The Rich-Poor Gap
May 1, 2008 · By Adam Dyck
According to this article in the Globe and Mail, immigrants are the main victims of the widening rich-poor gap. But according to common sense, couldn’t they also be the main cause?
Immigrants coming from other countries tend to make less money than people from Canada, which has one of the highest standards of living, worldwide. Not to mention that they have to go about finding a job in a new country, sometimes when they don’t even know one of the languages.
Also in the story, it mentions how companies are demanding people with higher levels of education, which is making the average wages of the middle class flatline. How dare employers seek people who have some kind of confirmation of their knowledge? I’m not saying that they’re neccassarily better employees, but I know I’d rather see some kind of affirmation when a young gun walks into my office, if I’m in charge of hiring for a company.
Mind blowing, isn’t it?
AdD,
I have no prob with your contention that immigrants are likely the main “cause” of these statistical outcomes.
However, I generally do not trust any of these “poverty” statistics to be all that significant anyway because they are relative. They are commonly calculated in such a way that there will always be poverty.
Furthermore, the article also compares “pre-tax” salaries from 1980 and says nothing has changed. That statistical conclusion can only be nonsense.
There is no comparison of life in 1980 and life today in any intelligent manner. There are jobs that exist today that never existed in 1980 and there were jobs in 1980 that no longer are necessary today.
I can live on the street today and report an income of $0 but have a more comfortable life than a homeless man did 25 years ago.
Would family-unification immigrants be included in these stats? Grandma and grandpa probably aren’t looking too hard for work.
Even if the census would say that the immigrants are the victims of widening income disparity, immigrations would still continue since most of them are looking for a better life in other countries such as Canada. Although they may recieve lower salary but it is still better than what they can earn from where they came from.