Just over half of Canadians say they are $200 away or less from not being able to pay all of their bills at the end of the month amid higher interest rates and inflation.
Is really this bad? Half of Canadians? This is a catastrophe waiting to happen, wasn’t Canada supposed to be a rich country with a good standard of living, even in lower income areas?
Have you seen inflation and the profiteering going on in supermarkets nowadays? My grocery bills have gone up 30% despite switching to the cheapest supermarkets and cutting out all non essentials. It’s insane!
We live in a more geographically isolated part of Canada (ie: not a big city) and at this point, our monthly grocery bill is approaching our mortgage payment amount. I still have to drive to three different stores to buy basics, because they’re all frequently out of stock for common items (like milk, sometimes). It’s not uncommon to pick up 3-4 bags of groceries (no meat) and pay $150-$200.
We garden, and have birds, and even started raising dairy sheep to reduce costs, but it’s still too much.
Yet, there are seven cannabis stores in town, and they’re all well stocked, somehow.
Thats the lie we spread yeah. We have it much better than some, but in many areas it’s a lot worse than you think. Where I’m at our rental market has nearly double the average price for a 2 bedroom apartment in the span of like 2 years. Places that went for 800 and were in very rough underfunded neighborhoods now going for close to 2000. Our homeless population here has also been doubling every few months since the pandemic aid ended. In the winter its particularly bad and a lot of people have died from exposure or from accidentally starting fires.
Canadians by and large have been spending more than they earn for decades now. Check out the average debt-to-income ratio from even 20 years ago, I remember economists being worried and that making the news even back then. Real estate is what props up our GDP to provide the illusion that we’re a rich country, and no politician except maybe Singh will ever actually work to change that so home ownership becomes less burdensome and more accessible to everyday people, because it will have an impact on the GDP.
Homeownership is Canada is ridiculous, I was checking this thread on reddit about a guy with 100k in savings and a salary of 95k and he was still unable to afford a 500k condo.
Canada propping the economy through real-estate while people can’t afford it just seems like a time bomb, what will remain when it explodes?
wasn’t Canada supposed to be a rich country with a good standard of living, even in lower income areas?
It used to be, but nothing in life is static. To become a rich country you need innovation, and to remain a rich country you need to continue to innovate. Canada was once very innovative, changing the world in many ways, but in the last decade or two we’ve rested on our laurels.
That doesn’t mean consumerism can’t take hold and pressure people to make unnecessary purchases.
Nah, even people living within their means arent doing well. My partner and I have very good, stable jobs, with a combined household income of nearly~$100,000 after taxes and deductions (union dues, pension deductions, etc).
We drive a 12 year old car, we don’t take vacations, we don’t have kids, we don’t carry debt, and we don’t spend beyond our means.
Granted, we had the unmitigated audacity to rent a house instead of an apartment because I like to play music with my friends, so thats an extra $200 a month over the cheapest apartment we could find that we’re “wasting” on our comfort.
But factor in the rising cost of *gestures broadly* everyfuckingthing, we have been able to save less than 10% of just the down payment required to begin sniffing at houses in the last 3 years.
The system currently is broken and needs a major overhaul, so we can level the playing field and the middle class has a chance of existing again.
The only reason I could afford the 5% down payment for the place I just bought was because I lucked into buying a cheap foreclosure years ago and sharing the down payment and title with a roommate. When we sold last year the amount we made back in equity was enough to put towards a cheap little old house of my own while still holding on to some for long term savings.
Without that equity I would be stuck renting for the rest of my life.
The amount that we pay for groceries is fast approaching a third of our monthly budget. We’ve gone a few times in the past year eating instant noodles and plain rice for a week because of unexpected costs. And I make pretty decent money, and even with my partner’s income we have been just barely scraping by. A 2 bedroom apartment that doesn’t have laundry in it and is a falling apart minimum 80 year old building in a rough neighborhood should not cost 2000 a month. It’s unbelievable, but thats what rent costs are like throughout the area I live in.
so we can level the playing field and the middle class has a chance of existing again.
Does the middle class want to exist again? Let’s face it, a big part of why housing has become so expensive is because people don’t want to spend their money on starting businesses. Canadian culture in particular is very much “get a job, buy a home, live happily ever after”. But if all you have is a job, you’re always going to remain working class.
Don’t forget you can cancel your Netflix subscription. /s
Remember, its not the broken system, its all the little joys that you try to inject into your miserable existence that is the issue.
What I hate is that on top of prices going up, stuff is getting smaller and cheaper quality.
I bought an Ikea shelve recently and compared it to the same model I bought 5 years ago, the wood is visibly thinner and the screws and stuff are now cheap plastic instead of metal.
Food is getting smaller portions, appliances break at nothing and must me changed more often… it is unsustainable.
Not surprised in the slightest.
Most of my immediate neighbours own houses way outside their budget/payment capacity. As you said, add inflation and bigger monthly mortgage payments to the mix and it’s no surprise they can’t save 200$/month.
I say this more to keep in the back of your mind as a long term solution, not to fix your problems now. But if you’re able to advocate for better public transit in your area and urban planning more focused on walkability rather than car-centric, it will help everyone. Cities that are less car focused are better places to live in general. Plus it will open up the option to go from a 2 car household to 1, or even from 1 to none (less likely but possible in urban areas). A car is a huge expense when you add up all the direct and indirect costs. I would guess based on a few web searches that $1000/month per car is within the ballpark. For many, its a lot more. This means if you found a job that was within walking distance of your home that paid $5k less than your current job, you would still be making $7k more annually. This is a simplification but gives you an idea.
