Another lost opportunity

I listened to the budget speech today and I have to wonder if there is any sense in hoping that, one day our government will make the decision to take the courageous step of admitting, that continued economic growth in a finite world will not work.

We need to do things differently if we do not want to destroy our habitat. Making real changes is not easy after many years of being told that growth is good for the community, and for the country, and for the world at large. Not once during the entire speech was there a mention of the ecological costs of making the country a free tariff zone. Nature is not free, although economists seem to regard it as such.

Some years ago I read a book about finance that was quite a revelation to me, it was called “Your Money or Your Life” it was a game changer for me. I still have made plenty of mistakes regarding how I managed my finances, but the seed that the author planted hit a chord that has continued to grow louder each year. The whole concept of getting out there to spend money to help the economy “grow” strikes me as pretty absurd if I really think hard about it. I do not need any more stuff, certainly I need to buy food, and clothing when it is worn out. I have 9 bicycles that I picked up for free at the local waste transfer station (dump). I would like to see a budget that advocated repairing broken equipment, reducing the speed limits to half of what they are presently, to reducing spending on more and bigger roads, curtailing lavish subsides to resource extraction, to tax cuts to corporations. Improve transit systems, and education. Include a tax on products that travel more than a specified distance, (an idea from a good friend) that would make local products and services more favorable. I will continue to work toward reducing my own footprint on the planet and hope that one of these days the government of the day will take the leap we need to take.