Jeffrey Aho

Midterms start Monday so I feel the need to get out some thoughts and clear my mind. These days I generally just share links directly with friends I think will be interested, usually via Facebook (though Levi and Rajan tend to email me links). If I think a lot of other people will be interested, then I will post it to Reddit. While I visit Reddit daily, I find that I rarely comment anymore. The community has gotten so large that I’m overwhelmed by the comments. It seems as well that since they introduced their sub-reddits anything I do post gets buried. This means I rarely do get to share the posts/topics.

Some topics: 1) Follow up from the Indian Act in my last post – the Government is not challenging the court ruling, but the plantiff is. Looks like this issue is going to continue to drag on. 2) Ontario opened their adoption records – I find the event interesting but didn’t know of it until a friend mentioned it. 3) Here’s a link to Balsille’s website supporting the move of the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton. I hope this works out in Balsille’s favour – the matter is being worked out in court.

I was quite pleased to see the Governor General participate in a Inuit ceremony that involved gutting and eating part of a raw seal heart. It both aids to promote a part of Canadian culture and also acknowledges the importance the seal hunt plays in Eastern Canada. Of course many ‘animal rights’ groups were upset – maybe instead they can focus on their own scandals instead.

GM’s Oshawa truck plant, where I worked on my last co-op, has closed. GM went into bankrupcy protection and an arrangement has been made for the CAW, and US and Canadian governments to hold part ownership. I was opposed to the bailouts and supported bankruptcy proceedings last year. With the expectation that the new money the government provides not to be paid back, along with the previous bailout money, one needs to ask if the government cost per auto and auto related job saved is worth that amount. I heard an estimate that it is $1.5 million per job. I don’t think it’s worth it.

There is also new estimates that the Federal deficit will rise to $50 billion this year. I expected, as well as accepted, a deficit this year but I was willing to accept maybe half that amount. The deficit wouldn’t have been so high if the government didn’t stupidly reduce GST. On a side note, I don’t understand the provincial Progressive Conservative’s stance against PST/GST harmonization. Everything I’ve read on the topic supports it economically.

Somehow I was thinking last week and an old court case came to mind about a printer opposing printing material for a LGBT group. I believe I had a discussion a few years ago with Mike about it where I supported the LGBT group. I just wanted to tell people (mainly Mike) that I have changed my position. I support the printer’s choice to discriminate. If people want to act stupidly and lose business, that’s their choice. I also support the public’s ability to call them out on their discrimination even if the negative press harms them. It’s a risk they have if they make that choice.

Though not really related, that case came to mind when I read about a case of child custody by white-supremacists. Well it may sound impersonal, I consider young children to essentially be chattel of their parents – they are responsible for them and also hold rights to teach them their beliefs. While I find the material these children are subjected to to be appalling, there are many things taught to children that I disagree with (e.g. religion) yet don’t think should be banned. Considering the situation, I think I would draw the line at teaching them material that makes them want to harm other people, in this case teaching them that they should harm black people.

Now there is a continuing debate about what exactly ‘hate speech’ is. I tend to side more on the side of free speech until the extreme of speech that specifically calls for harm to a group of people. If people want to be racist and teach their children to be racist, I believe that is their right, but what these parents have done is incited belief to harm racial minorities, and that is over the line. By this reasoning, the parents are guilty of hate speech, and given the goal to both punish people for their crime and prevent it in the future, removing the children from custody does seem like a fitting solution. One of my core beliefs is in tolerance (thought not acceptance), and instilling a belief to harm black people in children, of course, is not at all tolerant.

Currently Listening to: Loud sound from X-Men 3 playing upstairs

Random Wikipedia Article: Blood libel

One of the bigger news items today, if you ignore the swine flu, was that the Pope made an apology for residential school abuse in Canada. This follows apologies from other major players, including the Canadian Government last year. I’m sure this statement is very important to numerous Aboriginal and First Nations persons and their descendants who were subjected to residential schools.

Another story that came to my attention today is that I missed a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling issued 3 weeks ago on the topic of Indian Status (Indian of course used in the legal definition under the Indian Act). I had been tipped off about the McIvor case when it was in the B.C. Supreme Court 2 years ago. The new ruling limits the first one and gives the federal government a year to amend the Indian Act or appeal to the Supreme Court. I see no mention of it on the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada site, so I assume the government is preparing its response. The Globe speculates as to the result (stupid Globe makes you pay after 2 weeks so I am linking to blog spam).

Take for example a status native women who’s parents were both status native, who married a non-native man, who’s status native daughter married a non-native man. As a result of this legislation, it appears that their children, who currently could only register as Metis, could be status native. (This is my reading from the ruling and the Indian Act on eligibility for status – feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) I would presume that there are thousands of cases of Canadians who would now be eligible to be status native.

