2009-05-22

Amassing Wealth And Perks On The Backs Of Taxpayers

Oh, here's a surprise, another one of our cultural departments acting like a bunch of scam artists - excuse the pun. The sad thing is because they spend the money pretending to be hotshots in Southern France, the sucker artist on the street often gets screwed - not that I'm a fan of subsidized art.

No money to give out? No sweat. Just pressure the government to give you more money arguing our culture "depends" on it and away we go.

In my opinion, many "institutions" wouldn't survive a minute in the free market (what's left of it) without subsidies. I don't have figures, but on a pound for pound basis, (Quebec in particular) we probably have more arts and culture companies than anyone else on the continent.

Back to SODEC.

"Le président-directeur général de la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) a donné le mauvais exemple en se permettant des frais de déplacement somptuaires pour des chambres avec vue sur la mer à Cannes, a déclaré hier le vérificateur général, Renaud Lachance.L'an dernier, Jean-Guy Chaput a engagé des dépenses totalisant 48 000 $ pour des hôtels et des billets d'avion lors de ses déplacements, a indiqué le vérificateur général, après avoir déposé son plus récent rapport à l'Assemblée nationale."

Shock! They call this a junket if you're the Governor-General.

Its mandate: SODEC is dedicated to the promotion and maintenance of Québécois culture. To such ends, it provides public financing to Québécois industries in cultural sectors. It aids the book sector, music sector, film sector, television sector, and artists.

All these organizations have their reasons for existence down pat.

I read not too long ago someone assert "Montreal is a cultural mecca". Hyperbolic, n'est pas? We tend to confuse being hip and cool with high culture here. When was the last time a true global artistic movement (art, music, philosophy etc.) came from the big MTL? Montreal is an open city when it comes to new ideas from abroad but we're not innovators ourselves.

Our culture is "great" because it's "ours". I could be wrong. If I am, please enlighten me.

Which leads me to a conversation I had with my barber today. The older gentleman who proceeded me got up, paid double what the cost actually was, muttered something about the weather and drove off in his very luxurious Mercedes-Benz. All the while I observed my barber (a handsome feller from Lucca in Tuscany). He didn't seem too enamored with the gentleman.

"A regular"? I asked in Italian. "He's been coming here for over 20 years. He's a multi-millionaire," he replied. "How did he amass his wealth"?

As he cut my hair he explained that his father had exclusive contracts to build bridges in Quebec during the Duplessis era. "Ah. Nice work if you can get it" I said. "Yes" he replied.

"What does the son do"? I wondered. "I'm not sure but he was in the crane business. He would sign 99 year leases with the government to park his cranes on various sites for their projects. More often than not they were never used. I know many stories of waste like that. And it's us, small businesses and taxpayers who pay the heaviest price to maintain the game".

Music to my ears.

Question: Is it better to have the odd capitalist blow up and have the free market (I know, there are no free markets anymore but work with me) purge them free of government intervention, or to have people become millionaires off the backs of taxpayers thanks to government corruption?

2 comments:

  1. Owing to our recent political instability and minority goverments many have come to believe that anything goes. Have you noticed that the most corrupt countries are usually run by dictators or coalitions? Look at several African countries, Haiti, Palestine and Israel and, yes, Berlusconi's Italy; Greece is also well placed.

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  2. Yeah but here in Quebec we're a special case. We're known for our "circumnavigation" if you will as compared to the rest of the country where they tend to be a little more obedient of the law.

    Yes, that's true. You can add France to that list.

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