Well my goodness, reason to celebrate everybody, Canada's childhood poverty rate, the percentage of children living in poverty as has dropped back down to 11.7% according to Statistics Canada's latest figures. I guess all of us negative folk who haven't believed in Stephen Harper are just going to have to east some crow.
The economy is pushing ahead at full steam and child poverty levels have dropped back down to where they were in 1989. Yep that's right 1989; that was the same year that Canadian politicians were so appalled at how high the number of children living in poverty was that they swore to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000.
Well it's 2007 and we finally got the number back down to the 1989 level again which means something somewhere has gone wrong with the plan. In 1989 Canada had just started to recover from the worst recession that we had experienced since the Depression (You notice we only have recessions now never Depressions – how recessed does a hole have to be before it is considered a depression?) Yet now when our economy is supposedly in the best shape it has been in years we still have the exact same number of children living in poverty.
Canada's economy has doubled in the last twenty-five years until now we have the 9th largest in the world. Unemployment is at a thirty year low, which means more Canadians are working now then ever before yet three quarters of a million children live below the poverty line. What's even scarier is that a third of those children have at least one of their parents working yet they still live in poverty.
One of the problems lies in the fact that in spite of the red-hot economy the majority of the people in this country aren't seeing any benefits from it. In fact, Canada's poorest families are actually earning less in real terms then they did a generation ago. On the other hand, the wealthiest Canadians are enjoying a thirty per-cent increase in their incomes. In one generation the gap between our richest wage earners and our poorest has grown to from being 31 times the income to 82.
Another annoying detail is that our poorest families are poorer now then they ever have been. The typical low-income family with two parents is now living an average of $9,000 below the poverty line. That's in spite of there being a so-called social safety net of welfare and employment insurance that is supposed to protect people in times of trouble.
Article comments
1 - J.J. Hunsecker
Maybe if those lazy kids would go get jobs, they wouldn't be living in poverty.
2 - Claude Gelinas
Actually, the proportion of "poor" you mention is quite conservative since many people in what's still considered the "middle class" have trouble making ends meet.
The solution to poverty won't come from the rich. It'll come from the poor themselves. They need to find a way to get out of the "minimum wage misery circuit".
For instance, I know someone who quit his job at a cleaner's to start his own housework outfit where he charges 45$ for two hours of general cleaning work for roughly 30 customers (he cycles all his customers within two weeks).
Now that he's getting way more than minimum way, he's been able to get his own car and he's even started putting some money away.
Minimum wage is an invention of the rich, not a desire from the poor! The sooner you break out of the "minimum wage trap", the sooner you start going places.
3 - BARBARABOW
Jonathan Swift said it best, Claude, eat the poor! Or perhaps they should take Marie's advice to eat cake while they break out of the minimum wage trap. Blaming the victim is the attitude that's never out of fashion. Are you confident that you can work your way out of the trap Claude? Remember there is no loyalty among thieves. No one will be left to defend you when it's your turn to serve the rich. Good night and good luck.
PS Good post Richard. We should all be ashamed of the way we neglect and abandon our youngest and weakest.
4 - bliffle
"#1 " May 14, 2007 @ 15:40PM " J.J. Hunsecker
Maybe if those lazy kids would go get jobs, they wouldn't be living in poverty."
Good point JJ! Maybe we should re-open the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Many of us would be glad to invest in and support such a business, as long as the management keeps the doors chained shut so those lazy kids don't sneak out for a break.