It is not particularly hard to grant status to these people, but status comes along with numerous social, political, cultural, and economic benefits. Membership in bands would increase and services provided by them would have to receive funding. There would be an impact on reserves. The federal government would be impacted by the numerous economic benefits and services it provides to status natives.

One of the more interesting things would be to address past compensation by the discrimination in the Indian Act. The Act was modified in 1985 and in the 24 years since, an individual could have benefited significantly from native status. For example, if the child of the above situation I mentioned was born in 1986, in the last 23 years that individual did not receive the tax breaks, additional healthcare benefits, hunting and fishing rights, support for post secondary education, and membership in a band (which may have during that time received treaty settlements which they did not share in), to name a few.

I’ve been of the opinion for a long time that the Indian Act and the reserve system is flawed. Maybe over the next year some of these issues can be reviewed and the Indian Act can be amended or superceded.

Hmm…almost 3 months without a post eh? Well, I guess I can write something.

Since I’ve been minoring in Political Science (my actual interest and focus has been Political Economy), I figured I’d throw out some thoughts on the big topic of the day: economic stimulus.

While it seems that the US rushed through a $787 Billion stimulus bill, there is no reason Canada can’t be a little more thoughtful. I realize that there are some bills working their way through Parliament right now, but I’ll lay out some of my thoughts regardless of them. I realize that politically many of these ideas would never fly but I’m going to present them either way so you can consider them.

My economic thought of late can be characterized as New Keynesian – meaning that I am most interested in microfoundations for Keynesian macroeconomics. I have been highly influenced by the Chicago School, in particular Milton Friedman (I highly recommend reading his Capitalism and Freedom). This generally leads to me being in favour of stimulus activities but wary of too much government involvement.

While Canada can remain committed to free trade (we need to avoid a Buy Canadian provision at all costs and resist countering the US), many positive actions are out of our hands, like completing the Doha Round (US, China, and India are holding it up) or floating the Chinese currency. Parliament needs to stand up against protectionist lobbying (an example would be the CAW pushing for Buy Canadian). History has shown that protectionism can only do more harm in a recession.

Previously I’ve talked about not bailing out the Auto companies and having them go through court supervised restructuring. I still continue to support this, though with the US bailing their companies out it looks likely that Canada will follow. Another idea that I like but think might be a little too extreme for Canada, especially right now, would be abolishing our current income tax structure and social assistance programs and replacing it with a Negative Income Tax. It would make things much more efficient but I really can’t see Canada taking such massive reforms.

I’ll split my thoughts into two sections: one for stimulus activities and one for paying for it. I have no problem with running a deficit through a recession but we need to ensure that it doesn’t spiral out of control and that eventually we return to paying down our public debt.

Stimulus:

1) Cut income tax. This will provide more money to working Canadians and help to increase consumer spending. It should be the cornerstone of any government stimulus action.

2) Invest in public infrastructure. A good place always to pump public dollars. An example would be public transit where new buses/trains could be bought and routes expanded to aid low income workers.

3) Provide a tax credit to companies for new equipment. This will encourage efficiency improvements while also hopefully aiding in creating new jobs.

4) Invest in the Canadian Forces. Likely one of the more controversial ideas but I think that for some stimulus activity the military is a good place. There are lots of possibilities for orders for planes, vehicles, and boats as well as other equipment since the military desperately needs them.

5) Cut capital gains tax. This should help to spur investment and kick some life into the struggling markets.

Revenue:

1) Increase the gasoline tax. I’m a fan of consumption and pigovian taxes (including carbon taxes – I’m fine with implementing them too; but not cap and trade), and with gasoline prices falling as well as inflation under control it is a tax where we can see an increase. It also should have a positive effect on climate change as well as secondary effects such as improving congestion. (As a side note, we should never have cut the GST, and if we really need the revenue I’d be open to raising it back to its previous level.)

2) Legalize and tax marijuana. There is no reason that we should continue to push money into fighting this drug use. I’m not encouraging people to use it, but I don’t believe that it is any worse than tobacco. We’ll get some more tax revenue, save on enforcement costs, and maybe even get some added tourism.

3) Cut agricultural subsidies. This is one of those measures that needs to be done selectively and, along with any consumption tax increases, needs to be phased in over time. An example of where to cut would be ethanol corn subsidies. Encouraging ethanol production for fuel use is absurd as there is no environmental benefit when you factor “well-to-wheel” and it drives up food costs.

Well I hope at least this has been a little thought provoking. That’s the best I can hope for. (Oh, and for the penny to be eliminated.)

Currently Listening to: A Dustland Fairytale – The Killers

Random Wikipedia Link: Erdős–Bacon number