There is a lot of talk about how two or more crises are over-lapping right now - #Covid19 along with #BLM protests, the drive to defund police, political unrest in the U.S. etc. But there isn't enough discussion about overlap with growing wealth inequality. #cdnpoli #onpoli 1/11
It's well-established that racialized communities, immigrants, and poorer Canadians are bearing the brunt of #Covid19. Minimum-wage workers are "essential" while highly paid professionals (inc. myself) work from home. The contradiction is obvious. #cdnpoli #onpoli 2/11
We've become used to the idea that money makes everything easier. Why shouldn't it? Well-off families pay for private tutoring with similarly privileged children, while everyone else send their kids back to unprepared public schools. Ever thus, right? #cdnpoli #onpoli 3/11
The truth is that this problem has been very real, and accelerating, for a long time before #Covid19. For a good basic explanation, here's a video from the Broadbent Institute. Yes, it's an NDP think tank. Just watch the video. #cdnpoli #onpoli 4/11
That summary from 2014 captures the problem in 2012. It's gotten worse since. The way to think of wealth inequality is to compare the problem with global warming. It's a runaway train accelerating for a long time now. It's NOT how things have "always been." #cdnpoli #onpoli 5/11
Wealth inequality has also always been a life or death topic. Poorer people access worse healthcare (yes, even in Canada), work at more dangerous jobs, and have weaker supports at all stages of life. Sadly, we've gotten used to this and accept it as given. #cdnpoli #onpoli 6/11
It isn't new that wealth inequality compels poorer Canadians to risk their health, and the health of their children, in ways that more privileged people avoid. It's just suddenly in-your-face and newsworthy. Which is, at least, an opportunity to confront it. #cdnpoli #onpoli 7/11
Like many things, our problem in Canada is less bad than the American version. But it's still a cancer eating at the foundation of our society. "We're all in this together" rings pretty hollow to people who have little stake in "this" to begin with. #cdnpoli #onpoli 8/11
I have no grand conclusion here, or solution to propose. Wish I did. The reasons for growing concentration of wealth in the hands of the already wealthy are complex and difficult to address. Fixing it will be a generational problem to confront. #cdnpoli #onpoli 9/11
But like global warming, to start, we need to face the painful truth. This isn't normal. It's not how things have always been. It's not only intolerable now, but getting worse every year with no end in sight. And we need to do something about it together. #cdnpoli #onpoli 10/11
The pandemic may end with a vaccine. Science may even address global warming. But wealth inequality can only be fixed by confronting our values. We've accepted this for too long. If this pandemic helps wake us up, that's a silver lining worth reaching for. #cdnpoli #onpoli 11/11
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