A note to the Provincial Government of British Columbia
If you can't afford to hold the Olympics without slashing the fuck out of education, financially crippling teachers and support staff and fucking up the opportunities of students? DON'T HOLD THE FUCKING OLYMPICS!
Why is this not obvious? Why is this not utterly and completely fucking obvious? Imagine if private citizens decided to hold a giant party in their backyard, redecorate their house, add a few rooms, change the bathrooms and the kitchen, do landscaping, and then when the bill game due went 'oh, shit... guess I didn't have enough money for that. No worries--I'll just cut back the amount of money I pay in taxes per month... I'm sure that the government can get the money from somewhere else. Plenty of other sources out there for them to get money from!'
Yeah. Okay. Probably not the most fluid of all analogies, but come on, here. We don't get to pay for things we can't afford without being the ones to suffer the consequences. But when they do it... we suffer the consequences.
I'm a fan of sport. I see the value in it, and I see the value in athletics, and athletic competition. I also see the value in building infrastructure that holding an event like the Olympics requires, and the benefit to the city and province that comes from having that infrastructure built. I see that it creates jobs.
But you can't sell me on the benefit of the Olympics and how it creates jobs when you turn around and gut the education system. When you cut the jobs from thousands of people, either entirely, or down to part-time, or even casual and substitute work. People who have held jobs for years now are going to be back on the substitute and casual lists in BC because all of a sudden, just coincidentally a few months after the Olympics have been held, the schools budgets have been drastically, devastatingly cut.
And you can't sell me on the concept that we don't have money enough to pay for education when not only did you just hold a giant party in our backyard, but it turns out that millions of dollars were spent on free tickets and complimentary this and that for VIPs.
Because wow. I'm so glad that I'll be working two jobs this fall just to break even, if we're lucky. I'm so glad that I'll be working twelve hour days, at least three days of the week to pay for daycare because the only job I could work that has benefits is smack in the middle of the day--meaning that I have to pay for a full day and not just a half day of daycare--but doesn't pay enough to cover daycare because it's only part time hours. I'm so glad that my husband's going to be substitute teaching for his eighth year running, because, you've raised class sizes, cut programs, and removed actual teaching positions. Again.
No, really. All of this was completely worth it, so long as we managed to impress and wine and dine and entertain the VIPs. And if teachers and support staff are affected by the cuts to education, if children are affected, well. All part of the cost of doing business.
Why is this not obvious? Why is this not utterly and completely fucking obvious? Imagine if private citizens decided to hold a giant party in their backyard, redecorate their house, add a few rooms, change the bathrooms and the kitchen, do landscaping, and then when the bill game due went 'oh, shit... guess I didn't have enough money for that. No worries--I'll just cut back the amount of money I pay in taxes per month... I'm sure that the government can get the money from somewhere else. Plenty of other sources out there for them to get money from!'
Yeah. Okay. Probably not the most fluid of all analogies, but come on, here. We don't get to pay for things we can't afford without being the ones to suffer the consequences. But when they do it... we suffer the consequences.
I'm a fan of sport. I see the value in it, and I see the value in athletics, and athletic competition. I also see the value in building infrastructure that holding an event like the Olympics requires, and the benefit to the city and province that comes from having that infrastructure built. I see that it creates jobs.
But you can't sell me on the benefit of the Olympics and how it creates jobs when you turn around and gut the education system. When you cut the jobs from thousands of people, either entirely, or down to part-time, or even casual and substitute work. People who have held jobs for years now are going to be back on the substitute and casual lists in BC because all of a sudden, just coincidentally a few months after the Olympics have been held, the schools budgets have been drastically, devastatingly cut.
And you can't sell me on the concept that we don't have money enough to pay for education when not only did you just hold a giant party in our backyard, but it turns out that millions of dollars were spent on free tickets and complimentary this and that for VIPs.
Because wow. I'm so glad that I'll be working two jobs this fall just to break even, if we're lucky. I'm so glad that I'll be working twelve hour days, at least three days of the week to pay for daycare because the only job I could work that has benefits is smack in the middle of the day--meaning that I have to pay for a full day and not just a half day of daycare--but doesn't pay enough to cover daycare because it's only part time hours. I'm so glad that my husband's going to be substitute teaching for his eighth year running, because, you've raised class sizes, cut programs, and removed actual teaching positions. Again.
No, really. All of this was completely worth it, so long as we managed to impress and wine and dine and entertain the VIPs. And if teachers and support staff are affected by the cuts to education, if children are affected, well. All part of the cost of doing business.