Average CPP Income:
$12,000/per yr.
Average Minimum Wage Income
$21,000/per yr.
Average Single Welfare Income*
$29,000/per yr.
Average Waste Management Income
$45,000/per yr.
Average Teacher Income
$52,000/per yr.
Average MP Income
$147,000/per yr.
There seems to be something incredibly wrong with this picture.
Why is someone on welfare grossing more per year than a CPP retiree? Considering the CPP would have had to have been paid into by a person actually working.
Why is a waste management worker grossing only $7000 less than a teacher,when a teacher requires five years of post secondary education (that carries a $70,000 price tag).
And why the hell are we paying our MP’s$147,000 a year, with a full pension after 4 years and less than 200 days of actual work per year?
This is a prime example of misplaced values. Take for example the teaching profession. We have all looked at these professionals and the only thing we see is “summers off. Must be nice”. But we fail to see the actual value of what they do. Teachers are paid less per student per hour than a babysitter (based on in class time) but are expected to not only have 2 degrees, but actually educate our children. Not to mention the hours of prep that goes into each and every lesson. Those summers off we all glare at, well for the first 2 years go unpaid, and are generally spent planning the next year of school. Keep in mind, an hour of class can equal up to 2 hours of prep. So that 6 hour day just became 18 and that $52,000 just became $11 per hour, or $0.36 per child. Still think teachers get it easy? And remember in Ontario they’re paying an extra 13% (teacher taxes) on top of income tax. Without those summers for prep, our psychiatric institutions would be overrun with ex-teachers, just as our retirement homes are overrun with undervalued seniors.
The elderly in this country paved the way for the rest of us, they often immigrated by means of water in arduous and even ghastly conditions – they fought for us and worked for us, and now they’re rightfully spent. So in anticipation of the inevitable human condition known as age, we set them up (pun intended) with a ‘pension plan’. A plan that we all pay into, to help us out on that glorious day we retire. But after all that back-breaking work,the sweat and tears, what is actually given back is nearly $20,000 less than a single person on welfare! I don’t believe I have to delve further into why that is just incredibly WRONG. I don’t need to remind you of the hypocrisy we’ve placed in the ‘value’ of hard work. Because if you don’t get the absolute lunacy of these mis-spent funds, well, you must be on welfare.
Alright, alright. Yes, that’s unfair of me to assume that someone on welfare would be too ignorant to read between such neon lit lines. Nonetheless, why would an articulate or intelligent person collect welfare? The answer: MINIMUM WAGE.
Now, $10.25 an hour isn’t so bad, especially if you’re a high school student saving up for that new gadget that all the kids have. But to actually live on $21,000 a year, is pretty much impossible. Not to mention if you have a job, that means you’ve got to get to work,which costs money, and god forbid you intend to reproduce, well now you’ve got daycare and you might even want to feed and clothe the kid. So now, you’re making even less. Makes welfare sound pretty, pretty good right about now. After all, post secondary education has become a major expense and a bachelor degree has only become a glorified high school diploma (and offers no employment guarantees) so why exert that energy, rack up all that debt, when you can be funded by the government and you never even have to leave your house. Work or welfare – where’s the incentive?
If the waste management employee’s income is any indication, you can see how backwards the value of ‘work’ is in this country. The elderly are essentially disposable, while those doing the disposing are making a decent wage minus the hefty necessity of a degree. And while full time positions are scarce, our MP’s have managed to rake in $147,000 a year and only need to serve 2 terms to get a very sweet pension plan. But was it always this way? Did our leaders always make so much for so little?
During the reign of kings and dictators, the majority had nothing, while the few feasted on their labors. But then things became ‘civilized’. In 1867 Canadian MP’s made $600 plus $6 per day (with inflation $42,966 today). So what happened? Our taxes went up, we paid for more services, but the wage gap between the commonwealth and the government has only increased. And today, jobs are scare, we import more than we export, our services are being cut, funds are being mis-spent and the majority is again laboring for the feasts of the few.
But we do not live in a land of tyranny, this is democracy isn’t it?
Don’t they work for us?
Or has this all been a ruse?
I was taught that there is a fine line between democracy and communism. That democracy can easily shroud itself in the idea of freedom – a wolf in sheep’s clothing if you will. I never really understood, after all this isn’t nazi Germany. But did the polish, the Jewish, the sympathizers have any idea of what was to come?
The average Canadian pays 50% or more of their income to the government – as do many of the Scandinavian and European countries, the difference is, they have more to show for it. So how big does the divide get before we push back? Do we have to fall in, because I’m not sure we can afford a service to pull us out.
-Parry
*CORRECTION*
It has been brought to my attention that one of my figures was incorrect. Welfare recipients receive 28% of the ontario average income of $29,000.
However, in reviewing these figures, I would have to state:
A) why are you on welfare?! Unless you’re physically disabled or legitimately mentally disabled, there’s no reason for you to not GET A JOB! It’s not mine or any other tax payers responsibility to support your apathetic laziness.
And B) if the Ontario income average is below the national poverty line, why are we contributing to an MP’s six figure salary? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
The Misanthropic Bird 