When you have nothing but time on your hands, many thoughts tend to run free in my mind.

Oh,where to begin.

It seems logical to discuss Covid, living in Alberta and the economy overall. I know. How are these things related, connected or why even talk about it? Well, dear reader, pay attention and hopefully I can connect the dots and give you something to chew on and maybe discuss around your dinner table.

Living in Alberta is kind of like living in a red state in the US. People have little use for the government, until they do. They hate taxes to pay for things we all need, like say, healthcare but want the best health care. They pledge fealty to the rich and powerful yet deny themselves and others the dignity of a living wage. They still hate the east for Trudeau Sr.'s national energy program (NEP), among other supposed crimes against Alberta, but now demand a national energy program to be instituted by Ottawa (interesting point - all major oil producing countries, (including the US) have their own version of an NEP - except for Canada). Albertan's also don't like facts that disagree with their worldview. Alberta is indeed a land of contradiction.

Now before all you Albertan's out there tell this Ontario transplant to go back to Ontario if I hate it so much here, read on, dear Albertan, read on.

Alberta is blessed with unrivaled natural beauty. Albertan's can be generous to a fault. Alberta, as diverse as it is, comes together for its annual stampede week, everyone gets along and participates. It's truly a site to behold.  And Alberta gave us this to snicker over - well, technically Alberta didn't give this to us...Harper's PR people did and should have been fired. I really just wanted to use this picture somewhere.

Fine. Here is a pic of JT to make things fair and balanced - just like Fox News. JT also uttered the phrase "speak moistly". Nuff said.

                                                               


To be clear, Calgary is my adoptive home and has provided opportunities I may not have had back east, and for that I am truly grateful and indebted to my adopted province.

Back to business.

Now that you know a little bit of life in Alberta and the bi-polar nature of Alberta, it will come as no surprise that Albertan's, beholden to the oil and gas gods and self-appointed financial saviors of Canada, are reeling from the collapse of oil prices and need assistance big time. If you were not aware, Alberta takes great pride in cutting huge cheques to Ottawa in order to pay for the services in the rest of Canada - true fact (but not really) Albertan's and the rest of Canadians who pay federal income taxes actually pay for equalization. The pool of funds is then paid to provinces based on a formula last updated by Stephen Harper's government with the help of  guess who....Jason Kenny (da da daaaaaa). Say it ain't so.

Prior to the fossil fuel industry collapsing in Alberta, legit. Just prior,  many Albertan's were calling for separation from Canada, a Wexit, if you will. Ya, that's what they called it. Fer reals.  Yep, some of Alberta's brain trust thought a land-locked province and no access to a sea port, could go it alone, selling some of the most expensive oil in the world that no one really wanted to foreign markets and be financially stable and independent from the rest of Canada. Well we know how that turned out. It appears our Wexiteers have all been silenced now, hands out to Ottawa for bailout money. Funny that.

To be fair, there is a lot of economic suffering going on here with many people losing their jobs and I suspect many of those oil and gas jobs are gone forever. Alberta is truly hurting and needs help. This  said, Alberta bears much of the blame for their predicament. Alberta has had many booms and a bust always follows. After the inevitable bust, the Alberta government then produces studies on how to diversify their economy which then get filed on a shelf somewhere as the next boom begins. It's the circle of economic life in Alberta.

Alberta is a province that subscribes to the "pull yourself up by your bootstrap" myths and truly believes that one need only to work hard to be successful. I see plenty of people working hard at Wal-Mart or with substance abusers living on the street for $15 an hour or so who aren't getting ahead but that's a story for another day. They also don't believe the government should tax them very much and resent other provinces (read: Quebec and Ontario, like especially Quebec) for potentially having better social programs for their citizens. What Alberta fails to realize is that they too could have top tier services IF they want to pay for them. Albertan's generally have self-inflicted wounds in this regard that a PST or general rise in income tax could easily treat and cure.

Covid has compounded the problems in Alberta because most of the economy has also come to a grinding halt.  To give credit where it's due, I personally believe the province is doing a good a job as it can to contain the illness. Albertan's to their credit seem to be following orders to stay in their homes and practice social distancing, although you may not know it if you walk into any Superstore.

So, what is Alberta to do? Its main industry, oil and gas is hemorrhaging jobs and money. Covid has effectively shut nearly everything else down. The government cupboards are bare. This is where things get interesting.

Here is what I suggest:

The federal government should nationalize all payrolls. We do have some income inequality, job precariousness (think Uber, contract employees) that needs to be addressed but that's what policy wonks are for. They can smooth the edges out. The reasoning behind this action is that it's easier to keep these people on the employers payroll than look for jobs after the fact when the newly demolished economy starts to rebuild.

The federal government should offer a federal jobs guarantee. We have a shit ton of work that needs to be done (say, i don't know, infrastructure, abandoned oil well remediation come to mind) and now is the time to do it. Put people back to work at a dignified wage. Now this isn't meant to replace  private sector employment. The idea is built with the notion that one the economy recovers, people will transition back into the private sector. Unemployment is a man-made fiction that purposely causes needless human suffering and hardship and acts as a mechanism to help control inflation - yup its primarily a tool to control inflation.

Now here is the question you are asking yourself - How the F are we going to pay for that? What about my taxes or the deficit?  My answer?  So what? Let me explain.

You need to wrap your head around the fact that your taxes pay for nothing. That's right, absolutely nothing. Every single dollar the government spends is a new dollar, created out of 1's and 0's on a computer. How do you think the government is financing its current stimulus package? I don't recall JT calling and asking for money and I don't think we called and foreign debt buyers either.

So how did the Canadian government manage to get its hands on that kinda cash? Simple, it created it out of thin air. The Canadian government is the sole creator of legal tender. That's why counterfeiting is illegal. There is no reason the Canadian government can't do this as it owns the proverbial printing press. Canada by definition can't go bankrupt as it prints its own money.

I hear you now. But printing money creates inflation! Lets circle back for a sec when I told you your taxes pay for nothing. This is a fact. Taxes do 2 things: 1 - they create demand for the currency as the government demands you pay taxes in Canadian dollars and 2- they act as another mechanism to control inflation. There it is kids. The truth about your tax dollars.

The deficit? Now big deal. Government always generally operate in a deficit. A government deficit is merely a private sector surplus - money you and I get to keep and spend. The bigger the surplus, the more money I have. I kinda like that idea. It's just double entry book keeping. Not magic or smoke and mirrors. 

So the Feds could create the money and divert it to the provinces to fund whatever initiatives are deemed necessary. The easy part is to create the money. The hard part is to decide how it's spent. Do we spend on war and enriching the already rich or do we properly fund public institutions and take care of the most vulnerable among us? That's for each of us to decide. But imagine a world with no false scarcity and needless suffering. It's within our grasp. We all just have to want it.

Well that's all I have today.

We will talk again soon.