let's get something clear, here. the supreme court has ruled that EI is not general revenue, meaning that cutting people off EI should actually not decrease government expenditures. the government is supposed to merely manage the fund.

there was a big scandal about ten years ago when it was revealed that paul martin had dipped into EI to 'balance the budget' (whatever that is supposed to mean). the liberals made the argument that EI was just another tax and they had every right to manage the funds as they pleased. the supreme court said no - that money is a communal insurance fund constructed by workers and funds can only leave it under the circumstance that they're going out to workers.

so, this isn't an issue of general taxation. if you're dumb enough to think reducing the size of government will reduce taxation, it's not relevant in context - cutting EI premiums cannot reduce your income taxes or your sales taxes or any other kind of taxes. it's just not the same revenue stream.

so, what exactly are they doing here, then? why the quotas?

it's the same basic backwards liberal/conservative ideology that we see everywhere nowadays and few really seem to have a solid grasp on. people are on ei because the market isn't creating good jobs (in some areas this is seasonal, and that's just how the economy works there). short of dynamiting the concept of market organization (and you know i had to get that idea in there again), the most reasonable response from the government is to invest in job growth - because the market is failing on the point. if the market was being successful in creating jobs, there wouldn't be so many people on ei. yet, the backwards conservative/liberal approach is to throw people off ei so they can create their own jobs. the expectation is they'll become entrepreneurs of some sort. start businesses. and interest rates are low to encourage that.

it's like the industrial revolution never happened. small producers were never destroyed by large ones. competition is perfect and free. marx never existed.

the people they're turfing from ei don't even understand that this is expected of them. if they did, market fantasies are not going to all of a sudden allow of them to compete in an already saturated market.

five burger joints on the same street?

they just don't get it...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/07/20/bc-ei-whistleblower-suspended.html