I am confused. Truthfully I am. I just dont understand whats going on with Canada today. Or Nova Scotia or kids today for that matter. Remember the days when making mud pies was normal? Not having a cell phone attached to your ear at 8 or 10 years old and who wore bras and mini skirts then? Not I. Or do you remember when gas was under a $1 or when power cost like 20% less than it does now? When the little things were important and people were happier and less stressed. When people were able to make it by with less. When flour wasn’t $15 a bag. When more people had jobs and were able to afford going out as a family. When strikes meant something and the public could really get it and support it not boo because so many are unemployed or haven’t gotten a raise or weekend off in more years then they can remember. When secondary education didn’t cost an arm and a leg and your firstborn child. When student loans actually helped pay for your school not turn you down because you work full time at a minimum wage job. When there was a defined three class and the general public could at least claim middle class. When it almost kind of sort of felt like the country wasn’t in a recession. When strangers would smile as you passed them on the street for frig sake. I want to know what happened to all of these things because I remember them all and I am only 21 years old. So really it wasn’t that long ago people!
I remember when bills could be paid on time and when people didn’t have to cut out half their groceries just to make sure there power didn’t get cut off. It truly saddens me to see what has happened to the economy in the last few years but even worse the people… children complain that they don’t have the newest iPhone or Gucci clothes and parents struggle to pay the bills and feed their children let alone pay for all these new things. I have never seen so many people without jobs or so unhappy. I never thought I would see so many people with university educations working in fast food or that the old age pension may be pushed up even higher than 65. I thought as the world progressed things were suppose to improve instead it just seems more difficult for everyone I have met. Everyone has a sad story or needs help. I never expected or wanted an easy life that would just be boring. I will work hard and get my education with or without help from the government and I will make my life what I intend. But it breaks my heart that every time I turn around I see stress, doubt, and a general sadness caused by life itself these days. It truly does seem like the rich get richer and the poor keep sinking under…
What happened to the world and what have we done to forget the little things and be able to work hard and make it by? I hope you remember that the little things are important: a sunny day, a pretty flower or car, a smile a hug a high five! Friends family and just lending a hand simply because you can. Try and see the positives as hard as it may be right now. I hope the world gets on a better track but either way I still plan on being happy and working for what I want! —Liz
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.
Good points.
Blame lies with the govt and lawyers. Both have created a society of cheats – people working for cash under the table to avoid the ridiculous taxes propping up govt pensions – and victims – whereby everybody is a victim and nobody is accountable for their own mistakes or stupidity.
Kids want everything for nothing because they see moronic celebrities earning a fortune regardless of their lack of talent. Kids are not kids anymore, they’re little adults. Parents have created this by making their entire existence child-centric and adminsitering zero discipline.
Still, you think it’s bad in Nova Scotia…? Try visiting the UK, it’s 10 times worse there. A month or so ago I was shocked when a young teenager held a door open for me at Halifax shopping centre. If that was the UK he would have stabbed me, stolen my phone and wallet, then tried to shag the missus. Of course, it wouldn’t be his fault. He’s the victim because his parents broke up and their welfare doesn’t quite cover the latest Reebok sneakers.
Unfortunately I fear Nova Scotia is headed in the same direction.
You probably havent been paying bills for very long, and if you parents struggled they were great parents and didnt share it with their children. People have been poor for a long time.
I do agree with the sadness that is kids who dont know how to make mudpies and are wearing clothing they cant hang off the monkey bars in. I’ve already decided when my first child comes along that none of their toys will have batteries.. they need to use their creativity like we did! Kleenex box+paper towel roll guitars, tomato can stilt shoes, talking through a paper cup for gods sake! That was fun 🙂
It’s called the Nanny State thatcher… who needs to be a parent when the government is going to parent your child (and by extension you) for you anyway? lol. It’s sick.
Who remembers when people wrote concise Bitches?
Seriously. I don’t. They seem to be so long these days(giggity).
Wp
can’t post comments
Oh, that one goes through. Fuck it
I tried to play the word ‘giggety’ in scrabble yesterday. Oddly enough, the kfire version does not see this as a valid word (it would have scored a lot of points, too.)
I read recently .01% (not 1 percent, one tenth of one percent) own 86% of the United States.
Canada is in the exact same boat.
Who to blame.
Banks allowed to create money out of nothing. (called fractional reserve banking)
Fiat money (money with no value..except a promise that can be renigged on with or without notice)
Inflation doesn’t happen it is controled by the Government(s) & the banks.
Central Banks !
Now you know why & what’s the problem, & revolution is the only answer.
Because there is no way that the Foxes will turn over control of the henhouse, now that they have control.
liz honey babe, i really know what you mean. i remember that too, and fuck me, it hasn’t been that long ago. what the fuck is up with all the greedy bastards out there today? but have no fear, a new world order is coming, and hopefully, it will be a hell of a lot better, because i don’t see hw it can get much worse.
maybe a plague will envelope the planet, and wipe out the better part of the human race. maybe a giant rock from outer space will hit us, or maybe just humankind will fuck us for good.
anytime i hear someone say, yesterday was better, i ask how so? when they start on about all the nice things we lost over the last few years, i tend to agree. but i do go on, don’t i? remember when you could go to a saturday mattinee and spend all day there for a quarter. and even get pop, pocorn and shit too. all for one lousy quarter. whhich today is worth not even 2 cents.
Kind of makes me glad I don’t have kids.
meh, long winded bitches are ALWAYS a waste of electrons.
