Vernon Wells, the Toronto Blue Jays centre fielder, reflected impressively last week after agreeing to a $126-million (U.S.) contract over seven years. He said, “Obviously this gives me an opportunity to set my family up for a couple of generations.”

What historical perspective. He didn’t put it in terms of kids and grandkids. A few days later, he reverted to traditional boilerplate. It was “enough to set my family up for the rest of their lives.” But the term “generations” implied a larger view of history and society.

I don’t know what kind of interest Vernon Wells has in Afro-American history, but the effects of a brutal past are still being played out there. You need to think in terms of generations. I don’t know his view of society, either, but in general in the U.S. you can’t count on fellow citizens, through institutions such as government, to ensure your family’s education, health, etc. You must take it on yourself, as well as you can.

In other words, each person has a historical responsibility that he must try to carry out individually. It helps if you can score a long-term major-league contract.

Our society does better, though not enough to gloat. I had a seasonal drink with a long-time friend this week. Twenty-five years ago, she did a report on homes for the aged in the Toronto area. She found it grim. Currently, she’s interviewing staff at long-term care facilities in Ontario. The picture has worsened.

In most institutions, for instance, workers are limited to using one diaper per person per shift. This infuriates them, so they hide and hoard diapers for the residents. If they use a new pad, after a bath, rather than putting an old one back, they can only do so if the diaper content hits the “blue line,” which turns blue when a pad is 75-per-cent saturated.

So the workers add water to reach the line, then change the pad. In turn, management unleashes the diaper police (the workers’ term). Are you taking this in? It’s become routine. Season’s greetings.

Historically, the decline took hold in the 1990s. The Ontario Harris government cut taxes and social spending heartily. Federally, finance minister Paul Martin attacked programs relentlessly and precipitously, though he could have done so gradually and reached balanced budgets anyway, as many other governments did.

Then when he got a chance to restore programs, he gave out tax cuts instead. It’s the part of his “legacy” he’s proudest of and for which I hope he (let’s not say rots in hell since it’s Christmas) gets a lump of coal each year for the rest of his life, like the one he received from voters right after last holiday season. And I don’t much enjoy the way Stéphane Dion keeps praising that savage and unnecessary social bloodletting as if there were no alternative. No alternative? Humbug.

Tax law profs Neil Brooks and Thaddeus Hwong have co-authored a new study showing that tax cuts seem to go with weak social programs and faltering economies. They compare “high-tax Nordic countries” such as Finland with “low-tax Anglo-American countries” on 50 social and economic markers. The high-tax places score better on 42, like poverty rates, income distribution, GDP per capita, innovation, R & D, school completion, competitiveness and drug use. Finland has been rated the world’s most competitive country four years in a row by the World Economic Forum of Davos.

So what entrances the Harper government? More tax cuts. Great. That’ll keep our social programs in the dumper while making sure the economy goes into decline, too. But what the hell, maybe the Jays will give everyone long-term contracts.

Vernon Wells has a kind of Santa look: endomorphic, powerful and speedy, and he does give gifts through his new contract: $1-million over the seven years to a Jays’ foundation for needy kids. But charity never fills the social gap. In fact, foundations themselves (Ford, Carnegie etc.) were invented in the robber baron era to shield the ridiculously rich from criticism while vast numbers were in need. I don’t think most people begrudge the preposterously wealthy what they have; they’d just like a reasonable amount for their own families (including kids and aging parents). That doesn’t seem unseasonal.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.