The following statement was made in the March 30th editorial in the London Free Press – “As a community, we’ve agreed our taxes will pay for health care, for education, and for a social safety net should we need one.”
Many times statements need clarification, because it is not always apparent what is meant. For instance, who is the “we”? Is this a corporate ‘we’, a neighbourhood ‘ we’, a municipal ‘we’, a provincial ‘we’, a national ‘we’, a majority ‘we’? You can see the problem I am having trying to understand the comment.
My difficulty in understanding the comment is greater because of the budget that ‘we’ as a municipality recently passed. Of the nine general programs, social and health services was the only one of the nine programs where expenditures were reduced. As a community, ‘we’ have actually agreed that social and health services is the least of our priorities. ‘We’ have actually agreed that our taxes will pay for many other things in priority to health care, education and a social safety net.