Canada Feels Like a House of Cards Waiting to Collapse – Jacobin

“In Canada, surging house prices, the G7’s highest household debt, nationwide climate-driven disasters, and punishing interest rates have turned the crisis knob to 11. Amid all this, the Trudeau Liberals are eyeing cuts, adding potential austerity to the mix…

“Governments must be prepared to assist those who face economic hardship and will be crushed if and when the country’s house of cards falls. These are people who work and who aim for what they’ve been told to aim for: a home, a car, an education, and a few decent consumer goods. Yet they now find themselves abandoned due to a blend of economic structures, pandemic impacts, suboptimal government decisions, and uncontrollable global geopolitical dynamics. These workers, who ensure that the buses run on time and grocery shelves are stocked, comprise 40 percent of the country’s earners but hold only 2.7 percent of its net wealth. Conversely, the top 20 percent of earners hold almost 70 percent.

“This wealth gap is obscene at the best of times, but it’s particularly odious in the wake of the last few years when so much lip service was paid to workers — as ‘frontline’ and ‘essential’ — by the powers that be. They must not now be left to the wilds as the country struggles to get its economic affairs in order.”

---