When ruling elites talk about sacrifice, you'd better check your pockets because they don’t mean theirs.
In his latest pre-budget address, Mark Carney served up a steaming bowl of rhetorical garnish, dressed in enough obfuscation to make the average citizen feel like they’d just been thanked for being mugged.
Let’s unpack the ingredients of this fine word salad.
“A unique moment in our history”
Of course it is. Every moment is unique. This is a truism passed off as insight. But it serves a purpose to justify decisions being made by those in power to preserve that power.
When leaders say it’s a "unique" time, they’re telling you your expectations must be lowered.
“Take some sacrifices.”
Yes, some sacrifices must be made by you. Not by corporate executives. Not by bankers. Not by the political class.
This isn’t shared sacrifice. It’s class war, waged politely from a podium, with a smile and a talking point.
“We are going to give it back to you.”
Back? What did you take?
It just sounds like we are going to get fucked.
“Climate competitiveness”
This is not a thing. Look at those two words together and think. It's not a thing!
This is a promise to move the goalposts one millimetre further than countries who aren’t moving them at all. It's the decoy balloon in a magic act where your future disappears.
Corporations pollute to make profit, You and I pay to clean it up - or we just suffer bad health because of their profit.
We need to be in the streets over this. It’s not a strategy, it’s an insult.
“Focus on results over objectives.”
What the actual fuck is this supposed to mean?
If you don’t meet your objective, that’s called a failure, not a feature.
Apparently, they’re rebranding falling short as the plan all along. It’s giving yourself a medal for jogging in the wrong direction.
“Difficult choices.”
Ah yes. The old paternal standby.
This is the language of abusers and bureaucrats alike. “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you,” said the man holding the paddle.
Carney isn’t the one who’ll feel those “difficult choices.” He’ll be reading the budget from a warm office, not from a clinic with a reduced staff, not from a classroom with no support, not from a city block losing transit and services. The burden, as always, is transferred downward.
This is not an economic necessity. It’s an ideological project, one that maintains capitalist discipline by making suffering seem like responsibility.
The Real Translation:
The market failed. Wages stagnated. The climate burned. And instead of confronting those facts with redistribution and justice, we are told to sacrifice in order to save a system that will continue to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
This isn’t “generational investment.” It’s generational theft dressed up in euphemism and backed by bipartisan consensus.
So let’s not be fooled.
Behind the “historic moment” lies the same old story: the people will pay, and the powerful will profit.
Don’t swallow the salad. Spit it back. And demand a proper meal.