Globe & Mail Says Canada Needs More Indebted Seniors
There comes a point when you’ve moved past trying to stay optimistic in the face of bad news into the realm of the simply deluded — or, no better, into that of the propagandist. Few of my readers will be surprised to learn that I think the Globe & Mail has crossed into this dark and tragic realm, but I still thought I should not allow them to take their most recent step without being called out for their unmitigated bullshit:
People are continuing to take on debt past age 45… But there are positive sides, too. With all that debt, they will need to find continued sources of income... Need drives innovation, and Canada will see an unleashing of creativity from older people. It’s risky to be punch-drunk, and many people are courting more than a bit of risk; but in risk is the possibility of growth.
Here’s a hint for the editors of the Globe & Mail: when you find yourself arguing that it is good for the country to have a large number of seniors heavily in debt, or for that matter any large class that is heavily in debt, you need to recheck your moral compass. Assuming you still have one. Arguably you should also check said compass if you find yourself arguing that debt is good because it makes people work hard.
It is increasingly clear that Canada is careening towards the same death spiral the Americans entered in 2008. When that happens, the Harper regime will claim it is an unexpected travesty caused by out-of-control public spending, even though it is entirely the result of lax economic management on his part, and tax rates cut so low that the public services Canadians expect from their government, like healthcare and Old Age Security, cannot be “sustained.” And when we hit that point, the yes-men pretending to be journalists at propaganda outlets like the Globe will nod along, no doubt, and agree that nobody saw it coming and that reducing the population to impoverishment is the best thing to do, because, after all, poverty inspires people to work hard and innovate.
The Globe & Mail eagerly looks forward to millions of people nearing retirement while heavily in debt because it thinks that desperate seniors will somehow “innovate” masses of new jobs. It seems to me that the opposite possibility is much greater — that we will have a wave of seniors desperate to eke out a living and unable to enjoy the twilight of their lives as this country has guaranteed them for almost their entire lives.
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Anna wharton
Globe is not of the integrity it used to be. No longer deserves its place. Go to CBC.ca
Jymn
The Globe & Mail editorial board is to the right of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. The G&M is simply an extension of the Conservative party. Which is sad, considering that many of the reporters are non-partisan. It’s a joke that the paper has appointed a Public Editor from within its corrupt editorial board.
Sixth Estate
Anna — CBC is not of the integrity it used to be either. Witness the BC affair.
Jymn — Maybe, but the Globe is still more redeemable than the Post, or Sun. It shouldn’t be a left vs right issue. Anyone with an ounce of sense should be able to tell that steadily increasing debt is a problem.
Sam Gunsch
Don’t forget that Harper and the G&M will have another conservative option to motivate seniors with debt to innovate or go hungry:
We’ve all heard Canada will be building a lot of prisons in the near term, right? Be a snap to add ‘debtor’s wings to those ‘war on drugs’ prisons…no?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison
A debtors’ prison is a prison for those who are unable to pay debt. Prior to the mid 19th century debtors’ prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt.
Sam Gunsch
ok a group of frustrated comedy writers has to be found to start a Canadian version of the Onion, no?
I mean, on reflection, straight up criticism just ain’t enough for stuff like this G&M piece.
And to the same over the top stuff in the Sun chain…
And straight up criticism feels like dignifying them somewhat.
An Onion approach might also be healthier… neutralize the outrage and anger provoked by a G&M piece like this.
Sixth Estate
Unfortunately, if the Globe is going to be printing lead editorials arguing that debt is good for you, I’m afraid that there just isn’t enough of a market segment left for a satire site that would, let’s be frank, run pretty much the same headline.
Sam Gunsch
@Sixth re no satire market left…
… in other words…you can’t make this s**t up…
On your point…I’m sure I read some post titled Satire is Dead or something like that in the last year or two…about US politics…Yeah…had occurred to me.
But what about a blog that curated even attempts at satire by wannabe Canadian comedy writers… I bet it would draw some interest.
Maybe just curating stuff from Mercer, 22 minutes and so on…
and I haven’t looked through your blog archives…are you certain you haven’t written a post or two with snarky stuff that were you to leaven them with a bit of surrealism moves into a category of Modest Proposal stuff?
ok, now I’m set up to hear you tell me I should make the time to try curating this sort of stuff right? I’ll think on it. And maybe just to get out of being angry at this crap.
Sixth Estate
Actually, I do have what you refer to as Modest Proposal-style snark. Here, for starters.
Yes, it would be nice if someone started such a project.
Sam Gunsch
Here’s the Satire is Dead post I was trying to recall.
And yikes…echoes of my lovely province’s past and present political ethos.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/satire-is-dead/
Satire Is Dead
…
I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!
But today I read this: Jamie Dimon, CEO Of JPMorgan Chase, Calls International Bank Rules ‘Anti-American’.
Satire is dead.
Sixth Estate
I suppose one could resuscitate satire by trying to go somewhere even more extreme. Claiming that the very existence of corporate income tax is anti-Canadian, for instance. Oh right, that’s already official policy.
Sam Gunsch
re satirizing neo-con’s and Harper conservatives
This post on Alternet about Colbert Report describes a possible model that is going more extreme as you suggest,in a hyperreal satirical form.
Probably a challenge to regularly find blog posts/videos that approach Colbert’s standard.
excerpt:
“The Colbert Report” is the flip side of Network’s fascist coin.
excerpt: Colbert’s democratizing deprogramming simultaneously educates and humors us, rather than simply feeding our fears and inflaming our prejudices, despite the fact that it looks like it’s doing exactly that. Unlike Network’s mad-as-hell Howard Beale, Colbert’s informed rants are veiled as idiocies, but remain exactly what the citizenry needs to deconstruct a political machine now more powerful than ever, thanks to Citizen United.
http://www.alternet.org/story/153899/why_we_should_thank_stephen_colbert%3A_3_ways_the_culture-jammer_exposes_our_rotten_corporate_state?page=entire
AlterNet / By Scott Thill
29 COMMENTS
Why We Should Thank Stephen Colbert: 3 Ways the Culture-Jammer Exposes Our Rotten Corporate State
Colbert educates viewers on America’s arcane political machinery, while schooling mainstream journalists on how to properly inform the citizenry.
January 26, 2012 |
Sixth Estate
Maybe. Currently I’m trying to reason out whether the sort of “deconstruction” or “culture jamming” this approach seems to celebrate is actually all that helpful or not. I’ve always found watching the Colbert Report to be strangely paralyzing…