Not "the right trade, with the right experience, at the right time" at all. I was 19 with no training, a high school diploma, on pace to make 100k a year working "on probation" as a sheet metal apprentice (but I hated sheet metal so much I joined the Army ;D). I am not the exception to the rule in this case. I have friends that I graduated with, with only a high school diploma and whatever random safety courses the company's paid for that are on contracts making 120k a year. Skilled work is in such high demand that companies will take anybody and pay them *well* while they obtain their trade / training (which is always paid for). I was bloody lucky to finally land a job which was in the patch for the grand sum of $1200/month. That's right, $1200. There were no grand paying jobs at that time in my working life.
But suppose it *was* the "right trade" that mattered. Perhaps people getting the "wrong" trade or the "wrong" degree should consider that.
You suggested that growing disparity was always the trend. I did prove otherwise to you by using the IR example but let me expand on it further. The IR: when 6 yr olds had to go to work at factory's to help pay the bills, when families used to live in one room, and sewage used to run down the street and into the rivers which were used for drinking water, causing cholera and the like. This is how unions and collective bargaining and the like came around. Factory workers were oppressed by factory owners. People came together and fought for things like a "minimum" wage, and for standards on working conditions, etc, they did not always exist. You're right, growing disparity is the trend now, but it hasn't always been.
And if you think Nova Scotia Power is raping your bank account now, just imagine what they would be doing if the government (in our democratic society, an extension of the people) didn't pass legislation so that they can monitor, control, and regulate "natural" monopolies. You wouldn't be typing on your computer right now, you'd be lighting a fire in your wood stove, and probably lighting candles since I'm guessing it's starting to get dark in Nova Scotia right now. That's a good laugh. The NS Utility and Review Board, a Gov't entity is a lap dog for NSP. They routinely review NSP's application for price increases, go through the motions of listening to customers, then rubber stamp an increase. NSP usually play the game of for example of asking for 13+% and getting say 8%. They have to return to their share holders a guaranteed rate of 13% each year.
People in this country are not oppressed by the wealthy or by the government or by both. People in this country have opportunities galore, and they have influence on their democratically elected government, as opposed to it being "ruled" by corporations. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't have signed up for the CF, I'd be out with the hippies protesting. If everything was so rosy, then why oh why is there an occupation movement? Someone, somewhere is confused. The companies might not be oppressing people, BTW I never said they were (I said the rich were getting richer and the poor poorer), but some feel they are taking advantage of the consumer. Or were those fat bonus payouts to the officers of some of these companies fair to the people below them?
