Comments on: Canadian Freedom

By: Canada, freeeeedom, and epistemic closure. « 8 Car Pile Up

Canada, freeeeedom, and epistemic closure. « 8 Car Pile Up — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:22:21 +0000

[...] freeeeedom, and epistemic closure. Regarding an old post by Will Wilkinson on Canadian Freedom: But that doesn’t begin to mean that we live up to our reputation for the kind of liberty [...]

By: 8 Car Pile Up

8 Car Pile Up — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:19:55 +0000

[...] an old post by Will Wilkinson on Canadian Freedom: But that doesn’t begin to mean that we live up to our reputation for the kind of liberty [...]

By: “Canada Now Boasts North America’s Freest Economy” « Let A Thousand Nations Bloom

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:04:31 +0000

[...] 2010 January 20 tags: Canada, Economic Freedom, Politics by Mike Gibson I’m guessing Wee Willie Wilkinson is even happier he’s Canuck. The new Index of Economic Freedom is out and the U.S. is falling [...]

By: henrylow

henrylow — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:49:34 +0000

Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential.
This goal-oriented way of surfing the web is largely based on short-term results. For example, finding facts to write a blog post, doing a comparison before making a purchase and reading a news site to find out what’s happening right now.
www.onlineuniversalwork.com

By: henrylow

henrylow — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:49:34 +0000

By: Robert Light

Robert Light — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:45:05 +0000

Canada: Average family spends nearly half its income on taxes: “The average Canadian family spends nearly half its total income on taxes, more than it spends on food, clothing, and shelter, according to a new study from independent research organization the Fraser Institute. The Canadian Consumer Tax Index 2009 shows that even though the income of the average Canadian family has increased significantly since 1961, their total tax bill has increased at a much higher rate.”

Read the rest here: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/newsandevents/ne...

By: anna

anna — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:37:53 +0000

Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee

Lada-krise

Nach dem wiederholten Stopp der Montagebänder geht im „russischen Detroit“, der Stadt Togliatti an der Wolga, die Angst um. Im Januar brach brach die Autoproduktion im Reich der Ladas im Jahresvergleich um desaströse 80 Prozent ein.

Russlands Autoindustrie legt Wert auf Tradition. Selbst in der Hauptstadt Moskau bieten Händler bis heute fabrikneue Ladas als modernisierte Nachbauten des Fiat 124 an. Der kleine Italiener war immerhin Europas Auto des Jahres - allerdings schon vor mehr als 40 Jahren.

Von der Wärme Italiens ist in der 1000 Kilometer östlich von Moskau gelegenen Lada-Stadt Togliatti, benannt nach dem italienischen Kommunistenführer Palmiro Togliatti, nichts zu spüren. In bitterer Winter-Kälte haben sich einige Dutzend Arbeiter mit Plakaten vor die Tore des Automobilwerks gestellt. „Wir Arbeiter kämpfen für unsere Rechte“, steht auf einem Schild. Die meisten der Demonstranten sind Frauen. „Mein Lohn reichte bislang gerade so zum Leben. Nun weiß ich wirklich nicht, wo das alles enden wird“, sagt die 26-jährige Anna Semjonowa, eine alleinerziehende Mutter.

By: Luk Arbuckle

Luk Arbuckle — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:11:38 +0000

That isn't a “Canadian” perspective–the comment pre-supposes that there is a significant difference between attitudes in Canada and the U.S. regarding consumption, which I highly doubt. I may be wrong, but I believe the negative attitude towards consumption largely stems from environmentalism. And that attitude will vary depending on subgroups considered (e.g., geographic, rural-urban, socioeconomic class, field of work, etc.).

By: hank howdy

hank howdy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:31:29 +0000

If leftists who promote and then administer socialist welfare programs are such altruists, then please tell me, why are their government salaries, benefits and pensions so outsized compared to people with similar education and experience working in the "greedy" profit-oriented private sector?

In fact all people are about equally greedy and equally altruistic. The trouble with government programs is that they are monopolies. This means that no matter how bad the service, no matter how overpaid the employees, no matter how pathetically outdated or irrelevant their organization, the public are forced to support it anyways, and will be thrown in jail or even killed if they refuse to support it.

And who do these monopolies hurt more than anyone else? Poor people, of course. The rich can avoid crappy public schools and health care waiting lists by buying private services. The poor are forced to put their kids in lousy schools and wait for months to get treated for things like cancer and heart disease. And why is that? Because the "altruists" in the government decided that it's a lot more lucrative in the long run to build up fat, highly-paid and unresponsive bureaucracies than it is to offer lean and cost-effective services. And the really funny thing is, it is because of "the poor people" that all these expensive, ineffective monopolies were created in the first place.

The best way to fix health care, for example, is (1) do away with government funding, and (2) end the doctor licensing monopoly which is nothing but a cartel to give a small group of doctors sky-high salaries by severely limiting the number of practitioners. Health care is not inherently expensive. But monopolies ARE inherently expensive, wasteful and unfair.

By: Tim F

Tim F — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:54:17 +0000

Even if allowing people to pursue profit is generally a bad thing (a bizarre idea), it is freedom. If you think reducing freedom will produce better results, then go ahead an argue that, but you aren't making an argument relevant to the issue at hand (Is Canada freer than the US or is it the other way around?)