Pearson: Growth, fairness out of balance

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Our country’s history, and even that of our own community, has represented a balance between economic growth and social progress. Many around the world believe we excel at it. It’s getting more difficult to defend in this post-pandemic world, however, as the tension between these two realities splits us further apart.

In this modern global economy, growth is most frequently measured in months, while progress can involve years, even decades. When these two measures become delinked, contrasts and inconsistencies emerges.

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For example, the London area population has grown 10 per cent in the last five years and  soon will exceed 600,000, growth, growth so swift, we are desperately short of homes to accommodate the surge. That scarcity of supply has pushed up prices beyond what the average population can afford. Even more serious is the staggering rise in homelessness. Our growth, normally a sign of achievement, becomes a portend of future disruption and social tension.

The availability and cost of food tells a similar tale. Economists predict food prices will increase more slowly during the next year. Costs are expected to rise by three to five per cent instead of the five to seven per cent last year. But what we pay at the store will continue to increase. This occurs at the time a new University of Toronto study reports more than seven million Canadians are food insecure, including two million children.

Some of us are privileged enough to accommodate rising prices in our household budget. But when a family of four is spending almost $17,000 annually on food and has to find another $800 on top of that for this coming year, food insecurity will continue to climb. It’s all happening while grocery corporations have more than doubled their pre-pandemic profit levels. For millions of Canadians, it spells “hunger” in their near future. This should be a concern to everyone.

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The growth in profits appears to be coming at the cost of how people live. All of us have spent years watching corporate profits mushroom while income inequality among average Canadians continues to erode our sense of fairness and opportunity. Yet average citizens feel they can do little about it. Any confidence they had that governments would tackle the issue has evaporated, and with it the hegemony that once kept our diverse nation together.

That economic balance between a sense of social fairness and business opportunity took a severe hit in the recession of the early 1990s. Important issues such as employment, social programs, equitable taxation, and gender parity lost ground in a time of free trade and globalization. Fabulous wealth skyrocketed while the middle-class struggled to maintain its standard of living. The trend continues.

In March 2024, Reuters news service reported, while average citizens around the world struggled with the cost of living increases, corporate dividends hit an all-time high of US$1.66 trillion. Globally, 86 per cent of listed companies either increased their dividends or maintained them. Projections are dividends will reach $1.72 trillion before this year is out.

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This is not some political screed against the right to make profit, but a simple recognition that economic growth benefiting the few isn’t stopping the stagnation of the many. Growth is traditionally viewed as a positive indicator of a country’s economic health. It suggests more jobs and greater incomes. Such linkages are questionable, as more and more Canadians are getting by with less and less. Growth and progress are no longer in sync, and disruption is tearing at the seams of our society.

It’s time for politicians and voters to accept that economic growth no longer results in progress. There’s just too much pain in this country to think otherwise. It’s time for a great communal effort to regain the economic and moral high ground that provides opportunity for all.

Glen Pearson is co-director of the London Food Bank and a former Liberal MP for London North Centre. glen@glenpearson.ca

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