VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Do you feel like the rich are always getting richer and the poor is always getting poorer in Canada?
A new study is suggesting those gains do not come at the expense of people in lower income brackets.
“The people who are poor this year — 20 per cent of them, at least — will not be poor next year,” argues Herbert Grubel with the right-wing Fraser Institute.
He says government statistics show just 13 of 100 people considered poor in 1990 were still poor in 2009.
“Twenty per cent of them will have reached the very top quintile, or have become rich.”
Grubel argues incomes go up or down because of life events like a young or new immigrant gaining more work experience or because of bonuses, illness, or unemployment.
He wants us to resist income redistribution policies, saying when you tax the rich, you’re taking money away from people who have responsibilities to children and parents.
Grubel feels giving that money to young people who will be rich in the future — and who don’t have the same pressures — is unfair.
Among other changes, he wants to see government be required to release data on income mobility along with data on income distribution.