There's been lots of attention paid recently to the Canada Pension Plan and how to extend it, alongside news stories and commentary about how adequate or otherwise Canadians' retirement situation will be. The sunshine boys over at the C.D. Howe Institute (a.k.a. the Isn't Capitalism Wonderful Institute -- ICWI) reassure us that everything is just fine and we should just shut up and ignore all the warnings. The author of an ICWI study, one Malcolm Hamilton, observes: "Canadians frequently read that they borrow too much, spend too much, save too little, retire too early and live too long."
Well, yes, Malcolm, they are told that because it is regrettably true. Personal debt levels are at a record high of 163 per cent of after-tax yearly income, savings rates are a small fraction of what they were in the 1970s and '80s, and low interest rates (trying to goose a system that has now adjusted to goosing) has given them license to borrow madly off in all directions. According to a 2014 BMO Rainy Day report:
"Three in ten Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque or spending more than they earn… Forty-seven per cent of Canadians said they have enough to cover three months or less. …One in five -- 19 per cent -- have less than $1,000."The 2014 survey of employees by the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) found:
"more people are overwhelmed by their debt, are saving less and would face real hardship if their paycheque was delayed by a single week. … Just over half, or 51 per cent, of the 3,211 employees surveyed by the CPA said it would be tough to make ends meet if their paycheque was delayed by one week."Between 1980 and 2005, the actual dollar (after inflation) increase in annual income in Canada was $52 -- that's right, just $2 a year. But I guess you could save that.
READ MORE: http://rabble.ca/columnists/2015/06/vultures-are-circling-canadas-health-care-are-we-prepared-to-pay-price
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