Life in Canada, Home of the World’s Most Affluent Middle Class

[elleng]

The Canadian middle class may now be the world’s richest, but it has its anxieties, too.

Members of the middle class in Canada worry about whether they can afford college for their children and whether their children will find jobs afterward. Housing costs are a major concern, as are everyday costs for transportation and mobile-phone plans. They worry about inequality.

Yet many middle-class Canadians also believe that they’re better off than their American counterparts.

We reported last week that median income in Canada appears to have surpassed median income in the United States, based on more than three decades of international income surveys analyzed by LIS, a research group, and by The Upshot. As recently as 2000, median income in the United States was significantly higher. The data also show that lower-income families in Canada and much of northern Europe now make more than their American counterparts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/upshot/canadians-have-plenty-of-concerns-but-also-a-sense-theyre-better-off.html?hp

[RKP5637]

1. These, are extremely serious issues in this century, how to model the

economy for the masses. The old tricks absolutely will not work in this century. The carrot and stick will not work. It's quite difficult to have ever increasing worker productivity and expect full employment in meaningful jobs.

I recall well studying decades ago at the university that this day would come, when traditional methods of financial modeling for an economy for the masses would fail, and IMO we are there.

The oligarchs spread their propaganda, but it is all falsehoods. Most people are going to be financially screwed in the 21st century under the current model. And, TPTB really are not addressing it, because they don't know WTF to do, are indebted to the oligarchs for their political positions and will do little than window dressing for fear of upsetting their political gravy train.

[Swede Atlanta]

2. I travel frequently to Canada and have many Canadian friends.....

The things that immediately jump out at me are

1. Social issues - they are not bound up in the culture wars. They have no problem with marriage equality. They support the ban on capital punishment and they support the right for a woman to choose

2. Money - this isn't their big thing. They want to have a good job with a good income and benefits but they are not nearly as money and "me, me" obsessed as so many of my American friends

3. Education - they fully support making education a priority. They want to make post secondary education widely available

4. Defense - they support having a strong defense but in private they tell me why should we spend our money and our men and women when the U.S will do the work for us

5. Time off - they embrace the concept of time off for vacation, maternity leave, etc.

No wonder they are one of the happiest countries according to the annual UN survey

We have a lot to learn from Canada. In so many ways they are similar to us but there are deep differences. But conservatives believe, hell or high water, that America is exceptional and we have nothing to learn from anyone else. What a crock of doo-doo.

[elleng]

3. Thanks. Might move up there, for sanity,

were it not for kids/grandkids here.