Ian Welsh

The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

Tag: Ontario

Continued Privatization

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On May 28, 2024

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Last year I wrote a fairly long article on why everything was being privatized: Western elites are in a duel where those who lose are squeezed out of the actual elite. They may still be rich, but they don’t have power. This duel is particularly dire in the US and the UK, but affects all Western countries to some extent and Anglo countries severely.

Since the real economy isn’t growing as much as it used to (and certainly less than measured), they have to steal from the commons and from government.

Consider the British Mail privatization of 2015, done by the Conservatives and the Liberals: the mail service had been owned by the Crown for five hundred years. Britain has privatized all its railways. Service has gone to shit. More literally gone to shit is the water system, where millions of tons of raw sewage are being dumped into Britain’s rivers and coast, while the water utilities pay massive dividends.

In Ontario, where I live, alcohol sales were, for generations, restricted to the “Liquor Control Board of Ontario” and the “Beer Store.” Are most recent Prime Minister, ex-drug dealer (this isn’t a slur, it’s a fact) Doug Ford, has reduced the duopoly,  and continues to do so. The most recent step is to allow corner stores to sell beer. Thing is, the LCBO and Beer store routinely make billions for the government.

(The Beer Store is run by Ontario’s brewers, they had a contract that ended in 2025 and the 225 million is buying out that contract early)

So this is going to cost Ontario a low estimate of 800 million or so a year. There’s also the fact that the LCBO and Beer Store are very good at checking IDs, so there’ll be a lot more under-age drinking, though I personally don’t care all that much. But social conservative types, one would think, would.

Ontario, since Covid, has a huge problem with hospital waiting times, both for emergency and regular services. Perhaps instead of giving away government money, Ford should spend it on that?

But the point is simple: this is privatization of profits, and ordinary people will pay for it: it has to result in increased taxes, reduced spending or increased public debt.

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Ontario’s Mass Murdering “Top Doctor”

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On August 31, 2022

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I don’t consider this hyperbole:

Remember that ever since school openings, school infection rates have spiked before general community rates. Schools, as anyone who is a parent or was a child should know, are cesspools of infection even in good times. Kids get sick, pass it along, their families then get sick and in turn pass it along to co-workers and so on.

And letting people who are still infectious go to work is obviously insane. Note that 10 days was the original guideline, then it was dropped to 5, which was absolutely not enough. As for masks, they only partially protect other people, unless you have a respirator or properly fitted n95 and never take it off for the duration of the school or work day. If you’re with other people for hours in a surgical or cloth mask, forget it, you’re exposing them and almost no one wears a properly fitted N95 mask and also never takes it off or breaks the seal.

BA.5 is arguably the most infectious disease we know about, beating measles. It’s certainly in the top 5. If it doesn’t kill someone, it has a good chance of doing permanent damage, and that damage can add up to Long Covid, and be disabling. Every time you get Covid, more damage can be done, until symptoms appear that don’t go away after the infection. People who have had Covid are at more risk for heart disease, diabetes and brain conditions.

Now, some data from the US on Covid:

  • Around 16 million working-age Americans (those aged 18 to 65) have long Covid today. 
  • Of those, 2 to 4 million are out of work due to long Covid. 
  • The annual cost of those lost wages alone is around $170 billion a year (and potentially as high as $230 billion). 

The pandemic isn’t over. Covid keeps mutating into more infectious forms. Our society cannot survive this going on for years and years. Lost wages is the least of it, the economic impact and human cost go far beyond that.

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Elementary School Covid Outbreaks in Ontario

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On December 10, 2021

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So, for a couple years now, almost, I’ve been warning about schools and Covid.

In Ontario, teenagers can be vaccinated and children under 12 only became eligible November 24th.

Vaccines do reduce cases; children are not immune, and they do spread it to others.

Ontario’s overall policy has been deranged. Currently, large sporting events and casinos are operating. Before they were, R wasn’t over 1, now it is.

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In any case, if you reside somewhere where children aren’t vaccinated and can reasonably, and you can legally keep your kids home, I’d do so unless the schools are properly ventilated (almost none of them are). Remember, again, that long-Covid is a thing, and could fuck you or someone you care about up for life, even if you don’t die from Covid.

Generally speaking, the most important thing is that Covid is airborne. Proper ventilation is a must. Buildings which just centrally recirculate air are delivering Covid directly to you, which is why most hotels aren’t a good place to quarantine people.

Personally, I’ve been keeping outside air circulation going where I live since Covid started, since otherwise I live in a central air building. Insufficient, but better than nothing.

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Be well and be safe.

 

 

Identity Markers Do Not Make You Left Wing

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On April 17, 2015

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In Ontario, Canada, Premier Kathleen Wynne has announced that she will privatize Ontario Hydro. This will (I guarantee) result in higher prices for power and a worse safety record, because private investors require more profits than public ones. Because Ontario Hydro does make some money, it will also result in the Ontario government having less income going forward.

Wynne is also allowing beer to be sold in grocery stores, breaking the previous oligopoly held by one private company (for beer only) and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. This will mean less money for the government as well. This is something for which the right has campaigned for ages.

These are both right wing policy initiatives and the Hydro privatization, in particular, is terrible.

Kathleen Wynne belongs to the Liberal party and she is a lesbian.

At the time of the campaign to replace the previous Liberal leader and Premier of Ontario, I pointed out that Wynne was a neoliberal.  She is, in fact, a more extreme neoliberal than the previous leader, McGuinty, who was also terrible.

But, because she is a lesbian, people on the left would not heed my warning.

This is similar to what happened in 2008 in America. Barack Obama is African American. Too many people could not wrap their head around the idea that he was also very right wing, despite how much he praised Ronald Reagan. The guilty white liberals who self-identify with the civil rights movement particularly felt the need for the symbolic victory of a black man in the White House, no matter how bad his policies would be.

The results are in. Obama:

  • Vastly increased drone assassination;
  • Surged in Afghanistan;
  • Attacked Libya;
  • Prosecuted and persecuted whistle blowers more than the last ten Presidencies put together;
  • Oversaw an expansion in which only the top 5% saw any improvement in their income;
  • Oversaw an economy which was more unequal than any since the Gilded Age and worse than Bush Jr’s;
  • And far, far more.

But hey, he’s African American. Who cares about all the people he killed overseas and all the people in America who are in poverty as a result of his venal economic policies?

Now we’re about to repeat this with Hillary Clinton, who wants to be the first woman President. A woman president would be a good thing, symbolically, and so on, but how about having a good president instead?

Simply belonging to a discriminated against minority does not guarantee that a candidate will personally pursue policies which help everyone and which don’t favor the wealthy. The first people to break out of discriminated groups and gain real power are almost always collaborators.

As long as we continue using sexual orientation, skin color, or other identity markers as proxies for solid, left wing policy, we can continue to expect having our livelihoods destroyed.

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