May 02, 2008
It all depends on what the meaning of "income" is
Lies, damned lies, and Statistics Canada:
Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star):
Sorry, but the Canadian dream is under siege...without accounting for taxes and benefits, these numbers are meaningless. When transfers from government to individuals are included in the calculations, according to Statistics Canada's own numbers the median income of the poorest 20 per cent rose over the period, from $21,100 25 years ago to nearly $25,000 today, even with the effects of inflation taken into account.
[...]
Yes, before taxes and benefits, the income of the top 20 per cent is now 13- times higher than the income of the bottom 20. But after taxes and benefits, the gap between rich and poor was 5.6-to-1 in 1996 and it was still 5.6-to-1 in 2006, the last year for which StatsCan has applicable numbers.
[...]
The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Meanwhile those in the middle are treading water.
The latest evidence came yesterday from Statistics Canada. What the federal agency said was not exactly new (a report released last year by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives made the same point)...
...the report tells us something is desperately wrong in the world of work and wages...
Terence Corcoran (National Post):
StatsCan sets off its own class war[...]
The Census number that most accurately captures the economic wellbeing of Canadians is family incomes. While the headline-grabbing portions of the StatsCan report picked up on individual earnings, what really matters to Canadians is total income at the family level...
...So I asked a StatsCan official for the numbers, and what they show is that -- to use the ideological vernacular -- the poor are getting richer...
Ladies and gentlemen, start your calculators--and your brains.
Mark C.
Update: Things relevant:
1) Sociology:
[...]Emily Fudakowski has experienced the trend first hand.
Armed with a sociology degree from Carleton University, she found herself unable to break out of the bar business and headed to Korea to teach English for a year.
Since returning to Ottawa four months ago, the 30-year-old has been searching for meaningful, higher-paying employment.
Broke and living once again with her parents, Fudakowski laments her situation is far different from that experienced by her mother and father...
2) Popular culture and broadcast journalism:
[...]Ms. Macpherson, about to turn 22, has just completed a film, communications and popular culture degree at Brock University, but she suspects she'll need a master's degree to get a good job, and that she'll be forced to work while trying to upgrade her education. Meanwhile, grown-up luxuries her father and grandfather had at her age don't even register on her radar.
J.J. Stiles, 34, of Toronto, a single mother of two with a university degree, a diploma in broadcast journalism and a certificate to teach English as a second language, has found herself in an administrative job paying just over $37,000...
Upperdate: The Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson makes some sense:
It's time productivity came out of the closet
And, good grief, the Montreal Gazette stole my first sentence:
Lies, damn lies - and Statistics Canada
Uppestdate: Lorne Gunter takes StatsCan to the woodshed:
...without accounting for taxes and benefits, these numbers are meaningless. When transfers from government to individuals are included in the calculations, according to Statistics Canada's own numbers the median income of the poorest 20 per cent rose over the period, from $21,100 25 years ago to nearly $25,000 today, even with the effects of inflation taken into account.Posted by markc at May 2, 2008 08:12 PMAnd when the effects of progressive taxation are also factored in, the assertion that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor disappears, entirely.
Yes, before taxes and benefits, the income of the top 20 per cent is now 13- times higher than the income of the bottom 20. But after taxes and benefits, the gap between rich and poor was 5.6-to-1 in 1996 and it was still 5.6-to-1 in 2006, the last year for which StatsCan has applicable numbers [emphasis added - MC]...