Mary Shortall, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour says “Cutting wages and public spending in a weak economy is just bad policy. It’s the economic equivalent of inviting people to throw away masks and drink bleach.” (“LETTER: Taxpayers federation plan is bad economic policy,” Jan. 9).
Not an “economic” equivalent, surely? A detrimental health equivalent perhaps? Throwing away your mask or not wearing one in public during a pandemic is not a good idea. Drinking bleach may be fatal. Please wear a mask, do not drink bleach and follow pandemic restrictions.
If Shortall is suggesting by analogy that unchecked austerity could be harmful right now, I agree. If she is suggesting that cuts to government expenditure are necessarily harmful or suicidal, I do not. If she is suggesting as a labour leader that Newfoundland and Labrador continue to operate its government status quo, without attempting any sort of expenditure reduction, reorganization or restructuring, she is going too far. There is always room for improvement.
If Shortall is suggesting by analogy that unchecked austerity could be harmful right now, I agree. If she is suggesting that cuts to government expenditure are necessarily harmful or suicidal, I do not.
I also wonder where Shortall’s “same old right wing voices” are coming from. It sounds a bit like paranoia. I agree that working people have been adversely impacted during the pandemic, so if the author is suggesting it is the “self-interested privileged rich people” making these sorts of comments, I’m not sure. Many of the rich, not as adversely affected, probably don’t even care. I think, that here, these voices may be coming from the working poor or middle-income earners, who see a growing wage disparity between private and public sectors as unfair, and who are most affected by public sector service fee increases, bureaucratic inefficiencies, poor policy decisions and increasing taxation. Many are continuing to leave this province.
Sure, numerous studies show austerity to be a bad policy initiative during recessionary periods. Shortall provides several sources: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Governor of the Bank of Canada, among others. However, some studies, completed on heavily indebted, corrupt, badly managed economies in Europe (like ours?) also show that strategic cuts to public expenditure, government reform and organizational restructuring are necessary and beneficial to improving public sector efficiency and productivity. The studies certainly do not preclude a need for re-organization and restructuring of government. Many of them necessarily involved layoffs and public-private initiatives. While some worked, others didn’t.
But doing nothing, that is no reform, no strategic expenditure reduction, clearly doesn’t work.
R. James Weick
St. John’s