I have a typical ‘internet’ attention span. If you can’t keep your comments smaller than my computer screen, then I don’t both to read them.
That’s right More, the answer is to fight the only system that has the capability to raise our standard of living – the only one in the history of the world that had that possibility!
Capitalism really is over rated, and only if more people would vote NDP and join a union we’d all be just fine…
At least we agree a revolution is necessary… though for different reasons I’d wager haha
The reason lies with technology and freedom Liz. The greater the technology is, the less the average citizen has to think, act on their own because there’s a gadget to do it for them. The gadgets come at a cost and we mortgage our financial future to attain them.The gadgets are then replaced with better, more improved ones and further mortgaging continues.
Technology continues to “improve” the quality of our lives detecting all those things that could be harmful to us. Potentially harmful pathogens and chemicals are detected in products we use, rigorous standards are enforced and the price of that item goes up to comply. As we are able to refine our techniques of detection, more potential harm is found, more standards imposed and higher prices. So the items we took for granted in the “simpler times” have either disappeared or have a much more expensive replacement.
Don’t forget the vast amount of energy needed to produce all this technology. Carbon-based energy which our manufacturing sector relies on. The demand drives it’s value up and as it’s price goes up, so do the cost of goods.
Freedom has allowed women and minorities to compete for jobs that were held by white males during those “simpler” times. The fact that both men and women are out on the job market has complicted family life if they choose to have children. This causes stress, less time with busy schedules and more reliance on gadgets, not to mention complicating life at home and the workplace.
Sound familiar? Stressed, not much time, everything’s expensive?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge believer in equality for everybody but it is a reason for the current landscape. The simpler times in many ways weren’t better times for certain segments of society.
It seems we have a corporate babysitter who entertains our kids and tells them all the merchandise they need to be healthy, happy people. I think we need to pull away from that and unplug a bit. Save our money, say no to the gadget. Do the kids have to go to soccer, karate and hockey? No. Use some of that time to stay home, play a board game or card game with them. You can talk while having fun.
It’s funny, technology ( to make our life easier) and freedom (the rights of the individual) seem utopian but in practice they complicate.
I completely agree Troodon Formosus.
We are stressing ourselves only because of what we believe we need to be happy. We are chasing happiness but never seem to catch it because there is always something else out there we want. We have the most (stuff) of any society and we are the unhappiest society statistically. Stuff that all the advertising has brainwashed us to want is over powering family life. Sad really.
Dartmouthy….or Troll which is what I think every time I see a post from you.
It isn’t Unions that are causing the problems in todays world. Governments have grown to large. So the civil service is bankrupting us, along with the Education & Health Care & Welfare system (over 5.8 billion of our 9 billion 2011 budget) & they need to be seriously revamped. Our debt load , where previous Governments persued policies of spending now & letting the future generations pay for it…has come to fruition …. unfortunately at 10 times the speed they thought & we are all still alive to be the ones who are having to pay for it along with those who were just children when it was being implemented BY LIBERAL & CONSERVATICE POLICIES.
As USUAL ‘mouthy has completely IGNORED THE 13 Billion dollar Nova Scotia Deficit we are stuck with…A deficit created by the Conservative & Liberal Governments of our recent past ( last 30 years)the NDP inherited this mess & unlike anyone else in recent memory are actually trying to stay inside their budgets ! ! !
And in true TROLL STYLE is attempting to cover his lapse by spewing hate at Unions (like any Union had control of the Governments policy in the last 30 years or ever) & of course the NDP…who are for the first time in power & have inherited a debt that to service is almost as much as we pay for welfare programs in this Province.
So keep your head in the sand (or up your arse ‘mouthy) where ever you please …but all the rhetoric & bullshit you try & spin will never be able to change that
1- Liberal & Conservative Governments have created Nova Scotia’s massive debt.
2- If Unions didn’t exist there would only be the elite class & the slave class in this world.
3- you don’t know shit from chocolate pudding & should you really have someone check your bowl before ever eating something brown!
it’s called “getting old”
Yes. The world is fucked. It’s always getting fucked up. One generation at a time.
It’s okay to get old. And it’s okay to realize that kids are stupid. Our parents thought we were stupid. My grandparents still think my parents are idiot punk kids. We think our kids are stupid. Maybe it’s a kind of karma.
We have a unionised government more – and you don’t think that fact has anything to do with our $13 billion debt??
LOL I think it is you who should get your facts straight. Unless you know who it was, other than the tax payers, who have been propping up these union pensions that inevitably fail, who has been paying $50K for what amount to (in many cases) minimum wage jobs, who has been paying 50% or more of generous medical benefits for those who haven’t yet earned them? lol
Who was at the forefront of Nanny-Statism in this country? Unions More. You know, the (only) ones who advocate for everyone else to pay higher taxes to keep their “union jobs” afloat, but really, it is to “save” our health care system, lol…
Right to Work legislation, Taking away collective bargaining rights, dismantling the Public sector unions’ stranglehold on policy and the public pursue – that is my main, only, political goal. I cannot wait to see it happen – and it will. It is only a matter of time. This dinosaur way of thinking, of expecting everyone else to take care of you, is on it’s way out. It isn’t sustainable, and it is morally bankrupt.
People who seriously think that “revolution is the only answer” always make the dual mistake of a)assuming that THEY will be the ones putting “enemies” in front of a wall and b) believing that situation won’t change.