r/canada • u/LaconicStrike • 10d ago
22% of Canadians say they’re ‘completely out of money’ as inflation bites: poll - National | Globalnews.ca
https://globalnews.ca/news/9432953/inflation-interest-rate-ipsos-poll-out-of-money/368
u/jivoochi Nova Scotia 10d ago
I, a Nova Scotian, bought a singular red bell pepper yesterday (not even an organic one, just a regular-ass pepper) and it cost $3.09.
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u/bada_bing 9d ago
I tried growing bell peppers from seeds out of store-bought peppers last summer. They grew vigorously and I ended up with a bunch of peppers that were more flavourful than store-bought ones. not as big though.
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u/heedles 9d ago
Hot tip, pull off as much of the stem as you can before taking it to the register. Remove that excess weight and save your pennies.
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u/Freshanator86 9d ago
Just ring it in as banana
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u/dospinacoladas British Columbia 9d ago
4011.
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u/Final-Dimension-9090 9d ago
Bahaha. I was a cashier at Safeway for 7 years. I can still remember a few codes. I stopped working there 20 years ago Lol it was scary when I actually started thinking mmm I’m craving a 4011
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u/TheLargeIsTheMessage 9d ago
Also, pick the most "hollow" peppers, (e.g. big and light), those have less of the white stuff you have to trim off.
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u/TheDrewCareyShow 9d ago
cries in Newfoundland prices
Since our weather in the winter is so garbage we frequently have ferry delays and produce spoils pretty much as soon as you buy it. It's fucking insane and our government is doing nothing about our food security.
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u/martymcfly9888 10d ago edited 9d ago
So this is the first time I've ever used a foodbank.
I've got to tell you - the last 3 years has been a rollercoaster.
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u/BlindOptometrist369 10d ago
The people I know just started stealing food
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u/CyberMasu 9d ago
I'm considering this, considering Loblaws record profits the past couple of years I think they deserve to get fucked.
PC financial straight up stole money from the account I started with them and then closed my credit account which tanked my credit score. And they have refused to even acknowledge anything happened.
FUCK YOU LOBLAWS I HOPE YOUR BOARD MEMBERS ROT IN PRISON. if it were my way they would be the ones starving.
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u/respectedwarlock 9d ago
I've stopped judging people for stealing food. You do what you gotta do to survive and/or feed your family. Big box grocery stores meanwhile are raking in profits
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u/Phaze_Change 9d ago
My grocery bill doubled in a matter of a few months.
Using this one simple trick, my grocery bill only increased by 40%.
What else are the peons supposed to do? Even just buying necessities for 2 people is $150/week. It’s absolutely insane.
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u/Godlike1972 10d ago
Food prices are crazy.
We cut our buying down by half and it feels like we’re spending the same.
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u/Mimical 10d ago edited 10d ago
I mean, it's exactly what has happened.
People on low income must be utterly strung to their limits. At some point it snaps.
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u/UnicornsInSpace 10d ago
I was thinking about this the other day. How the hell do lower income families survive? I purchase nearly all of my families groceries at Costco. Lots of meal prep, freezing, and long term planning so there is never waste. While there certainly has been noticeable increase in our grocery bill, it's been manageable so far. Most items have indeed gone up, but it's nothing crazy at the local Costco for the most part. Maybe 10-15% overall. Feeding 3 adults and one child.
However, I take a trip to Loblaws/Sobeys once a week or so just for some odds and ends I can't get at Costco. And MAN... The prices have gone bananas. In some cases nearly doubling or more since last year. I'll see carts with just enough food for maybe one person for a week, and their bill is bigger than what my entire family goes through in a week. No frivolous shit either, just basic ass groceries.
It's sad... Something is indeed gonna give, and I fear both the short and long term consequences are going to be ugly.
