Where is Howard Beale now that we need him?

Howard Beale was the TV anchor in the 1976 movie, Network. Played by the late Peter Finch, Beale was reeling about the problems of his time; inflation, unemployment and high crime rates. He told people to go over their windows, open them, stick their heads out the windows and yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore”.

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If Beale thought that the 1970s were bad, they were nothing like they are today. After all we are constantly being told that the current situation is the worst since the Great Depression, perhaps even worse. And of course it is Howard Beale’s audience that is paying the price. The world has gone crazy. In Canada, the federal government is following the U.S. and simply wants to throw money at the automobile manufacturers, especially GM and Chrysler. The least that they could do is properly characterize it; it is nothing more than welfare for the companies and their unionized workers. The reality is that the automotive industry, despite its structural deficiencies and lack of competitiveness will not improve until people begin to buy cars again. Demand for new vehicles is of course down. People are refraining from making major purchases because they have either lost their jobs or they are worrying about job losses. Those that have savings in the stock market have lost a bundle and there is no end for the bear market in sight. And the fact that a company may go under leaving vehicle warranties uncertain is prohibiting others from buying. Ordinary people are the only ones who can save the major automobile makers by making purchases but they are just an afterthought in the general scheme of things. The government will end up doling out billions to the auto sector just to keep the workers working a little longer so that the government doesn’t have to face the reality of more job losses until sometime in the future when hopefully it will get better. Taxpayer dollars will be used to pay workers to make cars that no one can or wants to buy. In Ontario things are even crazier. Premier Dalton McGuinty thinks it’s a good idea to pay civil servants more money so that they use that money to spend more and therefore stimulate the economy. Ditto for raising the minimum wage in a time of recession. Using this logic, we are probably lucky that Dalton hasn’t given a government job to all the unemployed Ontarians and then increased the minimum wage to $50 or $100 an hour. After Ontario’s NDP held their leadership convention they were castigated by the governing Liberals for using equipment to tabulate the voting that was obtained in Nova Scotia. “Buy Ontario” is the motto of the day. Then it turned out that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation purchased 22 high end automobiles that were not made in Ontario to give away as prizes. The shock of it all! Buying Ontario is good for the province, just like “Buy American” is good for the United States. Oops, that’s not right. Buying American is bad; free trade, globalization, NAFTA and all those things. Nothing makes sense anymore. In the US, President Obama and the Congress epitomizes the new reality that all that is needed to get out of the recession/depression is more and more government spending. If this is in fact true, it’s a wonder how governments let us sink into recession in the first place. Of course this spending is spent on special interest groups, not on ordinary people. All spending is justified by simply referring to that spending as a stimulus. Meanwhile at the city of Toronto, the number of overpaid and underpaid workers has increased as have the debt, property taxes and user fees. The current economic conditions are totally ignored while two councillors fly off to El Salvador to await the arrival of two donated ambulances. While they’re relaxing on their taxpayer funded useless junket the remaining city mothers engage in heated debates about banning bottled water and whether or not to ban takeout coffee cups. Governments are not concerned about taking measures to help the economy. All they are doing is throwing money at anything and everything including workers so that the unemployment rate won’t rise. The economy, including the markets that Barack Obama doesn’t pay any attention to must be fixed first before business and jobs rebound. But that doesn’t seem to be a major concern. After all, we are told that markets are just like polls; they go up, they go down and they’re not really worth paying attention to. March 28 will see the celebration of Earth Hour where people are encouraged to turn off their power for 60 minutes. This of course does not achieve anything other than allowing those who participate to feel good about themselves and let get a sound sleep that night knowing that they have helped save the planet. Whether they turn their power off or not a lot of people will go to the window to see how many of the neighbours have their lights out. This would be an opportune time for people to open their windows, stick their heads out and yell, I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY MORE!

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