Excerpt:
When it comes to improving their standard of living, young Canadians are facing an uphill battle. A new report, published by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), highlights the difficulties younger Canadians in many provinces are facing in achieving higher earnings and a better standard of living than their parents. The report highlights the range of factors contributing to these barriers to social and income mobility, pointing to housing and high youth unemployment.
“What we want is high social mobility, high absolute mobility, so that everyone is getting better off massively, and high relative mobility [compared to their parents] as well,” MEI senior economist, George Mason University economics professor, and one of the paper’s authors, Vincent Geloso, told The Hub. “On both of these metrics, Canada’s not doing as well…there’s been a mild decline in absolute mobility, and there is a definite decline overall to relative mobility.”
The paper defined social mobility as “the ability to earn more than one’s parents and climb up the socio-economic ladder.” In an ideal world, someone’s economic or social status is determined by their talents, efforts, and choices, not by their circumstances at birth. […]
Recent economic indicators suggest social mobility in Canada will continue to decline in the near future. Canada’s spiking emigration rates, prolonged sluggish GDP, record youth unemployment, and rising foodbank usage, as well as a steep decline in job openings, all suggest a tough slog for young Canadians trying to better their lot in life.
Geloso says economics literature shows time and time again that challenging formative years set one up for static or downward social mobility.
“If I compare you to your parents, and you have the misfortune of being born in a period of an economic downturn. It has lasting consequences.”
Read the full article at The Hub.
Read Barriers to Social Mobility Across Canada here.
The Hub
Share:
Related Posts
