Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!micomvax!musocs!mcgill-vision!utcsri!utegc!utai!ubc-vision!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!brewster From: brewster@watdcsu.UUCP Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: Sunday openings Message-ID: <2840@watdcsu.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Dec-86 01:42:17 EST Article-I.D.: watdcsu.2840 Posted: Wed Dec 10 01:42:17 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 04:27:02 EST References: <2819@watdcsu.UUCP> <708@looking.UUCP> Distribution: can Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 62 >If you need daycare and have a low income, you can find cheap daycare. >I've seen cheap daycare; have you? It's enough to turn (pardon the >exaggeration) Erik Nielsen into a flaming welfare-stater. In the long run, >it's not really cheaper either. Bad daycare now means more unemployment >and higher welfare costs later. >Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 I have heard rumours, and these may be rumours of the : "you have it so easy now, why when I was a kid we lived in a shoebox and worked 25 hours a day" variety; but nevertheless rumour has it that people at one time felt responsible for their actions and didn't cry to the government for assistance at every chance. You seem to assume that there is an automatic right for people to expect to receive unemployment and welfare. Canada cannot support its current unemployment and welfare system, at the funding levels that we now do. If we try to maintain the current system, bad daycare now may mean no more than bad daycare now, if the "safety net" you allude to crashes around us. In the same vein, I have never understood the calls for universal free daycare. People are not forced to have kids, they can choose for or against; and if they choose to have kids then they did so in an environment where having kids meant you had to make many different types and degrees of sacrifice, one of these sacrifices being arranging to care for the children. Now why all of a sudden should the entire population be held economically responsible for a decision that you made personally and the consequences of which you no longer like. i.e. why should I pay for daycare for your kids because you don't want the hassle of doing, paying, or otherwise arranging for it yourself. And while we're here; why should I pay money into the UI program, which is purportedly an insurance program, but which I will never collect from while others are encouraged by government to do a 10 week "qualification programs" in order to collect for a year and then repeat the process ad infinitum. The people administering this INSURANCE program seem to evaluate risk different then the rest of the insurance industry, because I know the first time I make a claim on my car insurance I certainly won't be offered a chance to reinsure for the next year at the same rates. Similarly, why should I pay into CPP when I'm at the tail end of the boom and the plan will almost certainly be bankrupt before I see any money from it. Given the huge influx of elderly that the plan is going to see fairly soon, even people in their forties might not see anything back from this plan. Finally, why is it that Canada, a country which in the eyes of many had the cards so stacked in our favour at the start of this century that we were certain to become a major world influence before the end; ended up as a bit player ? Why do we continually elect governments whose record can optimistically be described as mediocre, and truthfully described as poor to bad ? Possible answer (and if this doesn't reboot can.politics nothing will) : 3rd, 4th, and higher generations of Canadians have been generally lulled into a state somewhere between lethargy and laziness. Try not to become a man UUCP : {decvax|ihnp4}!watmath!watdcsu!brewster of success but rather try Else : Dave Brewer, (519) 886-6657 try to become a man of value. Albert Einstein