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Does Moral Decline equal Economic Decline?
The information presented on this page pertains mostly to Canada. For similar
information pertaining to the US, see The Happy Days.
STOP THE UNRAVELING OF A NATION
From
the Fall 1998 Edition of A CALL TO ACTION (Frontpage)
Canada Family Action Coalition, http://www.familyaction.org
Does Moral Decline equal Economic Decline?
Divorce
Divorces for every 1000 Marriages
1969: 140
1990: 380 (Increase: 171% from 1969 to 1990)
[Statistics Canada, as shown in A CALL TO ACTION]
1993: 491
1994: 493
1995: 484
1996: 451 (Increase: 222% from 1969 to 1996)
Statistics Canada, as per
Summary of Divorce and Marriage
Rates
—WHS
Marriage and Divorce Rates in Canada
(1967-1995)
SELECTED STATISTICS
ON CANADIAN FAMILIES AND FAMILY LAW
— November 1997, Department of Justice Canada
Violent Crime
Increase: 400% from 1963 to 1998
Youth crime increased 148% from 1986 to 1995
Fraser Institute
Child Suicide
Increase: 1,101% from 1955 to 1992
Statistics Canada
Over 8 thousand teenagers attempt SUICIDE every week,
MORE THAN 100 OF THEM SUCCEED!
American Academy of Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry
Abortion
Increase: 56% from 1975 to 1993
Statistics Canada
IN 1995 THERE WERE 106,658 ABORTIONS IN CANADA
Statistics Canada
Taxes paid on Income
Increase: 35.4% from 1975 to 1993
The Consumer Price Index - The Fraser
Institute
[The picture is actually considerably worse than that. On top of the steadily
increasing income taxes come 7% federal GST on virtually all consumer goods that people
purchase, plus provincial sales taxes of about 7% in all province except Alberta. In
addition, there is taxation that is extorted in the form of ever-increasing contributions
to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the Employment Insurance Scheme (EI) and Health
Care Insurance. Furthermore, many of the government services that used to be
available for free or at nominal fees, are now available only at ever-escalating
"Service Fees."
It would be acceptable to pay these tax contributions if they were applied to secure
the funding for the CPP-, EI-, Old Age Security (OAS)- and Health
Care benefits. However, that isn't the case. Virtually all of the
contributions go into the general revenue funds and are squandered right as
they are collected, leaving a huge sum of unfunded liabilities that will bring
the fiscal system to its knees in very short order. Combined with an
ever-declining proportion of the population that is actually employed and must
provide the welfare benefits for the ever-growing proportion that isn't, it
will only result in one possible outcome: Financial Chaos for the Nation of
Canada.
However, as of Christmas Eve 1998, the federal government has
decided to do its best to stave off bankruptcy and determined that it will be a good idea
to squeeze a little more money out of the people by putting a tax on tapes and CD's.
The tax will be $0.50 for every 15 minutes of playing time. That will be $2.50 for
the average CD if you will please. As it will be until the Spring before that tax
gets passed in the House of Commons, the proposal is to make it retroactive to January 1st
1999, just so they don't miss out on a single cent of the new source of revenue. The
tax on breathing our fresh Canadian free air will come around next Christmas Eve, if not
sooner. A tax on drinking water will be next. —WHS]
Unemployment Rate
Increase: 100% from 1968 to 1998
Statistics Canada
The unemployment rate was at 4% in 1968 and rose to 8% in 1998
[Again, the real picture is much worse than what the ostensible "Unemployment
Rates" indicate. Our government has done a fantastic job of promoting
misinformation in that respect, a job that would have made Josef Goebbels proud.
"Unemployment Rates" quoted by the media present a
largely false picture. These rates don't give any indication whatever of the people
who are unemployed, but rather indicate only the number of people who are entitled to
receive EI benefits.
Consider that if all unemployed Canadians were to exhaust their EI benefits, the
number of EI benefit recipients (and thereby the "unemployment rate") would drop
to zero. That would make Jean Chrétien happy and a proud Canadian!
As it is, the "unemployment rate" leaves out the
extraordinarily large number of people who have left school, don't enter university (about
51% of that group) and have not found even regular part-time employment one year after
they left school (they aren't entitled to receive EI benefits, because they haven't earned
any credits by working, on account of not having been able to find any jobs). It
also leaves out those people who have not managed to become employed before their period
of entitlement to EI benefits has run out. It leaves out many more people, so many
in fact, that the Fraser Institute estimated the true number of unemployed people to be in
the order of about 26%. However, the Canadian Council of Bishops puts the real
number of unemployed even higher than that. It said that the number is very likely
32% or higher.
Oddly, Statistics Canada appear to be in agreement with the Council of Bishops.
They recently indicated in
one of their press releases
that only 62% of employable Canadians are actually working.]
