While the pandemic raged on in 2021, it was still a great time for the filthy rich in Canada. While most of us are banging pots and pans, sandblasting groceries, quarantining the mail, and hoping for vaccines, the richest 1 percent are enjoying massive increases in wealth. This was an astonishing increase of over 9% from the previous year. According to Statistics Canada.
At the same time, working-class Canadians faced the harsh reality of declining fiscal stability. Many faced increased poverty, unemployment, and dependence on government programs to make a living. They have been on the front lines doing essential work, putting them at risk of contracting COVID-19 and, tragically, even losing their lives. As always, the wealthy lived in a completely different world than we do.
Statistics Canada's latest data is neither shocking nor surprising. It simply reaffirms what we all know. The poor struggle and the rich prosper because the system is rigged in their favor. People in power are good at negotiating. I am particularly good at taxes, or “management.” They constantly backbite each other to ensure that their own class makes big bucks while low- and middle-income workers get the scraps on the table. They are great at ensuring that they receive preferential treatment from governments that have a structural tendency to give them whatever they want. Dog bites man, 11 o'clock photo.
The statistics speak louder. In 2021, the top 1%'s income increased by 9.4% to an average of CA$579,000, but this does not include the huge jump in capital gains. These numbers highlight not just financial trends, but a fundamentally unjust economic structure supported by the legal system that perpetuates them. Unfortunately, this revelation has become almost routine, making headlines every day or two. Some of us see it, get furious, scream at social media or our devices, and then move on with our lives. It is as if we are signaling to the wealthy that we are content to accept continued exploitation and wait for the next inevitable story of upper class expropriation. .
When the Panama Papers were leaked in 2016, they uncovered $11 million in offshore stock holdings, tax havens, shady deals, and trillions of dollars in wealth hidden by some of the most powerful people on the planet, including politicians. I have communicated this in the above document.
Some of the hoarding was legal. Some were not. But the difference mattered little. The wealthy exploit or push the limits of the global financial system they created, confident in their ability to avoid legal repercussions or successfully fight any charges that may arise. Either way, he was able to escape. The return was clearly worth the risk. It is mostly for these people. The extent of the hidden funds has never been precisely determined, but experts estimate it to be in the range of $7 trillion to $32 trillion, which accounts for 80% of the world's wealth. % to 14%.
The Panama Papers did cause a momentary shock, but it was a temporary and largely indifferent reaction. “My God!” we said. “Trillions! Can you believe it?” Of course, I could believe that. The paper confirmed what anyone with some familiarity with world affairs already knows about wealthy people. In the end, the reaction around the world was a casual “hmm” and we quickly moved on.
We have become desensitized to the greed of the wealthy. We baked it into our expectations. Like school shootings in America. We watch the news, grieve for half an hour, then scroll to the next segment of the never-ending sea of sadness that floods our feed. It becomes a daily routine, accompanied by background noise from the TV or a prelude to bedtime. After all, what else can you do?
We need to reaffirm our collective anger at structural economic exploitation and inequality; material response. Anger itself is an important part of the struggle for political change and class justice, but by itself it is a dead end. We can and should write, post, and empathize with our friends and colleagues. But beyond that, we need to encourage change through building social movements and by pressuring left-wing parties to adopt bold and aggressive policies. We also need to challenge them to help us reflect and amplify our anger and turn it into action. In short, we need mass politics.
The story of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, the powerful prospering and the weak suffering demands changes to the economic structures and legal systems that enrich the capital class and extract wealth from the working class. should inspire us to do so. These stories are incriminating evidence. Laws are written by the rich, for the rich, so most of the time it's not a literal crime, but a moral one. We use that evidence to build our case for the many, to drive our actions, and to demand big, lasting changes that serve the many, not the few. need to do it.
If we simply let the anger of reading about exploitation flow through our heads and move on, we are effectively consenting to our own economic oppression. Of course, all wealthy people agree with this. The more we become accustomed to stories like the Panama Papers and the soaring wealth of the rich and powerful during the darkest days of the pandemic, the more firmly the rich and powerful become entrenched in their shelters. I can't allow this to continue. We must fight for better. Especially since our livelihoods, and in some cases our lives, depend on it.
