Up First the Socialist Rant

School is now done for the semester and I am on vacation. I don't have all the marks back yet so will update once I have them. The talk of a potential strike, which I will get to in another post, has me thinking about education and the cost of a post secondary education. I believe that education should be free, or at least affordable to all. The only reason I am back in school is that I was laid off at the right time and the government is paying my tuition.

This thought continues on to other areas as well... I have also been giving some thought to the fact that basic housing should be provided, or rent should at least be geared towards income. Subsidized housing here takes 10+ years to actually get and my name has already been removed from the list as I failed to update them with my information and hopefully by the time that 10 years rolls around I will have moved elsewhere. Right now on EI I get $988 a month. I spend 78% of that income just on housing (if you factor in my notetaking which only helps when I am actually in school I spend 62% of my income on housing). According to CNN financial experts recommend not spending more then 36% of their income on housing. That is a pipe dream for me at the moment. I would love to only be spending $355 on rent... Might have saved me from filing for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the sky is the limit for rent... and there is nothing to stop it from going up. In fact pretty soon I will be getting a notice in the mail about what my rent will be going up to. It's actually making me reconsider my living options. I really don't want to go back to having a roommate but it is something I am seriously considering, just for the cost saving.

I could even extend the socialist thought to include food. I don't mean that steak dinners and what not should be covered but perhaps the basics should be. Again, perhaps a portion of your income could be taken to cover it and then distributed as something like food stamps to be used for specific products, or at least on a range of products. Perhaps waive these charges if someone is unemployed (either on EI or social assistance). During the summer when I had no extra income I had to get assistance from other people in order to buy groceries. It was a sad state.

I know that the costs would be enormous and that it would never happen but as someone that has been living under the poverty line and struggling just to pay for basic needs to me it would be an improvement. And ultimately it would hopefully reduce at least some of the disparity between the rich (or at least the middle class) and the impoverished.