This is a skill testing question. How are we going to spend our way back to a healthy economy? I have been doing my best at Ontario’s liquor control board stores. That enterprise has been pleased with our upgrading to single malts and better wines despite the pandemic rules that force the wife and I to drink them without our friends and relations to help us.
And it is not as though we are not in shock with the price increases when we go to the grocery store. What is annoying, is to realize that none of those excess profits are going to the hard-working people who are keeping those shelves stocked and ready for us. Paying higher dividends to the Weston family and others is not building a stronger economy.
And I really would like to spend more with my local restaurants but did you know that you have to have a smart phone to use those delivery apps? I am not about to pay the usurious fees to use one of those phones charged by those thieves at Canada’s telephone companies. Luckily, they still take credit cards at my favourite restaurants—if I go out and make my own delivery.
Mind you, I think Ms. Freeland is missing an opportunity to satisfy a lot of the critics who do not understand debt levels. No doubt many Canadians would feel better if they could do something to allay our growing national debt. Not, I should add, that it is of serious proportions. It is not. We are well within bounds. And you can be very sure the people who assess national debts would definitely tell us if they thought we were going overboard.
But I would recommend that, at the next opportunity, our finance minister should restore the two per cent that Mr. Harper cut from the goods and services tax some years ago. The funds could be earmarked for debt servicing and would be helpful in covering the cost of borrowing a few billion more if needed to keep our heads above water until the pandemic is beaten.
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Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
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