I hear many times that prices are too high. We pay too much tax. I think differently. I’d like to live in a country with the following in no particular order:

• Cost of Living: A sustainable cost to support real benefits I value:
  • High Quality of Life
  • High Level of Safety
  • Good Health Care
  • Low Level of Pollution
  • Comfortable Climate
  • Affordable Mortgage

I hate paying my hard-earned money for taxes and see it wasted. That waste can be in the form of unnecessary purchases, poor value for money spent, or see it paid out, under various guises, to friends of the stewards of my tax money.

Some things have net savings in my pocket. Now I can call my physician and renew my prescription. The total time at most is 15 minutes—no direct cost to me.

I saved an hour of travel time, and that is worth something to me. I imagine it is much more valuable for a working person on wages with no paid time to see the physician. I have no parking costs or gas, no putting myself at risk sitting in a physician’s waiting room filled with sick people.

I’d gladly pay higher taxes to sustain a fair payment to the physician for time and expertise. It would raise my quality of life a nudge and help vulnerable people in our society.

The care, if I can even call it that, that many of our seniors receive is an example of how the old normal should not be returned to. When we give contracts to the lowest bidder, I wouldn’t expect a level of care, at many sites, to be different than what the Canadian Forces forced us to see.

But don’t lose heart. We can have the real benefits I identified earlier. In fact, Switzerland is an example. I’ll try not to bore you with numbers, but sometimes food for thought is in the numbers.

COST OF LIVING: Switzerland =122, Canada = 68

• ————-Value———–Switzerland——–Canada
  • Quality of Life———192——————163
  • Safety———————78——————-60
  • Health Care————–72——————-72
  • Climate——————-79——————–51
  • Pollution——————22——————-28
  • Mortgage—————–51——————–56

My read is that Switzerland’s living costs are a lot more than in Canada, but Switzerland gets more of the things I value in life. In its purest form, our taxes are too low. We probably could get more bang for our buck.

Give a think to the increased money we should put in to care for the seniors. That doesn’t mean only money into long-term care centres but also into a much more comprehensive range of care choices for those who can appropriately benefit.

I think my taxes are too low.

My thanks for the food for thought numbers to the folks at Numbeo.

Please email me or leave a comment. Sharing the post is very much appreciated, as well.

My thanks to St. Albert Seniors Association: 780-459-0433 for making this Blog possible.

Glenn Walmsley
Volunteer Blogger
TheBlog@StAlbertSeniors.ca