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London's failed socialist economy

On Saturday, about a dozen employers from Huron County were part of a Job Fair that took place in London. Media reports were these companies had a total of 150 positions to fill, and they came to London because they could not find enough workers. Hundreds of people, probably more than the 500 expected, attended that day looking for a job, including myself. So far, I have not been offered one. London falls dead last among all Canadian cities in employment rates and labor participation rates.

The irony of the location of the Job Fair did not escape my attention. It was held in East London. Once the industrial engine that helped drive the London economy for many decades it is now rusting out. Outside employers looking for workers held a Job Fair just a block away from the closed McCormick and Kellogg factories that have been empty for years. Just these two factories once employed hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people at a time, and both operated successfully for many decades. The last of many and various types of manufactures that once clustered in the area since the early 1900s. (Dominon Office & Store Fitting, Middlesex Mills, McCormick's, Kellogg’s, EMCO, Ruggles, Kelvinator, Supersilk, Hunts Mill, Club House Foods, Coca Cola).

Some people, including so-called economists, argue the economy has changed, and this is why manufacturing has declined in the province of Ontario. They use phrases like, “shifting economy”. Things have shifted, but not much in manufacturing. People still need the basics of food and clothing, and the luxuries of computer devices to be produced. Mass production enables more people to obtain more of the things they want, and in so doing, provides jobs for thousands of workers. It has been the political situation that has gone away from capitalism and into socialism that has mostly caused the profound decline in manufacturing jobs in the province of Ontario and the City of London.

Capitalism includes:

Private Property

Profit Motive

Freedom of Contract

Competition

Free Enterprise

No one is raising private money to restore and renovate the vacant factories so that they may be attractive to new manufacturers who will bring jobs. They are not finding ways to attract new business to East London. The City Of London is not lowering property taxes, eliminating over regulation, and offering these incentives for new owners to restore and renovate the vacant (many historic) buildings in London. The City is concerned with increasing taxes, increasing regulation, and spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars, probably one billion dollars, on a Communist social engineering Bus Rapid Transit scheme.

The financial records show that during the First World War London’s prosperity remained unbroken.

In 1922, with a population of 60,000 people, London ranked 6th in manufacturing output in all of Canada.

One London factory in 1922 produced more than all of London’s industry in 1871.

The City of London established the Town Planning Commission in 1922.

“Report On Town Planning Survey Of The City Of London” by Town Planning Consultant, Thomas Adams was completed April - May 1922. Main considerations for attracting business of 158 manufactures and 83 wholesale distributors surveyed were:

Labour facilities

More disposition of city to appreciate industry

Room for expansion

Railway facilities

Power supply

After her death in 1934, the City of London challenged Elsie Perrin Williams' Last Will And Testament in Provincial Court and succeeded in robbing her $1, 000,000 trust fund to spend on City projects.

The London Street Railway (L.S.R.) began on January 23, 1875, under an agreement with the City of London, and while the L.S.R. was privately owned, the L.S.R. fell under the complete oppressive control of the City.

In 1940, the City of London abolished street cars, and an all bus system was established. In 1941, the City of London removed street car tracks along Richmond Street, Dundas Street, and Oxford Street.

In the 1960s and the 1970s, city planning increased considerably.

At least three manufactures did not come to London in 1962 apparently because of City Hall red tape.

In 1974, City Council approved the plan for a bus mall on Dundas Street. Dundas Street from Adelaide Street to Elizabeth Street was closed to car traffic that was diverted to King Street and Queens Avenue. This road closure destroyed the economy of this area within a couple of years. The disastrous busway that the City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars constructing was removed in a few years, but the area's economy never fully recovered. Phase I of the London Urban Transportation Study published in 1974 had recommended that the Dundas Street busway plan be extended from downtown to Quebec Street.

Since its last failed attempts at this scheme in 1980 and 2008, the City in 2018 has succeeded in forcing thorough its Dundas Street "Flex Street" that is only a few blocks from the almost identical busway mall fiasco location of 1974.

The lack of adequate sewer facilities was given as an obstruction to industry coming to London in 1978.

In 1999, 45% of London's sewers were 30 to 50 years old, 18% were 50 to 80 years old, and 8% were over 80 years old.

Just Right 540 - January 25, 2017

Up the poll on the state of the city

London's drug epidemic problem

I think anyone over the age of 18 years may do whatever drugs he or she wants with the conditions that: one does not violate the rights of others, one does not do or bring drugs around me, and government does not force me to help someone who willing messed up his or her life. I am fed up with the taxpayer paid for free used needles being discarded all over the place in London, even when there are used needle drop boxes in public parks, on city streets, and in public washrooms. Have you ever walked into a public washroom to find someone shooting up?

