Madam Speaker, today I would like to tell a story, the story of Nibor Dooh, a mythological character from history who landed on the shores of the great country of Adanac. Adanac was a peaceful, prosperous, and tolerant place when he arrived. The people had no complaints, other than those that are inevitable in life. Nibor Dooh went about the land telling the people of Adanac that their lives could be much better than they were. They could be richer, more tolerant, and more prosperous. If they followed his scheme they would be much better off.
The good people of Adanac scratched their heads in bewilderment. "We already work the land", they said, "and we look after our families and we look after the less fortunate in our communities. How can we all do so much better?"
"It is very good news", said Nibor Dooh. "You all remember that awful Xram, who said we have to steal from the rich to give to the poor. You were right not to listen to him. Stealing is wrong. I can make you all rich without any of that".
The people scratched their heads a bit harder. How could this work? "Well", said Nibor Dooh, "it is all a bit complicated. First we take from the rich to give to the poor and then the poor are rich, or they are richer. So we can take from them and give back to the rich. Then the rich have even more, so we can take more from them and give to the not poor any more, and so on".
The people of Adanac scratched their heads some more. They really did not understand how this all could work. "Look", said Nibor Dooh, "it is all in this wonderful book by the philosopher Sen Yek. It is called The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Free Money . I can't say I quite understand it myself'', said Nibor Dooh, ``and I am sure you wouldn't, but trust me. It will all work out''.
Nibor Dooh assembled the elitist class in the country to help him rule the land. He explained that this way it would not be so bad that initially he had to take from them. He was to hire a lot of them and they could all get together, look very clever and rule the ordinary people. They would have to adopt his ideas, some of which were actually very odd. After a few years, they would even claim that it was their culture and that it was what made their country great and gave it its identity.
Nibor Dooh was able to convince some of the tribe of Aidem to explain his scheme to everyone in the land. Aidem had a lot of influence and most of his tribe were part of the upper elite class.
At first the whole thing seemed to work to perfection. The elite class paid more, but not much more. They got to be rulers and talk in very clever and compassionate sounding ways. The tribe of Aidem praised them with great praise and Nibor Dooh went up and down the great land of Adanac taking small amounts of money from the people to give back to the rich but also giving them large amounts of money that he said he had got from the rich without taking much from them.
"Look how well it is working", he told them, and the Aidem echoed him. "I take a small amount of money from you and I increase it. I do more with it than if you keep it yourself. I provide free health care for you. I will pay you a pension when you get old. I take care of the poor among you better than you could. I provide work for those without jobs, and if I cannot provide work I pay them anyway. There is no need for any of you to concern yourself with your neighbour's well-being, for I, Nibor Dooh, take care of all those who have problems".
Every once in a while some village idiot would ask how he could defy the laws of economics, but Nibor Dooh would just smile patronizingly and wave copies of the works of Sen Yek and Htiarblag. Nibor Dooh was so clever and so urbane that the people just laughed at these idiots.
Other quite vicious people spread rumours that Nibor Dooh was actually borrowing from the rich and promising to pay them back with the money of the poor. No one listened, because if it were true he was making the poor richer and they would easily be able to pay for what they had consumed now.
No one worried about tomorrow. Adanac became known as one of the best countries to live in. As the years went by there was a gradual but marked change in society. People did not take as much responsibility for their own affairs. They did not save their money for when times were lean or when they got to be older. People did not take as much interest in helping their neighbour as they did previously. A saying became common in the land: "Don't worry, Nibor Dooh will take care of us", and Nibor Dooh became a very popular person in the land of Adanac.
Another gradual change began to occur. The poor people had to always pay a little more to Nibor Dooh every year for the services he provided. Every year there were more and more people who did not have jobs. Some of the people began to murmur and ask questions. It appeared as though they were paying more to Nibor Dooh than they were getting back in the services he provided. Some of the people from the Aidem tribe came to Nibor Dooh's rescue. They told the people Nibor Dooh was doing what was best for them. They told the people of Adanac they were becoming a more caring and compassionate society, kinder and gentler than they used to be.
Meanwhile, Nibor Dooh was looking more tired and worried than he once had and had less time for the common people. "See how he wears himself out for us", they said. They did not know he had to spend more and more time begging the rich to lend him more and more. They knew that Nibor Dooh kept saying the rich would have to pay more, but somehow it was always them who had to pay more.
They began to listen to people criticising the whole arrangement. Some were the old time village idiots like Reklaw and Namdeirf, and others were new voices like Notserp Gninnam. Notserp really annoyed Nibor Dooh with his impertinent questions like where is all this money coming from to provide all these services? Why are we paying almost half of our hard-earned money to Nibor Dooh? Why are the services declining but the amount we give Nibor Dooh keeps increasing?
Also about this time Notserp made the discovery that Nibor Dooh was actually taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Notserp discovered that Nibor Dooh had an agreement with the wealthy in the land whereby they would give Nibor Dooh money if he gave them a portion of what he collected from the poor every year. Aidem came to the rescue of Nibor Dooh again but the word got out to the people he was taking from the poor to give to the rich. Some of the poor people saw they were not rich enough to afford what he demanded of them and they began to demand that this stop.
