[thechat] canada's new democratic party

[Madhu Menon]

At 06:32 AM 28-01-03, Tara Cleveland wrote:
>No because it's luxury development. I agree with you, I don't think it's as
>simple as a blanket percentage... Maybe a percentage in a certain area, of
>the city, or taxing luxury condos at a higher rate, or saying to a developer
>that they must include one of a list of publicly beneficial things in their
>development

I'm not Canadian, but this bit looked interesting.

I don't think it's fair to beat philanthropy into companies. That's what
this is doing, isn't it? "If you don't care for the homeless, we'll *force*
you to care for them". I'd like to think that's what I pay direct and
indirect taxes for - so the government can spend it on providing housing
for the poor, among other things.

Here in India, something unrelated happened, which has the reasoning behind
it as Tara's.
The state of Maharashtra has passed a LAW stating that all movie theatres
MUST play the national anthem at the end of the movie. Why? Apparently to
make people feel more "patriotic". Again, I feel like this is *beating*
patriotism into people. You just can't do that. I doubt that (m)any people
would suddenly feel more love for this country because they are forced to
stand up and stick around till the national anthem plays out. To me, it's
just a major annoyance, but thankfully I don't live in Maharashtra.

Why does the government feel that people aren't patriotic enough? Who knows...?

Regards,

Madhu

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Madhu Menon
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