The World Values Survey (www.worldvaluessurvey.org) is:
"... a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an international team of scholars, with the WVS association and secretariat headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
The survey, which started in 1981, seeks to use the most
rigorous, high-quality research designs in each country. The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents. Moreover the WVS is the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones."
We have looked at a number of the questions and answers published in that database in hopes of confirming our proposed priorities.
Here are the findings from the World Values Survey:
- The most serious problem in the world is people living in poverty and need. Canada agrees with the rest of the world, but feels the magnitude of this same issue somewhat less (likely due to the relative affluence of Canadians, as compared to other countries).
- When asked for the most serious problem in their own country, every country again voted people living in poverty and need as the #1 biggest problem, and also the #2 biggest problem. Again, Canada agreed with the rest of the world.
- When asked about their opinion on competition (good vs. harmful), all of the world agreed that competition is good, to varying degrees. The people of Jordan were the most convinced that competition was good (a weighted score of 85% support). Canada ranked in 26th, with 84.5% of Jordan's score (ie. a weighted score of 71.85%), but strongly supporting competition.
Exactly how does the Chicken Supply Management System support and use competition? Supply Management is the opposite to competition, the anti-thesis. There is no competition whatsoever under Supply Management; neither within any province, nor between suppliers from other provinces, nor from suppliers outside of Canada. Supply Management is a monopoly enjoyed by a chosen few millionaires, at the detriment of the vast majority of Canadians. Supply Management gives unfair profits and privileges to just 0.01% of Canada's population, that must be paid by all consumers of chicken.
Exactly where and how does Canada's Supply Management system support or solve the social ill of people living in poverty and need?
The Chicken Mafia steals money from Canadians by charging 50% to 300% more for chicken than what the rest of the world pays on a $/kg. basis. Therefore, Canada's Chicken Mafia makes the poverty and need worse. The Chicken Mafia isn't making the situation better.
Chicken is (and should be) the cheapest meat, but chicken should be cheaper than what the Chicken Mafia allows. Canada should have the goal of all grocery stores selling chicken that can be afforded by ALL Canadians.
If people can't afford chicken, they are forced to be vegetarians.
Health Canada reports that on average, 7.6% of Canadians cannot afford the food they need to feed themselves. In some communities and social strata, it is as high as 75%. I believe that is what the World Values Survey was discussing.
True, the chicken and egg millionaires give a few chickens and eggs to Canadian food banks each year. Remember that this tiny bit of gifting is funded and derived from the greedy gouging and unfair conditions that the Chicken Mafia benefit from every day.
Giving back a tiny portion of those ill got gains is an insult, an attempt to bribe us with our own money.
Consider bank robbers who throw a handful of loose change into the air as they exit the bank with their huge bag of loot. They throw those coins at the crowd so as to more easily escape in the crowd, by creating a riot and confusion as the starving masses try to grasp some of the loose coinage thrown at them. Is that true charity and assistance by the bank robbers, or a ploy? Is that the kind of charity we should applaud? Those bank robbers are only giving away a tiny fraction of what they just stole.
Obviously lower cost chicken would help alleviate poverty and need. Note the data this Blog previously presented, where somebody earning Minimum Wage in Ontario has seen the price of chicken become 37% less affordable during the 10 year period of 1995 - 2005 (see Blog Posting Unaffordable Chicken in Ontario). Note that we found similar results for those living at the poverty line (see LICO Chicken), and the average Ontario family).
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| Canada's Chicken Supply Management System is a Vampire, sucking on the blood of all Canadians. When will the governments muzzle the Vampire Chicken they helped create? Image Source |
Canada is a democratic country, and the Canadian people clearly told our governments and the world that people living in poverty and need is the #1 and #2 problem in both the world and Canada.
Should Canada's governments listen to the Canadian people, or listen to the millionaire Chicken Mafia and their lobbyists?
The time will soon be here when the Canadian governments will need to listen.
For example, there is a reason the PC's no longer run the government of Alberta, after a reign of more than 40 years. Simply put, we can call it a failure to listen, and a vote on Non-Confidence.
Listening by the government is best demonstrated by muzzling the vampire fangs of the Chicken Mafia who suck on the blood of Canadians every day.
Who knew that chickens had such sharp vampire fangs?
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