Dear Editor
My thanks to Nancy Carswell for her letter to the editor ("Make this election about equality" Regional Optimist Oct. 21). The fact that for several decades the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us has been getting wider, seldom gets the attention of the main-stream media.
The possible reasons for that trend get even less attention. I do recall seeing a brief comment in a paper a year or two ago, after a New Year's Day, that by the end of the day, many top CEOs had already made more income than most workers would get during the entire year. But that kind of comment in the media has been rare.
Some, such as the Sun Media commentator Michael Den Tandt, believe we have been living in a kind of "golden age," and should accept the fact our standard of living is going down (even though the rich are still getting richer). Others, such as the U.S. Republican presidential candidates, Herman Cain, and the late Barry Goldwater, blame the victims for being poor. Their solution to poverty is just to tell those people to stop being poor.
I don't think it is merely a coincidence that, in those decades when the growth in GDP was beginning to go only to those at the top, it was also a period when the influence of organized labour was going down. Organized labour has always been an important factor in improving conditions and income of workers, even for the unorganized work force, which benefits from employers having to offer better wages to their employees too, to compete for workers.
As well, I don't believe the vastly increased influence of the corporate world in that same period of time has also been just a coincidence. That influence has led to many politicians being dependent on corporate donations to get elected, and for a cosy relationship between elected officials and the many corporate perks they can get during and after their terms in office.
One reason Canada is still in a somewhat better economic condition than the United States may be that our unions are still a bit stronger than unions there. Another may be that we haven't removed as many of the regulations governing corporations as they have - especially in the finance sector. And other parts of the world need our commodities. All of that can change, for better or for worse.
I agree that this election should - and can - be about equality.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
