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Prime Minister of Canada Salary $157,731.00 + Expenses, Living residence.
President of the United States $400,000.00 + $50,000 annual expense account, $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment.
President of the University of Calgary $480, 000.00 + $130, 500 for sitting on Enbridge Board.
There are some serious flaws in the way we reward competence, ethics and leadership. Serious. The first, and most obvious of which, is that while it's fashionable to overpay University Presidents at the moment (and wrong, the correlation between quality of leadership and understanding of core issues and values central to Academia is clearly disproven in her need to top up her salary with outside contracts), there is no necessary correlation between money paid and quality of direction and leadership. Find someone that shares your institutions values, pay them well (and at $480,000 ++ is too much more than well in my books) and you may be surprised at what value you get. Given the University of Calgary's reputation, this seems not a trifle high but insane.
Meanwhile, half-a-million dollars exhausted my sympathy, that extra hundred plus grand just looks like greed...
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The recent conflict of interest "scandal" at the U of C has prompted some thought as to the expectations and obligations of Academia, or University.
First of all, while I acknowledge the real world need and pressure of funding, this could be better addressed by raising corporate taxes and passing the proceeds along to the educational institutions in need. This is the purpose of taxation, to support those institutions that society values. By keeping corporate taxes low (a longstanding strategy of the Conservatives), and allowing the corporations to build their "brand" through selective donations to institutions that are willing to "partner" with them we remove all autonomy from Universities and Academia.
This diminishes the value of the Education received. Universities are not trade schools, or institutes of technology, they serve as well functions in research, in publishing, in advising government, and other roles, but their paramount objective should be to educate - without bias, and free of political, corporate, and religious interference. We would probably agree that fundamentalist Christian college would teach evolution and biology different that a standard university, it should not be hard, then, to understand that a University sponsored by oil and gas might not delve as deeply as it should into the environmental/social/political ramifications of the industry.
Education, as in University, in it's purest sense is not done strictly with the purpose of employing it's pupils upon release. Education is about learning to think critically, to relate to people from different backgrounds, to learning both generally and specifically about different areas of the arts and science. That you leave with an education and are more employable as a result should be the happy by-product of an opened, disciplined and trained mind.
It is both the peoples and the governments job to fund education, that we've so devalued the institution that it must go a-begging to corporate sponsors is tragic. We've a new government. We can fix this.
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In capitalist economies one finds a Legal System, as opposed to a Justice system. A Justice system concerns itself with balancing the needs of the individual versus society, and creates laws that favor both. The Laws and Judgments are acknowledged by society to be fair, or are changed. At it's highest level it attempts to restore our faith in a fair and just universe.
A legal system, on the other hand, is unrelated to justice. A legal system is it's own economy, by which both laws and justice can be purchased for those bidders willing to spend enough time and money to rewrite the laws to their own end, or prevail their point of view over their opponents.
A Justice system does not favor wealth, rather it favors fairness. The Legal system, transparently favors those who are willing and possessed of the means to invest in it.
For a justice system to work it must be unbiased, and have laws that are readily understandable and available to the citizenry it represents. Lawyers are not a part of any real justice system, as they by their very presence represent both money and power and an adversarial approach to the issues being decided upon. Those points of view without the resources to bring a paid voice to court will simply not be heard, and laws will be made without consideration for their rights or interests.
Corporations represent some of the biggest threats to justice, wherein the fiction of personhood extends to them all the rights and privileges, yet profits are actively used to lobby and absolve them of any responsibilities. Examples of laws created by corporations, not people, include the copyright and piracy laws (many of which actively engages in suing real people for both real and imagined piracy and copyright violations), and the corporate taxation laws, many of which would be the envy of any individual.
For more ideas and reading on these themes, follow the links below:
Link: The more unequal your society, the more your laws will favor the rich
Link: Georgia claims it's laws are under copyright & Georgia sues citizen for publishing law
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-powers-and-abuses-of-americas-mega-corporations/5371901
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And from this reddit user (redditor?) comes perhaps the most coherent and well thought out argument ever as to the direction the Star Wars franchise is heading...
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3qvj6w/theory_jar_jar_binks_was_a_trained_force_user/
Absolutely brilliant, and cleverly explains a lot of otherwise puzzling incongruities in the series. That said, who, really, has that kind of time to think about it?
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We are surrounded by the voices of authority, few of which are even remotely in a position to advise us.
Look at the means by which we are advised - television, for many, the most absurd. Every science officer on the USS Enterprise and Voyager have at one time or another been paid to voice-over science shows - 7 of 9, Geordi, and Spock, absurd that they are in any way qualified - as actors, yes, as representatives of science or reason, no, and yet it's an inane formula repeated time and time again, their voices alone, from having played fantasy characters in fantasy "science" fiction movies set in the fantasy future is enough to lend credibility to whatever "science idea" you're trying to promote. It's ludicrous.
Consider celebrity, every celebrity having used their elevated status to advise us on issues of health, religion (think Tom Cruise...), ethical treatment of animals, vegetarianism, you can't quote the cause that some celebrity hasn't thrown their status and presumed expertise behind to endorse.
There's politics, being a politician - an elected position with no formal qualifications whatsoever (whatever qualifications are incidental, not required), yet upon achieving office they are now authority figures that not only advise but enforce policies on morality, crime, environment, taxation and business. The lately dethroned Harper is one such example; from a background in economics he created and enforced policies on immigration, censorship, environment, etc., many with a devastating legacy and effect.
And there's wealth - possession of which alone is enough for many people to consider you not only an authority on wealth, but on happiness, family values, charity, politics and spirituality.
None of these "authorities" are even slightly credible, yet their voices abound and clamor to be heard, very often over those better qualified to advise or promote the cause. Think Donald Trump.
This is a segue into another argument I'll be making shortly, in the meantime I'd suggest you reject all authority until you've entirely done your research. Or, at the very least, question it heavily..