1975 Pay= 2015 Pay

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/minimum-wage-jobs-pay-roughly-the-same-as-they-did-in-1975-1.2708717

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/140716/dq140716b-eng.htm

When our working poor are making the same amount as they did 40 years ago, but the price of everything from homes to vehicles has been marked up at least 100%, how do you expect the working poor to get ahead at all?

My children are making the same amount as their grandparents and great grandparents did in the '70s, They do not have to deal with the cost of a home being $15,000-$30,000 to purchase and rent it isn't $100-$500 a month but having to deal with the housing of $150,000-$500,000 to buy and to rent being as high as $3000 a month.

We have stopped producing low earners. 

This may sound like the stupidest thing anyone has heard, but I began to wonder why someone would have to work 3 jobs. I understand the money situation and that there are that many low paying positions available, but I also started considering WHY?

Baby boomers parents came from a generation where their parents were sometimes having 7 to 20 children. For instance, my grandmother came from a family of 13 children with the loss of twins at the start of the family. That is a lot of workers and while they are retired now, some are still alive.

My grandmother’s generation, because many families grew up with so many children, did not have a lot of extras, so they tried to install in their children how important it was to earn a good wage, not work at those jobs that you are only making minimum wage; which is important. She and grandpa only had 4 children and that was called the Baby Boomer years. Now that is Funny.

So we went from 7-20 children in a poor to middle base incomes to 3-6 children in that same class base.

Baby Boomers, how many children did you have? I believe if you look at the average household of baby boomers that are on the verge of retiring at an income of $75,000+/year at this time in their life they will have 0 to 4 children.

Again, a drop in the procreation of the working poor/middle class, why?

Two things happen when we do this. The first, because the working poor do not make much, we teach our children from an early age that they need to get into a profession that will make them money, eg. Get into politics, lawyer, dentist, doctors, professional sports, a trade…something that is going to support them and their family better than how they lived and how their parents lived and so on.

Because minimum wage is only a quarter of what a lowest paid professional would make, NO ONE wants to do those jobs.

So what happens, many of those baby boomer children and many of those children of the baby boomers become professionals.

We are left with minimum paying jobs that instead of having 7 to 20 workers doing we now have 2 to 4 workers doing, which is actually less because many of those 2 to 4 workers have become professionals and are in the middle to rich classes.

Two…

We know children cost money, so we don’t have as many. We don’t have as many so we are not repopulating the work force.

Those who are living in the working poor are not able to do things like:

·        Pay bills on time many times

·        Buy any type of home

·        Have our cars fixed so we can get to work safely without going into debt or putting aside another bill

·        Save for our retirements

·        Save for a rainy day

·        Go on vacations…which does not bother us, it is just a point I want to make clear that if you can do this, save, and pay bills…you aren’t poor you are middle class.

·        Pay for extracurricular activities for children

My generation, Generation X and the last of the Baby Boomers, have been accused of flooding the work  force with working poor who are now living off the Middle/Rich class taxpayers. If that were true we wouldn't need immigrant workers now would we?

I have 2 children and two step children that I helped support. My older two have a different mother. They are in their early 20’s. Their careers, for the most part, rely on the oil industry.

My daughter has been laid off. She was on maternity leave last year so will get nothing from Employment Insurance, or at least very little. Her significant other has been laid off as well, but they will be making a quarter of their income on Employment Insurance, if not less. That is working poor.

Could they better themselves, you bet, but who will be doing their jobs? And really, Why should they have to? Their jobs are just as important as anyone other persons. A lawyer could not do my daughter or my son-in-laws jobs properly without the training, so why are they paid such a great deal less? Is their job easier? You don’t have to be as “educated”, but that doesn't mean it is easier.

My son says he will be fine he is still working, but I still worry because not long ago he was in a car accident where he was rear ended and he had to live off his savings for a while, which is now gone.

My son, 17, is graduating this year. He really enjoys welding and we have encouraged him to follow that career. It doesn't guarantee he will be middle class, but it does mean he may be one of those higher paid working poor, so instead of making $10 an hour he might make $30.

