Hmmm, are we closer to the world of The Hunger Games than we care to admit?
$26 billion is the net worth of the wealthiest person in Canada – David Thomson of the Thomson family. The family owns multinational publishing and multimedia giant Thomson Reuters which operates in more than 60 countries.
I worked for Thomson Reuters for a number of years. I admit to being a bit equivocal about that part of my career. I was reasonably well paid for my efforts at the time so I have no complaints. But having contributed, albeit in a very small way, to David Thomson’s wealth means I also played a part in the widening wealth gap in this country.
The top one percent of Canadian earners bring home 10% of all income in this country. It is a very top heavy pyramid with the top five being outrageously wealthy. The next four:
- Galen Weston: $10.4 billion – from his food and retail empire
- Arthur, James & John Irving: $7.85 billion – from a range of business interests including oil, forestry, paper products and transportation
- Edward Rogers and family: $7.6 billion – from media giant Rogers Communication
- Jim Pattison: $7.39 billion – from variety of industries including TV and radio stations, car dealerships, grocery store chains, magazine distribution and real estate development
Statistics are not really my thing. But it is hard to ignore the fact that the bottom 30 per cent of Canadians account for just 1 per cent of the wealth.
And by all accounts, the rich are getting richer. Recent media reports indicate that the net worth of the top 10 per cent of Canadians grew by 42 per cent in recent years. At the same time, the net worth of the bottom 10 per cent of Canadians shrunk by 150 per cent.
I consider myself very fortunate that I sit somewhere in the middle of this very long spectrum. I am leagues away from being rich but earn enough to be comfortable even with some financial setbacks along the way.
I know next to nothing about economics and the dynamics that come into play in these equations. No doubt there are those who will argue that the billionaires at the top of the list play an essential role in providing employment for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. But it is hard, in my mind, to justify the amount they skim off the top in the process.
The only way I can visualize this process is through the realm of metaphor. If I think of Canada as an ocean, it means that a handful of Killer Whales at the top of the food chain are progressively gobbling up more of the ocean’s resources. The other fish, in descending order of size and ferocity, are competing for less and less of those dwindling resources.
In that state of affairs, it seems almost inevitable that we will eventually arrive at a Hunger Games scenario – unless each of us takes responsibility for doing our small part to begin to reverse and balance the food chain. Waiting for someone use to light the torch is dangerous for we may not have as much time as we think.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: David Thomson · Galen West · Irving family · Jim Pattison · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Rogers family · The Hunger Games · wealth gapNo Comments