Government Expenditures
Increase: 48.2% of GDP (1995) from 1955 to 1995,
In terms of the share of the GDP, they are one third higher than those in the US.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Federal Debt per Canadian
Increase: 1,495% from 1968 to 1998
Department of Finance, Government of
Canada
1968 $1,270/person, 1998 $18,990/person
[Once more, these figures too don't present a complete picture of Canada's financial
situation. The liabilities represented by CPP, EI, OAS and by Health Care aren't
included in those numbers. An article in the Oct. 5 issue of the Alberta Report ,"Cool summer, hot fall,"
page 6, presents a more comprehensive view of the situation. Two tables (IN THE RED and
SUMMARY OF UNFUNDED
LIABILITIES) from the article are shown below. --WHS]
IN THE RED
RANK IN
CANADA |
RANK IN
WORLD |
REGION |
Debt to
GDP (%) |
Debt as % of
Discretionary
Income |
| 1 |
46 |
Yukon Territory |
40.4 |
40.7 |
| 2 |
60 |
Northwest territory |
47.9 |
48.2 |
| 3 |
69 |
Alberta |
54.5 |
54.9 |
| 4 |
71 |
British Columbia |
58.5 |
59.0 |
| 5 |
75 |
Saskatchewan |
63.2 |
63.8 |
| 6 |
80 |
Manitoba |
68.5 |
69.2 |
| 7
|
81
|
Canada |
69.6
|
70.3
|
| 8 |
84 |
Quebec |
73.3 |
74.0 |
| 9 |
86 |
Ontario |
74.3 |
74.9 |
| 10 |
87 |
Price Edward Island |
74.4 |
75.4 |
| 11 |
89 |
New Brunswick |
75.6 |
76.5 |
| 12 |
96 |
Nova Scotia |
88.2 |
89.4 |
| 13 |
98 |
Newfoundland |
89.3 |
90.6 |
__________________
Sources: OECO, World Bank, Statistics Canada |
SUMMARY
OF UNFUNDED LIABILITIES ($BILLIONS)
| YEAR |
CPP* |
OAS |
Medicare |
Total |
| 1991 |
420.4 |
445.0 |
867.0 |
1,732.4 |
| 1992 |
454.0 |
470.0 |
917.0 |
1,841.0 |
| 1993 |
487.5 |
488.0 |
969.0 |
1,944.5 |
| 1994 |
527.3 |
515.0 |
1,024.0 |
2,066.3 |
| 1995 |
555.5 |
544.0 |
1,082.0 |
2,161.5 |
| 1996 |
600.1 |
576.0 |
1,144.0 |
2,320.1 |
| 1997 |
485.0 |
609.0 |
1,209.0 |
2,303.0 |
| AAG** |
3.0% |
5.4% |
5.7% |
4.9% |
_________________
* The 1997 value reflects Bill C-2
** Average Annual Growth
SOURCE: Office of the Superintendent of Financial
Institutions Canada |
[Note: When these figures are included in the average federal debt of
Canadians, and if the $640 billion unfunded liability of the EI is considered as well, the
average amount of the federal debt to individual Canadians (every man, woman and child) is
at more than $108 thousand. To that must be added the provincial and municipal
liabilities; in the case of children, the personal debts of their parents, and in the case
of adults their own personal debts.
If anybody feels that it is possible to eradicate a level of
indebtedness of that magnitude without major pains to the Canadian economy and without a
general deterioration of the quality of life that Jean Chrétien alleges is so
extraordinarily good in this country, they'll soon get a rude awakening.
The International Monetary Fund and international bankers become
worried when a country's expenditures required to support its government exceed 40% of its
GDP. Canada's share of the GDP devoted to that noble cause is now about 50%.
Does it not enter the mind of the powers that play at the game of creative accounting in
the federal finances that perhaps no extent of imagination and fudging of figures will do
away with the reality that Canada is so over-extended that the Canadian Dollar is driven
down on account of that and not on account of having a small reduction in the ten percent
of our exports to Asian markets? Perhaps they know all that just too well but try to hide
the truth from us in an attempt to survive another term at the trough. One way or
another, if we can't soon replace the people that cause this financial
catastrophe, all of
us and many generations to follow will be extremely sorry. --WHS] With
respect to debt to discretionary spending in relationship to the other G-7 countries,
Canada ranks only above Italy, and both countries are more than 20 percentage points below
the other five. Canada is first in personal income tax, second in indirect and
"other" taxes, fourth in corporate taxes, and its unfunded liabilities for future
fedral retirement income support and health care costs are 293% and 289% respectively of
GDP. Rather than dealing with the issues of addressing these problems, the Liberal
government prefers to kill the bearer of bad news.
[According to Joel Emes, senior research economist at the Fraser Institute -- in
the Oct. 5. 1998 issue of the Alberta Report]
Bernard Dussault, the chief actuary of the CPP, was fired
last week (in September 1998), just three months before he was supposed to present his
two-year report on the state of the fund. The government denies it, but rumour has
it that he was fired because the government didn't like what he was putting into his
report.
[Source: the Alberta Report, Oct. 5, 1998, page 7]
Note: As of this week (ending Dec 19, 1998), the successor of Bernard Dussault,
firmly held on the leash by the Chrétien Government, provided the kind of report that our
Prime Minister wanted to see all along. He made the projections that indicated that
Canada Pension Plan taxes (as they don't go into any kind of investment fund and go into
general revenue to be spent as they are collected) will not rise beyond the magic
threshold of 10% of income.
Thereby the federal government deliberately attempts to pull the
wool over our eyes once more and pretends that we don't have to worry about the enormous
unfunded liability that the Canada Pension Plan presents to future generations of
taxpayers. —WHS
Historical foreign exchange rates and links to current rates
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Updates:
2001 02 10 (format changes) |
