Why our poor are better off

The global recession helped rewrite the world order, turning wealthy nations into debtors and economic powerhouses into ghettos of unemployed workers. Just how far some countries have fallen was made clear last week as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released its annual global quality of life report. The Better Life Index shows that, by some measures, even the poorest Canadians are better off than many of Europe’s elite.

The index bases a country’s well-being on everything from income and unemployment to how many minutes we spend doing dishes or helping strangers. Canada’s strong showing in the index has little to do with what’s in our wallets —the top 20 per cent of Canadians pocket five times more than the bottom 20 per cent—but judged on a wide array of measures, low-income Canadians are doing remarkably well. Canada scores among the highest in the world in student tests, with one of the smallest gaps between students from the wealthiest and poorest backgrounds. Most of us have a college or university education, but those who don’t are still more likely to be employed than in other countries. Nearly 80 per cent of Canada’s poorest consider themselves in good health—far higher than what even the richest residents of Germany, Italy and Portugal report. Canada also turns out to have one of the most socially inclusive electoral systems in the Western world. Rich and poor vote in roughly equal numbers here, compared to the yawing 23-point gap in voter turnout between rich and poor in the U.S.

In fact, when The Economist crunched the data, it found the bottom 10 per cent of Canadians are better off than the top 10 per cent in Italy, and on par with the wealthiest in Japan and France. Turns out money doesn’t always buy happiness.

Maclean's June 17, 2013