Will they have children?

My daughter is 13, but she is adamant that she in no way shape or form wants children, which can change, she is young.

But again…This means less people going into the work force if she still feels this way in 10 to 20 years.

Yes, some in these generations have had more children. While I only helped support and raise 4 children, my best friend has helped support and raise 9 in total in some way shape or form. But on average, we are not having as many children.

We are doing it to ourselves.

We are allowing our working poor to live on less because we believe they deserve less.

So those who are the working poor have fewer children to fill those working poor jobs or teach their few children to go for professional jobs to get out of the rut of being the working poor, not a bad thing but still causing a shortage in the number of people working those teaching, nursing, janitor, bus driver, Wal-mart, fast-food positions.

I will give you a hint, if Costco can pay their workers a living wage and benefits and if other countries can make businesses pay living wages…our “democratic” governments can make Wal-mart and McDonalds as well.

What are the benefits of companies like Wal-mart paying living wages and benefits?

Your tax dollars do not go to paying for the working poor living off the system…BONUS!

Those children that my generation and the generations of working poor after me would not need your tax dollars for the basics of life like groceries and utilities so that we can fix our vehicles to get to those jobs without having to worry about the car dying, the furnace quitting or the toilet plugging up if they were paid a living wage.

Your tax dollars should then be put into Canada Pension Plan/Social Security, education, taking care of our military peoples, health care, transportation, job creation, Right?

The working poor are not expecting or asking for enough to take elaborate vacations, $50,000 vehicles or even $400,000 homes.

They are asking for enough not to have to worry about the car, the baby or the house, the food, the utilities...and they shouldn't have to.

Canadian Immigrants: Then and Now

Immigration and immigrants are a hard topic to discuss on many levels, but if we use history as an example for part of it maybe we can come to some type of common ground.

I came across an obituary where a gentleman’s father had immigrated to Canada in 1928 and was joined a year later by his wife and three oldest children. He came from a Polish/German background and came to Canada to make a better life for his family, which they did. The obituary is his son’s who was born here in Canada in 1935.

The difference between the immigrants of yesteryear and today is the changes that are being made to accommodate new immigrants and refugees.

Back then, immigrants in most cases came with nothing but the cloths on their backs and worked hard to bring their families over who also then had to work hard to make a life for themselves here in Canada, that or starve, there were no handouts, grants or health care.

While we have progressed in the last one hundred years and can help those who desperately need it, those immigrants from the past came to Canada knowing what they wanted and worked hard to achieve it.

Which was a new start, in a new land, they knew that the laws would be different and if they were to break those laws it was back to where ever they came from now, not after hearings and delays. If they broke a law they were kicked out of our country no “ifs, ands or buts” about it.

In the past they came here for all sorts of change, from being able to farm land to explore to starting a business, immigrants over the last one hundred years have tried and succeeded in adapting to Canada’s way of life.

They settled into Canada, not the other way around.

 Immigrants came here because of what Canada offered…a better life. They saw what Canada was about and wanted to be a part of it, not try to change it. These immigrants became CANADIAN.

 They worked hard to help Canada become a great nation that was known for its generosity, its patriotism, its kindness and its military stance as PEACE KEEPERS.

But today we are finding new immigrants coming to Canada and want to CHANGE Canada. They want Canada to be the way their old country is in their laws and religions. They want Canada to defend their rights but they will not allow us to be Canadian.

A good example is if you apply for a social benefit in Saskatchewan you are classed as OTHER if you are Canadian. There is no box to mark if you are born and raised here in Canada. There is a box if you are a native, but even if you are 4^th, 5^th, 6^th generation Canadian…DO NOT say you are a Native Canadian that is a no-no. There is a box if you are an immigrant, well if your great grandparents have been in Canada you are no longer classed as an immigrant. Métis and Refugee both have boxes to check, but alas if you are a born and bred Canadian looking for a “handout” you are classed as an OTHER as far as the Government of Saskatchewan is concerned.

