Dear Editor,
Enormous wealth allows powerful corporations the ability to influence entities, i.e., governments and even mainstream media.
Some examples are:
– the tobacco industry cover-up,
– the oil industry’s efforts to suppress the truth about climate change (as early as the 1960s),
– Purdue pharma’s $8 billion settlement for its sinister role in the opioid crisis,
– the new banking system Canada switched to in the 1970s where the Canadian government, began borrowing money from private banks rather than the Bank of Canada (not hard to guess who benefits with this current arrangement and who shoulders the interest payments),
– the 2008 global financial crisis where many saw their hard-earned investments vanish overnight, and
– the complex explanation about excessive risk taking by the banks did nothing to get people’s money back – often retirement nest eggs – and we all know (at least in the U.S.) who bailed out the banks.
These are only a few examples that have devastated everyday hardworking taxpayers – the little people.
It’s safe to say we all want our government to spend our tax dollars wisely. We want a reliable commons i.e. roads, bridges, and Old Age Pension. In the same way we want a robust main street and our entrepreneurs to succeed. After all, small- and medium-sized businesses employ a significant percentage of the population.
We can appreciate healthy public infrastructure at the same time as a strong economy. Neither is politically “left” or “right”, just a common sense way of getting things done.
Sadly, we have become more polarized than ever.
In reality most of us hover close to the middle and have much more in common than we realize. Our common foes are elusive, powerful and very, very rich. If the left and right wing belong to the same bird, we need to take a careful observation flight over Wall Street rather than point fingers at each other.
Michelle Matich, Langley
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