RM> I'm busy squashing them all over my monitor screen
RM> since that's the only light on in the house in a vain attempt
RM> to try to not attact more of them inside. I thought this was
RM> done with summer gone..

PC>    Your locale sounds like ours here .... better then the city?

Anything is better than the city. But I put up with the hassles
and terrible internet speeds as part of the cost of living here.
I'm on the shores of Georgian Bay, owned since 1980 and been here
more or less full time since 1986, and watched the prices go up
to 15 times what we paid since then. Paradise at 19,200..   B)

RM> And of course voters respond best to bribes. They all
RM> want a piece of the 'surplus'..  Right.. surplus when we
RM> are over $500 Billion in debt. That's like getting a $10 a
RM> week raise at work and wondering what to spend it on when
RM> you have a $10,000 Visa balance..

PC>     I thought the FEDS had a surplus of 30 Million?

You probably meant 30 Billion, and they'd spent enough extra
this year on added military costs and medicare and other things
that what's left over is something like $11 Billion that actually
went to pay off the accumulated debt.

Surplus as in more coming in than is scheduled to be spent
but the past debt is still on the books, both for the Province,
and the country (federal). We should really be making a serious
dent in this while the economy is good because that's not likely
to last forever. Federally they are bragging on reducing the
debt by something like $11 Billion this year..  but that's not
such a big chunk out of the nearly $500 Billion the gov't will
admit to. I say admit to because it depends on who's figures
you want to believe.

This number won't be current, could be worse, but back in 1999 according
to the Fraser Institute the total Canadian national debt, taking into
account the direct debts and unfunded liabilities of ALL levels of
government in Canada,was actually $3.5 trillion, or about $116,000 for
every man, woman and child living in Canada.

That's the total of all government levels but the Federal alone was
pegged at 1.7 Trillion so, at $11 Billion a year it will probably
take hundreds of years to make any headway.

But back to provincial and using gov't quoted figures..
Ontario debt alone is about $160 Billion and our population is just
about 12.2 million so that's about $13,115 for each of us just in
the province. You can add another $14,500 federally and then decide
whether to ignore all the other hidden debt or not..

This is why it concerns me a bit..

That said, it's probably worse in the USA since they've done things
like borrow $10 Trillion from their national pension funds and then
didn't count it in their quoted debt figures so I guess fudging the
figures is pretty much universal.

PC>  ... I know  2 candidates in my area personally, and
  >this year I will be voting, because here they both have done
  >things for everyone enough to gain my consideration.   I
  >wonder now if they will be my "friend" after their first year
  >in office?   Hope so....

They rather frown on you voting for more than one person I hear..  B)

Have a good one..

---
 * SLMR Rob  * Label not found... Or you are reading the french side *
 * PDQWK 2.52 #17


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