This essay was written by Tony Keller.
For the past few weeks, the protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street has been growing. From a few hundred people in Zucotti park in downtown Manhattan it has spread across the United States. It’s decentralized and disorganized, without leaders or official program, and yet it has caught the attention of the media, and millions of people. The movement may not have answers, but it does have a long list of things that it's mad as hell about and is not going to take anymore.
And many of these things should provoke anger: record high unemployment; growing income inequality; a heads-we-win, tails you-pay banking system that enriches the few but ends up having to be backstopped by the pocketbooks of the many; and the sense that money has too much influence in politics. Occupy Wall Street comes to Canada this weekend, with demonstrations planned in several cities, including Toronto. I’m all in favour of people protesting whatever they want, and heaven knows there are lots of things about our society that need to be improved. But before you go out and Occupy Bay Street, consider this: what the protestors in Zucotti Park are demanding is for the United States to look a lot more like Canada.
For starters, Occupy Wall Street is upset about growing income inequality. A larger share of America’s income is going to the wealthy few, with the poor stuck on the bottom rung and the middle getting squeezed. One answer would be a more progressive income tax system, which is what people like billionaire Warren Buffett are calling for. It also happens to be what we have in Canada, which is why the gap between rich and poor is smaller up here than the U.S. The Canadian tax system would be a dream come true for the mainstream of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Ditto Canadian health care, which is one of this country's most successful anti-poverty programs.
What else does Occupy Wall Street want? Financial institutions that don’t enrich themselves, and their employees, at the expense of taxpayers. That certainly happened in the U.S., where risky behaviour juiced bonuses in the short run, but ended up destroying several large banks and insurers, which then called on taxpayers to bail them out. But again, that didn’t happen in Canada. Prudent management, and tougher regulation, explain why taxpayers aren’t carrying Canadian banks. The people in Zucotti Park would have a lot less to protest if their country had Canadian banks, Canadian bankers and Canadian banking rules.
The key issue that the protestors are obsessed with, and with good reason, is the influence of money in politics. Some have called for rules that would entirely forbid corporate donations to candidates and political parties. What country already has such a rule? Yup, Canada. Millions upon millions of corporate dollars are greasing the wheels of the U.S. political system, but it’s a different story here. The maximum federal donation allowed to political parties and candidates is a measly $1,100 a year. And only people can contribute money to federal politicians—corporations cannot, and neither can unions. One of the main planks of the Occupy Wall Street movement is already the law in Canada, a law brought in by the Liberals and enthusiastically embraced and strengthened by the Conservatives.
There are many things in our country worth protesting, complaining about, and getting angry over. Canada isn’t even close to perfect. But anyone thinking of occupying Bay Street this weekend should remember that there’s something else Canada isn’t: the United States.
