Canada shouldn’t give welfare to corporations outsourcing to China

Even before this COVID crisis trade issues were occurring with china. There was a constant threat of manufacturing from China stealing all our jobs. China was successful in taking a large chunk of it but we kept saying that it was acceptable as we were believers in free trade. After all, the only sector that it hit was the manufacturing sector, and Canada was intent on creating a knowledge economy. 

That said some say that the jobs lost from China in manufacturing actually didn’t cost Canada as much as we believe it did, as our workers were able to push into new fields. Though then the question becomes as to the quality of those jobs, and the income and security they bring in comparison to the jobs last. In reality, people are generally working two part-time jobs, with little job security or benefits.

We were willing to ignore many things in China, the way it treated its workers, the way the communist party oppressed its people, the Uighurs oppression, the wet markets that produced these plagues, and the most recent Hong Kong Protests. 

We must admit to ourselves that the shame is on us because that is a lot of horrible things to ignore. You see it didn’t matter what China did because we were getting cheap goods. A pair of shorts only cost us $5 from a big-box retailer. High price items are produced for pennies on the dollar skyrocketing CEO salaries, but none of it getting brought back to Canada and actually bringing those investment dollars here in Canada. 

So what is the point of the tax cuts finance the executives, when they can go to China, spend the money from those tax cuts in China, and come back here and sell goods that don’t go into the Canadian economy? 

We know that big-box retailers, fast food chains, restaurants, etc don’t pay employees very well. Some say those people can get better jobs. But the question is where? It’s almost a hostage situation, where an executive says to give them more money or they lay off workers, and then take that money, spend it abroad, and cut workers hours and benefits anyways. 

Sadly we do this a lot in our lives, we are willing to ignore things as long as we get our consumer goods at a cheap price. Alberta is a prime example of being in that exact situation.

Despite Alberta Oil being ethically produced, we buy from questionable dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia, We defend the environment because we claim to care, but environmentalists seem to conveniently forget about the issues that are caused when we are buying from sources overseas from the Russians, or Saudis or manufacturing from China. 

Poor hygiene practices of wet markets in China produced the first case of COVID. The Chinese deny this, of course, saying that if anyone mentions that the Coronavirus stems from China, they are a racist. That’s rather convenient. And yet by all accounts and reports those wet markets are still in operation.

It’s time to stop putting the almighty dollar as the reason that we do everything as a society. Capitalism taught us to work hard, which is admirable, but we cannot pursue trade with countries whose morals are corrupt and are working hard to undermine Canada. Otherwise, we’re just being the suckers.