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MY Fellow Canadians

Have the feeling you aren't getting anywhere finanically?


Well this might be the reason.


Taxes have middle class by the throat



There's a good reason most of us feel we have to keep running faster these days just to stay in the same place financially.

It's because we do.

Statistics Canada reported yesterday the annual median income of employed, middle-class Canadians went up -- read it and weep -- $53 in the quarter century between 1980 and 2005, adjusted for inflation.

That's a measly 0.1% increase from $41,348 annually in 1980 to $41,401 in 2005.

Meanwhile, the rich, those whose annual earnings are in the top 20% of employed Canadians, got richer. Their median incomes (the point at which half of all incomes in a group are higher and half are lower) rose 16.4%.

Click here to find out more!

And the poor got poorer. Median incomes for the bottom 20% of employed workers fell 20.6%.

In the Toronto area, it's worse. Median income for families here fell 2.4% between 2000 and 2005, compared to a 3.7% rise across Canada and 1.4% for all of Ontario.

Many commentators zeroed in on the growing gap between rich and poor, arguing it's alarming it has widened during a quarter century when our economy grew by 50%.

But that's not the scariest thing about these numbers.

The scariest thing is that governments will now face more pressure to "fix" the gap by redistributing even more income through the tax system, the very reason the middle class -- where governments get most of their money from -- can't get ahead.

Indeed, when you factor in after-tax incomes, the gap between rich and poor decreases, meaning the tax system is doing what it's supposed to -- redistribute wealth, within reason.

But the problem is the total tax burden Canadians now face from all levels of government -- today we spend more on taxes than food, clothing and shelter combined -- is a big reason middle-class incomes are stagnant.

That's something our politicians need to remember, especially in Toronto where real incomes are falling, the next time they hike taxes or fees.

Because all of those increases have become, over the years, a 1,000-pound gorilla on the backs of the middle class.
 
welcome to the US when Hillary or Obama becomes President
 

tylstruck

Canadian diisabled Yuppie
Ah, I misread 6L PWR's post. I read; No cash and no dope. If so, you Americans will truly suffer!?! hahaha. Better start drinking, that'll be the only alternative...

I don't class myself as a middle class or coach set citizen. I'm more of the hobo you might find in the bagage hold. I live via my disability pention.

Tyl
 

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