JERRY AGAR

Under-funded?

Posted By: Jerry Agar · 9/5/2012 4:24:00 PM

I had a caller today on the show who said that the "political system" is better than the "business system" because in business it is all about who has the most money, whereas the political system is fair.

He meant that systems like education and health care had to be done by government as opposed to private sector entities.

So I asked him why the education system is bankrupt, if the government is running it so well.

"It is underfunded!," he declared.

There is so much wrong with his view and his answer that I just broke out laughing. I was up against the news, so I ended the conversation, but here is where he is wrong.

1. Since McGuinty has become Premiere the teachers got a 30% raise, education spending is up $8.5 billion and there are 250,000 fewer students. Meanwhile they were caught spending like idiots when it was revealed that they regularly do things like spend $143 to attach a pencil sharpener to the wall. 

2. Health care is also bankrupt in this province - and this country - and in Ontario we have had the eHealth and ORNGE scandals sucking up billions. (So far eHealth is $2 billion and we still don't have a system.

3. A recent study, which I profiled on the show, had our health care system coming last against 28 European systems in a number of measures, including wait times. The difference? They all have some measure of privatization.

4. The business sector, in the long run, cannot do well unless it serves the customer. If, in a competitive environment where the customer gets a choice, the business serves the customer, the business turns a profit. Without profit, there will be no jobs, no taxes and no government at all.

5. Customer choice, in education, health care and groceries is what is fair. Choice allows individuals to fulfill their own needs and desires, harnesses the power of competition and always - always - lowers prices over that of a monopoly.

6. Big government systems fail because they are not competitive. They legislate themselves monopolies and then they steadily deliver poorer service for more and more money. They are able to do so because of "useful idiots" who declare, against all economic experience, that a socialist monopoly will work "this time" if we just get the right people and spend enough money. It is like declaring that with another few million we will find sasquatch "this time."

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  1. PJ posted on 09/05/2012 06:30 PM
    You are absolutely correct. As a quick example because I have to go to the news as well; We have a BILLION dollar health care system and there are just about absolutely NO checks or balances on the use of that system. It is utterly absurd. You do not even have to present a health card when you see your doctor for a brief minute let alone show it, sign and get a receipt with the dollar value attached that was just funded by us, the tax payer. We should know and receive a paid bill for all medical services we receive. This is not much to ask at all, simple. The cost to do this would be paid back in a week from people being more efficient.

    Could you imagine any business handing out millions upon millions of dollars a DAY and NO ONE is truly aware of these transactions.
    As a paralleled example in true business: you have a car under warranty and you bring it in to get fixed. I guarantee you the car company will give you a detailed cost of ALL services and parts that were billed under warranty with dollar values even though you will pay zero.
    This is just one plain example but with McGuinty the list is a mile long.
    Gerry, keep up the discussion and maybe Ontarians will vote in a true, capable and intelligent manager of OUR money in the next election. We only hope. What a sad state we are in.
  2. proton posted on 09/06/2012 09:37 AM
    Jerry, don't forget to add -

    Clean Air Act - waste of billions of dollars without any REAL science to back it up.
    All day kindergarten - again, nothing scientific to back it up

    any business leader that acted in that fashion would be turfed so fast by shareholders, but Dalton McGuinty knows best.

    When will the voters of Ontario wake up?
  3. StephenS_5505 posted on 09/06/2012 10:38 AM
    So what is your solution to the education system?
    1. DanM_2681 posted on 09/06/2012 02:35 PM
      @StephenS_5505 .......blow it up and start rebuilding on the premise we want an educated society not an over-schooled one. By the end of middleschool the school system should be able to determine those students who are best suited for academia and provde them with the support they need to move on. Most others can follow courses leaning towards the vocations. Arguably a 30% vs.70% ratio is what we need.
      While we are rebuilding we can look at ways to remake the school experience so that our boys can achieve again.
      Our society does not need a lawyer to close a house deals nor a doctor to treat an in grown toe nail.
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  4. proton posted on 09/06/2012 12:42 PM
    @StephenS_5505

    voucher system allowing kids to go to different schools
    eliminate union system whereby seniority is only crierion for advancement and salary; let the good teacher be paid more and the lousy ones less (or better still get rid of the lousy ones)
    eliminate catholic school board
    overhaul tdsb maintenance union and have someone responsible head it
    focus more on core subjects
    sports/physical activity part of daily school
    don't dumb down the system to the lowest common denominator

    why is it that 30 years ago we had a superior education system and teachers had time for extracurricular activities? today we produce kids that are often poorly educated
    1. Richard Collins posted on 09/06/2012 01:23 PM
      @proton That's a good point, bringing up physical activity. It never even crossed my mind. Now that I think about it though, we should change "gym" from a class the kids have a couple of days a week into a mandatory activity, let's say mid-afternoon of every day.

