Opinion, The Peterborough Examiner, July 3, 2018
There is much wrong with Ron Graham’s rant about alleged biased coverage in the Examiner, not the least of which is his claim to economics expertise like that of Stephen Harper. He ignores his own biases and actually misses the Examiner’s biases. While I do not like using debt to GDP ratios, Ontario’s is about 38 percent, which is better than (lower) than over 100 countries including many of the top performers like Germany. No danger of bankruptcy exists here.
The teaching of economics is a subjective, propaganda activity. Its teachers pay little or no attention to economic history nor scientific principles. Its theories are based on ridiculous, untested models appealing to beliefs rather than reason. Therefore, contradictory views to the current economic belief system are not allowed. To be fair some economists are now pointing that out to their colleagues.
The role of the Examiner, now that it is under new ownership, is to promote policies that will make the Neoliberal Age of Austerity in which we now live, more humane but not challenge it. It likely will not provide information to its readers about neoliberalism except through letters. Unlike the Guardian in the UK which has columnists who write about it.
Wynne enacted neoliberal policies (privatizing hydro, P3s) while pretending to fix the harms caused by neoliberalism (by testing the feasibility of Basic Income Guarantee, increasing minimum wage).
Doug Ford used populist rhetoric to appeal to the prevailing neoliberal beliefs held by a minority of voters (maybe 40 percent) in this province so giving him a chance to see what he will achieve is a silly notion. Sixty percent of voters made other choices.
Andrea Horwath promoted a return to social democracy and appealed to about 34 percent of voters.
Neoliberalism developed out of a fear and loathing of social democracy.
But by far the most egregious aspect of Ron Graham’s letter is that he, like Ford, looks at the world through the lens of money. Since he likes economics experts, he might want to read Prof. Peter Fleming’s books on this topic. Fleming points out that central to neoliberalism ideology is money. Everything must have a price and the only purpose of human activity is to make money. In Neoliberalism, money trumps life.
The Examiner might consider a column about neoliberalism versus social democracy. The neoliberals have had their way with us for 40 years but that is not enough for Ron Graham. Compare and contrast this time with the previous 30 and the relative impact on debt. But most economists (and the Examiner) do not do that. Worse, there is no analysis of what changed in the ’70s and why.
Herb Wiseman, Peterborough,
former Vice-Chair of COMER
