--- kakki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Catherine wrote: > > > Yes, of course I was being ironic, silly. I > suppose it > > would be nice, in a way, to make money off the > backs > > of others, but I really couldn't live with myself > if I > > did that, and I can't exactly kick myself out, > > unfortunately... > > I always thought that Canada had basically the same > hybrid > Capitalist/Socialist system as in the U.S. Not > every single business in > Canada is nationalized or owned by the government, > is it? > > Even as a government employee you are making a > profit based on the labors of > others because I'm sure you are not making a > subsistence wage and your > paycheck comes from taxes on business and everyone > who works in your > country - the labor of others.
You're right - the Canadian system is very much like the U.S. one. We probably do have more nationalized business than you do (thinking of health insurance for example, and some of the utilities - hydro (electricity) for example (although here in Ontario, they're privatizing hydro - or at least, they were going to, now it's being looked at again, but I'm pretty sure, now they've set off down that path, it's unlikely it can be stopped now. Our current provincial gov't believes private industry can do things cheaper and better, so they've already offloaded a number of things that were provincially run. Reading about what has happened with that in California gives me the heebie-jeebies though. You're right - we all do profit from not just the labour, but the brains, of others, and even though gov't employees have had lots of wage restraints put on us during the last ten years or so, I would say that most of us still make a darn good salary - you notice it more among clerical workers, I'd say, who make significantly more in gov't (provincial, anyway - I don't think the feds get paid as well) than someone doing a similar job would in the private sector. But, if you go by Mike's definition of capitalism (and I'm sure Mike will correct me if I'm wrong - heh-heh, or if I misinterpreted what he was saying, which is likely), then it sounds as if the true capitaist does no work at all, but profits solely from the labour of others (thinking of Monty Burns from the Simpsons, my favourite capitalist pig!) (In fact, it's probably not true that he - or she - does NO work at all, since just thinking up the ways of getting others to do the work for you would consume a lot of brain power, which is work), I'd say there are very few (if any?) of us on this list who live that way. ______________________________________________________________________ Post your ad for free now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
