I don’t think it is. I think this is a case of Hanlon’s razor. I think most of society really bought this bullshit that the free market is going to sort everything out. Recall that was/is the official mainstream economics dogma. Probably some had ulterior motives but vast swaths of people were onboard this train, flogging the engineer to go faster into the bright free market future. And it even seemed to work okay for a bit while we were coasting on the fumes of the social investments of prior. I mean, I was able to rent a 1-bed and afford basic living on a minimum wage in 2005 in the GTA.

E: I mean, speaking of dogma, the idea that taxes do not fund government expenditures is just starting to permeate it. Our current government is still talking in terms of whether we could afford this or that (e.g. building mass non-market housing) on the basis of revenue and debt. At least the libs have dropped the balancing of budgets part of the dogma. I’m not sure the wider public is onboard yet either.