When I think about all the truly public services we should have and the level of service that should be available, it makes me think that the public sector should be the largest single employer at every level. Sure, maybe you end up with an auto factory or an Amazon warehouse in a specific location, but on average, there should be more public works employees, bus drivers, nurses, care workers, and policy experts than pretty much any other single industry sector. And probably by a large margin.
It’s interesting seeing the (slightly) different take than offered by the Globe (see https://sh.itjust.works/post/17821213).
The metric that we need to include in all of these discussions is whether our governments are doing what they’re supposed to do with the new employees and expenditures.
In some areas they’re clearly falling down:
- the gap between rich and poor is growing,
- our health services are overburdened,
- we’re educating the fuck out of our kids but our productivity is tanking,
- We were woefully underprepared for the pandemic: our PPE stockpile was filled with expired equipment, PHAC didn’t have a plan, PHAC had shut down the emerging threats observatory,
- and there’s an affordability/housing crisis (driven by underinvestment in affordable housing, shitty tax policy, and record population growth).
But, they have managed
- start implementation on pharmacare and single payer dentistry,
- to lift drinking water advisories on some reserves,
- as the Globe notes, reduce passport waiting times.
It’s neat how 3/4 of the issues you have with the current administration were something inherited and only slightly tuned for the positive before the pandemic (and indolent hillbillies) fucked over our medical system for the next decade.
Bad water? No inspection? No preparation for something that we knew would happen 10 years ago? Rich bitches getting richer, faster? This is the conservative “I got mine; fuck you” utopia.
I get that the reds are only rolling out fair pharmacare because the oranges beat them up a bit. But we need only look to the blue Midwest to see how bad it could be – at least the Fed didn’t lay off like 70k medical people on the eve of a coming pandemic and deny its very existence!
It’s neat how 3/4 of the issues you have with the current administration were something inherited
These are ongoing concerns that matter regardless of who is in government at the federal and provincial levels. They need to be addressed by whoever we elect.
indolent hillbillies) fucked over our medical system for the next decade.
We’re haven’t been training enough medical staff since the austerity cuts off the 90s. We haven’t been recognizing overseas credentials for longer.