The Vancouver Poverty Olympics
We’ve asked the International Olympic Committee to make these games part of the official 2010 program. We hope that shining the international spotlight on the dark side of our prosperous city and province might finally convince our governments to take action.
We hope, dear visitor, that you’ll take a few minutes to look around… Learn more about the poverty amid plenty… Help us make change by taking some simple actions… And don’t forget to invite your friends to visit our fair city!
Sincerely,
Poverty Olympics Organizing Committee
They even have mascots:
They won’t leave behind a huge debt… and tickets are cheap.
Something tells me that our Olympic visitors won’t miss this event.
And all they want is:
I urge your government to meet those commitments by taking the following actions:
- Increase welfare rates by 50%, and index welfare to inflation, so rates go up when the cost of living does.
- Get rid of arbitrary barriers that stop people from getting welfare when they need it.
- Stop clawing back money from welfare recipients when they get child support payments or earn small amounts from part-time work.
- Build 2,000 new units of non-market housing per year, in addition to assisted living (for low-income seniors and people with disabilities or mental illnesses) and emergency shelters.
- Increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour, and index it to inflation — this would mean a single person working full time could earn a little more than the poverty line.
Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?