Nibor Dooh began to accuse Notserp of being heartless and cruel for making such a suggestion, but Notserp contended that we must not keep giving more to the rich because it would enslave the poor. In return Nibor Dooh accused Notserp for wanting to slash and burn these wonderful programs. If we went back to allowing people more control over their lives the country would fall apart.
The Aidem tribe also contended that if Notserp had his way we would lose our identify as a nation. Nibor Dooh said the poor would be unable to defend themselves from the adversities of life. When people asked Notserp about this he explained that we are all becoming poorer because we were giving so much of our hard earned money to the rich. He said it was wrong to steal from the rich and that since we have borrowed from them we have to pay them back. He said going into debt to them had not made us richer and would not so we should stop borrowing and just pay them back.
Notserp became more and more popular with the poor people as they began to realise he was telling the truth. The trust the people had in Nibor Dooh began to disappear. The Aidem people tried valiantly to defend Nibor Dooh, but the stranger their explanations became and the wilder their attacks on Notserp the less convincing they became. People asked Notserp how he could keep attracting larger and larger audiences even though Aidem and Nibor Dooh called him such terrible names. You cannot fool all the people all the time, he told them.
Finally the people became so angry that they sent Nibor Dooh back to the land of Larebil and proclaimed Notserp their new leader. Notserp told them clearly he was not a magician, but neither was Nibor Dooh. He said: "There are simple answers to your problems, but they are not easy ones. Nibor Dooh has made us poor and we will have to go back to working hard to fix the damage he caused. It will take years but at the end you will feel better not because of what I have done but because of what you have done".
That is what happened. The people worked hard but they felt proud of the work and they learned a great lesson. They could take care of themselves better in the long run than Nibor Dooh could with his grand scheme of taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
That is the end of my story. One observant person realized Nibor Dooh is Robin Hood spelled backwards. Just like Nibor Dooh was Robin Hood spelled backwards, what he did was backwards. All his great schemes that had the effect of stealing from the poor to give to the rich were backwards. We are doing the very same thing in Canada. The government, like Nibor Dooh in my story, has convinced the people it can do more for the people than they can do for themselves.
I listened to the arguments all morning and I heard them repeated over and over again. The government is taking from the poor and giving to the rich. We borrow from the rich and they get richer. Every year the situation deteriorates.
A parallel to this story can be found in the history of Canada for approximately the past 25 years and it is still unfolding. What is the answer? Get government less involved in the lives of people. Let them take care of themselves; stop interfering. Reduce the size of government and government programs and reduce taxes so people have more control over their lives.
Like the people of Adanac, Canadians are becoming increasingly cynical of government and politicians. They need to realize there is absolutely no compassion in doing what we are doing, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. They need to realize there is nothing noble about being told they cannot take care of themselves, their families and the less fortunate without the help of a wise, all seeing government. That is the great lesson of this story.
Like the people of Adanac, we have the will, the imagination and the energy to live well and to share generously all by ourselves and that is what we need to do.
What are the key points in this story I created? Governments have created the impression that by borrowing money, by going into debt, we are being compassionate and caring. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are enslaving our people, especially our children. We are taking the money from the hardworking, ordinary, not wealthy people of Canada and we are giving it to the rich by our schemes.
People pay over one-half of their money to the government. What tactics does the government use to transfer this money from the poor to the rich? It convinces the people it can take care of them better than they could if they were allowed to keep their hard earned money, which is a myth. Many people in Canada are beginning to realize this myth. Another tactic government uses is to keep telling the people: "Trust us, even if you do not understand it all. The government is doing what is best for the country". This too is a great myth.
All the names in this story are spelled backwards. For example, the tribe of Aidem that helped Nibor Dooh and the elites to spread their lies across the land is the media. Aidem, like Nibor Dooh, was able to get some of the elite tribe to help him convince everyone that being left wing is more compassionate than being right wing, but it proved to be a myth. Before these left wing Liberal ideas were spread across the land of Adanac, Canada spelled backwards, we had strong families and communities to give support to those in society who were less fortunate. When these ideas of Senyek were spread across that land it began to erode the strength of our families and charitable institutions.
Notserp, whose name I will let others decipher, began to tell the people these ideas of Nibor Dooh would not work. The agreement Nibor Dooh had with the rich to borrow money was to destroy the land. That is happening in Canada today. By borrowing money we are destroying our country.
The grand experiment this country has undergone for the last 25 years or so has not worked. Hard work, strong families, community organizations, values that emphasize responsibility, these have made our country great, not this idea that big government programs have made our country great and make us a great society. Nothing could be further from the truth; it is a myth. The government still creates the impression it can take better care of us than we can take care of ourselves if we were allowed to keep our hard earned money.
Nibor Dooh created the impression that he could multiply the money he took from the people but in the end it was a myth. The opposite actually happened. He impoverished the people. This is happening in Canada. My hope is that we can learn a lesson from the story I have told. We cannot keep taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