Campbell Memorial Park at 380 Dundas Street, a few blocks from where I live, has long been a place where addicts go to shoot up, and frequently overdose. The park property once had a house that was home to William Saunders, a hard working self-taught scientist, and his family who contributed greatly to medicine and agriculture. There was once a plaque at the site commemorating Saunders and his achievements. That plaque has been removed. Instead there is a some kind of monument in the park to city vagrants who have died. There should be a statue of William Saunders there. Plaque Text:

Born in England, Saunders came to Canada in 1848 and became a manufacturing chemist. A recognized expert in scientific agriculture, he was appointed Director of the new Experimental Farms Branch of the federal Department of Agriculture in 1886. There he originated many promising varieties of fruit and grain and commenced the research which led to the development of Marquis wheat by his son, Charles. Charter member of the Royal Society of Canada and President (1906-07), he was a distinguished member of many learned societies and author of many seminal articles, papers and reports. He died at London.

I am tired of the attitude that drug addicts are victims, and that we all need to provide for these drug addicted underprivileged. I am sick of the free needles, and I object to buying an addict’s drugs. Could it be the reason London has such a drug problem because it gives away so many free needles that addicts from outside of London are coming here?

I have been unemployed more times than I can remember for long periods of time. The last was almost three years. I am unemployed now. I live in a cramped, cluttered, one room, run down hole of a downtown apartment that costs me far more in rent than it is worth. I receive no government relief of any kind. I live frugally off of my savings from working and my line of credit. I have never done drugs (including weed). I rarely drink. I do not get drunk. I do not blame anyone else for my troubles or my mistakes. I earn the help I get. An addict’s drug problem is not my problem. It is their choice. It is their responsibility.

© Trevor Dailey

 

 

Listen to and control an online short-wave receiver

I am not one who is interested in streaming the audio of a short-wave broadcaster over the Internet. That is not what I have a short-wave radio receiver for. Once it is streamed online, it is not radio anymore. However, in this case, I will make an exception:

On this page you can listen to and control a short-wave receiver located at the amateur radio club ETGD at the University of Twente [the Netherlands]. In contrast to other web-controlled receivers, this receiver can be tuned by multiple users simultaneously, thanks to the use of Software-Defined Radio.

This site, which in 2008 was the very first WebSDR site ever, was finally reactivated in July 2012 after an interruption of more than 1.5 years

If you live in another part of the world, and you would like to tune into the radio signals in the European area, this is the next best thing to being there with your own radio receiver. One can direct entry a frequency to listen to, or one can move the “needle” around listening to transmissions. Frequency range covers the entire short-wave spectrum (1MHz to 30MHz).

I like to direct entry the three frequencies for the National Research Council (NRC) short wave station broadcasts (CHU) that amazingly travel from Canada to the Netherlands. There are also a lot of interesting and entertaining short-wave radio broadcasts one can tune into using the site; including the mysterious "buzzer station" from Russia, 4625 kHz (night), the Russian "pip", 5488 kHz (day),  3758 kHz (night), and the Russian "Squeaky Wheel", 3828 kHz (night).

A WebSDR is a Software-Defined Radio receiver connected to the internet, allowing many listeners to listen and tune it simultaneously. SDR technology makes it possible that all listeners tune independently, and thus listen to different signals; this is in contrast to the many classical receivers that are already available via the internet.

A current and automatically updated list of other WebSDR sites.

Worldwide short-wave KiwiSDR radio receiver map. Similar to WebSDR.

© Trevor Dailey

Will your ad blocker get you blocked?

Clicking the results of an Internet search, I went to a page, and after a few seconds, I was blocked from viewing the page. A message told me, basically, my browser’s ad blocker was costing them ad revenue so I needed to disable my ad blocker to continue. I had never seen such a thing before, and so I quickly left the page.  

As one may already know, browsers like Firefox and Opera have built-in ad blockers. The point of having an ad blocker is to block ads because ads can be really annoying. My choice of browser when watching YouTube is Opera with its free and unlimited Virtual Private Network (VPN) option that when activated keeps those irritating ads from playing.   

Websites have already found a way around pop-up blockers with those maddening email sign-up pop-ups, so I suppose it was just a matter of time before websites would find a way to try to force viewers to disable their ad blockers that are decreasing their revenue from advertisers.

