Canada: As the GDP has increased, the quality of life has decreased

[marmar]

from the Toronto Star:



Jim Coyle
Feature Writer


By the measure of a sophisticated new yardstick to be released Thursday, Canadian prosperity is poorly shared, our workers are run ragged, and we generally “are not having as much fun” as we once did.

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing, a dozen years in the making, is intended to do what standard economic tools such as Gross Domestic Product cannot — namely, to measure not just the economy, but how people and communities, the environment and our democracy are faring.

Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan premier and chair of the CIW advisory board, told the Star the project puts “scientific underpinning” to a widespread, intuitive sense that though the GDP might rise, circumstances for the majority of Canadians have not been keeping pace.

In fact, the report says that while the GDP increased by 31 per cent from 1994 to 2008, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing rose just 11 per cent. Moreover, the wealthiest 20 per cent of people received the lion's share of that growth, while the gap to the bottom 20 per cent grew even larger. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1072744--new-canadian-index-of-wellbeing-reveals-how-canadians-are-really-faring?bn=1

[CanonRay]

1. The corporations are robbing them blind, too.