      What would the consequence be for missing it, though, or not giving your best effort? Maybe when the kids get a chance to do something out-of-the-ordinary (like getting access to a rock-climbing wall, for instance) the slackers have to simply run laps instead? It bears thinking about, anyway.
    2. Richard Collins posted on 09/06/2012 01:24 PM
      @proton You made other good points as well, it's just the physical activity one that got me thinking today.
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  5. SteveB_10 posted on 09/06/2012 02:24 PM
    Jerry you have insulted my honour, yes spelled with a U. So I challange you to an on air debate. Not one where as usual when your losing you hit the delete button, no a moderated debate on the three issues you spread disinformation about.

    Even in the US your overheated rhetoric was rejected by the free market. I hope in Canada I can send you back to the US which you always support.

    So here are the issues that you are constantly wrong wrong wrong on. Three issues, three wrongs.

    single payer health care
    global warming
    private ownership of utiites

    So I have kicked your butt all over this blog, are you ,man enough to face me on the air. With your decades of experience and my zero time in the arena, it should be a challange you could not refuse unless you look in the mirror every ,morning and say I am, a phony/
    1. DanM_2681 posted on 09/06/2012 03:53 PM
      @SteveB_10 Unless you're a renowned expert in the 3 topics you want to debate (are you a renowned expert?) or a person of celebrity status then why would anyone want to blow off the better part of an hour listening to you. Just be happy that Jerry graciously provides to you and others a blog to post your point of view.
    2. ctwr9-11 posted on 09/08/2012 05:25 AM
      @SteveB_10 I hope Jerry takes you up on that impotent offer of yours, so he can publicly humiliate you, and hopefully educate you and any others like you, who think they're always right.
  6. WarrenS_2923 posted on 09/06/2012 06:03 PM
    How can there be so many stupid people out there ? I recall the teacher recently on your show with the 200 banked sick days and the arrogance in the way she spoke.
    1. Andy posted on 09/10/2012 09:43 AM
      @WarrenS_2923 When teachers get payout for sick days they bank 200 but payout is for half, still generous? What about provincial employees that got severance when they went over to the HST division of gov't from PST why should there not be a severance for teachers when they leave as there is in most private industry?
  7. MichaelP posted on 09/06/2012 10:23 PM
    Jerry,

    I love the show but some of the points you're making are completely unfair. For instance:

    1 - "Since McGuinty has become Premiere the teachers got a 30% raise". What's that in real dollars? How much of that 30% was gobbled up by inflation. You know what's gone up more than 30% since Dalton has become premier? My salary (I work in the private sector), my cable bill, my gas bill, my hydro bill, etc. Over the period of 9 years, i'd like to think that most people would get something near a 30% raise since that's about 3% a year. And in real dollars is about, well, no raise at all.

    2 - "The difference? They all have some measure of privatization" - you are being untruthful if you say that our health care system has no private delivery. My dentist - private delivery. My eye doctor - private delivery. Most ultrasound places - private delivery, etc, etc. etc. Should be do more if it can find it can be more efficient? Of course. We should aim for universal access and not necessarily public delivery.

    3- If "Big government systems fail because they are not competitive" then why does no one ever dare to privatize the police or the army. Are there more important public services? I don't think so. Big government does not have to fail, BAD government fails. There is a difference.
    1. ctwr9-11 posted on 09/08/2012 05:29 AM
      @MichaelP I don't believe one word of that. I think you're a plant from the teachers' union.
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  8. MS posted on 09/06/2012 11:03 PM
    @MichaelP - 30% raise in 8 years in the private sector? Consider yourself one of the lucky few. I'm in the private sector and I've only seen a 15% increase in the past 8 years!
    1. MichaelP posted on 09/06/2012 11:21 PM
      @MS i think lucky few is stretching it. Corporate Canada has done very well the past little while actually.

      But i think the overall point stands. Giving workers a raise that's a little more than inflation (and will likely be right at inflation in two years with the freeze) is not at all unreasonable. If govt expenses over the past 10 years had only be increased by a little more than inflation then we'd be sitting on 8 straight years of surpluses and would have a much smaller debt. The liberals have messed up on many different items, giving teachers a 30% raise over a decade is not one of those problems. I think we often lose track of what the real problems are. Ehealth is a problem, the way we've blown money on not building power plants is a problem, etc. I think we need to focus on these things. Education (on the whole) is run relatively well. We need to streamline it a bit but it's not poorly run.
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