Our traditions are questioned, saying “Merry Christmas” is frowned upon for fear of offending someone other than a Christian and our laws are being changed to accommodate instead of immigrants learning to adapt to our way of life. Unlike with past immigrants, new immigrants are the ones who are changing our society and this is where many people in ALL of North America have the problem.

So why can immigrants today not adapt to Canadian life like in yesteryear…because we allow them to change our society. We allow the changes to happen.

Other countries have allowed these same immigrants into their countries but have said, “NOPE, these are our laws, these are our traditions, this is our society…conform or leave.” They either conform or they come to Canada, where they are allowed to tell Canadians that we are not allowed to say or do this or that and if we do, we are RACIST.  

We are “racist” if we believe that immigrants should be adapting to Canadian Law and Canadian Ways which are now being changed to say that we are being racist by saying they need to adapt to Canadian law and Canadian way.

We do not believe that immigrants should have to give up their religions or their beliefs. Many of us do however believe that they can keep it to themselves for instance...

Inequality is flowing deeply for Canadians, Why would it be ok for a Muslim woman to where a burka, which is not a religious garment, in government photo ID but I am not allowed to wear a baseball cap? Muslim boys are allowed to wear a Kirpan to school but my son cannot carry a Swiss army knife to school...a knife is a knife is a knife. Religious or not, it will kill someone if it is stuck into them.

Our country is about equality, so women have as many rights as men, women do not have to hide themselves here in Canada behind clothing, and with terrorists traveling left, right and center, hiding behind black clothing from head to toe with only eye slits makes people suspicious. How do I know you are a woman and how do I know you do not have a huge gun under those cloths? Trust is a huge thing and when you come here making demands but give little in return, like getting rid of the demeaning clothing, I am not going to trust that you have Canada’s best interests at heart.

Our country is about tolerance, we allow religions to build their temples and practice their religions freely, ALL religions have this right here in Canada respect that or go back to where ever you came from. Canada was founded on Christian beliefs, you may not agree with those beliefs and some of those beliefs may even be outdated, but this is Canada you can take it or leave it we are not going to change our belief system that has done us just fine over the last 150 years just because you say so. Pack your bags and head home if you don’t like the Christian values this country was born from.

Our country is about peace, over the last few decades wars that are being drawn out in countries overseas have been dragging Canada’s military into fighting battles. When you come to Canada, you leave that behind and become CANADIAN, do not beg our government to save your country. You want to save it, go back and fight for it.

Canada’s military has been known World Wide for its peace keeping missions, now we are becoming as hated as the American military because of our interference into other countries ideologies. That interference is from different causes, one of them being from new immigrants insisting we fight the battle that is going on in their countries, maybe?

What I do not understand, if it is that important why are these people not staying and fighting for their country themselves? That doesn’t sound very patriotic to the old country or the new one. Not something a Canadian from yesteryear would have done. Many of which went to war against their neighbors during the World Wars, as CANADIANS.

Some of us Canadians do believe that if immigrants thought that Canada was great enough to immigrate to then they shouldn’t have the right to try to change it.

If they truly want to live with the laws and lifestyle that they came from without the danger, they need to return to their home countries and fight for their freedom without coming to Canada and changing our society to suit them.  

I am not saying that new immigrants do not work hard or do not deserve to be here; I am saying that immigrants in the past did not have things handed to them like grants and loans to help upgrade their education so they can find better jobs here than they would in their old countries, health care to pay for medical bills that never would have happened in their old countries or help bringing family over from their old countries, help to support those family members and an education for their children.

These are the things that aggravate Canadians, we have to adapt to the immigrants lifestyles but they get the benefits of being Canadian and Canada is being changed to suit the majority of immigrants and refugees, who seem to be coming from the Middle East.

While many Canadians that were born and raised here need to start being more grateful for what they have, new immigrants need to appreciate that they are coming to a country that has great qualities, this country does not need to be changed. They wouldn’t be here otherwise.

If we are going to set a law, the law has to stand for ALL people, no exceptions. Race and Religion should not come into the picture EVER.

We are all human beings, which is all that matters…not race, not religion, not sexual orientation…nothing matters but that we are human.

PEACE