From what I have read, this blocking of ad blockers has been around for a couple of years now, but this is the first I have seen of it. According to one source, blocking ad blockers may be backfiring.

UPDATE: I am encountering this more and more on news media websites (see image below).

© Trevor Dailey

Scamming You Tube?

Has someone ever given you the advice that you should start your own You Tube channel and make some extra money?

There are people on You Tube who reportedly make incredible amounts of money just from people watching their videos. Millions of views from idle and easily amused people in many cases. However, money is money, and there is nothing wrong with someone honestly making money from posting even stupid videos if that is what a lot of people want to spend their time watching.

I don’t know exactly how money is made on You Tube, but I have an idea. I also know that the lure of easy money can attract swindlers. Here is a video I came across that claims to show how a You Tuber uses a way to scam You Tube and eliminate his You Tube competition.

© Trevor Dailey

 

Minimum wage law: no one gets it if there isn't any

As of January 1, 2018, the minimum wage in the Province of Ontario has risen from $11.60 per hour to $14.00 per hour. That is a 20.69 % increase overnight. It is set to rise 7.14 % to $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2019. That is a total increase of 27.83 %. It will still rise again every October based on inflation.

The Province of Ontario had no minimum wage law until the United Farmers of Ontario government (1919 -1923) legislated it for women. The Conservative government of Ontario legislated minimum wage law to include men, at a higher minimum wage than women, in 1925.

To those people who have said the previous minimum wage was not enough, I say stop your complaining and get to work; and hope you are not one of the 50,000 people predicted to lose their jobs because of minimum wage going up. What wage is better than no wage at all?

Minimum wage law is about using force. It is about the socialist ideal, redistribution of wealth from those who earned it to those who did not earn it, eliminating freedom of contract, eliminating competition in the marketplace, and increasing government theft. The government steals a portion of everyone's paycheques through taxes so a minimum wage earners's net pay is actually less than the legal minimum wage.

From the example image above:

An employee works 75 hours during a bi-weekly pay period at minimum wage of $11.60 per hour and earns $870.00. The employer must pay the employee 4% vacation pay that is calculated to be $34.80. The employee's gross pay is $904.80. The government takes $38.12 from the employee's pay for Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The employer is forced by government to pay $38.12 to the government for CCP on behalf of the employee. The government takes $15.02 from the employee's pay for Employment Insurance (EI). The employer is forced by government to pay $21.03 for EI on behalf of the employee. The government takes $83.76 from the employee's pay in tax. This leaves the employee with a $767.90 paycheque. Subtracting the $34.80 vacation pay from employee's net pay leaves a wage total of $733.10. Dividing the employee's net wage (less vacation pay) by the 75 hours worked in the bi-weekly pay period means the employee was actually paid $9.77 per hour. That is $1.83 below a $11.60 minimum wage.

An employee works 75 hours during a bi-weekly pay period at minimum wage of $14.00 per hour and earns $1050.00. The employer must pay the employee 4% vacation pay that is calculated to be $42.00. The employee's gross pay is $1092.00. The government takes $47.38 from the employee's pay for Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The employer is forced by government to pay $47.38 to the government for CCP on behalf of the employee. The government takes $18.13 from the employee's pay for Employment Insurance (EI). The employer is forced by government to pay $25.38 for EI on behalf of the employee. The government takes $122.22 from the employee's pay in tax. This leaves the employee with a $904.26 paycheque. Subtracting the $42.00 vacation pay from employee's net wage leaves a total of $862.26. Dividing the employee's net wage (less vacation pay) by the 75 hours worked in the bi-weekly pay period means the employee was actually paid $11.49 per hour. That is $2.51 below a $14.00 minimum wage.

The difference in take home pay of the employee earning a minimum wage of $11.60 per hour and earning a minimum wage of $14.00 per hour for a 75 hour bi-weekly pay period is a net increase of $1.72 per hour.

The government takes $196.05 from the employee's pay who works 75 hours in a bi-weekly pay period at $11.60 per hour. The government takes $260.51 from the employee's pay who works 75 hour in a bi-weekly pay period at $14.00 per hour.

The employer must pay an additional $5, 221.32 per year in wage, CPP,  EI,  and tax to employ the employee at a minimum wage of $14.00 per hour.

