Social Policy in Ontario

Over the years, I have been an observer of the moneyed class, shall we say, from a distance, and they seem to live in an upside down world. I have always been puzzled by the amount of emotion that feeds stock market movement both up and down, and I have been appalled by the greed that fuels it.

Two articles on Saturday underlined both the greed and the power of Bay Street analysts who in turn influence the market. The first article described the negative response of the stock market to the performances of Google and Microsoft sales “despite reporting billions of dollars in profit.”

Here is one of the many ways I take exception with the stock gurus. We cannot have unending sales growth, especially of items that use finite materials and resources we mine from this home planet, without threatening the very planet we call home. Permanent growth is unsustainable. To expect it and demand it from our largest corporations is tantamount to insanity.

The second article was the column by David Olive on the Mirvish family legacy. He pointed out that our beloved Ed Mirvish, one of the most successful businessmen in this city, refused to open the door to “Bay Street Analysts” through an IPO because he wanted full control over what he did and how he used his profits. Those profits were usually used to help out the less fortunate, beautify and renovate our city, and encourage the arts.

The ghosts that run the stock market siphon off the profits and run often to tax havens. If we are going return some semblance of sanity to the world’s economy, we need to rethink how much power we allow the invisible money men of the stock market. They are leading us down an unsustainable path.

June Mewhort, Woodville

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2013/07/25/market_growth_is_unsustainable.html >