In the last couple of weeks I posted a series of Facebook posts that were essentially decrying the landlord/tenant dynamic as we have it in Canada. At one point in the comments, I was asked, "If you were king for a day (or however long you need) what changes would you make to alter the current system/mindset?"
I fully believe the question was genuine and not just asked so that it would turn into a "gotcha" question where my ideas are dismantled out of hand.
I've been thinking on some ideas for a while and I thought that I would try something out of the ordinary where I would take the ideas I've heard about and put them into my pitch for how I would improve things.
I'm going to try to keep my focus on Canada, although, I should note that I will comment on the American system as well, because they have such a prominent impact on the thinking in Canada and I believe that their system needs to be improved as well.
Now, at the outset, the discussion that prompted this response was centred on rent and property ownership, but frankly, the system is such that everything is tied in with each other. I am going to pitch a variety of ideas and although I would love if all of them were brought together, I still believe that each of them individually would help Canadian society. Since this is a post for social media consumption, I will also not dive super deep into things but rather it is to paint a broad picture. There are nuances to any of the topics I bring up, but I am not a politician or political scientist or economist, but rather someone who has listened and observed these topics across my own lifetime.
The undergirding for my philosophy and approach is based in this concept that I refer to as "divine imagination". There may be a different and better term for it, but essentially, I understand that the things I pitch will require Canadian society to be more generous than it is. This usually brings push back, but I am being informed by my understanding of the teachings of Jesus that calls for us to bring about the kingdom of God, which is at hand. Something so close to what we can do, we just need to have the will to do it.
The other main idea that undergirds my thinking is that the economy is to serve society and that society is not there to serve the economy. The economy is a tool but as soon as it becomes more important than people, we have missed the whole point. We need to adjust the economy for the benefit of people.
I will also remind you that I am a layman and I know that experts would need to refine or better explain these ideas. I don't have references ready at hand as I write this, because, let me just check my notes, I am also being overwhelmed by day to day life and I don't have the time to properly list my sources. I will give the synopsis in this post and if people doubt my idea, then I point them to sources later.
Here are some of the changes I would like to see:
1) Most importantly - housing for the homeless. It wouldn't have to be elaborate. People who have a place to a stay for free so they can get their feet underneath them. It is cheaper to give housing along with someone to help guide a homeless person than many of these shelters that only help day by day. With a permanent place, it would be easier to get a job, to avoid being exposed to the elements and thus reduce illness and strain on the healthcare system. Prevention is always cheaper than reacting to a problem. If someone is completely desperate for shelter and food in the current system, the best way to do it is to be sent to prison. That's messed up.
2) Clean water to reserves. We are willing to build pipelines for oil to benefit the economy but not basics to benefit society. That's messed up.
3) Universal basic income - the main argument against it is that it would make people lazy. I disagree. The one thing that the pandemic has proven to me is that I get supremely uncomfortable in doing nothing. The thing is, the stuff I want to produce or do may not be seen as profitable even though want it. They just don't want to pay for it. I am specifically talking about art. Many artists are okay with not making a million dollars, they just want to create. And many of those artists are what inspire and encourage others. And in the moments when a person is left to themselves, they frequently turn to the beauty of art. The pandemic has shown it to be so. If you had no books or movies or music or podcasts, your quarantine would be more hollow. If you have kids, where do you turn to? Art. Even if you don't show them a Disney movie or paid one cent for art, you, at the very least, told them stories or encouraged them to use their imaginations. That is tapping into artistic energy. People who use their lives to be artistic help you to feel, think, express, and reflect life. Just like I would turn to a mechanic to help me fix a practical problem with my car. But we don't pay them. And I get it. Paying for art feels weird. But I believe that it should feel weird that people who make art to not be paid.
Also, a note on this, when UBI has been tested before, they found that people didn't just up and quit their jobs. The only people that worked less were people like single parents because they could spend more time with their kids. Or people could spend more time getting training to do a higher skilled job. It's happening for some Canadians who are receiving CERB right now.
UBI helps people live the lives they are suited for and would be best for society.
Now, the question is always, where does this money come from? How come we slow right down when it comes to helping the poor and yet corporations in Alberta can get a $4.7 billion tax cut and it is rushed through the Legislature.
The theory of trickle down economics has never worked. You give to the cuts to the top, it never makes its way down. However, you give money to the lower socio-economic groups and suddenly the engine of the economy is running better because poorer people will use money and not just stash it away.
Automation is coming into more and more fields and most jobs could potentially be unnecessary because of it. So when is the hard working lower and middle classes going to see the benefit of a society that is the most productive it has ever been?
UBI is one of those things that give people a minimum structure to work from that is more than zero.
Now, you may point out that this will just enable welfare queens. Which is not really a thing that exists. But sure, some people will take advantage of the system. You're right. And some people would be making money for doing little. You'd have some lazy guy make thousands of dollars for no work. But you should remember that the other way is much more catastrophic for society. On the other end, you have people taking advantage of the system and ripping away millions and billions and I guarantee you that they are not working so much harder than the average blue collar worker to earn it.
4) Habitat for Humanity should be the standard way of getting a home - At least how it was originally designed to be. (In Edmonton, the local chapter has reneged on it's contracts and it is awful and wrong). You help build a home, you owe a certain amount of hours both in building your home and to the community, and you get the deed to the place. Your work earns you a house. It should not be your work plus a down payment that you may never be able to save up for because you barely afford to live.