Complete government control over the economy, and keeping people poor. Socialism, Communism, and Fascism. All on the Left. All alive and well in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Update: Apparently, the new Ontario Progressive Conservative government has paused the minimum wage increase until 2020. In 2020, the minimum wage may be raised to $15.00 per hour, and then increase each year based on inflation. If true, then the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are following almost exactly the same minimum wage plan of the defeated Ontario Liberal government.

 Just Right 515 - July 27, 2017

ONTARIO'S POLITICIANS ON FASCISM’S DOORSTEP

Kevin Flynn, Ontario's Minister of Labour (Liberal) has made it explicitly clear that his government's planned minimum wage increase is not about minimum wages at all.  The legislation has been designed primarily for the purpose of exercising the Liberal Party’s Marxist philosophy, most popularly (and incorrectly) understood as:  "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need..."          

“We told our advisors ‘Don’t deal with minimum wage’ because we already have a good handle on that,” Flynn said to interviewer Andrew Lawton on July 10. 

“The underlying principle is that there are a number of people in our province that are doing very well these days.” (From each according to his ability…)        

“The underlying concern is that people in this province are making less than $15 per hour, which we know is below the poverty level.” (…to each according to his need).          

So the whole minimum wage debacle is not about minimum wages at all!  It’s about socialist wealth redistribution, plain and simple. Straight from the Labour Minister’s mouth.          

Worse, Flynn hinted at government plans to impose a different “business model” on small and medium businesses that pay minimum wages.  His apparent intentions are to destroy what little is left of free enterprise and impose complete state control and regulation of small business via fascism – in the service of socialistic wealth redistribution purposes.  This movement to the Left has already been well under way for some time in Ontario.

Tragically assumed by many to be offering an alternative to the Wynne Liberals, Patrick Brown, leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, fully supports both the Marxist principle and fascist plans to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour.  These intentions have been made very explicit and you can hear both Brown and Flynn attest to them in their own words on today’s show.          

In political terms, minimum wage laws are properly categorized as being fascist (state control of private property/contract/association, etc.).         

Think “fascism” is too strong a word?  Consider that, effective January 1 of this year (and fully supported by all members of the legislature), it is now illegal in the province of Ontario to freely associate for political purposes. Yes, political freedom of association has literally been made illegal in the province of Ontario.          

This is fascism, and the details of how rapidly fascist policy has taken root in Ontario are alarming.  From politics – to minimum wage laws – to fighting climate change, and more, Ontario offers demonstrable proof that fascism sits on the Left, along with its socialist/communist brethren.

No matter how many may disagree with our use of these labels of the Left to describe Ontario today, few would disagree with the corollary: The one thing Ontario is NOT, is Just Right.

- Just Right Media

RUSH TO STOP ONTARIO LABOUR BILL 148

As you know, the Ontario government has introduced Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. Left unchanged, this bill will harm workers, especially young and unskilled workers, increase costs for businesses, and make Ontario less competitive. The Ontario government is rushing this bill through the legislature with unprecedented speed. Let your voice be heard. Contact your Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) and tell them to stop the rush—good jobs are at stake.

Among the changes included in Bill 148 are:

A minimum wage increase to $14 per hour on Jan. 1, 2018, and to $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2019 (a 32% increase in 18 months).

A new proposal to implement “Equal Pay for Equal Work” for Temporary Help Agency employees to be paid the same as permanent workers with comparable work/conditions/experience/skills.

New conditions for part-time/casual/seasonal workers to be paid the same as full time workers.

Establish card-based union certification for the temporary help agency industry, the building services sector, home care, and the community services industry.

Increase overtime and public holiday pay.

Increase minimum vacation entitlement for workers from two to three weeks per year (for employment period >5 years).

Allow any employee to take two paid days off with no minimum service, earnings, or doctor’s note required. Thus, a temporary worker could work one hour and receive two days pay with no explanation and no note, and repeat this across multiple agencies each year.

Double the Ministry of Labour’s current complement of workplace inspectors by adding 150 new inspectors.

Bill 148 will lead to:

Fewer Jobs.

Fewer entry-level opportunities for young and unskilled workers looking to build their experience.

Fewer roles for seniors and retired workers who need to earn occasional money to supplement their retirement income.

Less Opportunity.

There will be fewer jobs in Ontario as Bill 148 will make it significantly more expensive to operate a business. Ontario will be less attractive as an investment opportunity.

More costs.

A huge spike in labour challenges from permanent workers who will expect wage parity with temporary workers (often clients pay more for temporary help because a skilled worker on contract can demand higher wages). Significantly higher costs of public holidays for all employers that engage students, part-time employees, casual workers, and temporary help.

