Canada PoliticsPoverty on the decline in Canada, but don’t thank government
Despite the 'sky is falling' doom and gloom scenarios painted by the Occupy crowd, it seems Canada's poverty numbers are actually declining.
According to Statistics Canada's "Income of Canadians - 2010" publication released Monday, the percentage of Canadians who earned less than the "low-income cut-off" actually fell from 9.5 per cent in 2009 to 9.0 per cent.
In an article for the Financial Post, journalist William Watson explains the significance of this figure.
"By this measure Canada's poverty rate was at an all-time low in 2010, if you accept that in this context "all-time" means back to 1976, the earliest date for which this calculation appears on StatsCan's books," he wrote.
"The rate for 2010 is even lower than in 2007, the previous best year, when it was 9.1 per cent."
But before Canadians start lauding their provincial and federal governments for 'lowering' the poverty rates, they might want to check-out this speech by Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institute to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee earlier this month.
"I want to emphasize the importance of individual initiative in reducing poverty and promoting economic success.
Young people can virtually assure that they and their families will avoid poverty if they follow three elementary rules for success—complete at least a high school education, work full time, and wait until age 21 and get married before having a baby.
Based on an analysis of Census data, people who followed all three of these rules had only a 2 per cent chance of being in poverty and a 72 per cent chance of joining the middle class (defined as above $55,000 in 2010). These numbers were almost precisely reversed for people who violated all three rules, elevating their chance of being poor to 77 per cent and reducing their chance of making the middle class to 4 per cent.
Individual effort and good decisions about the big events in life are more important than government programs. Call it blaming the victim if you like, but decisions made by individuals are paramount in the fight to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in America.
The nation's struggle to expand opportunity will continue to be an uphill battle if young people do not learn to make better decisions about their future."
Certainly governments have a role to play in alleviating the affects of poverty: making education accessible, providing affordable housing and food security and developing policies that create jobs.
But, as the Brookings Institute's research indicates, individual choice is key to determining one's lot in life.
