Begging For Harperville (The coming Recession)

By Gary Morton Dec.16.2007

    The wolves of recession are nearing the city gate, yet Toronto media and politicians have failed to notice the bared fangs behind the snow squalls. Some still live in a dream world and think higher interest rates will cool off a hot economy.

    A scary tale remains hidden in the world financial news. Even David Olive mentions in his column today that a deep recession affecting the US and Canada could hit next year. The reason is the continued meltdown of a banking system that created trillions of dollars through the repackaging and reselling of debt. The US housing crisis has created a credit crunch and it has exposed endless billions in worthless paper assets. All or most of these assets now blowing in the wind as dead parchment investors will not purchase.

    The real horror story begins when we notice that Toronto has no preparations for a recession and we realize that we’ll get little help from a Prime Minister who is a climate criminal and Toronto blind. In the 905 area they refuse to even allow basement apts and have no poverty plan for 30,000 people who live via couch surfing with friends. Look at California … even mighty Arnie now needs emergency powers to battle a growing deficit as the housing crisis eats away tax revenue. Imagine a similar scene playing out in Toronto. We have a city government that claims it is cost effective. The police refuse to make cuts. Councillors can do little other than argue about the few dollars involved in closing community centres.

    This is a divided city with several clusters of low income neighbourhoods. In hard times the media focus will be on the homeless flooding the streets in what is now a relatively affluent downtown. There will be no genuine solutions to a growing problem of homelessness, street people, and hunger.

    Even now one in four citizens is low income, gone either through the cracks or on the ledge over the streets. Social assistance rates are excessively low, and the Star’s poverty columnist has informed me that McGuinty will not raise rates. That is why many people lobby for other measures or plans to deal with poverty. The McGuinty government is studying poverty and it appears that study will be complete around the time we are in deep recession.

     Food banks are already closing their doors under the current system, which is a shoddy one that doesn’t provide nearly enough food and doesn’t provide healthy food. Also, recession means job loss but Paul Martin gutted EI. Factory jobs continue to disappear daily and more of us work in low paying service industry jobs. When the recession hits we are going to see a population and government in crisis, and poverty activists reduced to begging for bare life support.

    With no solution for growing hunger and homelessness people are going to beg for the state to take over failing food banks … the end model based on the old soup kitchen ideal, like the food bank near Bathurst and Dundas where you can pick up a food package and eat a small hot meal. Perhaps they’ll choose to warehouse the homeless and poor at or near government-run food bank/soup kitchens.

    You’ll see people pleading for this solution to happen because our governments have no other solution or plan. They won’t share the wealth so they’ll deliver a scam solution and create the appearance that poverty is being addressed to prevent outright insurrection.

    In the end the question is will we believe it when we lobby and beg for Millervilles, McGuintyvilles or Harpervilles? Just to keep people alive.

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