Maybe I’ve grown up to be a bit of an idealist, or a bit of a socialist, and maybe some conservatives will judge my point of view, but I’m a firm believer that by strengthening our foundations, only then can the ‘economy’ begin to finally prosper in an ethical way:

1)   Corporations need to stop outsourcing products that are intended to sell domestically to other countries for ‘cheaper’ labour. I know, all of my wealthy corporation acquaintances are shrieking as they read this but let’s stop and think about it for a second: if we outsource, then thousands of Canadians will not have jobs, and therefore will not be able to afford to purchase said product. And if no one can afford to buy said product, then you’ll just have waste and you will have to declare bankruptcy. Shit. That sucks doesn’t it?

2)   If outsourcing is mandatory, then pay the foreign employees a decent wage. Sorry everyone, $0.49 an hour just isn’t going to cut it. No one should have to work 14-hour days, only to go home and live in shambles. That’s just not right. What happened to your conscience? Oh right, human beings are naturally terrible, so this thought must not have crossed your greedy mind.

3)   Why do entire countries owe private banks money? This just baffles me. They are countries for goodness sake. ENTIRE COUNTRIES. How did our ‘republic, democracy, and bureaucracy’ fail citizens so poorly that another great depression is approaching? What’s that all about? I mean, I can’t understand how countries are trillions of dollars in debt and that there is interest piling up on this debt every day. Recently I figured out that on my $5600 line of credit, ended up costing me close to $10,000 – crazy. So if that’s how much interest I’m paying on a small OSAP loan, then the interest on the trillions of dollars is an amount that no country could ever pay back. Really, it appears that corporations and banks actually rule the world, not governments.  Recently a smart 12 year old girl gave a speech about this. I think that if a 12 year old can figure it out, why can’t our so-called experts.

4)   Honestly, I believe that anyone who is pulling in over $10Million a year should be taxed…royally. Let’s be serious. $10Million is a lot of coin. You can live luxuriously and still have tons of money left over, plus you can invest like crazy. In actuality, I’m being greedy myself because I want $10Million one day. Anyway, there is so much you can do with all the surplus money. Invest in communities, health care, make all education free. People need to stop being greedy. Stop it right now. There’s so much sadness in the world that can easily be helped with easy donations and contributions. Really, no one person should have more money than an entire country. That’s appalling.

5)   All education should be free to hard working students. Anyone who is smart and willing to work their butts off should not have to pay for an education. Everyone else can pay, but pay a reasonable amount. When an university degree was a ‘nice to have’ because you could still get a well paying job without it, it made sense that students would pay, but now that you can’t get a job without a post secondary education, something has to change. Education should be available for all.  However, if we keep it the way it is, then bank interest and OSAP interest needs to change. You shouldn’t be punished because you go to school for 4 years, accumulate debt, have to start working as an intern for free, and four months later get a job starting at $30K. In my opinion, if you borrow money from the bank, then a fixed amount should be owed. For example, if you borrow $10K, then you have to pay back an extra $1-2K, not $7K. That’s just stupid. We’re all getting ripped off.

6)   ALL HEALTHCARE should be free. If all the people making astronomical amounts of money would just pay more taxes, then EVERYONE (not just the rich) would have access to a higher quality of healthcare, and no one would be left with a $200K debt after they just lost their husband.

7)   Insurance companies need to actually be insurance companies. Right now, we pay so much money for insurance, only to find out that if we make a claim then we will have to pay more insurance. What’s the point of paying insurance if we have to pay more money if we ever are in trouble? Sounds like another great idea that was ruined by greed.

So, call me what you like: hippie, communist, socialist, idealist, believer in the greater good, but just don’t call me greedy. It’s a sad reality when you realize that the entire global economy has been based on one of the 7 deadly sins. Which sin was that again? Oh yeah, GREED.

Thank you,

Woodall.