Income inequality in Canada has been rising since the mid-1990s, the Conference Board of Canada says. And the gap is growing faster here than in the US.
In a news release, the Conference Board's President and CEO Anne Golden said:
"Canada had the fourth largest increase in income inequality among its peers. Even though the U.S. currently has the largest rich-poor income gap among these countries, the gap in Canada has been rising at a faster rate.
"As we highlighted in our analysis of Canadian income inequality in July, high inequality both raises a moral question about fairness and can contribute to social tensions. In Canada, the gap between the rich and poor has widened over two decades, especially compared to our peer countries."
The release noted that the "Gini index," a widely used measure of inequality grew in Canada from 0.293 in the mid-1990s to 0.320 in the late 2000s. A Gini index under 3 is an indicator of low income inequality. Meanwhile, the US Gini index rose from 0.361 to 0.378 in the same period.
Observers such as Linda McQuaig and Richard Wilkinson associate income inequality with social unrest, higher stress levels, ill health, and shorter life expectancy.
Meanwhile, the US Census today released data showing that in 2010 the median household income declined 2.3 per cent from 2009. The poverty rate rose for the third consecutive year and is now at 15.1 per cent. In a news release, the US Census said: "There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ─ the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published."
The number of Americans without health insurance rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010.
In related news, a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finds that in seven North American cities including Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, low socioeconomic status is associated with higher incidence of sudden cardiac arrest.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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dorothy
1 year ago
I hope it is not
one of your 'resident writers' who perpetrated that headline. You cannot compare 'Canadian' with 'in US'. You can either say "Canadian' versus 'American' or, stretching it, 'that of the US' (somewhat clumsy), or you can say 'in Canada' versus 'in US'. Sorry to be so nitpicking, but it does hurt, like wheels that are out of alignment or something. In the text it might have gotten lost, in the headline, not.
I am not surprised to hear of the faster-rising inequality in Canada. The diff between us and the US is that they believe they will prevail, that there is a future, which they'll be on top of, while too many people in Canada believe we are moving towards something apocalyptic, that it is grab now or forever lose the chance when things fall apart. of course that is the very mentality that might actually bring it about. This is the essence of self-fulfilling prophecy, but do they care?
avandoc
1 year ago
No Surprise Here
The increase in inequality is a direct result of Liberal and Conservative policies during the past decade. Reducing social expenditures, cutting taxes on the wealthy and on business, and promoting a low-wage service economy will of course transfer wealth from workers to owners. The Conservatives and Republicans are undoubtedly pleased at this evidence of their success in moving North America toward a third-world society with a small, vastly rich elite and a shrunken middle class.
Of course, with the undermining of adequate data gathering by Statistics Canada (the elimination of the long-form census), we'll have less reliable information about the consequences of this trend. They are easily predicted, though, based on the excellent book "The Spirit Level" by Wilkinson and Pickett. More unequal societies have more crime, lower longevity, more addiction, more mental illness, higher infant mortality, and are generally more dysfunctional. The Conservatives know this too, hence their prison construction project.
It's tragic to see Canada heading down the same path as the U.S., but perhaps it's not too late. So far Canadians aren't as ideologically wed to the neoliberal agenda and don't tolerate Tea-Party style faux populism. But the Conservatives and their media apparatus are working hard to cultivate it.
Vox.Pop
1 year ago
The Norman Conquest
The English-speaking countries (UK, USA, Canada) have the largest inequalities between the ruling class & the rest of us peasants as a direct consequence of 1066 - the successful invasion of England by William the Conqueror & his Normans (arrived first in Normandy about 900 AD from Norseland i.e. Vikings). The Vikings were ruthless warriors that raped & pillage for several hundred years & in 1066 massacred the Saxon ruling class. The new rulers of England had no sympathy with their conquered Saxon peasants & ruled with an iron fist - a policy that has continued to this day, right through the rise & fall of the British Empire, which included colonizing Canada & America.
Now that we have a 'democratic' form of government (sort of), the people now have a chance to peacefully overthrow these greedy, selfish rulers but this requires most of the poor throwing off a century of brainwashing & voting for change.
Incidentally, Australia is the one exception to this thesis. The English ruling class first tried to populate this distant land with "convicts" - what they forgot was many of these people were rude, aggressive & self-confident. Oz is now one of the best countries in the world for the common-man.
dorothy
1 year ago
The Norman Conquest
big leap here - equating the Norman invaders with their baggage of feudal thinking to 'vikings'. They had spent a couple hundred years in Normandy and had picked up a lot of Frankish mores, as well as become, at least in the outwards, Catholics, which may have had something to do with their lack of compassion. Rome was not known for that.
Also I cannot see that the 'ruling class' here mainly or even to a very notable extent, consist of people of Norse or Normannic descent. The only example I can actually think of in the ranks of politicians I know is Mike Harcourt, an NDP'er. Elsewise, it seems to me that There are a lot of Celtic, French, German and other names among the haves and the movers and shakers here.
My final input is that it is not and never was, part of Norse or Nordic thinking, to entertain dreams of super wealth in the hands of a few. A Danish proverb I recall is "We have come far in wealth, when few have too much, and even fewer have too little." Denmark is now listed as one of the top countries in the way of income disparity. This is due to new immigration, where the newcomers, despite herculean, and very expensive, efforts to integrate them and get them started in the job market, have shown little or no interest beyond making use of the social benefit system.