socialist movement a foot

For this weeks blog entry I had to stop and think about what I was going to write about, then it hit me, that I have been following “Occupy Wall Street” quite closely and how it has become a global issue including here in Canada.  I recognise PM Harper’s statement that Canadian’s are not as angry as our American Neighbours because we did not bail out our financial institutions and we do have more banking regulations then the Americans.  In the Canadian context also called “ Occupy Toronto” is more about the disparity of income between the haves and the have not’s with the middle class being squeezed out loosing ground over that past few years. The issue is very much about social democracy, in that there is a growing Number of people who feel that the financial sector has become too greedy.  Mason and Rathgate both write from the standpoint that American social justice has been more about social justice and not dealing with economic justice and attacking the roots of poverty and that is what is happening here in Canada.

According to Mullaly (2007) socialism is about dealing with and offsetting greedy capitalism and the global economy, equalising living standards and closing the gap between the poor and the rich by raising the living standards of the poor. Socialism recognises that there is a need for capitalism but it does require regulations to be in place to make things fair.  With the conservative view of noninterference and the liberal view that you fix what is broken which is a reaction to what has already happened.  The occupy movement has become an issue because people have become angry and are no longer complacent about liberal and conservative policy and they are now actively showing that they want change.  As a single mother I know that I am seen as a member of the middle class because of my income and my financial planning.  I can honestly say from my own experience that as the profits of the banks have gone up over the past several years, as an investor I have not seeing it translate into higher dividend payments nor interest payments on my savings.  In fact what is being paid out in interest in Canada in my opinion is so low about 1%  (trading economics) compared to this years inflation rate of 3.165% (rate inflation) one cannot help but lose ground.  When one looks at all the service fees and what one has to pay in interest to banks on money loans and mortgages that there is something wrong the profits the banks are making.

It is the inflation rate that is the killer for most people including single mom that have managed to accumulate some savings over the years.  For me I see my savings are being depleted in order to make ends meet.  I do not believe in getting something for nothing but I also do not believe that one should lose everything because of bad times and greed either and that is what I think people are coming to the realisation of and responding to.  As a single mother I am finding it very difficult to save right now. I am not one to believe in getting something for nothing but I certainly feel that those that are the CEO’s and upper management of banks in Canada are paying themselves way too much plus they also take bonuses whether or not there is a profit and not sharing the profits like they should.  With the investors and their front line workers the tellers who are generally women are not being paid equitable.

Just wages, just prices and just profits (Rathgate).

References

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/interest-rate

http://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/canada-inflation-rate.php

Mason, Susan E, (2012). The Occupy Movement and Social Justice Economics. Families in Society: The Journal of Contempory Social Services. http// www.FamiliesinSociety.org/showAbstract.asp?docid=4186


Mullaly, B (2007). The New Structural Social Work. Canada: Oxford University Press.


Rathgate,Wade (2012).  Back Story: The Global Substructure Beneath the Occupy Movement. Social policy organizing for social and Economic justice.


Lisa