PelhamToday received the following letter from reader Andrew Watts regarding the ever-growing cost of government.
Stories regarding our failing economies almost always blame greedy corporations for creating our current financial problems, occasionally bankers, and as a last resort, our mainly incompetent politicians.
I have no problem with any of the above but often wonder why no one within the media actually researches government itself.
That would be the cost of the ever-expanding government bureaucracies at every level, federal, provincial, regional, and even municipal and also include pension payments which an even larger number of retired civil servants and bureaucrats continue to receive in amounts any ordinary retiree could only dream of.
Why has no investigative reporter researched the ever-increasing costs of this bloated army and what it means for our future economy?
The following are a few brief quotes from a recent report in the UK media:
‘…The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has been advised he must ‘...axe 90,000 (civil servants') jobs to save the UK from economic disaster…’
‘…The number of retired civil servants receiving pensions of more than £100,000 annually has doubled in the past year, and the inflation-linked cast iron benefits are set to leap another seven per cent next April…’
‘…In just seven years more than 100,000 extra roles have been created, increasing the size of the civil service by 24%...’
‘…Overall, the pay bill for the government workers has increased from £9.7 billion in 2010 to £15.5 billion in 2023. The public sector pensions bill was £116.7 billion in 2021…’
‘…“Hang around for the next catastrophe — the £2.6 trillion in unfunded pensions, more than the entire UK economy — to come screaming out of the black hole known as the public sector”...’
Whilst the author is obviously no fan of government bureaucracy, if these figures are correct it shouldn’t matter what your politics are, and if we in Canada are facing a similar future, anyone facing those future, mandated tax increases deserves to know about them.
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
