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| Porsche dealership in Vancouver - life is good! |
Bill Tieleman's 24 Hours Vancouver / The Tyee column
Tuesday April 1, 2014
By Bill Tieleman
"Social
Acceptance: It is important to us that the Porsche brand is firmly anchored in
society. And represents an attainable dream."
Great
news: Porsche sales went up 20 per cent in British Columbia in 2013.
But
unfortunately, so did the number of poor children and people without full-time
jobs!
And
while it's good Porsche is concerned about the "social acceptance" of
the cars it sells, starting
from $54,000 for a Macan S to over $1 million for a 918 Spyder, something is
wrong with this picture.
Sadly,
a Porsche is an "attainable dream" for B.C.'s rich, but the hope of a
full-time job and raising children without poverty is unattainable for hundreds
of thousands of British Columbians.
And
don't look to B.C. Premier Christy Clark's heavily-advertised BC Jobs Plan to
change that -- BC Liberal "strategy"
bets everything on the risky chance that liquefied natural gas will cure all.
On
Monday, Clark and her five-minister entourage visited Ottawa to repeat claims
that LNG will create 100,000 B.C. jobs.
However
a RBC Capital Markets report
released last week once again casts doubts on B.C.'s boasts.
"A
window of opportunity exists for Canadian LNG projects to capture market share,
but that opening is limited given intensifying supply competition from the
United States, Russia, and Mozambique," the report says.
"While
the global LNG market is likely to remain supply-constrained into 2018, demand
growth limitations could play a much bigger role thereafter -- particularly if
Japan's nuclear utilization rates rebound as we expect."
Meanwhile,
back in the real world, child poverty, income disparity and job losses in B.C.
simply grow and grow.
The
rich, the poor, the Porsche
Look at
the cold, hard numbers.
Statistics
Canada reports that B.C.'s
full-time employment dropped from 1,814,100 in Oct. 2013 to 1,802,700 in Feb.
2014.
Every
other western province saw full-time employment grow during that period.
B.C.'s
labour force actually shrank, while the employment rate dropped. Now, 157,500
workers are jobless. (Because of a lower participation rate -- people giving up
on finding work -- the unemployment rate dipped slightly from 6.6 per cent in
October to 6.4 per cent in February.)
Then
look at B.C.'s pathetic child poverty record, Canada's worst again.
Youth
advocate group First Call's report
released late last year shows B.C.'s child poverty rate at 18.6 per cent, the
highest in Canada and 5.3 per cent above than the national average, according
to the latest StatsCan figures available.
That
means one in five kids in B.C., about 153,000, live below StatsCan's low-income
cutoff.
First
Call points out that B.C. also has the most unequal distribution of income
among rich and poor families with children.
The
richest 10 per cent has 12.6 times the income of the poorest 10 per cent, the
worst ratio in Canada.
But
hey, no worries: Porsche sold
569 luxury cars in B.C. last year, a 20 per cent increase over 2012. Jaguar
jumped 80 per cent, Land Rover 24 per cent and Audi 12 per cent -- and even
Mercedes Benz moved 5,492 new models to rise three per cent.
And as
a current radio ad cheerfully tells us: "Just like that, you can afford a
Mercedes Benz!"
Unless, that
is, you unfortunately happen to be unemployed or poor in British Columbia.
.
9 comments:
Lets face it this Government has no heart and no shame,and shame on the people of this Province for voting these corrupt liars in and believing there garbage.
Another hate the rich story. Wonder how many union business agents drive nice cars. Certainly the boys in the resource industries up North earn alot, enough to buy a higher end pickup truck.
and why this perpetual being miserable all the time.
Many poor people cannot affford what Bill drives.
So why doesnt Bill take out a business loan to expand Weststar Communications to hire a few poor people to given them an opportunity to learn work in an office and pay them let say $14.00 an hour.
Anonymous 22:50 opines the story is about hating the rich but really that is just another strawman response designed to distract from the truth.
You don't have to look very hard to find immense contrary evidence to that misconception.
Obviously unemployment, income inequality, and deceptive politics are the true gist of the blog post.
I don't see the provincial opposition as the lasting answer though.
Really a progressive democratic option is needed and currently it just isn't there.
