Christy Clark’s Liberals are supported by a corporate sector that expects favourable taxes, regulations, subsidies and laws in order to grow the wealth for a relatively small number of people.

The core message from the Liberals’ Whistler convention — more of the same giveaway policies that have been in place for the last 12 years. Liberal policies have killed the purchasing power of the middle class, as well as reduced it in size.

The Liberals have rigged the economic game against the middle class. It’s the taxes of the middle class that provide for the needy and it’s the taxes of the middle class that make it possible for the wealthy to become wealthier.

Middle-class taxes pay for the bulk of the infrastructure and social services in the province and pay to cover lost revenue in subsidies, corporate overruns, as well as the tax loopholes companies are offered. The province’s wealthy are also allowed opportunities to avoid taxes while using a disproportionate share of socially produced goods. The message from Whistler is more of the same.

The purchasing power of the middle class, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than it was in 2000 due to deregulation, privatization, de-unionization and a skewed tax structure.

Liberal policies have created a disproportionate accumulation of wealth in the top 10 per cent of income earners, and in the process, drastically reduced the purchasing power of the middle class. That’s the main culprit with our current economic problem — the widening inequality between the wealthiest people in the nation and the middle class’s purchasing power.

The lessons of the 1930s are lost on the Liberals. Balanced budget laws do not allow governments to rebuild the economic foundation when an economic earthquake hits.

With transparency and honesty and constraints on how much a government is allowed to overspend, it’s possible to balance the budget over a four-year budget cycle.

Using taxation when the economy is strong and deficit financing when it’s not, budgets can be balanced.
Most importantly, the distribution of income must be rectified so that the middle class can purchase more than the bare necessities. In that action, the income of the top one per cent of income earners will grow, too.

The middle class, like the corporate sector, has every right to share in how, what, and for whom the government makes economic rules.

B.C.’s middle class has a right to expect better.

WALTER TRKLA

Kamloops