Happy New Year....sort of

Sheesh, are we ever missing el Nino!
Weather and other stuff...
'Coz la Nina is turning out to be a very bad girl, with -17C mornings.
And daytime temps barely rising by 5 or 6 degrees.

Feels like a new Little Ice Age right now...

And my Mom's in hospital; chiefly with age related symptoms as she's 93.
She had frequently been losing her balance, and with the fear of falling, she adopted more sedentary days.
That led to other things.
But she's receiving excellent care at the new hospital tower, in a private room with her own bathroom.

A wonderful walk-in shower; note the designer wallpaper above the tiles.

Why don't our homes have bathrooms like this?
People would be able to age in place...longer.

Back to Mom's situation. 
There'll be a discussion with Interior Health in the next day or two about the urgency for Mom's assisted living need, despite the purported "6-8 month wait" list.


Yes, the New Year.
As widely reported, it's the time for price increases to take effect.
Hydro, insurance, water, medical premiums, property taxes etc. etc.; the list goes on.

No wonder people drink.

But wait until you see your property tax increases!
Remember that assessments each year are based on the previous July's assessed value!
And we all know what happened to property values in B.C. last summer.

For that reason, don't feel placated by your City's reported "2-something percent" increases.
As the euphemism goes "cost of living increase...my arse".
Sounds like assessments are going up by almost 8 per cent...(some as high as 30 per cent)...without any announced increase in your community's mill rates.  Yet.

What else is new?

Oh yes, received a note that my submission to Hydro's request for public comment on their tiered rate for electricity was accepted before the end of November deadline.  After a bit of digging, discovered my submission here.
If you're ever suffering from insomnia, here's the list of all the submissions....scroll down to the very bottom and click on “E Exhibits – Letters of Comment”.

And the threat of huge water increases deserves a mention.
Same ole, same ole in many ways, with Greater Vernon Water saying that rates will go up by about 2 per cent.

"...all they have been doing

 over the last several years

 is taking our money

 without spending any of it."

 Coldstream Councillor Pat Cochrane                   

Highlands Golf--and the other much larger irrigation users--will be hit especially hard in 2017.

The proposal is for ICI customers (industrial, commercial, institutional) to pay residential water rates for the first 1,000 cubic metres.

That proposal is one segment of the recommended 2017 Water Rate Pricing submitted to the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee (some of whom have residences that are on well water and, frankly, probably don't give a damn what water rates are!)

The 40-page proposal is worth a read, folks!

The proposal is for rates to increase almost 4 per cent annually for each of the next three years.

One very interesting comment from Coldstream councillor Pat Cochrane was reported in the newspaper:  "At some point it gets a little silly to keep increasing the rates when you have money in the bank."  He concluded "...all they have been doing over the last several years is taking our money without spending any of it."  It took a long, long time but Councillor Gyula Kiss has a new ally in Councillor Cochrane. 


But don't believe that as it's with the typical condition that GVW imposes:  that they don't lose the revenue from large water users.  (Large water users doesn't include agricultural...'coz they don't pay bugger all to begin with, so the utility will NEVER lose those customers.  On the contrary, agriculture water use is increasing like mad, although it'll take the water utility a couple of years to report that).

A recent quote from letter-writer Jim Miles--whose sentiments mirror even the Occupy movement's meme--concluded a letter he submitted on another topic.  It went thus:

"...also know that the elites, the governments, the media and the powers continually lie to the populace, manufacturing consent for aggression, to serve their own interests, not the interests of the farmers, factory workers, labourers and the every day citizens of the world."

    Jim Miles...............

Jim Miles obviously isn't fooled.

Speaking of serving their own interests, have a look at this report of executive compensation.

"Feeling alone, despite being part of the 99 per cent," Kia would've said.

Ain't that the truth!

Is it 5 o'clock somewhere?
Probably in the boardrooms of the nation.

Thankfully, there's one very good thing: 

Grandson was loving the weather...

