Our young people are struggling. And by young people, I mean anyone younger than 40.
I’ve been talking with some of these folks, discovering that people with professional designations requiring master’s degrees are working two jobs and living in bachelor suites. Yes, they can find full-time jobs, but they don’t pay enough to cover bills, rent, food and student loans, so they also work weekends and plan to do so for the foreseeable future.
I know married couples — with both partners in professional jobs — who live in their parents’ basement suites, with no plans of moving out, ever. If they can one day afford to have children, they will raise them there.
Canadian standards of living have fallen so far that the professions that used to allow a single-income earner to buy a home and raise a family, no longer allow even double income families that same lifestyle. It’s not the avocado toast, it’s the harsh reality.
Our standard of living has taken a few generations to swan dive but seems to be in freefall now. In my parents’ generation, a single income was the norm, and one full-time worker — usually male — could support a family and buy a west-side Vancouver home. His wife could stay home and look after the children.
This was true even for professions like teaching or nursing. My mom was a nurse and a single mom in the 1970s and ’80s with no support from my dad and she did just that. It wasn’t easy, but it was possible.
It was never that way for my generation – for one thing, there were no jobs for teachers or nurses or even plumbers because the Baby Boomers filled them all up. For another, among my Gen X cohort of friends, when our children were little 30 years ago, very few moms were “stay-at-home.” Those who were, usually started back at work as soon as the kids were in Grade 1. (Kindergarten was only half-day then, and maternity leave was just six months.)
Even though the standard of living had fallen by the time I was having children, at least housing was attainable. It was a struggle to buy a home, and usually required help with the down payment from family, but it wasn’t impossible. And if you couldn’t afford a home, there were always rentals. Rent was reasonable and suites were easy to find. People rented for decades and were mostly secure in their homes.
Today, that’s not the case. Not only does everyone have to work more than one job, but home ownership is also impossible without a leg — and maybe an arm or two — up. Renting is expensive, hard to find and insecure. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver is $2,671 per month, rentals.ca reports. That’s an increase of more than $700 since 2019.
Inequality is also a huge part of the equation. Leger polling shows that more than two-thirds of young people think it’s harder for them to get established than it was for their parents, and they’re right.
Solutions aren’t easily found.
Generation Squeeze, an organization fighting for generational equality in Canada, suggests solutions including taxing wealth and increases in home values over income, making childcare affordable and taxing pollution, among other things.
The recent changes to capital gains taxes made by the Liberals are a move in the right direction. Prior to the changes, tax was only paid on half of capital gains. Now, tax will be paid on two-thirds of capital gains and individuals get a $250,000 exemption.
This doesn’t apply to people’s homes, but it does apply to properties purchased as investments. This means people and corporations who have invested in properties to make money will pay more income tax on their profits. Individuals can earn as much as $250,000 tax-free. Seems smart to me.
Having said that, I’ve also heard the change might need a few tweaks, so it doesn’t have unintended consequences, like motivating doctors to move to other countries. Those tweaks should be made to ensure we keep our much-needed doctors here.
Something’s got to give. The standard of living for Canadians cannot continue to degrade and inequality grow to the point everyone is either a billionaire or homeless and hungry.
Tracy Sherlock is a freelance journalist who writes about education and social issues. Read her blog or email her [email protected].
