MYTH #3: CANADA IS GETTING RICHER AND POVERTY IS DECREASING

...THE RISING TIDE OF WEALTH CREATION IS LIFTING ALL THE BOATS....

"On the whole, Canadian wealth, by net worth 1, is increasing, but essentially only for the top 50% of Canadian Households, in particular for the richest 30% of households, and even more specifically for the top 10% of households, driven principally by massive gains for the top 1%. 

Over the past several decades, Canada's poverty rate (inferred from the Low Income Cut-Off After Tax) had generally oscillated between 10-16%" Extracted with permission from  "Debunking the Myths of Poverty" Prepared and presented by Rob Rainer, Executive Director, Canada Without Poverty- Yellowknife, NWT Oct 2010.   1 Net worth is the total assets-liabilities

Check out the reports and graphs prepared by Dr. Lars Osberg, Dalhousie University.

HOW ABOUT THIS...DID YOU KNOW...

• The highest paid CEP in Canada only need work 18 hours to earn what the average nadian Minimum wage worker earns in an entire year!  (Canadian Labour Congress)

I just read a fascinating book World Shift 2012 by Ervin Laszlo.  (Forewards by Deepka Chopra and Mikhail Gorbachev).  On page 35, under "The Social Objective in Business"  some very interesting facts....  "Business is said to be the private sector, but it has become so powerful that it's no longer a "private" sector- its the most pulic sector there is.  The top five hundred industrail corporations employ only .05% of the human population but control 70% of the world trade, 80% of direct foreign investment, and 25 percent of world economic output.  Even if reduced by economic crisis, the sales of the largest companies, such as Toyota, Ford, Misui, Mitsubishi, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon and Walmart, still exceed the GDP of dozens of countries including Poland, Norway, Greece, Thailand and Israel. Weilding unparalleled wealth and power, business companies are a key factor in the equations that decide the human future. States and governments, the public sector, can at best regulate their activities, and their power to do that is even limited.  When the public sector sets up too many regulations, private-sector multinationals move elsewhere."  (italics and bold are mine; GDP- Gross Domestic Product:gross domestic product: the measure of an economy adopted by the United States in 1991; the total market values of goods and services produced by workers and capital within a nation's borders during a given period (usually 1 year)


WANT MORE?
" The world's 200 richest people more than doubled their net worth in the four years to 1999, to more than $1 TRILLION or an average of $5 billion each.  Their combined wealth now equals the combined annual income of the world's poorest 2.5 Billion People!" Jeff Gates- from "Take it Personally" Anita Roddick, Founder of the Body Shop.


To Conclude- yes the rich are getting richer- very rich.


Still think corporations are good for the economy- humanity?  Sure, if they would pay taxes like the rest of us!

Shop the local stores!  Change begins at home.


Love and All Good Things,

The Peaceful Matriarch