Tax Base and The Industrial Sector

The new year is hardly underway and the mainstream media has already jumped on the issue of budget deficits as proclaimed with alarming and accelerating regularity by all levels of unelected and elected government officials. It should be no surprise that when the source of is this information is sourced that workers in the public service are always mentioned and in most cases the focal point of the blame. Of course this is not anywhere near the truth and is another example of where workers are blamed for government,corporate and international trade and monetary policy failure that goes back to at least the beginning of the free trade, de-regulation, privatization thrust of globalization and the forces that drive globalization. Of course the people blaming the workers seem to forget or intentionally ignore the failure, the United States being the clearest example of this, of the globalization agenda.

The nineteen eighties, ushered in by the election of government leaders such as Thatcher and Reagan, witnessed the early stages of the manifestation of the globalization agenda. The policies of globalization continue to be a failure and when it comes to tax base a quick calculation should bear simple and clear witness to this. Globalization and its intrinsic exploitation of labour forces in the developing world and repression of the labour force in the developed world drive manufacturing and industrial jobs offshore. This equates to millions of jobs shipped offshore and lost in the industrial sector, as has been the case in Canada and the United States for example, and with it goes the well paying middle class jobs that served us so well in the post war era (and before the free trade era). Since the majority of those affected by these job losses never again regain full employment and the industrial facilities that once paid significant taxes are gone forever it is no surprise to find that the tax base in a wide number of jurisdictions is diminishing. The loss of industrial and manufacturing facilities in Ontario is alone responsible for billions of dollars in lost tax revenue.

Take this to the next absurd argument offered by globalization advocates and you find them saying that the way to attract business is to lower taxes. Now the policies associated with this say to solve this lets further attack the wages of public sector workers to regain the loss in general revenues that don't exist anymore. Is anyone getting this? Globalization destroys well paying middle class jobs, destroys social safety nets for those in our society that are most in need and makes the elite and rich in our society ever richer (headlines today say that CEO's make 115 times what their workers make). Nowhere does this agenda of globalization set forth a plan to sustain the middle class and to do what is necessary to make the future brighter for workers in our own communities. Nowhere does the agenda of globalization set forth a plan to regulate for the purpose of the common good and ensure that things such as water, energy, , health, infrastructure and food (to name a few) should remain in publicly regulated hands to ensure that it does the maximum good for the common good.

The agenda of globalization is now an example of failed public and international policy and it is time to get past the blaming of workers, unions and the poor for the failure of this policy and to get on with peeling the lid back on this and putting the world back on a path to fair trade, proper regulation and public ownership of public infrastructure, increasing access to collective bargaining rights for workers and sound social safety nets for all. This is nothing more than what worked successfully in the post war era to make a strong and healthy middle class that propelled at least the economies in North America to enviable strength and growth.

One of the past leaders of General Motors was quoted as saying "you can't have an economy if you don't build anything"; well we are fast approaching that. Add the loss in taxes and the poor choices made with limited tax dollars and it is no wonder that a revenue shortfall exists in a wide variety of jurisdictions.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council