million dollars so I can play better, damn it.