Right in the centre - You don't have to do that

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Published on Thursday, April 16, 2015

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner

If individuals and governments at all levels would adopt the title of this column as a one of their pillars of life, the world would be a better place. Individuals and governments at all levels are continually saying they are short of money. In many cases, they aren’t short of money, they are long on spending.

On an individual basis, many people say they are short of money. At the same time they may be spending up to $600 a month on cigarettes. Illegal drugs can suck up way more than that. People may say they are short of money but spend $5 a day or more on coffee or more than that on alcohol. Nobody has to have a tattoo or body piercing

The answer is simply, you don’t have to do that.

In more subtle, but just as damaging ways, people may say they are short of money but they have a big screen TV, facial jewelry and a number of other things that are certainly non-essentials and in some cases may be harmful. Some of us are pretty fat. I, along with a lot of other people, could save some money on food intake. As an interesting side note, fat people apparently suffer significantly less from age related dementia. Woohoo! Good news!

People should never say they are short of money if there are things that they spend money on that could be avoided. Drive a smaller car or maybe you don’t need a car. Live in a smaller or cheaper house. Efficiency and thriftiness are life skills that seem to escape today’s people of all ages.

Governments can do the same thing. They could, but won’t, look at ways to save money. They could simply stop doing some things that are not essential. For a country or a province, some things are deemed essential. We need roads and infrastructure but should roads and infrastructure be moved towards a user pay system. If gas taxes all went to infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, would that not make more sense? Countries need a strong military and good police forces. Unfortunately, we need some jails.

The government “elephant in the room” is health care. We spend 40 per cent of our tax dollars on health care. That doesn’t count all the health foundation lotteries, the suppers, the dances, the telethons, etc. that funnel even more funds into health care. Health care is a huge expense. In health care, not only are there things we don’t have to do, there are also more things we could do.

The major thing we should stop doing is spending tax money on anti-drinking, anti-smoking and anti-eating programs. If people are so stupid that they don’t have those ideas figured out yet, no amount of tax dollars is going to change that.

There are several things that could be done to generate more funds for health care. Around 1972, Manitoba stopped the health care premium. That was a mistake. We used to pay a small premium on every pay cheque and that was an appropriate tax  as everybody uses or will use health care. Every visit to the doctor should have a small premium attached to it. The visits to the chiropractor and the physiotherapist all have fees attached so why not the doctor. The third thing that needs to be done is to allow private diagnostic clinics in Manitoba like other provinces have. Let the demand be met by the private sector. Governments should also get out of the capital side of health care. Hospitals, care homes and clinics should be built with community and private money. Neepawa’s medical clinic is a prime example. Even though some communities are getting provincial money for clinics, Neepawa didn’t, but they also didn’t wait on government to invest and as a result have way more doctors than communities that waited on the government.

When it comes to the normal, accepted way of doing things, you don’t have to do that. There is another way and often it’s the better way.