Decreasing the Gap Between the Rich and the Poor
Over the past couple of decades the gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening. CEO’s and presidents of major corporations are able to enjoy their millions and millions of dollars in pay and bonuses, while the lower class families and workers are struggling to pay their bills or to buy groceries for their families. We live in Canada, one the world’s wealthiest nations, but 18% of employed Canadians are making less than $17,000 a year; that is 1 in 5 employed Canadians earning below the poverty line. In Canada for a one single person household the poverty line is $18,000 a year. This can be attributed to numerous factors such as social immobility, globalization, more advanced technology and taxation. We are seeing the lower and middle class families faithfully paying taxes while the rich are able to avoid paying their taxes without so much as a slap on the wrist. In order to close this widening gap we need to see a drastic shift in policy making and the changing of priorities from government leaders, such as creating more jobs and having re-training programs and lowering the taxes on the poor and raising taxes on the rich. Part of the reason why the gap between the rich and the poor can be attributed to globalization and information technology, not only this but “government policies are not doing enough to bridge the difference”, the results are a growing chasm between the rich and the poor. Globalization has resulted in most the jobs held by the lower and lower middle class and the lower class people to be being outsourced to other countries where there are loose implementation of laws regarding no laws dictating the minimum wage creating cheap and labour is significantly cheaper. This outsourcing of jobs led to a greater gap in 2008 when more companies moved high paid manufacturing jobs offshore.Also information technology has eliminated jobs such as filing or administration, forcing more workers into an early retirement. In order to narrow this
Bibliography: Goar, Carol. (2012): n. page. Print. <http://www.therecord.com/opinion/columns/article/831195- page. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1097055-