WE'RE TOO CHEAP

      "PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH"

       For a long time I have thought that our society has been too cheap for their own good. 

       Hurricane Harvey got me thinking about this again. I was amazed to read that the drainage system in the Houston area was completely chaotic. Now I know that the floods in Houston could have never been prevented no matter how good the drainage system was. But it was surprising to see that they cheaped out on a good safe drainage system.

      I have other examples. I constantly hear people yelling about high taxes and all the damage high taxes will do. On the other hand low taxes will bring in new business and industry that will share the tax burden. What people fail to realize is that the new businesses need new services built. Many times businesses are encouraged to locate as they are promised tax relief and benefits.

     Health care is expensive. People are loudly warning that we will not be able to afford our health care at the present level. They somehow or other think that if people pay for their own health care it would be so much better...better if you want to let people die because they can't afford health care. But what really matters in health care is preventative health care. Try as much as possible to prevent people from getting sick and the costly health care will be less.

    We let public buildings get into such poor condition that we have to do costly renovation when if they'd spent money on upkeep the building would last much longer. Here, a large school that was built in 1968 will be bulldozed once it's $10000000.00 replacement is finished. The powers that be were too cheap to keep the old school in good condition so now it is to their thinking beyond repair.

    Now I can hear lots of examples about how tax money is wasted and that's true in many cases. But's what's wrong with developing a system that works and projects are done efficiently.

    One of my favorite gripes is that this province, Alberta, subsidizes the drilling of each oil well to the tune of $300.00 per meter drilled. The last time I looked oil companies were supposed to be very profitable and generating lots of tax revenue.

    In a recent post I gave an example of our local museum where funds for a new museum were voted down but much money was put into the old museum. Sooner than later a new museum will have to be built .

    So I think that if we weren't so cheap to start with and developed adequate programs and built good quality infrastructure , we might not always have to be rebuilding. We might also be safer and healthier.

    

Oil Companies Do Get it: From Us

    In my last post I described how big oil companies play dumb, ignore things, and get what they want.

    Today something else that big oil companies get...money. And they get money from us.

    Big oil companies get an enormous amount of money from governments and of course, that's our money governments are giving away to the oil companies. On top of giving money away there  are extremely sweet tax laws that allow big oil companies to pay very little or no tax at all.

    Here in Alberta , Canada, big oil companies receive $300.00 per meter drilled from the government!  The last time I checked oil companies were very, very profitable. Why are they subsidized $300.00 per each meter drilled?

    Provinces and states fall all over themselves to attract companies to set up business in their jurisdiction. Money sweetens the pot. Much infrastructure is built for companies so that they can operate.

  Tax regimes are another thing. Oil companies pay royalties to buy the oil taken from the ground. Sometimes royalties are very low so the oil company almost gets the oil for free. The oil belongs to the people and people should be paid fair value for the commodity.

   Business taxes can be extremely low. This is to encourage companies to come and develop the resource. Now don't forget, big oil companies are very,very profitable. There are many loopholes for right offs. Capital cost allowance allows companies to right off part of the investments they make. The capital cost allowance is subtracted directly from tax to be paid.

    The examples I've given, show how money is given to very, very profitable companies. 

    The big oil companies piously bray about how great  they are at being efficient. Go on an oil facility site and you will find waste and careless practices. They never turn off a machine if they can help it. Trucks run all the time. My daughter worked for an oil company for five years in their human resources department. She was appalled at the was. One thing she did was to go on the rigs and give safety training.

   These companies further sneer about individuals who want things from the government for nothing. They are the biggest Corporate welfare bums in the country.