By Beryl Wajsman
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
"We have become a people that know the price of everything but the value of nothing."We are a society of great wealth with only a thin veneer of affluence. This time of year, fuelled by our obsessions with ungracious consumerism and inelegant self-absorption, is the most difficult one for our most vulnerable and underprivileged. What Robert Kennedy once called the "revolution of rising expectations" that he felt would become our undoing, comes back year after year as sadness and failure in the hearts and souls of those who can't meet, or reach, those expectations. They face the disappointment in the faces of children, the elderly and their own gnawing fears of their futures.
The numbers are quite staggering. according to the Centre for Policy alternatives, almost one in two Canadians state that they are one paycheque away from financial disaster. The Vanier Centre for the Family released a study this year demonstrating that almost one-third of urban households live below the Federal poverty lines and that after-tax real household income has stayed almost stagnant for 15 years. and worse yet, according to Princeton's Paul Krugman, some forty years after President Johnson declared the "War on Poverty" and Prime Minister Trudeau launched his programs for the "Just Society" the number of children living in poverty has risen from one in seven to one in five.
The hard fact is that regardless whether we have governments of the right or the left they have all failed to keep the promise. Not the promise of economic parity. But the promise of equality of economic opportunity. as noted civil liberties attorney Julius Grey has said so often, despite our struggles to keep the state out of the personal and moral domains of our lives, the one positive intervention government can make is to level the playing field in our economic life. The disparities have grown too egregious.
What CNN's Lou Dobbs has called the "War on the Middle Class", while an apt description, still belies the underlying nature of the depth of the problem. Canada has seen the greatest concentration of wealth, and disparity between rich and working poor, than any G-7 nation and second only to Russia in the G-8. In 1929 some 20% of Canadians controlled 80% of our wealth. Today that same 80% is controlled by just 4% of our population. While almost 80% of money in circulation is inherited wealth, crushing tax burdens to pay for nanny-state government programs that no one needs except bureaucrats to increase their own power, have led to a pitifully small percentage of Canadians having a net worth of even $5,000. But it is more than that. We have become a people that know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
In his "revolution of rising expectations" speech Robert Kennedy continued with an analysis of our societal malaise that rings as poignantly today as it did decades ago. "Our measures of economic growth," he said, "do not measure what is really important. Our gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of education, the care for our vulnerable, the beauty of our poetry, the strength of our commitments, the civility of our public discourse or the integrity of our governance. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country; it measures everything, in short, except what makes life worthwhile. and it can tell us everything about ourselves except why we should be proud of who we are."
But though policy changes proceed at snails' pace, there are people of character and conscience that devote their lives to the relief of suffering. Their work is not just about theoretical notions of saving humanity. It's about the immediate relief of the human being. These champions of compassion over contempt and co-operation over competition are everywhere in our communities. They deserve our active assistance. They work with the hungry, the homeless, abandoned seniors, kids on the street. They exemplify the message of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. that, "Unearned suffering is redemptive", but that redemption can only come from those to whom much is given and from whom much is expected. It is a redemption that helps the haves as much as the have-nots, for it is a victory of the human spirit. and that is what this season, and indeed what every day of our lives, should be all about.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement