Why Canada needs a Charter of Economic Rights

Here's something for the 400 soon-to-be unemployed Heinz workers in Leamington to mull over.

According to Forbes, Warren Buffett is the world's 4th richest man, with a net worth of 53 billion dollars.

Jorge Lemann is the world's 33rd richest man, with a net worth of 18 billion dollars.

Just to put a billion dollars in perspective, a typical Heinz employee in Leamington would have to work for 20,000 years to make a billion dollars.

Warren stands tall at 83 years old, atop a 53 million dollar loot-pile

Jorges loot-pile is barely half that size.

Warren and Jorge have joined forces to buy the HJ Heinz company with a view to making themselves more money.

Because apparently they don't have enough.

This will be achieved by deploying the usual slash-and-burn strategies that have enriched hedge-fund shitbags for generations. Every dollar that can be leveraged out of a worker's pocket and diverted into the obscenely engorged wallets of Warren and Jorge is a step in the right direction.

Whether that destroys workers, their families, and their communities is quite irrelevant. It's all about "efficiency," don't you know?

Bullshit!

It's all about making obscenely rich people richer.

The layoffs and plant consolidations looming at Heinz contribute nothing of value to the overall economy. The Lemann-Buffett rape of HJ Heinz is a prime example of non-productive economic activity.

For starters, profits on non-productive economic activity should be taxed at a rate of 100%.

That would de-incentivize the Lemanns and Ackmans and Romneys of the world.

They could turn their attention to doing something useful for society!

Beyond that, as a society we need to get away from the idea that "democracy" is about nothing more than voting for one party or another every few years. Democracy should value the interests of ALL members of the society. We need to put the interests of the worker in Leamington on a par with the interests of Buffett or Lemann making their next billion.

Without economic democracy there is no democracy at all.

In the meantime, this is one household that is going to muddle through without using any HJ Heinz products from here on in.

Hope you do the same in your household.