Even as my first Post column of the week smashes through the Full Comment record book for hits, my distinctly better (but more parochial) second column, about a mayor's flirtation with knife control, is hitting the doorstep. (I had a hand in today's unsigned leader on the new Conservative anti-crime measures, too.)
Although my own mail has been strongly "pro" on the Tuesday column—which is prefaced by a warning that it should not be taken in strict seriousness, and which has attracted attention mostly for the weaker half of the argument—there have been a few minority reports from the blogosphere from baby boomers objecting that, as individuals, they darn well paid their own way, dadgummit. Some have even ventured to suggest that their generation has somehow prepaid for the future services ours will receive from the government. Since it is apparently not widely known, let me note that if you are 65 years old today, the entire net public debt of Canada when you were 20 was about $118 billion in today's money. The figure peaked in the mid-'90s (right around the Freedom 55 mark) at $750 billion. Those who somehow missed out on their fair share of the difference have my sympathies.
Comments (8)
And yet, when I think of blades, I think of Saskatoon.
Posted by ebt | February 27, 2009 1:47 PM
Posted on February 27, 2009 13:47
I think of Wesley Snipes. I also think of him when I think of tax evasion.
Just sayin'.
Posted by Garth Wood | February 28, 2009 2:22 AM
Posted on February 28, 2009 02:22
Colby, I see what you're trying to do when you compare national debts pre- and post-baby boom, but I must disagree with your conclusion.
As we all know, when you go into debt to get something, you're basically getting it for free. It's the same reason so many of us take out mortgages we can't possibly afford so we can get big houses and purchase new 47-inch televisions and laptops on credit. If you don't have to pay for it up front, are you really paying for it at all?
Sincerely, a guy with $20,000 in student loans and no degree.
Posted by Lord Bob | February 28, 2009 12:20 PM
Posted on February 28, 2009 12:20
Regarding the knife column, I'm still reminded of the immortal words from Chris Rock in "There's No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" -- N-bomb and all:
"Don't go to parties with metal detectors
Sure it feels safe inside; but what about
all those niggaz waitin outside with guns?
They know you ain't got one.."
Posted by FACLC | February 28, 2009 1:06 PM
Posted on February 28, 2009 13:06
Hey, Colby, grats on making it onto Arts and Letters Daily with your Boomers screed!
http://www.aldaily.com/
Sincerely,
A boomer who would like to point out that someday you'll be old too.
Posted by S | March 1, 2009 2:34 PM
Posted on March 1, 2009 14:34
"...someday you'll be old too."
Er, not necessarily a foregone conclusion. In University, I kept thinking all my friends and I would grow old together. Several decades later, a lot of them are already dead.
Kinda depressing, that.
Posted by Garth Wood | March 1, 2009 8:05 PM
Posted on March 1, 2009 20:05
While most people in Britain would indeed agree with you on the impact (or lack of) that gun-control has on violence, they'd probably also agree with your comment that "Every time somebody gets pig-stuck in an alleyway here, several bystanders who might have been wounded in some Toronto-style shootout have implicitly been saved".
Knife crime's a real problem here, but the relatively few shootings we have almost inevitably end in the accidental shooting of a child, or trainee nurse, or some other patently uninvolved party.
Posted by James | March 2, 2009 4:03 AM
Posted on March 2, 2009 04:03
Personally if I had a choice in the matter I would prefer getting shot over getting stabbed! Getting stabbed would hurt too much! :D
Posted by Chris | March 2, 2009 5:34 PM
Posted on March 2, 2009 17:34