Thank God for grandchildren!

A lot of topics dumped into this one post...a catch-up.

 

Occupy Movement

Ordinarily, it would be fairly easy to brush off the Occupy movement by responding to some TV photos of bedraggled and unkempt youth--and the very sad illicit-drug-induced fatality of a participant in Vancouver.

If it weren't for the truth the movement conveys.

Mark Milke's five principles hit the nail on the head in the December 2011 issue of Thompson Okanagan Business.

Excerpt: 
"I sympathize with the protesters' concerns but for those sincerely interested in creating a better world, slogans, demands and a snap of the finger won't do it.

Thus, to make poverty scarce, to foment prosperity and to avoid political favouritism for anyone, here are a few general principles Occupy protesters should grasp and promote:


Principle One:  Subsidize only people in need, never the wealthy or corporations.
People occasionally need help and the exact parameter of that is a constant source of debate as is who should do the helping.


Nonetheless, let's be clear about who doesn't need a subsidy:  the wealthy and corporations.


The rationale here is not difficult to understand.  Obvioiusly, the wealthy don't need income transfers from taxpayers.  As for companies, they are artificial entities which will rise and fall, so let them.


Real people work in companies but that's rather the point:  when flesh-and-blood human beings are down on their luck, help them, not corporations who come and go.


After all, trying to "save" corporations through taxpayer money only sets government up to intervene between competitors and to pick winners and losers.


Wall Street protesters are right to oppose the socialization of losses on Wall Street; same goes for Detroit automakers and anywhere else where private losses are paid for by taxpayers.


So as a general principle, end all corporate welfare and means-test all social programs.


Principle Two:  Be neutral in tax policy.
Whether in Canada or the United States, the personal and business tax codes are riddled with loopholes disguised as "tax credits", "deductions" and "exemptions".


Regardless of where one thinks the overall tax levels should be, job creation (except for accountants) could be helped by broadening the tax base and simplifying collection.  Lower, flatter and simpler taxes are always preferable to higher, convoluted and confusing taxes.


Principle Three:  Always favour consumers over producers.
Want cheaper food prices for the world's poor?  Then stop favouring farmers or anyone else with subsidies, protective barriers, and "supply management" boards (which are essentially cartels).


All that does is protect the market share and prices of producers at the expense of consumers.  Instead, embrace open competition.


Principle Four:  Oppose government-sponsored "Ponzi" schemes.
Insofar as anyone thinks governments should throw another borrowed billion or trillion dollars at the economy, it's an attempt to generate political returns now at real costs to future generations.


That cost includes more debt to be repaid in the future with higher taxes, slower economic growth and fewer jobs--for the younger protesters on Wall Street.


That's almost akin to a Ponzi scheme.  It's an inter-generational "borrowing" of wealth that forces the last people into the scheme to pay for not only their own government services but also those delivered to people who came before.


There's a good example of where that leads to:  Greece.


Principle Five:  Favour opportunity, wherever it appears.
Some Wall Street protesters decry so-called entry-level jobs but that's an insult to those who hold them and who work hard to imiprove their life.  There is great dignity in all work, in any field.  For most able-bodied people, it beats dependence on a government cheque.


So in general, embrace opportunity.
Look at what it did for Steve Jobs.  


Consider how he improved the world with his inventions and entrepreneurial drive.  Ponder how many people's lives he improved with employment and expanded opportunities.


That's a smashing success story and one worthy of emulation."
end of Excerpt from Mark Milke's article.

A sincere thank you to Mark for saying it as it should be.

But where to start?

I think a very good start would be if all the people--starting at the beginning...with the former Goldman-Sachs executives, whose intentionally fraudulent acts bundled worthless mortgage paper into bona-fide investments and created the sub-prime debacle--actually were charged with fraud and went to jail.

Send them to jail.
To prove that cheating and lying are not acceptable.

"And don't collect $200 as they pass 'Go'," offers Kia.