Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves

That is what my father used to tell me.  It was good advice back when the monthly budget was one or two hundred dollars. In government today however, due to the size of the budget, it is more apt to say, 'Take care of the Millions and the Billions will take care of themselves'. But that is exactly why waste is an easy trap to fall into to. We can allow millions to be treated like pennies and no one notices if they are spent wisely or not.

However, it is important to take extra care with the public coffers. Every dollar paid in taxes is given in trust.  The public in general may not have a good sense of how much a billion dollars is, but they know what a million dollars is. It is the cost of a home in Vancouver which takes a lifetime to pay off if you are one of the lucky ones who can afford living there at all.  So when the govenment is careless with its Million Dollar Pennies, people notice.

It makes them calloused to the political process. This is a day and age when we see our youth 'occuppying' because they don't believe the system works. We need a more people involved in government, not less. From the informed voters to party members and all the way up, we need to invite people into the discussion. We will not get there by ignoring gov't waste, no matter how small.