Canada lies before the world as an embattled nation sorely in debt and without real economic direction

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Canada is experiencing a housing crisis that will not go away, as much as our elected officials hope that it will. Ontario is supposed to be “A place to stand, a place to grow,” yet those calling themselves the middle class, and those further below this economic level are having a great deal of difficulty living here.

Southern Ontario is a costly place to be. Housing, education, and the very necessities of life such as food and energy to heat your domiciles are increasing daily. These costs escalate while your ability to pay stays the same or declines over time. Inflation has been showing its ugly face everywhere, and Canada’s Central Bank is increasing interest rates to control this inflation. Increasing interest rates will flow to the costs we endure on our lines of credit, credit cards and other loans.

Once proud to be a member of the middle class, you are going to realize that your number within the community is decreasing, and you have more in common with the working class. Yes, having less money to spend on less luxurious things. The rich get richer, the middle class gets poorer, the working class gets hand-outs.

Eyes wide shut. That’s how it is in Canada. We think about the good old days, when we struggled to get by and usually managed well. Now, we close our eyes to the oncoming train of debt, insolvency, Taxes and depression.  We rely upon our leaders, our elected officials to recognize the many problems before us, and find solutions to them, yet our leaders fail in that endeavour. Our leaders prefer to study these problems and study some more.

Then they shelve their studies, only to restudy these problems at a later date. Ineffectual are many of our leaders, empowered by self-interest and the old political game of promising much and delivering little.

Housing
A place to live does not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, yet developers, builders, real estate firms make billions of dollars out pricing real homes. They control this industry and housing prices will never decrease so long as they are the makers and shakers of this sector.

Necessities of life
Food is priced unfairly, not by our farmers, but the many middlemen within the process of grocery retail. A box of eighteen heads of lettuce may be sold for $6.00 dollars by a Holland Marsh Farmer (the wax box that holds the eighteen heads of lettuce cost more than $2.00) and by the time it reaches a grocery store that single head of lettuce sells for $2.99 each or more. Packages that hold food products have shrunk in size and yet the price has increased. Less for more seems to be the Canadian way in groceries these days.

Energy
There is a glut of oil and gas on the global market, yet the prices we pay continually increase. Heating our homes, places of business and filling up out automobiles will be major challenges this winter.

The middle class must take a stand before its leadership, those who rule the roost in Ottawa and Queens Park. Costs can be reduced, if these managers of governmental process look outside the box and break their alliances with those who thrive in unregulated sectors of industry. Lenin called the middle-class useful idiots. Is that what you are? I know we have gone through much these last two years, however all governments must be managed well, all markets understood and regulated.

Canada lies before the world as an embattled nation sorely in debt and without real economic direction. Canadian politicians react, instead of responding to the challenges before them. Responding requires real management and planning, something Canadian governments do badly.