• m0darn
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    3 months ago

    Headline and article mischaracterize the report’s findings.

    The country added nearly 1.3 million people last year — a 3.2 per cent increase — while the economy grew by just 1.1 per cent in the same time period. That means more people taking slices out of an economic pie that hasn’t grown much bigger.

    Right, but if we’re talking about GDP per capita growth, we should probably subtract retirees from the population number, and not count new residents that don’t have the right to work. Also, one year data is probably not very valuable because I think the we’re only just now reaching a post-pandemic equilibrium in terms of retirement/ migration flows. Probably a lot better to look at 10 year numbers.

    The news isn’t all bad. Data shows real weekly earnings — a person’s take home pay — has actually increased in Canada, even when accounting for inflation. The household savings rate is also up.

    So it’s not that we’re getting poorer, it’s that we’re not getting richer as quickly?

    This is toxic ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.

    We should focus on equity and sustainability, not growth for growth’s sake.