Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
There should also be, well, economic progress and growth over a 40 year period with that reflected in living standards. If you compared 1985 to 1945 or 1945 to 1905, it wasn't close. It's pretty obvious that whatever's happening, it's not translating into improving living standards for average Canadians, particularly in the post 2015 period.
We actually did have improvements in some areas like consumer goods, but it was eaten up by other areas like housing costs. Basically, most of the productivity gains from globalization and dual incomes, etc. went to property owners, particularly in the largest cities.
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Canada's economy has been stagnating for decades but since 2015 there has been a material decline in GDP per capita, real personal after tax income, productivity etc that has seen us fall behind more and more peer countries. In the early 1980's we were among the top 5 richest countries in the world, with THE richest middle class. Now we are poor "rich country" and trying our best to leave the club entirely. Worst all, the wound is entirely self-inflicted, the result of deliberate government policy not least the decision to allocate far too much of our economy to a nonproductive asset (housing).
It would take a top 10% income (at least!) today to approximate the entirely normal "middle class" childhood I enjoyed in the 1980's. True, vacations were usually a road trip to visit family in NB but we had a house which today would be considered quite nice/expensive, a newish car (and then two vehicles once my mother went back to work) and a good quality of life. Same for my friends and classmates. I imagine that lifestyle may seem unattainable to some if not many young people today, which is sad.
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