Broad-based policy easy to sell, expert says
The middle class is a buzzword on the campaign trail as federal leaders try to tap into fears that the “Canadian Dream” is getting further out of reach.
“The middle-class issue is more one of a long-term perspective and anxiety that the old model of shared prosperity based on middle class progress is no longer working, and that that’s producing a stagnant economy and a dark outlook on what’s happening in the future,” Graves said.
Middle-class angst is not unfounded.
A popular definition of the term includes the middle 60 per cent of income earners, which could mean any family unit or unattached individual whose yearly earnings range from $27,400 to $118,000, based on Statistics Canada 2013 median income data.
Income for the middle 60 per cent of families comprised 56 per cent of total income in Canada at its peak in the late ’70s, but has since fallen to 51 per cent. Meanwhile, the share contributed by the upper 20 per cent of households has risen to 43 per cent from 38 per cent in the same period. Incomes for the middle 60 per cent of households grew by 17 per cent between 1977 and 2011, while the upper 20 per cent saw growth of 49 per cent.
The shift in the middle class is as much due to upward mobility among higher-end earners as downward pressure on jobs at the lower end, said Philip Cross, former chief economist at Statistics Canada and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Lauri- er Institute.
But politicians prefer to refer to the group as a whole in order to appeal to as many voters as possible, Cross said.
When asked, none of the three leading parties provided an income range they consider to be middle class. That, Cross said, is a tip-off that pledges aimed at restoring middleclass progress are merely electioneering tactics, not real attempts to fix any problems.
“If you announce a policy that says: ‘I’m going to help the middle class’ then everyone’s going to say: ‘He’s trying to help me!’
“But if you say: ‘I’m going to help just one in 10 of you who has had a tough time over the past decade,’ most people are going to shrug and say: ‘Big deal, what’s in it for me?’ ”
Lumping together professionals — who share more in common in terms of education and skill levels with the upper class — with factory workers and clerical staff — whose job security is precariously close to that of lowincome earners — belies the truth about which members of the middle class are genuinely struggling: those on the bottom, he said.
Those are the groups that politicians should target, said Charles Beach, an income distribution expert and professor emeritus at Queen’s University.
Politicians need to focus on mea- sures aimed at training and education for low-skilled workers, and on providing a better social safety net through with improved employment insurance to help members of the middle class who are struggling most, he said.
Broad-based policies, such as across-the-board tax breaks, are simpler to understand, easier to implement and more pleasant to sell, Beach added.
“But they’re inefficient in the sense that a number of people who will get it — who benefit from it — don’t need it at all,” he said. “That’s a waste of resources that could be more efficiently used if they were targeted at the groups that needed it.”