“Why have anti-poverty groups recently been so obsessed with the allegedly growing gap between rich and poor in Canada? Because it is just about the only bit of ‘bad’ news left on the poverty front. It’s the only angle they have left to pressure politicians for more social spending — and, of course, continued funding for anti-poverty groups.
(…)
“The ratio of income from employment, investment and private pensions was approximately 11 to one in 1996. Today it is nearly 13 to one.
“This is the number anti-poverty advocates have been focusing on ever since StatsCan released it in the spring.
“But it is a phony number. No one lives in a pre-tax, pre-transfer world.”
