Recently former Prime Minister Stephen (Steve) Harper gave a speech to the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence where he warned: “Elites are thriving and large segments of the rest of the population are not thriving,” he said. “The increase in income and wealth for the highest echelons of society has been unprecedented frankly since the age of the robber barons.”
We assume that Comrade (?) Steve is referring to the massive and obscene concentration of global wealth in the hands of a tiny elite (for Steve and others who may be uninformed, this is called Capitalism). In the context of the pandemic, this imbalance is becoming especially noticeable where “essential” workers, on top of the usual long hours, shitty pay and lousy treatment in their normal working day, they now have a bonus risk of infection while adding to their boss’s stack of cash. As Steve put it: “The burden has been borne by distinct segments of the population. This is exactly the problem that caused populist upheavals in the last decade or so and I predict is going to cause even greater upheaval as a consequence as we come out of this,” then added, “the technological revolution that is under way needs to accommodate the economic needs of working people.”
The Globe and Mail article notes: “although he did not offer any policy solutions, Mr. Harper said the gap separating the haves and have-nots must be addressed or it could lead to social upheaval.” Well, no shit. Good spotting there Steve. Also notably lacking from his speech was any indication of how we got into this mess in the first place. This is a guy who was Prime Minister for a decade and who assured us that tax and spending cuts would lead to a paradise of personal freedom and prosperity by putting more money in our pockets. Which worked great for those who already had money in their pockets. Actually, the more money you had, the better it worked. Unfortunately, an awful lot of Canadians couldn’t write off their kid’s cello lessons, since cello took a back seat to keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Harper’s acknowledgement of the social powder keg caused by himself and other leaders who imposed policies directly intended to increase the wealth of the already wealthy is simply a recognition of the reality of the consequences of those policies. This doesn’t imply taking any responsibility, i.e., “oops, should have left a few more crumbs for the riff-raff,” it’s simply saying, “we’ve got a problem.”
Yes, he offers no policy suggestions … perhaps he can’t come up with anything but another tax cut … but there are multiple ways to address the problem. Unfortunately, a conference on Security and Defence leads one to suspect that the minds of his audience will drift towards “security” solutions as the problems caused by the massive disparities in the distribution of society’s wealth reach breaking point.
For Socialists, the solution to this insane system is public ownership and management of the biggest banks and corporations so that those who produce the wealth of society reap the benefits of their labour rather than its “owners” and their hired flunkies like Stephen Harper.
Harper in 2018 worried about “people turning to the far left, … that wants to pursu[e] socialist or even Marxist economics.” Let’s make his fear come true!
