Comments for The Parallel Parliament

Comment on Questions by Granite T. Rock

Granite T. Rock — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:05:00 +0000

I would love to see the NDP / Liberals / Green join forces. How does one encourage that? I do give money to a party do I keep giving or do I stop and leave a note saying I’ll come back when you unite the left?

Comment on The Real Economy Responds To Its Citizens by palindia

palindia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:21:26 +0000

http://palindia.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/occupy-wall-street-just-a-start/

Comment on Bridge Over Troubled Waters by David

David — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:48:23 +0000

You’ve nailed it perfectly!

The pundits have spent so long diluting their own messages or thoughts, real powerful ideas and pronouncements leave them stymied to say the least.

Comment on Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Lance Darnell (@The_Lancer)

Lance Darnell (@The_Lancer) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:37:52 +0000

You rock, Glen!
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Gandhi

Comment on The Real Economy Isn’t Ideological by Darwin O'Connor

Darwin O'Connor — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:29:06 +0000

Is the belief in balance not ideological? The most socialist economies, like the in Nordic countries are the most successful at supporting their people while the least socialist country, the US, is the least successful. That suggests the most socialist the better.

All beliefs need a rational justification, even the belief in balance. Something to think about.

Comment on The Real Economy Isn’t Ideological by glenpearson

glenpearson — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:52:14 +0000

Harrisburg has had a brutal couple of years. Excessive flooding caused 10,000 people to leave their homes. The city’s unemployment rate is 7.7% – higher than the national average. Federal and state investment in the city’s infrastructure has shrunk. These are only some of the numerous challenges Harrisburg, and by extension, other cities have face in North America for the last decade or more. Cities make mistakes all the time, as do corporations and their unwillingness to invest in public places that matter. The point is that citizens are losing out and are now speaking out.

Comment on The Real Economy Isn’t Ideological by Joseph Rapai

Joseph Rapai — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:40:35 +0000

Thanks Glen …interesting days coming up.

Comment on The Real Economy Isn’t Ideological by glenpearson

glenpearson — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:38:57 +0000

Can only agree in part Iain. Cites have been put into impossible situations for years and, yes, some have made irresponsible decisions. The point, however, was that the public space is shrinking because of the corporate ethos, and cities, like London take the hit for that. As did Harrisburg in numerous avenues you didn’t mention. Anyway, thanks for the input.

Comment on The Real Economy Isn’t Ideological by Iain

Iain — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:27:43 +0000

Harrisburg is a cautionary tale for London as we look to extreme makeover our city.

And now for some facts.

Harrisburg’s municipal government, with noble intent, pursued an energy-from-waste incinerator project in the 1970s, and assumed 310$M in debt to support it. That debt burden is five times its annual general revenue fund. Put another way, at bankruptcy filing, Harrisburg’s debt service costs were 68.7$M and its budget was only 65$M.

The incinerator began operations in 1972 and the city agreed to long-term, fixed waste management contracts with surrounding municipalities. Operating costs shot up in the 1980s, but with the fixed contracts, Harrisburg couldn’t get out of its deals, and consequently, the incinerator began to lose money. Then the EPA shut down the incinerator in 2003. Faced with the decision to abandon it and clean up the site, or finance a $125 million, four-year overhaul, the then city council voted for the latter in hopes that it would one day emerge as a profitable investment. So add more debt. Overhaul costs skyrocketed. Pile on more debt. And then municipality jumped property tax to cover the loss, which in turn drove residents out. As the state capital of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg has less than 48,000 residents today. At the inception of the incinerator project it was 75,000.

I’m not sure how this chain of events leads to corporate greed as you say? One can extend and pretend, or one can take the loss. Harrisburg did not fall victim of a “capitalism gone mad” or the “private pursuit of greed”. It fell victim to extraordinarily poor decision-making of their own government’s doing. To say anything else is disingenuous. But that, of course, would not fit your narrative.

Comment on The Real Economy Learns by tono-bungay

tono-bungay — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:16:23 +0000

It’s a shame that Stéphane Hessel’s “indignez-vous” movement that swept Europe and the middle east has hit North America in a politically polarized form. Whereas in Europe and Israel the message was simple: we are hurting and we feel injustice, in the US it tried to distinguish itself from the existing Tea Party movement and just reinforced existing ideologies and eternal solutions: the Tea Party saying the government is the source of all hurt and injustice, and the Occupy Wall Street movement saying that capitalism is the cause. And I’m afraid that by jumping immediately to the conclusion that their caricatured nemesis must be brought down, neither one is adding very much to the quest for real solutions to the real hurt by recycling their pet decades-old bugaboos.

The fact is that both government and capitalism (including Wall Street) are necessary to the solutions and by eliminating one or the other from consideration as a positive force from the outset, both groups are prolonging the impasse that the US in particular finds itself in. I think both movements are wrong in their prescriptions for progress but are both partly right that people are hurting and it is right to do something to correct that.