Editor:
Herb Nakada’s recent letter to the editor suggests that the development of the New Prosperity mine is only about corporate greed and that somehow the only solution to overcome this is a new world order and global economy.
I recall seeing a video of some brick layers in Russia living in that era’s utopian system of a few years back. Their brick laying was terrible, sloppy, and would not stand up in any kind of quaking. When asked, it did not matter. They got paid anyway.
I do not think that there is a single wood mill operating in Williams Lake that has been started except by great personal financial risk and sacrifice. Every ranch and small and large businesses in this greater community are operated by people who often are sacrificing their all in the hopes of eventually being somewhat successful.
Historically, whether it be a kid getting up at the crack of dawn to deliver papers, or a man like Henry Ford developing a system to speed up the process of manufacturing of automobiles, every person building what eventually appears to some, as a rich pyramid, started out by scraping their pennies together, to have us, as your self, pointing fingers at them as some kind of greedy piranhas in our society. Taseko Mines is not owed by one man. It is owned by a large shareholding corporation. The CEO of that corporation answers to those shareholders. And who are these shareholders, as with any successful corporation? The shareholders are you and me, as almost every mutual and pension fund invests in such corporations. The rate of return for the so-called greedy taxpaying investors in Taseko’s shares is currently less that 2.5 per cent.
It is one thing to talk about changing a world order. It is another to do it.
I suggest that if Mr. Nakada thinks this can be done, he should measure the support for his new world order concept by running for public office. Meanwhile in our existing world, the mine will provide employment, income, and tax-paying dollars benefiting thousands.
Doug Wilson
Williams Lake