Media create fear factor

Media definitely knows how to continuously create the fear factor in our lives. When there’s no calamity, deaths, bombs, war or reporting on the latest virus strain without cure, media can always create financial insecurities or something that will make you feel that your life is doomed. I was feeling secure, comfortable, safe last week until I saw the provocative headline stories of two major weekly publications that I purchase on a regular basis. Living in the third most livable cities in the world did not exempt me from the supply of bad news. Here’s the scenario of the two articles:

• Is America Going Broke? Record deficits. Colossal debt. If the US sinks, Canada will go down with it. US debt is US$7.7 trillion (or $26,000 for every American). Meanwhile, Canada’s debt is C$16,000 per Canadian. If America can’t find a way to solve its huge financial problem, the results will spill outside the country, spreading economic misery in Canada like a deadly virus. History has harrowing stories of what happens when an economy collapses under the weight of unsustainable debt.

• The Incredible Shrinking Dollar (What it means to America’s future and Canada). We are all aware that the American dollar has been declining steadily against many foreign currencies. Some economists expect the slide to continue and Canada will be greatly affected even when the US currency dropped 25 percent against the Canadian dollar.

Hopefully, there will be some upbeat stories to read in the following months, during the summer season.

There’s a new political party in Vancouver. It’s called The Work Less Party. The party spokesman said that Canadians were already working 16 percent longer than in the 1970s. That instead of a culture of leisure, the party believes that Canadians experienced a steady decline in the real value of most worker’s wages in North America. Six and seven days work weeks are common. Western society, the party claims is entrenched in a ideology of mass consumption and high resource dependency. This cycle of produce-consume-produce has several undesirable side-effects.

• Pollution – The world is now covered with bits of plastic and other substances.

• Competition – An ever-growing demand for resources forces us into competitive and confrontational positions, what other countries and societies. Oil and possibly water, the lack of it, may see wars of greater magnitude.

• Social Decay – If a society spends too much time working, the people have proportionally less time to develop as a community and as a culture.

The solution of the controversial, offbeat party is to promote the concept to work less, consume less and live more simply, by going to the basics. By doing this, we will supposedly have a better quality of life, and also preserve something of our planet for future generations. By having more time, we will have more time to do the following:

• More time to make new friends.

• More time for reflection.

• More time for peace.

• More time to grow your own.

• More time to take a seat against global warming.

• More time to add color to your life.

• More time for yourself.

• More time to fight wage slavery. The North American consumer culture has enslaved us into the ritual of selling our precious and finite time, in exchange for "stuff" that will generally end up in a landfill.

• More time for family.

• More time to respect life.

Valid or unrealistic, The Work Less Party was at least heard. Living In Canada means freedom to listen and to analyze what you hear and read. What you want to do with your life is your decision. To most of us, we are not dictated by meddling parents, relatives, religious groups and other people who claim to know what’s good for you. Most of the time it is what’s good for them, not what’s good for you. The forthcoming provincial election will determine the survival or demise of the party with an unusual agenda.