When I think about all the truly public services we should have and the level of service that should be available, it makes me think that the public sector should be the largest single employer at every level. Sure, maybe you end up with an auto factory or an Amazon warehouse in a specific location, but on average, there should be more public works employees, bus drivers, nurses, care workers, and policy experts than pretty much any other single industry sector. And probably by a large margin.
It’s interesting seeing the (slightly) different take than offered by the Globe (see https://sh.itjust.works/post/17821213).
The metric that we need to include in all of these discussions is whether our governments are doing what they’re supposed to do with the new employees and expenditures.
In some areas they’re clearly falling down:
- the gap between rich and poor is growing,
- our health services are overburdened,
- we’re educating the fuck out of our kids but our productivity is tanking,
- We were woefully underprepared for the pandemic: our PPE stockpile was filled with expired equipment, PHAC didn’t have a plan, PHAC had shut down the emerging threats observatory,
- and there’s an affordability/housing crisis (driven by underinvestment in affordable housing, shitty tax policy, and record population growth).
But, they have managed
- start implementation on pharmacare and single payer dentistry,
- to lift drinking water advisories on some reserves,
- as the Globe notes, reduce passport waiting times.