DECLINE OF QUALITY-OF-LIVING UNDER
NEO-LIBERAL GOVERNMENT
Neo-Liberals have taken Canada in just a few years from
the no. 1 ranked country in the United Nation's documented
quality-of-life related index to an on-going spiralling
decline.
Canada, Mali Drop On Human Development Index
Some excerpts are courtesy of the United Nations
A regular feature of the annual report that draws considerable
attention is the Human Development Index. Since the index
ranks countries not only on the basis of income or wealth,
but also on social factors such as education and life
expectancy, it is widely seen as a more comprehensive
measuring stick.
United States surpassing Canada for the first time ever....
This year [2003] the top countries on the Human Development
Index are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands.
In an unusual development, Canada has dropped to number
eight. Not only is this the first time Canada has not
been in the top five, but with the United States at number
seven, it is the first time the United States has outranked
Canada...
According to the Human Development Report, the index
shows that 21 countries experienced declines in the last
decade. "The 1990s was a decade of human development crisis;
54 countries ended the decade poorer than they began it.
In 21 countries, the Human Development Index actually
went backwards, which is unprecedented," Stewart said
(Reference: Jim Wurst, UN, 2003).
Free Trade and Canada's social decline
"Free trade" with the United States has irrevocably
subverted both institutional mechanisms and the "political
will" to defend Canada's social fabric. Indeed, Canada's
overall superior quality-of-living relative to the United
States, manifested from government "protectionist" public
policy. These "protectionist" policies range from healthcare,
to a variety of other social policies. "Protectionist"
policies are viewed to be "anti-competitive" market practices
under the accepted "free trade" ethos.
Canada's social fabric can only be rescued with a revitalization
of so-called "protectionist" policies. Indeed, arguably,
government in an international community of sovereign
nations, has a right to protect its citizens from harmful
effects of certain "market norms". These harmful "norms"
include tendencies to exploit citizens, and pollute the
environment. It appears that Canada has given up too much
of its sovereignty under the "free trade" regime, to the
detriment of the safeguarding of Canada's quality-of-living
as a model progressive society.
Cosmopolites recognize that failure to restore a pro-active
context of socially progressive government intervention
(and corresponding social empowerment) in Canada as a
constitutional democracy, will result in Canada continuing
to import chronic social problems which are commonplace
in America. These include such areas as Brooklyn, the
Bronx, the southside of Chicago, south-central Lost Angeles,
and vast depressed streches of rural areas in America
-- which rival the poverty and overall social malaise
of areas in the so-called "Third World". "Free trade"
is substantively exporting America's documented dysfunctional
socio-economic problems into Canada.
It is a mythology that "free trade" is socio-economically
desirable. "Free trade" regimes tend to be contrived in
a manner which ignores basic human and civil rights; and
protection to sensitive eco-systems. The predicable result
has been the breakdown of social structures, and human
misery on a "globalizing" scale.
Furthermore, "free trade" is based upon an out-dated
nineteenth century model of "growth". This "growth" model
has scientifically been proven with twenty-first century
knowledge to be categorically unsustainable and correspondingly
destructive. By comparison, "protectionist" policies can
vitally nuture the social policies of healthy communities,
and progressive society; and the environment in general
-- which people depend upon for their quality-of-living.
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