The Occupy Movement Ain’t Over Until It’s Over

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

All around the world, the tents have been taken down, the garbage has been cleaned up and the squares and public places have been made safe for the wasps, bourgeois and the one per cent again. Whew! What a relief. But just hold it a minute if you think the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is dead or no longer “relevant” as we used to say in the ‘60’s.

The Jan. 27 Infoline Report issued by B.C. Stats shatters the illusions of many that those ne’er-do-wells and dirty hippies will fade into the background now and once again it will be “business as usual” with the top one per cent lounging around in their mansions and enjoying their holidays in the south of France while the “Great Unwashed (like you and me) struggle to keep our heads above water and pray that Harper leaves something in our pension plans.

Oh come on Warner. You’re being paranoid again. Things are pretty good in Canada. (partly true) The only thing we need to worry about occupying is the express lane at Tim Horton’s or being first in the parking lot at the next Canadian Tire sale.

Maybe so, but the Infoline Report paints quite a different picture. “Mind the Gap,” begins the article pointing out that according to an OECD study released in December 2011, the gap between the rich and poor in the Great White North is growing rapidly and that out of 34 of the most wealthy OECD countries we had the ninth biggest income inequality. Only countries like Chile, the U.S. and Mexico ranked ahead of us while highly affluent countries like Switzerland, Germany and Sweden had smaller income gaps than we do.

Hmmm, there’s more. Based on 2008 data, the average income of the top 10 per cent of Canadians was ten times greater than the bottom 10 per cent which was a significant increase from the early 1990’s despite our relatively low tax regime and social safety net. The article blames the growth of inequality on the increasing gap between high and low income earners, a big increase in the number of self-employed because they tend to make less than regular wage earners, a steep increase in part-time work and less redistribution of wealth through taxes and benefits. According to the OECD, the richest one per cent of Canadians earns 13 per cent of all income in the country so if you want to join them you better become a CEO, a rocket scientist or learn how to bash people’s heads in with a hockey stick.

Infoline Report author Dan Schrier concludes his article saying, “Given the size and the vehemence of the Occupy protests, one would suspect that the current income gap is too large . . . and this issue is not likely to fade away soon.”

No kidding!

Then we have the attitude of the B.C. government to consider. And that attitude was displayed in Technicolor this week by Finance Minister Kevin Falcon. Asked about the income gap described in the Infoline Report, Falcon said he wasn’t impressed. “I’m not unhappy at all,” he said, adding it was government policy in B.C. to create a low tax regime that would cater to high-income earners. This, of course, is the famous “trickle down” economic theory that believes if the rich become wealthier crumbs from their lavish tables will eventually trickle down to the rest of us and we’ll all be better off.

Yes that great economist and former American President Ronald Reagan was a great proponent of the theory. So was ex British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, leaders of two countries with some of the widest income disparities in the world. But this didn’t bother Falcon, who really jammed his foot in his mouth when he said later at a press conference: “Income equality is perfect in Cuba. Unfortunately everyone is poor.”

It takes a lot of class to take a cheap shot at Cuba, a Third World country that’s been battling an American trade embargo for more than 40 years. I’ve been to Cuba, and while I certainly wouldn’t call it wealthy I can tell the finance minister that there are fewer people begging on the streets in Havana then there are in Vancouver or Victoria.

But you have to remember Falcon was one of the architects behind the great HST tax scam that would have removed $1.3 billion from the business class in B.C. and loaded it on us – the 99 per cent or so. In the end, thanks to a popular uprising, the scam failed, but don’t count on the occupy movement doing the same thing.

It’s just gathering momentum.

OECD stands for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development; includes about 25 industrialized democracies.