You gotta give a little...

or a lot, especially if you live in Canada, and even more so in British Columbia. Now I'm a big fan of having safeguards (such as medical insurance and employment insurance and welfare). I don't think anyone should fall between the cracks in a society as wealthy as we are.

But...

But there are some things that drive me crazy - like the Olympics. The billions of dollars we've spent bringing the Olympics to Vancouver are never going to come back to us in any way, shape or form. Now, if we'd spent that money on the homeless people who haunt the streets of Vancouver, or the people who barely exist in the Downtown Eastside (one of the poorest neighborhoods, if not the poorest, in North America), or built more public transportation for Vancouver - I'd be there 100%. I'd be paying the higher taxes without a single complaint.

But...

The Olympics? Yeah, nice for the IOC, nice for the members of the Vancouver Olympic Committee, nice for the premier of the province and the members of the legislature who get to dine out with them. Not so nice for the rest of us - especially the people whose lives have been disrupted for years because of construction. Not so much of the venues, those are small things. Updating the road to Whistler, putting in rapid transit from downtown to the airport when we need it for the people who work in the city rather than people visiting. People have lost their businesses because of this work. Did they get compensated? Or at least got tickets to the gold medal hockey game?

Nope. They got a big fat nothing. Except promises that weren't kept.

I know this is a bit of a rant - but it's Labor Day, isn't it? Perfect time for a rant about the government not doing enough for the people who really need their help and doing way too much for those who don't.

That's my rant for this Labor Day.

Kate
signing out

So paying for the Olympics when there are so many people struggling,