The Age of Increasing Inequality: The Astonishing Rise of Canada's 1%

by Lars Osberg

Canada is in a new era. For 35 years, the country has become vastly wealthier, but most people have not. For the top 1%, and even more forthe top 0.1%, the last 35 years have been a bonanza.Canadians know very well that there's a huge problem. It's expressed in resistance to tax increases, concerns over unaffordable housing, demands for higher minimum wages, and pressure for action on the lack of good full time jobs for new graduates.This book documents the dramatic and rapid growth in inequality. It identifies the causes. And it proposes meaningful steps to halt and reverse this dangerous trend.Lars Osberg looks separately at the top, middle and bottom of Canadian incomes. He provides new data which will surprise, even shock, many readers. He explains how trade deals have contributed to putting a lid on incomes for workers. The gradual decline of unions in the private sector has also been a factor. On the other end of the scale, he explains the growing high salaries for corporate executives, managers, and some fortunate professionals. Lars Osberg believes that increasing inequality is bad for the country, and its unfairness is toxic to public life. But there is nothing inevitable about this, and he points to innovative measures that would produce a fairer distribution of wealth among all Canadians.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics

248 pages, Hardcover

Published September 11, 2018

Reviews

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book’s nine chapters start with “Canadian Income Inequality: The Big Picture” before looking at each income group separately. Then in the final two chapters, it answers the questions “Why Do Economic Inequalities Matter?” and “What to Do”? This well-researched book is chock-full of up-to-date facts and figures (and graphs) that will prove to be quite meaningful to all Canadians.

[Nancy Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little heavy on the math for this lay reader, but overall an excellent presentation of the data and with some very good suggestions on policy changes that could reduce Canadian economic inequalities.

[JW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow both extremely depressing and surprisingly hopeful.

[St_Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book provides an essential introduction to inequality in Canada.

After having seen so many books on the rising inequality of the US, I was happy to find a book on a similar topic and scope written from a Canadian perspective. I think Osberg does a great job of providing a comprehensive, data-driven summary of the key issues, which still manages to be written in fairly accessible language, provided you know some fundamental economic terms. He also does a great job of communicating why we should care about inequality, both from an economic and moral perspective, and how inequality is relevant to opportunity and not just outcomes. The last chapter offers some general policy proposals to address this issue. I'm not knowledgeable enough about these topics to really critique his ideas. Suffice it to say you won't find anything too radical here, provided you already lean to the left of the political spectrum. Overall, I'd happily recommend this as a starting point to learning about Canadian economic trends.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well-written and highly relevant to current social and economic trends being experienced in Canada. This book makes sense of many questions I had regarding such issues. The information is reliable and well-sourced with much of it coming from Statistics Canada and academic research. The visual graphs really drive home the nature of income and wealth inequality much better than mere numbers can. Explanations about why young people are facing so much more competition, higher minimum requirements, and lower compensation were nicely tied in with comparisons of high unemployment versus low unemployment environments. This is one of the few books I am looking forward to read more than once.

[Margaret Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Economics - clearly written. I could follow the explanations. Lots of charts and graphs that make useful talking points.

[Mfon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very educative book...a must read

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Welcome to the new normal of recent decades: INCREASING income inequality!!

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“This book is an attempt to tie together the main strands of the Canadian [income] inequality experience since 1980, suggest some of the likely implications from the personal perspective of someone who has been studying economic inequalities for a long time, both in Canada and internationally…

The real world of economic [or income] inequality which we experience every day is about many, many daily differences—about Mercedes and BMWs driving past people waiting for the bus, about homeless people sleeping on the pavement outside luxury condominiums, about economy-class passengers watching elite class travellers push to the head of the queue at the airport, and so on and so forth.”

The above quote (in italics) comes from this absorbing book by Lars Osberg, Ph.D. He is a Professor of Economics at Dalhousie University (in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) with research interests in labour economics and income & wealth distribution. Osberg is also an author and past President of the Canadian Economics Association.

This book is really a reality check. It shows how our accelerating path towards steeper income inequality along with financial insecurity coupled with social unrest does not lead to the future Canada that most of us want.

The beginning chapters of this book show using graphs and tables what exactly is happening. For me, actually seeing what is happening with respect to income inequality was both informative and shocking.

In the latter chapters, the author lays out the negative impacts of such inequality and the essential steps needed if we are to adequately address the problem before it gets severely out of hand.

Don’t worry! I found this book to be highly accessible with little economic jargon.

There are fifteen figures in the form of graphs and six tables.

Note that this book focuses on what is happening in Canada. However, this analysis can also be applied to other countries such as the United States.

Finally, some of the graphical material in the beginning chapters can be tedious. Remember that all you really have to do is look at the overall trend that a particular graph is showing. Don’t worry about understanding every little detail because there is a helpful summary at the end of these chapters.

In conclusion, if you want to truly understand how we got to where we’re at, and where we’re headed, then this book is a must-read!!

(2018; figures & tables; introduction; 9 chapters; main narrative 210 pages; acknowledgements; endnotes; bibliography; index)

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