Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The American dream is alive and well — in Canada!



Go know.  Speaking at an event in Burlington, Ont., on Monday, Liberal Senator Art Eggleton warned the audience about the growing level of income inequality in Canada. “I think our future level of prosperity depends on us addressing our current level of poverty,” he said. And who would disagree? Most people would prefer not to live in a society where people suffer in poverty. But, he continued, “I think in the income inequality context we are able to reach out to a much larger part of the population, who see the unfairness in the way we are going and the danger in the way we are going, both to our social fabric and the vigour of our economy.”

To back up his case, he cited statistics saying that in 1980, the average CEO’s salary was 40 times greater than the average worker, but that number has jumped to 189 times today. OK, but so what? If my neighbour has 189 times more money than I do (which he probably does), that does not mean that I’m doing badly. Measuring your success relatively to someone else’s can only ever show which one of you two is better off. The issue that should be on the minds of everyone — poor and rich, Occupier or Tea Partier alike — is whether our poor have enough to not just survive, but live comfortably. In the vast majority of cases, that’s so.....

“In 1990, the average income of individuals in the highest income group was 13 times that of individuals initially in the lowest group,” write the report’s authors. “By 2009, those who had been in the highest group in 1990 had an average income only twice that of those who had been in the lowest group in 1990.......”

P.S.  Still craving Wonderbread and Twinkies?  They're alive and well in Canda.  A leading dairy company holds the manufacturing rights to both.

Who knew?  Check  it all out at http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/21/jesse-kline-the-american-dream-is-alive-and-well-in-canada/

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