Editor:
Re: White Birch developer feels ‘betrayed,’ Jan. 28
It is not what is said, but what is left unsaid that is most heart-wrenching.
From council’s decision and this article came the predictable onslaught of opinion on social media. How casually we speak of seniors losing their homes, of those working in care homes, for whom we enthusiastically banged pots in love and appreciation a year ago, suffering the same fate, of those earning a “living” wage not being able to “live” affordably in our city, in our community.
How thoughtlessly we compare their plight to not being able to buy a classic car for a price from almost half a century ago.
After all, the market made its decision. Pay the price or get out.
How long will it be before we learn that the decisions the market makes with our passive acceptance, without our active participation, are brainless and heartless?
How long before we understand that the market left on its own is not some law of nature but something more akin to lawlessness?
If we demand that the market build homes for seniors, for frontline workers, for those earning a living wage or a minimum wage, for the homeless, the market will adjust.
Demand determines supply if that demand is determined enough, and that is the “market adjustment” that is urgently needed, especially as we emerge from this pandemic – all in this together, hopefully.
To their credit, White Rock city councillors gave voice and power to a desperate demand, a need, within our community. All communities should be so lucky. Our responsibility, our obligation according to the UN Declaration on Human Rights which Canada signed in 1948, is to join in that demand.
The market is not morally responsible, but we are. The market has no brain, no heart, but we have both.
Using them determines the market. In not using them, the market determines us.
Stephen Crozier, White Rock
