RICH GET RICHER: AGAIN

Recent news reporting shows Canada’s grocers making record profits through the COVID-19 era and the inflationary period that followed. Other recent news reporting indicates that, with the rising costs of food and grocery shopping, a significant number of shoppers have resorted to shoplifting and barcode swapping. Food banks are maxed out, and too many people are losing their homes because rising interest rates leave people with double their original monthly mortgage payments, or even more. And for those renting during these times, sales of homes containing rental units spiked during the Great Real Estate Happy Time, with new owners, having paid an arm and a leg for these hyper-inflated properties, raising rents to the no-can-do level for many innocent renters, if not evicting them outright.

Meanwhile, other news reports reveal that Canadian billionaires are making money hand-over-fist, better than ever before.

Go freaking figure.

Now, full disclosure, if I was a billionaire I wouldn’t feel the way I do and I’d likely not be writing this. But I’m not, and on my current trajectory, I don’t map out to ever becoming one. So, as I’m not nor will ever be, I feel completely free to offer my two cents on a billion dollars.

When are we ever going to get around to fixing profiteering, price-gouging, and the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor? In this country or any other.

I’ve already discussed my feelings regarding grocers and oil companies who cry poor through gold-plated bullhorns. Their bleatings around supply chain issues are getting a little worn, especially in light of record profits. It’s funny how, when things get tough, the rest of us go through the shitter and these guys rise with the cream to the top, except they’re already at the top of the economic pyramid, and sadly, it doesn’t even look like a pyramid anymore but rather more like a huge blob with a needle stuck in it.

A crisis in Ukraine? If you’re an oil-producer, that means reducing production to reduce supply while demand goes higher, resulting in exorbitant prices for gasoline that permeate throughout a regular person’s life. Shipping companies passing on the increases to grocers who then pass them on to consumers, and people having trouble keeping gas in their cars. I live in a semi-rural community where many people drive into Ottawa to work. It’s heartbreaking to see people really struggling because of stuff like this.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It’s been said for as long as I can remember, and it’s true. It takes money to make money, and for those that have it, there’s never been a better time to watch those riches grow. And for those who watch their incomes getting swallowed by rising prices and housing costs, their journey nudges in the direction of a downside.

I’m sorry, but that’s just not fair.

There was once a middle class in this country, but that appears to be sliding away. There seems to be two solitudes here: those who have the means to access all they need and want versus those who watch their hard work, savings, and investments evaporate for reasons beyond their control. People who did everything they were supposed to do, who made good, sound decisions, now to have that security they’ve worked so hard for pulled from beneath them.

I have occasion periodically to drive past our local food bank here in Renfrew. I don’t know if this is an everyday thing or not, but any time I happen past, the line snakes around the building and on down the street. Church groups, community groups, and schools are raising money and volunteering services to help keep people fed. These people are some of the real heroes in life, those who give time and resources so that their fellow citizens can keep going and keep fed. Maybe help families celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with a modicum of dignity.

Some of those people in that line would have been considered middle class only a couple of years ago. But now they’re here, in line, in public. That’s tough. Honestly, I can’t ever remember seeing lines like that before.

Down south, in the SUSA (Sometimes United States of America), the Republican Party is the chief standard-bearer for billionaires, although the Democrats have had their moments doing the same thing over the years. Donald Trump lavished rich Americans with tax breaks that made them even richer, somewhat ironic since much of his rabid fan base comes from the under or unemployed demographic angry at everything and resentful of policies perceived to be liberal or socialist. So much so that they’re prepared to vote for a guy who does not legitimately represent their best interests.

In late 2022, Americans narrowly placed the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, and now they’re trumpeting their agenda of bringing costs under control as part of their mission statement. And in their deliberations, they arrived at an opinion that two major government areas had to be scaled back dramatically: medicare and social security, things of vital importance to the middle and lower classes. My goodness, of all the areas to cut from, they chose these two for the heaviest hits. Really.

Anyways, I’ll leave with an idea that’s hardly a new one. How about taxing the rich a little more effectively? Could we make it a little harder for people to hide their money? Maybe go a little lighter on the handouts to the wealthy? Why not have meaningful wealth/threshold taxes on the books? Threshold tax rates are linked to income and/or capital gains benchmarks set by the treasury.

I’m talking about the really super-wealthy here, of which it appears there’s a sizeable number. The thresholds would be pretty high, something most business people or wealth generators wouldn’t have to deal with.

Unless, of course, they hit a threshold.