That's right ladies and gentlemen of the jury, politicians who promise to have a cake and eat it too still exist today. One such example can be seen at what's happening in Ontario, Canada. Over there is going to be a provincial election and politicians are salivating all over themselves. One such politician is Tim Hudak from the Conservative Party.
They just came out with the master plan to fix the aging province. This plan is called, creatively enough, "Million Jobs Plan". There is a website containing the information of the plan but we won't give you the link because it would disappear after the election. Right now, you can Google this website if you're interested. However, for posterity, we are attaching the PDF version of this plan at the bottom of this article.
Ontario is an industrial province, and as such its wealth depends from industry operating at high capacities. This is not the case today, as everywhere in the industrialized world industry is suffering.
THE PLAN
Introduction
This master plan begins with a letter that was in all likelihood written for Tim by somebody else. Nevertheless it has two purposes. The first one is to show that the politician is in touch with public needs. The second one is to demonstrate the common sense of this approach. It is standard practice because most people don't have neither the time nor the inclination to decipher political, economic, or technological mumbo-jumbo. However, there is no real information in here.
What is more interesting is the fact that Tim's less than stellar achievements in terms of improving voter's standards of living is nowhere to be seen. If you Google this politician you will find out that he is good at climbing the political ladder but beyond that everything else is very dubious. Of course, this is not an exception but the rule when we are dealing with politicians.
We are here now
The plan begins with a one-page of supposedly damning evidence that the opposite political party is incompetent. What this page conveniently omits is the fact that all political parties spend, spend, spend and then they spend some more (see for example Politicians Can't Be Trusted Again). The consequences of this long-term spending cannot be other than a depressed economy.
A JOBS POWERHOUSE
The next section of the plan provides a few insights as to what is their intention. Let's take a look at a few of them.
InAction -- Replace corporate welfare with lower taxes
In principle this seems like a good solution. End privilege and lower taxes so that industries can prosper. However there's a tiny flaw in the plan; the Power Elite is the one supporting this politician. Therefore this simply won't happen or it will happen to competing industries that threatened Power Elite's interests.
InAction -- increase opportunities in skilled trades
They plan to remove the College of Trades which is a bureaucratic organization having no value to anyone other than bureaucrats. They want to get rid of outdated apprenticeship rules and let the market decide. This is good but the problem is not the bureaucracy, the problem is that there simply aren't any jobs. This would not create more jobs.
InAction -- make energy affordable
They want to stop power subsidies, remove bureaucracies and invest in nuclear and hydroelectric energy. They also propose to import energy from other sources as required. The only problem with this is that hydroelectric as well as nuclear energy is extremely expensive and the taxpayers will have to foot the bill. Furthermore these types of sources take many years to develop and the benefits, if any, won't be seen for a very long time. This is simply a very expensive pipe dream. Why should the people have to pay for government planners that have failed so miserably in the past. What makes those planners so much more accurate this time? Answer, nothing. Smoke and mirrors. That's it.
InAction -- save small businesses time and money
Essentially they are proposing to remove bureaucratic steps. They will focus on public safety and consumer protection, which paradoxically enough would create more bureaucracy. The problem is not to remove a small piece of the bureaucratic machinery but to remove it altogether. They serve no purpose whatsoever. However, politicians cannot and will not do this simply because this will enrage a large number of voters. Never forget that politicians are vote maximizers.
InAction -- compete for skilled immigrants
Somehow match the employment needs of industry with potential immigrants. Of course, they do not specify how is this going to be achieved. The most reasonable assumption is that a new bureaucracy will be created to take care of this problem. This bureaucracy will, of course, got it all wrong, be very expensive, spend a lot of time, and achieve pretty much nothing not to mention that will further create problems (see for example Immigration Policies Are The Ultimate Monopoly).
The only meaningful solution is to let the free market operate. The free market will attract the skills that are required without the need of any further intervention. No politician is required to achieve this.
InAction -- reduce the tax burden on Ontario families
This is another pipe dream. They promise to lower taxes as soon as… wait for it… the budget is balanced. Where have we heard this before? Do you honestly believe that the budget will ever be balanced and if so that it will be a lasting solution? Of course not. These tax breaks will never happen not to mention that taxes are thievery plain and simple (see Taxes and Myths).
It's just pure propaganda.
InAction -- generate public dollars for the public good
This is a funny one. They want to allow Ontarian and Canadian pension plans to invest in not so sound Ontario government enterprises such as liquor stores, electricity and other enterprises in order to fix aging subways and highways (see for example Plains Trains And Automobiles).
In other words they are asking private pension plans to invest in government boondoggles so that this very same government can waste the money on things that most people do not use. Things that were created in the first place by other politicians in their efforts to maximize votes.
InAction --expand free trade
They're proposing to break down internal barriers to free trade between provinces. In addition they are proposing to support new free-trade agreements at an international level. This is okay except that they have no power whatsoever to do so. Other provinces have their own points of view and other businesses to protect because they also want to maximize their own votes. With regards to international trade agreements we have written about this problem many times. What trade agreements do is simply to artificially benefit some industries over others. If true free trade is the goal no agreement is necessary. All it is required is to get rid of old border enforcement agencies and related useless bureaucracies. Alas, this will never happen.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
Continue to Million Jobs Plan Part 2
  Million_Jobs_Plan.pdf | [ ] | 1610 kB |
