The Vernon & District Taxpayers' Association deserves commendation for the fantastic effort they put into collecting 18,000 signatures for the hospital petition. The results reinforces the need of such organization to ensure that the checks and balances are maintained in governance issues.Interesting comments came from our MLA. He stated that the government has committed to an $81 million diagnostic and treatment tower. Somehow he forgets that $32,400,000 of those dollars come from area residents directly through property taxation. Lower mainland residents are free from this extra burden: 100% of their hospital funding comes from the Provincial Government (like you and I). Thirty two million dollars are significant enough to acknowledge by our local MLA.
So much for renting on this hospital issue. Let's turn to the issue presented by the good Professor in the letter below. He is talking about how "limited resources" and hypothetical questions one might ask from 100 people on the streets of Vernon.
What is interesting in his thesis is that he accepts the "limited resources" as facts. Perhaps we should start asking people the fundamental questions such as "if you had the choice of spending your tax dollars on the Olympics or better health care" or "would you like to spend your taxes on more involvement in the war in Afghanistan or better health care" the answers might be quite different. Thus, the basic assumption might not be a fixed "limited resource". It might be the preference of the various levels of governments of the day but the public, especially the aging public might have a different point of view. If he reexamined his research with these changed assumptions his conclusions might also be somewhat different.
What is interesting in his thesis is that he accepts the "limited resources" as facts. Perhaps we should start asking people the fundamental questions such as "if you had the choice of spending your tax dollars on the Olympics or better health care" or "would you like to spend your taxes on more involvement in the war in Afghanistan or better health care" the answers might be quite different. Thus, the basic assumption might not be a fixed "limited resource". It might be the preference of the various levels of governments of the day but the public, especially the aging public might have a different point of view. If he reexamined his research with these changed assumptions his conclusions might also be somewhat different.
There, that's the last of todays sermon. Enjoy the rest of your day!******************************************************************
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