Letter: It’s time we all settle down a bit

By Letter to the Editor on November 10, 2022.

Dear editor,

People are angry but they are angry at the wrong things. The left is angry at the right and the right is angry at the left and that anger has metastasized into outright hate for those who think and vote differently than someone else.

This hate has been growing for years and years and the reason is, in my opinion, the wealth gap.

The wealth gap has been diverging since 1981 when Reagan and Thatcher and trickle-down economics came into vogue. There was massive inflation (caused primarily by the oil embargo) at the time and the Federal Reserve under the leadership of Paul Volcker raised interest rates, driving the world’s economies into recession. This may or may not have been the right thing to do, depending on your perspective. But the real damage was done by giving corporations great financial incentives to expand and thus increase hiring, which in theory should have ended the recession. However, what actually happened was these incentives were used to line the pockets of business heads and stock holders – little job creation or expansions took place.

Once this started it escalated unchecked until today, and now we have one of the largest wealth gaps in our history.

This is what is causing our anger and angst – people (of all political stripes) are working hard but getting a smaller and smaller piece of the pie.

That anger now has become so entrenched in our society that the fringe elements are driving our thoughts. Take for instance those that were picketing at or near the hospitals or the trucker convoy – most of it was simply irrational behaviour brought on by anger – those people have a right to be angry but their anger is and was misplaced. It is the system that is wrong, not the people.

We have had many governments since the early 80s, both left and right, and they have all contributed to this.

We simply must get the wealth gap back to pre-1980 levels where people’s labour was respected and a good living could be had by doing an honest day’s work. This can only be achieved by legislation where companies that receive government money must spend that money however the government wants it spent. Remember, prior to the early 80s business and labour were both doing well and they can do so again with better government oversight on all levels

David W. Railton

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