The End of Imagination

So Toronto is in a budget crunch. For the TTC there seems to be three options: 1) Raise transit fares; 2) Cut service levels dramatically; and 3) Raise taxes. The latter is, in this political climate, unthinkable and the other two are also problematic. All cities seem to be passing through this phase as unimaginatively as possible.

Why is raising taxes such a taboo subject? Well simply because big government is bad (not that I've seen much evidence of a smaller government since the times of famous slashers Mike Harris and Jean Chretien). The government shouldn't be redistributing wealth, the market does that (poorly).

Plainly, this is bullshit. The answer is as simple as pie. Tax those who can afford it--progressive taxation (property taxes arguably do this). But with the CBC boasting of Canada's billionaires, don't expect this to happen. Taxation is off the table.

What does this conversation say about civilization (at least in southern Ontario)? That people have come to expect their cake and to eat it too. This attitude can be extracted to include other topics such as climate change. We think that we can have all our gizmos and crap from China and apples from New Zealand and run the air conditioning all day and idle our SUVs and somehow stop runaway climate change at the same time. We can't. We have to accept limits. And if we don't then it's over.

This reminds me of Derrick Jensen who laments the insanity of our death culture. Hard to disagree with him.