Without electoral reform we continually row the boat in a downward circle.
Those are two things that will help bring the youth and older progressives back to the voting booth.
People are fed up now and they are barely paying attention. They know the reality is that it will just be more of the same under the current farcical construct.
History paints a different outcome though where things get much worse. Where the fear grows until everyone posting in the cyber world is named Anonymous.
So why always "progressive democratic" (read NDP) option? The voters last May said they didn't want the NDP.
Electoral Reform? Always a lame excuse for those who don't get what they want
People fed up? They have been since two partied decided run in provincial elections. Nothing new there.
Thank you Anonymous.
Signed
Anonymous.
There is nothing wrong with driving nice cars. As to Union Business agent's driving nice cars, always did. My position though was I wanted everyone to live as well as I did.
The problem now is fewer and fewer live "well". B.C. has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada and has had for 9 out of the past 10 yrs. That one yr, we tied with Manitoba. The issue really isn't people driving nice cars, its that only very few can afford to do so.
What Tieleman writes about is that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer. That is never good for a society. Just have a look at Hondorus and any other number of Central American countries. There are riches in many countries but as those riches, in North America, shift to fewer and fewer, children become hungrier and hungrier. when people are making min. wage no one can afford a vehicle on that. Its income inequity that Tieleman is writing about and the best e.g. of the shift in circumstances in this province is cars.
So Anonymous 22:50, have a read again, then go to schools in areas where their parents can't afford expensive, nice cars and come and report back. o.k.
"Monniers" should go back to school himself. This "rich vs. poor" is a constant subject of whining by the Left (and yet Jenny Kwan buys a $2milion house even as she is supposed to be an advocate for the poor).
Big big difference between here and Central America.
I suppose moinners would work hard earn a great salary as one expects, and then would be happy to have the provincial government take a quarter or half of after tax income to give directly to a person who has nothing just to appease The Left.
That would mean for him a 1992 Ford Taurus or a Chevette as opposed to what he could want, a nice car.
If the Left is so worried about poverty, do something about it. Give a large portion of your salary to a specific person on the DTES or a person living in the low income areas of your town. Do it.
This "go to school in areas" is a bit worn out. It's not much more than the worn out "tell me about.."
If you're that concerned about it, do something about it. Whining isn't going to help.
There were poor people who could not afford nice cars when Bill was making good bucks in the Premier's Office.
"Monniers" should go back to school himself. This "rich vs. poor" is a constant subject of whining by the Left (and yet Jenny Kwan buys a $2milion house even as she is supposed to be an advocate for the poor).
Big big difference between here and Central America.
I suppose moinners would work hard earn a great salary as one expects, and then would be happy to have the provincial government take a quarter or half of after tax income to give directly to a person who has nothing just to appease The Left.
That would mean for him a 1992 Ford Taurus or a Chevette as opposed to what he could want, a nice car.
If the Left is so worried about poverty, do something about it. Give a large portion of your salary to a specific person on the DTES or a person living in the low income areas of your town. Do it.
This "go to school in areas" is a bit worn out. It's not much more than the worn out "tell me about.."
If you're that concerned about it, do something about it. Whining isn't going to help.
There were poor people who could not afford nice cars when Bill was making good bucks in the Premier's Office.
In regards to the luxury cars. They are bought in BC, yes, insured for a day then shipped out to China as a used vehicle. One can profit on this, you get paid to buy the car and the icbc insurance agent profits because any addons commission is kept by the icbc agent, winning for the exporter, icbc agent, purchaser (who gets funded) a big LOSS for ordinary folks like me and yourself who get ripped off by this icbc scam whose refund does not result in loss of commissions !
I guess this is less of a comment and more of fodder for a story.
Not all luxury cars end up in China, but if they are bought here, then sold off as used, so what?
ICBC agents do not insure cars for export.
Care to provide sources for your claims?
Remember too the NDP started ICBC.
It should be made to be exposed to competition for basic insurance.
It gets tiring when one sees a no at fault claims ever get the same rate as someone who is starting off and then there is rarely if ever no absolute denial of insurance for ever for drivers who have had multiple at fault accidents or a lousy driving record (such as 20 violations in 5 years).
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