5) If you want a second house to own, it should be much more than the market price - I would astronomically more. The pandemic proves this point again. Remember how there were people who bought all of the toilet paper and you were lucky to get some? And those people then turned around and tried to sell it at a profit? Remember how furious you were about that because it was unfair and selfish? Guess what? Those people were capitalists through and through. They played the game right. Here's the thing. Life is not a game you can win. Specifically, our communal life is not a game where one person can win. Suddenly, there were restrictions on how much toilet paper you could have to make it fair and reasonable for people to have access to a basic necessity. Some places had increasing costs to buying more toilet paper. It made sense, right? It made people take what they needed and leave enough for others to also have. Well, you have companies and people buying up more houses than they personally need and then turning around and benefiting from a necessity for life which is shelter. Shelter is even more important than toilet paper but we are okay with the system because likely, if you're reading this, you have a place to stay. Some people are struggling to maintain a place to stay, even before this pandemic happened.
6) Rent should not be used to earn profit. - Rent should be: Property taxes (which are designed to pay for local schools and infrastructure) + utilities + wear & tear + the smallest amount for convenience. That last fee would essentially be for paying the land lord for maintenance on the place. Acting almost as insurance. The alternative to this if the rent is to be higher is to be for the sake of selling the home to the tenant. If the tenant wants to pay more per month, they are building equity in the place. I know there is more to explain in this, but I am painting with a broad stroke right now.
I know some of you may be thinking, "but renting out is one of the ways of getting a return on my investment!"
Correct. And it's messed up. That's super messed up. That is making it so that people who have not been able to build up wealth will continue to not build up wealth under the arbitrary distinction that you "own the land". How can someone own land? What makes it yours?
7) Defund the police and reimagine the role of the police - The police are the ones called in to solve far more problems than their scope really should be and they don't often receive training to handle beyond a limited scope. People trained in mental healthcare and deescalation would be better suited in dealing with someone who is having an episode and should be at the forefront dealing with a situation that involves mental health, not just cops that are trained to be react violently with efficiency. Let's divvy up the responsibilities of the cops (along with their budgets) to other individuals.
8) Fund needs of the community - by addressing the underlying issues that lead to crime, you will have less need of police. Oh, and look, if you cut the funding to police (who often receive an inordinate amount of a city's budget to the point where Halifax spent half a million on a tank for it's police force. Halifax. For the police. A tank, in case you missed that. For Halifax. You know the one in Nova Scotia. The place is not a war zone.) you suddenly have more money.
9) Corporations are taxed for profits made in the country - this is where funding would come from. You make money in Canada? You pay taxes in Canada because you have benefitted from Canada's infrastructure and your money will help keep that infrastructure strong. Close up tax loopholes that inordinately benefit multinational corporations. Now, I know that some may point out that corporations would avoid Canada because of restrictions put on them. Corporations are simply out to make as much money as you're willing to give them. Canada (and especially the States) have fallen for this. I chose I random country. McDonald's in Norway pays $15.98 (in American dollars) per hour for a new hire. After four months, it goes to $19.63. Now, it's not that McDonald's executives have more love for Norwegians because of lutefisk. If they could, they would pay them as little as possible. Even if that amount is not a survivable amount. Back to my point, Norway despite these restrictions, still have McDonalds. The cholesterol clown is still making money there. Politicians need to have more of a spine and a servant heart and make the corporations pay their share.
Also, if you really hate the idea that someone would be a welfare queen as mentioned a few points ago, I should say, you know what. There are welfare queens. Too many. They take advantage of the system to the tune of millions and billions. It's corporations like McDonald's and Walmart that pay their workers so little, that the workers then turn to the government anyway to get financial aid. These kind of corporations are the ones benefitting the most. Get them to pay into the system. Heck make it so that if they want to avoid taxes, they have can pay their employees more.
Now, you've may have made your way through all those ideas and think to yourself, "but no one can become a billionaire in that kind of system.
Yeah. That's a great point.
That's the best point.
If you think that it is our right to be able to gather up so many resources so that you can live an extravagant life because the system says its okay to do so while your fellow humans struggle to survive and in fact are heavily impeded from getting ahead, guess what? You're awful. You are either the dragon in their cave hoarding riches or you want to become the dragon.
Yes, the world came from a place of survival of the fittest and a dog eat dog kind mentality, but it's actually been us working together that has been thing that helped us to survive as a species.
You taking care of others is the thing that will help you live better. The pandemic is another great example. Want to protect yourself from getting Covid? Make sure your neighbour is able to get the health care and financial assistance they need so they don't have to come into work if they're sick and expose a bunch of others in order to pay rent.
The ideas I presented demand that we have to be okay with not being as extravagant as we want to be.
And that is a hard pill to swallow. It's uncomfortable.
It would seem "impossible". It is a challenge, but I also believe that it is a better way.
The alternative, where we can be rich and keep other humans back makes things tougher in a different way.
"'I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" - Matthew 19:23-24
Let us not serve the system, let us make sure the system serves us.
"I don't mind stealing bread
From the mouths of decadence
But I can't feed on the powerless
When my cup's already overfilled"
- 'Hunger Strike' by Temple of the Dog
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