Wealth Disparities

In a country as rich as ours its simply ridiculous that such a high number of our population lives in poverty, that double income families are using food banks on a regular basis, that people are living paycheque to paycheque, and that the 100 highest paid CEO’s in Canada have made more money thus far this year than an average Canadian worker will make in a year.

Normal people have seen that their paycheques are not as reaching as far as it used to, that basics like housing and food prices have increased; yet the wage of a working person has not. Still, the CEO’s and the shareholders seem to be making a profit getting outrageous holiday bonuses and spending time at events such as hockey games, events they write off as business meetings. People see these problems, but, like most things in society, people have taken this arrangement for granted, is seems like. The slowly shrinking middleclass has their consumerist-driven lifestyle of the latest and greatest, which is being sustained by credit. They are slowly making a prison for themselves. The working poor really have no disposable income, and when they do attain it, it is quickly dwindled away. They work to survive.

It is not radical that people should be asking questions about how the rich keep getting richer, or why the middle class is disappearing. What is radical is how little the government has been listening to their constituency; to those who are, by a large majority, made up of the middle and lower classes. Instead of addressing the issues of the huge wealth disparity that has emerged in the country, there has been a denial of sorts. The corporations sponsor the parties, who will be elected, and once elected and into office, no one wants to have to leave. This creates a dependency. The media, who often are owned by large corporations, adds an almost farcical tinge to this. The calls for reform are labeled as difficult and the people calling for change are hippies, dreamers, homeless, liberals, or socialists. The Occupy Movement is a good start for initiating a debate on this problem, but there needs to be more attention drawn to this issue.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

http://occupywallst.org/