Every time the economy or government spending is discussed, I am dismayed by the comments of certain elected officials. I won’t name anyone because my argument is not aimed at individuals but at a broader problem.
This week I again heard people confusing a one-time investment with a recurring annual expense. We always hear people comment on investing in a project by not asking the right questions about profitability, but by saying that we could have donated that money to a good cause.
Sometimes elected officials consciously commit these aberrations by playing the partisan demagoguery card. In other cases, we clearly hear in the statement that none of the basic concepts of economics have been mastered.
Photo from Twitter, Genevieve Guilbault
The environment
If I talk about this today, it is because last week I saw MPs publicizing their participation in National Assembly training sessions on climate change. It was the second of its kind.
After the election campaign, the idea arose: Every MP must have a knowledge base on climate change. So we organized these trainings, which were offered on a non-partisan basis to elected officials of all parties.
Québec Solidaire even suggested making it compulsory! What a farce! A third of his own group wasn’t even at the premiere in the spring.
The initiative is new. Despite the magnitude of the problems our elected officials have faced over the decades, we have never felt the need to provide universal bipartisan training of this kind.
That surprises me a little. At the same time, seeing people receiving training cannot make anyone sad. Ultimately, we never know enough.
However, I can’t help but think that we are putting the issue of the environment on a pedestal as a new religion.
Why not another training? Deputies study, amend and then vote on all laws that apply to citizens. However, no one has ever thought of giving them basic legal training.
- Listen to the Maréchal Dumont meeting with Isabelle Maréchal QUB radio:
Our dollars!
Personally, I believe that a large part of the important decisions that determine our common future can be traced back to economics. Taxes and government spending, employment, our natural resources, inflation, I could go on and on about the issues that change our lives and that affect the economy.
Yet no one has suggested providing our elected officials with training on basic economic concepts. Everyone should be familiar with climate change, but having elected officials who are economically illiterate wouldn’t be a big deal!
I say “illiterate.” Even a former prime minister, whom Jean-René Dufort had asked to calculate an exchange rate for $5, had raised the white flag.
By the way: Even with regard to climate change, an economics education could help ensure that money from green funds is no longer wasted!
Originally posted 2023-11-18 05:30:20.