half the country's families control 94 per cent of its wealth

[sNyx]

TORONTO (CP) - The divide between rich and poor in Canada is deep, persistent and has grown substantially over the past 30 years, a comprehensive study released Thursday concludes. Based on Statistics Canada data, the study for the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives concludes that half the country's families control 94 per cent of its wealth.

"The gap between the very richest and very poorest Canadians rivals anything seen in the Third World," the study says.

"A surprisingly small number of Canadians have huge slices of the wealth pie, and a surprisingly large number have no more than a few crumbs."

Data show the poorest 10 per cent of families saw their inflation- adjusted net worth fall 28 per cent between 1970 and 1999, leaving them more than $10,600 on average in debt.

whoa.

-Myles

[Senior]

Sadly it's very true and will get worse unless people start to care/do something about it. Challenge the status quo!!

[Chet]

boo - fukin- urns to that

[SEAN!]

its always been like that, and probably always will be. It dosn't mean that everyone else dosn't have a good standard of living. even compared to the 1960's the average person is better off in the things they can buy, and way the way they live...also whats the problem with that few people controlling that much wealth. what do you really expect? if you have alot of money to invest and capitalize you're gonna end up with even more and more money as long as you invest wisely. It is true that the rich get richer, some people just get ridiculously wealthy, usally through hard work and ambition with alittle bit a bad luck, i don't see why some people bash the rich so much. its rich people that invest their own capital which ends up providing jobs for so many more people, if they're lucky and smart then they make a profit which they deserve for taking the risk. Also it is the same 10 percent of people who are saddled with the majority of the tax burden, how would you like to pay 52% of you're income to the goverment?

Jimmy Pattison has a net worth of a couple of billion dollars, he probably pays several hundred million dollars in taxes every year. Think of how many M.R.I's and welfare payments he pays for.

now addressing the issuse of poverty, the sad fact is that poverty will always exist in a capitalist system, what we need to do is ensure that those who are poor get the helpt they need to make sure that their lives are more tolerable. secondly i personally believe that more emphasis and funding should be placed on the education system, ensuring that its a quality is second to none, aswell as ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to recieve the education that they need in order to be competitive in the job market. Although i believe education has benefits that a more far reaching then job security and an improved economy.

[galaxie]

In Mexico, 90% of the country's wealth is controlled by 5% (or less) of the population.

Now, THAT is SICK.
We don't have it that bad.

[Ryan Ross]

Originally posted by Sean!
its always been like that, and probably always will be. It dosn't mean that everyone else dosn't have a good standard of living. even compared to the 1960's the average person is better off in the things they can buy, and way the way they live...also whats the problem with that few people controlling that much wealth. what do you really expect? if you have alot of money to invest and capitalize you're gonna end up with even more and more money as long as you invest wisely. It is true that the rich get richer, some people just get ridiculously wealthy, usally through hard work and ambition with alittle bit a bad luck, i don't see why some people bash the rich so much. its rich people that invest their own capital which ends up providing jobs for so many more people, if they're lucky and smart then they make a profit which they deserve for taking the risk. Also it is the same 10 percent of people who are saddled with the majority of the tax burden, how would you like to pay 52% of you're income to the goverment?

Jimmy Pattison has a net worth of a couple of billion dollars, he probably pays several hundred million dollars in taxes every year. Think of how many M.R.I's and welfare payments he pays for.

now addressing the issuse of poverty, the sad fact is that poverty will always exist in a capitalist system, what we need to do is ensure that those who are poor get the helpt they need to make sure that their lives are more tolerable. secondly i personally believe that more emphasis and funding should be placed on the education system, ensuring that its a quality is second to none, aswell as ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to recieve the education that they need in order to be competitive in the job market. Although i believe education has benefits that a more far reaching then job security and an improved economy.

Well said buddy...

[crumb]

try this.


20% of the world's population in the developed countries receive 82.7% of total world income, while the 20% of people in the poorest countries receive only 1.4%. In 1989, the average income of the 20% of people living in the richest countries was 60 times higher than that of the 20% living in the poorest countries. This ratio had doubled more than 30 times from 1950.

the "poor" 50% in canada may have only 6% of the wealth *in canada* but on a global scale that 6% is still miles beyond what having 6% of the wealth means in the rest of the world where 85% of the world population only holds 9% of the worlds wealth to spread amongst themselves. Our 6% is a much bigger slice of the pie.

if you want to see neat illustrations of this:
http://www.gritty.org/Pages/GrittyBo...lthPoverty.pdf