Less Productivity.

More red tape, more inspections, and more potential abuse of the emergency-leave provisions and scheduling changes resulting in less work opportunity, frustrated employers, higher business costs, and reduced productivity in Ontario.

- Express Employment Professionals

Another fact should be borne in mind, namely, that the shop we bought was literally a sweat-shop, and that sweat-shops are always made up of inefficient workers who can not get a job in a high-grade shop. Wages in what are known as "inside shops," run by the factories themselves, always start where the sweat-shop wages leave off; thus the wages that were being paid in this shop at the time we took it over, must not be confused with the wages paid in the inside shops of the large clothing manufacturers of Cincinnati.

"We all looked at him, and after a minute's silence he went on: 'Whatever this Golden Rule thing is I don't know, but what Mr. Nash told us was that all he wanted us to do was to work just as we would want him to work if we were up in the office paying wages, and he was back here doing the work. Now I know, if I was the boss and would come in and talk to the workers as he did, and raise wages like he has, I'd want every one to work like hell!'

- The Golden Rule in Business, by Arthur Nash

Back home in Canada, George Weston Limited remained profitable, in spite of the Depression. That allowed the company to do something remarkable for the times — establish a minimum wage for its male employees. In 1934, married men were guaranteed a wage of $22 a week and single men $18 a week.

- Britain’s Biggest Baker

The first thing that happens, for example, when a law is passed that no one shall be paid less than $106 for a forty-hour week is that no one who is not worth $106 a week to an employer will be employed at all. You cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him anything less. You merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and situation would permit him to earn, while you deprive the community even of the moderate services that he is capable of rendering. In brief, for a low wage you substitute unemployment. You do harm all around, with no comparable compensation.

- Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt

Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed. 

- Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

- Milton Friedman

Back in China, after returning to their families for the [Chinese New Year] holiday, most workers stay away for weeks (officially it's a 15 day holiday), and factories have no idea who will come back and who won't, as many people take the opportunity to renegotiate or change jobs. There are usually more jobs than skilled workers to fill them in China, which means workers can pick and choose and are in a strong position to make demands.

- Catherine Clavering

The purpose of businesses is to make a profit, not to provide a service or a product.

- Catherine Clavering

© Trevor Dailey

Freedom Party Of Ontario

Just Right Media: Minimum Wage

 

 

Brother Stair off the air?

If you listen to short-wave radio, you have heard the extremely zealous evangelical Brother (Ralph Gordon) Stair of The Overcomer Ministry. Brother Stair claims himself to be a prophet of God, the end of the world is nigh, Jesus is returning, "that this is the last generation", etc.. He is all over short-wave radio at every hour of the day and night with his lengthy diatribes. It looks like the so-called “prophet” could be off short-wave radio as a result of the latest sexual assault charges against the 84-year-old Stair.

Although it has been stated on the air, through a strange sounding computer generated male voice:

Attention Overcomer Listeners: Due to legal difficulties, as of January 1st, 2018, the Overcomer Ministry will not be broadcasting on AM/FM radio and Shortwave. The Overcomer Broadcast will continue on satellite, telephone, and this website stream.

the broadcasts are still currently on short-wave radio. I am hearing them on short-wave radio, some are recordings of his earlier broadcasts from years ago, concluded by the sound of Stair's young voice. The broadcast repeats, playing for hours, and the computer generated male voice breaks in unexpectedly at random.

The SWLing Post wrote:

While I’ll certainly not miss Overcomer programming on shortwave, the numerous private broadcasters who had Overcomer as a primary client will feel the loss of revenue in no insignificant way. Indeed, I believe this could even lead to the closure of some private broadcasters this year.

The Overcomer Ministry may have provided revenue for private broadcasters, but this change might finally allow others to get on the air who will provide revenue. I doubt any short-wave station is going to go out of business because of The Overcomer Ministry leaving short-wave radio.

On his short-wave radio show, Allan Weiner of WBCQ gives his opinion regarding the arrest of Brother Stair.

Allan Weiner Worldwide - 2017/12/26

Stair is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law in spite of any one's opinion.

UPDATE: previously recorded Brother Stair programmes continue to be aired by WBCQ and WWCR on short-wave radio.

UPDATE: Stair has been released on bail, and has returned to short-wave radio.

© Trevor Dailey

Brother Stair

Several radio stations pull S.C. preacher's program in light of sex assault charges

Women at South Carolina religious compound say preacher sexually assaulted them in the name of God