Omnibus : Gas prices, Oil prices, Embargos
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
I did a quick google. Found a lot of stuff about people who think they're middle-class.
What's the standard? Middle third in income? Middle third in total wealth? Middle 50%?
We've already seen where this discussion goes. You say the middle class is shrinking and under stress, pgs babbles about houses and boats.
Yippee.
Yup a holiday where the kids all jump in the car to go camping at the lake . Great fun and adventure . Today’s young family take a trip to Hawaii in winter , fly down to Palm Springs for spring break then take the trailer with quads in the back to the lake in summer .
According to the OECD, the middle-income category, means people earn between 75 per cent and 200 per cent of median household income after tax. I also did a quick google and found that some are saying there are fewer middle class in the U.S. because they are moving up, becoming richer, while in Canada they are being squeezed out by high housing and education costs, displaced by automation and lacking the skills most valued in the digital economy.
is the middle class shrinking in canada - Google Search
www.google.com
Now I would think the american issue is a good thing and something Canada should look at to seethe hows and whys and attempt to duplicate the "issue". While the U.S. should be trying to extend that to more people.
Interesting. I'll accept the OECD definition until somebody gives me something better.
Seems to me that, at least in the short term, Canada should tackle housing and education costs.
Don't know what if anything to do about automation. Seems to me a smaller and smaller percentage of the population can make a living with their backs. I cautioned people when they were babbling about "bringing back manufacturing" that even if we did, it wouldn't be the old factory employing 5000 men. It would be a factory employing 400 engineers, computer/software specialists, and managers to oversee the robots.
Seems to me that, at least in the short term, Canada should tackle housing and education costs.
Don't know what if anything to do about automation. Seems to me a smaller and smaller percentage of the population can make a living with their backs. I cautioned people when they were babbling about "bringing back manufacturing" that even if we did, it wouldn't be the old factory employing 5000 men. It would be a factory employing 400 engineers, computer/software specialists, and managers to oversee the robots.
There is no official definition. Depending on who you are talking to it is a group that belongs neither to the top 20 to 25 percent of income earners nor the bottom 20 to 25 percent. In Canada these days that puts you in the middle class if you earn roughly between $45K and $100K per year. Now using a percentage of all earners as a basis, you'd assume that group to stay fairly static in size, changing only with fluctuations in population. Averages can be equally confusing as they are distorted by the huge incomes at the top end of the scale. A comparison between income distribution and wealth distribution gives some insight. A lot depends on who you are listening to. Like pgs says above, there is plenty of visual evidence around that many are living the good life, but I keep coming back to the point that since the post-war economic boom faded in the 60's and 70's it more often than not takes two incomes to support a "middle class" lifestyle where it only used to take one.
For millennials in Canada, the middle class dream slips a little further away: OECD
Oh, that post-WWII boom. Yeah, kinda nice being the only heavily industrialized country in the world that hasn't quite recently had the crap bombed out of it. To say nothing of sitting on 15 years of pent-up demand. We proceeded to go an a tear that lasted 28 years (I date it as 45-73, which is when real wages in the U.S. peaked and started dropping). We were so rich for so long that we raised an entire generation that thought that was the norm.
Then reality kicked in.
But women wanted in to the workforce and demanded equal pay . Governments ran with it and loved the extra tax revenue , of course finding ways to blow through it or more . And the middle class lifestyle is much different today from 50 years ago . Do you want to go back to mom barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen ?
Hard to believe how clueless you can be. Try taking a basic economics course. I will make it real simple for you. No big words. Fuel prices are not set by gas station owners. THe wholesale price of gas and diesel is not set by oil companies. The whole thing is controlled by a very few rich people that play a casino game called the commodities market. What we pay for fuel is not a reflection of what it costs to take oil from the ground in Northern BC and make gas to sell in southern BC, but by what that gas might be worth somewhere else in the world if you could get it there. Now when we pay excessive prices for fuels which we all need other parts of the economy get left behind because your disposable income is being used to make a parasite that probably doesn't even live in Canada rich.
The same applies to interest rate hikes. All higher interest does is make a few rich richer, while making it harder for everyone else to make ends meet.
Excise taxes are flat rate. GST/PST/HST are % on the price per litre. Not sure which model carbon taxes use.
are you sure youre a conservative? Cause you are really sounding like a whiny socialist.
She wants your savings...
Freeland wants ideas on how to unleash cash hoards. Here's what experts said
Arturo Chang, BNN Bloomberg
Dec 9, 2020
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland asked BNN Bloomberg viewers on Friday to suggest some possible ways to unleash the massive mountain of excess cash some Canadian households and businesses are sitting on as a result of the pandemic.
Estimates on how much money has been hoarded vary, with Deloitte Canada’s Craig Alexander saying savings could reach as high as $200 billion by the end of the year. With such astronomical figures, the federal government noted in its Fall Economic Statement that tapping into these savings could help stimulate an economy that’s been hit hard by COVID-19.
“If people have ideas on how the government can act to help unlock that 'pre-loaded stimulus,’ I’m very interested,” Freeland said.
Inflation. Would that unlock hundreds of billions people worked hard to save?
Reality kicked in in the form of Reaganomics, where the bottom line became the prime focus and employees became just another ledger entry under "expenses". Unionization rates started dropping at the same time, union labour was "just too damned expensive". Little notice was given to the effect unions had on reducing income inequality and improving wealth distribution.
Political thin ice there. I draw on my savings for my retirement income. Now, I might be willing to lend them some if the interest rate is attractive enough.
Yep, unions got fat and lazy cuz there was plenty to go around. Everybody got fat and lazy until things started slowing down. Then the power of a relatively small group with a lot of resources kicked in.
That's not what she meant.
They aren't looking to borrow, they are looking on how to take it from you.
Apparently inflation is working good at doing that.