Doug's Blog
A Little Reminder From the Past
Every year I write an article to be posted in the, "Explore Wainwright & Buffalo Country" tourism brochure. A copy of the article I wrote in mid to late 2007 is posted below, word for word as I wrote it then. Its not meant to be an 'I told you so . . . ', just a little serious thought from two years ago that seems to have had some merit. Do with it as you please, but please note two things: first, you can't turn back time so smart decisions are needed now to manage the economic downturn, and second, my comments below were not directed at government . . . they were directed at all Albertans.
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I have been reflecting upon a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, "A people that values its privilege above its principles, soon loses both." I found it interesting, particularly because of my trip to Guatemala in the spring to help build houses for the poor. It is there that I became acutley aware of just how good we have it here. In fact, if you have a roof ovr your head, a bed to sleep in, and food in a refrigerator, you are rigcher than 75% of the population of the rest of the world. The other part of my interest in the quote comes from the dismay I felt when I returned to find so many angry people complaining that their lives were so awful in this province.
Everywhere I go I hear about how the government nees to spend more. Everything . . . I am lead to believe, is short-funded and short-changed and needs to be fixed, built, financed and supported right now. There seems to be the impression that the almost $200 billion spent in the last seven years was not enough, but if we had just collected that $6 billion more, everything wold be okay. And if we could collect and spend $1.4 to $2 billion more than the almost $40 billion a year we currently spend, it wold meet all of our healthcare, education, infrastructure and savings needs. Is this really about addressing our needs though, or is this more about addressing our wants.
The government of Alberta needs to get its spending in check and save for the future, so that we can even out he violent revenue cycles inherent in resource based economies like ours. We are spending more than any other jurisdiction in North Aberica at almost $11, 000 per person. That's no small change in a world where if you have a bank account, money in a wallet, and change in a dish someplace you are in the top 8% of the world's wealthy. Yet we continue to focus our attention on getting more and having more. Indeed, many young people are making incrediblemoney in this hot economy but they are still living paycheck to paycheck because they buy more and more of what they think they need, when in reality they are really buying the 'toys' they want. If we don't all get this under conrol, surely we will all be parading new bumper stickers that say, "Whoops, I did it again."
So Albertans and the government need to ask themselves, is this really about howmuch we collect, or is this about how much we spend? Or mayb the better question is not around how much we spend, but around how much we expect and demand. Maybe we need to quit starting our sentices with, "In a province as rich as this . . .", and then go on to deman the government provide more. Maybe we need to remember and recognize the meaning of JFK's immortal words, "As not what your country can do for you, as what you can do for your country." Maybe we need to realize that we are always building for the future that this is not what we can get from others and the government, but rather what we can give back to build for the next and future generation.
I think we need to forgo some privileges and try not to forget just how good we have it. We need to go back to our principles of hard work, self-relieance, and fiscal prudence. We need to do this now before we lose both and wind up with nothing but memories of another boom gone bust. We need to do this now before we are forced to undergo another painful round of cuts and slashes as we did at the end of the last boom. If we don't, we will desrve the fate we get adn we will have no one to blame for it but ourselves. Know this: even if I am the only one, I will continue to speak this message for the sake of my son Austin's future and the futures of all Alberta's sons and daughters.
