Category Archives: Consider

Consider, Homeless

Government/Big Business Conspiracy?

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I want to be a little careful here because I was speaking with some classmates the other day, in a mental health context, about people who see government conspiracies everywhere and about at what point they become delusional. Still …

In a later conversation, on the webcast the Fred Factor, I touched on the point that the current welfare system tends to beat you up, beat you down and abuse you.

The system strips you of your dignity, self-confidence and self-esteem. It hammers you into a little box, makes you dependent on the system and places multiple barriers to you getting off of welfare.

Having beaten you down it inundates you with all these messages about how much better your life would be with a minimum wage job. Despite the fact that in Abbotsford the minimum wage is not a living wage. That is to say – you cannot live and pay your bills working a 40 hour work week at or within a few dollars of minimum wage. Do the math and you will find that you need to earn $13.00+ an hour to afford housing and food in Abbotsford.

Consider the screams, moaning and carrying on that business does at the mere suggestion of raising the minimum wage even $0.50. $13.00+ is apoplexy range.

Many businesses, many big businesses, are built on low (slave) wage rates set by the current minimum wage rate as well as their ability to use and abuse employees by labelling them “part time”. Business needs a supply of people willing to accept this abuse and wages that do not pay the bills or enable employees to make ends meet – in order to make their huge profits.

Where is business to find such a desperate labour pool of compliant worker bees?

Enter big government with their “Income Assistance” system who also, conveniently, just happen to set the minimum wage rate.

They have a system, the welfare system, which takes people in need and transforms them. It strips them of dignity, of their confidence, abuses them, habituates them to jumping through hoops, renders them totally dependent on the system and then bombards them with advertising that extols the virtues/advantages of even a minimum wage job to escape the clutches of the fiends at Income Assistance.

Voilá! You have the labour pool so needed to run business and fuel the continuing transfer of wealth from those people who actually do the work and build the wealth to the wealthy business/ruling classes.

One would almost think that the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance was a branch of business, not of the “people” government. Or one could see a conspiracy among the ruling politicians (and their bureaucrats) and the wealthy/business rulers (and their bureaucrats) to provide the needed cannon fodder fir business to thrive, earn undeserved, excessive profits and continue the transfer of wealth to the wealthy and ruling classes.

But that would be delusional – or would it? Keep in mind that you are only paranoid if they aren’t out to get you – and there is no conspiracy. But you might want to be careful – Mental Health is under the control of the politicians and their bureaucrats.

Just a little something to ponder.

Consider

Which wolf do you choose to feed …

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A friend sent me this and somehow it just seemed so appropriate after I had just read that a new national study, titled HungerCount 2007, says 720,231 people, a number just shy of the population of New Brunswick, were forced to turn to one of the country’s 673 food banks in March to feed themselves or their families.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, ‘Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’

The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, ‘You have seen Hell.’

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand.’ It is simple,’ said the Lord. ‘It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.’

We live in one of the richest countries of the world. On Canada’s table is a large pot of wealth and food. There is no material reason that so many are famished and thin, or living homeless and sick.

Another word for pot is crucible, but crucible also means: a severe test, as of patience or belief; a trial. Canada is the crucible; the hungry, the homeless and other neighbours in need our severe test, our trial. Is you soul well nurished and plump from having learned to feed others or is it thin and sickly because you think only of yourself?

Consider, Municipal

Statistic – meaningful or empty of meaning?

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One of our city councilors sent an email asking the source of the statement that Abbotsford has the highest per capital median income. The coucilor cited a chart: Median total income, by family type, by census metropolitan area (All census families) showing Abbotsford ranking well below number one. I asked if going with a family chart when the donations were on an individual basis was proper.

I also acknowledged that due to my current homelessness I do not have access to my computer and the files on it, further my written files and notes are in storage with the computer. All I have is a workbook full of interesting data points. I do know that the data I was working with originally was in a much more “raw” or detailed format/state, but lacking access to my files I cannot quantify matters at this time.

Recognize that the experience of being homeless is one of the reasons I have serious questions about the generousity in this City. It is also why actions, not words or wasting time in self congratulations, is a priority from my point of view

Checking later I found the councilor had sent an email with a chart of individual median incomes. In reviewing the data in the chart sent to me by the councilor I was struck by all the qualifiers and quantifiers applied to arrive at the data in the form it was presented in the chart. In thinking about this list and its qualifiers and quantifiers I decide my pool ponderings had a large degree of truth to them.

I had gone to the pool after the original exchange of emails. The way my mind works it was unable not to ponder the questions raised by the councilor and the concepts of donations, median, individual income etc (and don’t you wish our politicians and leaders also could not avoid spending time thinking about questions raised and related questions/ideas?). For instance median means middle. You stack all the donations up and the one that is in the middle is the median. Many people confuse average with median. Which had me asking why are they using median instead of average? I spent all 2000 meters, showering and dressing contemplating the question of the meaning of the median donation and what it signified.

What does the median imcome of a population have to do with the median donations? The median donation is decided only using the donations themselves. Does it not follow that in determining a median income level we should only be considering the median incomes of those who gave donations? What about the question of how many donors were included in determing the median donation? There are very different implications if median of one is composed of 5 donors and the other of 5,000 donors. Can you compare Abbotsford with a 2006 census population of 123, 864 to Toronto with a 2006 census population of 2,503,281?

So at 1:30 AM as I mull over all these and the other thoughts/questions I am left wondering about what if anything this idea of median donations tells us or if it has any meaning at all. I can think of many other measures I would want to know in determining the most generous city in Canada. I am left with the conclusion that median donation is pretty much a null value point, meaningless other than giving the city of Abbotsford bragging rights and city politicians another excuse to hide behind in regards to taking no action on social issues such as poverty, homelessness and affordable housing.

What a statistic really means, or if it really has any meaning at all needs careful thought. It is why I recommend “How to Lie with Statistics”, Darrell Huff’s perennially best-selling introduction to statistics for the general reader.

I wiah to underscore my original assertion that this median donation number does not reflect the reality on the streets of Abbotsford where more families, children and seniors depend on charitable organizations and people for food, clothing and other necessities, where the streets become home to increasing numbers of homeless daily and adults, children and seniors go to sleep each night hungry.

If in fact Abbotsford is the most generous city in the country where do all the dollars go? Because being homeless and looking around Abbotsford it is clear the dollars are not going to help neighbours in need of help and other worthy causes.