Thursday, May 7, 2009

ch 8

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090420/battle_lines_090420/20090420?hub=Politics

Summary
The following article talks about Canada losing 300,000 jobs in first 3 months of 2009 which is the worse crisis in employment. Federal liberals are accusing Conservative government for not helping out after mismanaging the economy. According to Transport Minister John Baird, increasing taxes will kill jobs no matter how much they encourage more jobs or opportunities. As both sides argued, Conservative responded by spending billions of dollars to increase and improve the economic stimulus programs. However, the Liberals’ leader Michael Ignatieff wants to raise taxes so that it can eliminate the debt of conservative has caused. He claims this would be the last option after the economy is improved from the recession.

connection:
One of the main connections between this article and the chapter is fiscal policy. The definition from the textbook is defined as employ changes to the level of government spending and ttaxation with the goal of influencing economic conditions. According to the article, the government had to increase spending in order to create more job opportunities. The liberals are trying to raise the taxes to make up for the economy recession.

Reflections:
I think raising taxes isn’t a good thing for citizens because it would mean earning less money from their jobs. But on the other hand it is needed to help improve the economy. I think that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has a right to argue with the conversative because they were the ones who mismanaged the economy. I think the increase in government spending and taxes should have been done longer time ago instead of waiting until this crisis worsen. If actions were taken place earlier, we wouldn’t be in such a big economy recession.