Families get too many government goodies

I am not a family, but I would still like things, please.

Of course, it isn’t people like me the federal government is interested in giving handouts to.

Nah, it’s all about families, hard-working families, middleclass families and let’s not forget those families working hard to become middle-class families.

And man, these families need a lot of stuff, don’t they? The word “families” appears, by my count, 154 times in the federal budget, justifying spending on everything from infrastructure to trade agreements, which are “helping employers create more of the jobs Canadian families need.”

In contrast, millennials are mentioned twice. We are “the first generation to learn that traditional education isn’t what it used to be,” the budget notes, whatever on Earth that means.

There’s no mention of “unmarried” people (who’re about half the population), no mention of “childless,” either, or its gentler cousin “childfree.” Students fare better, even though there’s an entire budget section about “students who support families.”

If you’ve already reproduced, or are planning on doing so, the government very much wants you to know they will be there for you.

You know, the government really could just tax us less and then wouldn’t need to go through the process of returning Canadians’ money to them or creating special programs for families.

But then, what exactly would politicians brag about in budget speeches?

Politicians are great at signalling to certain segments of the population that they’re important. Seniors vote, so seniors get goodies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was supposedly going to be government for the next generation, for young people. There are nods to that, in support of post-secondary education, for example.

Yet the fetish of the family still dominates our politics, our budget-making and our thinking.

Singles and millennials are two of the fastest-growing voting blocs, so you’d think they’d be a priority. Then again, that it attracts votes doesn’t actually make for good policy; the Liberals have been busily pandering to older Canadians, with, for example, its reversal of a Tory decision to raise the age of eligibility for old age security.

In 2011 (the most recent census data available, says StatsCan) 44.5 per cent of couples didn’t have kids, and 39 per cent did, though boomers whose kids have grown up torque those stats.

Single people are mentioned in the budget mainly because “single” is a necessary prefix to single-parent families.

The one mention with a dollar figure attached notes that single people get to keep $330 — not exactly a number that goes far — annually thanks to last year’s middle-class tax cut.

In my age bracket — 25 to 29 — around three-quarters of all people are unmarried.

Everything from the many tax breaks, to the simple economics of sharing rent and food costs with someone else favours those who’re in families. Contrary to what you might think, those who aren’t in families have got it rough. In 2014, the median aftertax income of families of two or more was $75,700; for singles, it was around $29,000.

And some parents want those not in families to help pay for their childcare?

That’s not to pick a fight with everyone who has kids. There’s already a noticeably ugly divide between parents and non-parents. On one side, the people who sneeringly call parents “breeders,” and whine ostentatiously at crying babies on airplanes (full disclosure: I have been that annoying airplane person) while there are parents who apparently feel that, by virtue of having successfully had kids they’re entitled to services and pampering the rest of us aren’t.

What singling out select groups does, whether it’s appealing to seniors or families or recent immigrants or whatever, is it balkanizes our politics.

It — as I’ve just done for several hundred words — pits people against each other, leading to the perception that politics and prosperity are a zero sum game.

At the intersection of policymaking, politicking and entitlements, some Canadians get left behind. But we’re all hard-working, and crass pandering doesn’t do much to improve this country.