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u/SpiralToNowhere 10d ago
It's not just cost either, lower income families are often unable to take advantage of cost saving measures like bulk buying and freezing stuff due to lack of space and equipment. They might not be able to get to different stores to take advantage of better deals or have the equipment they need to cook larger quantities. Our local food bank has 2x the requests they usually have this time of year, and their donations from the public is half what they expect- lots of new people who never thought they'd be asking for groceries.
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u/SuperStucco 10d ago
Yup. A few stores have slightly lower costs on a few items, but by the time I tack on transit costs it's at least as much. Buying bulk kind of works the same way, either struggle getting it home on transit or the extra money for hiring transport kills the savings. Kind of the same boat, people recommending saving money by dropping hundreds of dollars on a half or quarter cow or the like, but don't seem to realize that there are people who don't have that kind of money immediately available and don't have the money to pick up a spare chest freezer.
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u/audeo13 9d ago
So I volunteer for my community association and we've started running our own community pantry. We pick up donations of food that are about to expire from a few different grocery stores once a week and set up a pop up pantry in the evening for people to come thru and pick up what they need. Most of it is actually still good quality or has been frozen before it expired. We started this last year by running a bread pantry on the weekend for local seniors and residents in need and now it's grown and we offer alot more. We only started running it weekly at the beginning of the year but every week we're seeing more people.
We're one of the smaller community associations but are serving people from almost a dozen different neighborhoods most weeks. Its alot of work but it seems to be making a difference and helping out alot of families so it's worth it. But it's some serious horse shit that a bunch of volunteers have to band together because the government isn't doing shit.
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u/OriJuice Canada 10d ago
I was thinking about this the other day. How the hell do lower income families survive?
They forgo discretionary spending. Birthdays become less extravagant. Clothes and toys become hand-me-downs. You wear layers, because the "Furnace is broken.". You eat a lot of value-menu stuff, processed foods, etc. Real cheese? Nope, it's sliced for the sandwiches now. The meat you can afford is baloney, if you can get meat at all. I was raised on Cheese-whiz and jam sandwiches. The parents don't drink, or go out; or do much at all. The kids don't get to participate in sports, or school lunches, or any of that.
Eventually when their kids old enough, they get a PT job and pay back to the family. The unfortunate part is that their kids may not know how close to homelessness they are; but they'll always hear the arguments about money, or how they can't afford XYZ. Little ears can take a lot in.
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u/-Moonscape- 10d ago
Our grocery chain cartels are claiming record high profits while people can’t afford groceries
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u/Suckin-a-cum-pencil 10d ago
Seriously. Metro just claimed 250Mill in profit.
50 Mill more than last year.
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u/NotMyFkingProblem 10d ago
8% increased sales, 11% increased profit. So, they make more profit on sales. They say they reduced cost to increase profit, it's hard to believe when they have still expenses from covid measures and salary increase... They just make more margin on everything they sell.
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u/Tap_Z_or_R_Twice 9d ago
Which is exactly what is happening, high up execs and CEOs have seen the greatest increase in pay/bonus while the rest of us struggle.
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u/386DX33 10d ago
But their operating margin is the same as ever so they're struggling like the common man! /s
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u/TheRussianCabbage 10d ago
Not enough people drawing that line yet
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u/mrpanicy 10d ago
Because the media isn't doing their "supposed" job of reporting on this rampant profiteering. They, the corporations the media they own, just throw out the word "inflation" as a smoke screen to drastically increase prices and legally steal from customers.
They make bank and we go broke. They COULD take a bit of a hit on their profits to keep everything at pre-COVID prices and help the customers that keep them in business... but no. The stockholders come first.
Seriously, FUCK capitalism.
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u/DrDerpberg Québec 10d ago
They eat worse and worse.
I'm fine financially, but even then on some level when I look at something like blueberries I ask myself if I really want to eat $2 of blueberries for breakfast in my yogurt. I end up buying the good stuff for my kid and eat worse almost just out of principle.
Some of it is hopefully seasonal, but I'm worried in the spring and summer they just won't lower prices as much as they could and tack even higher increases on what should be cheaper produce. I don't expect cheap blueberries in winter... But they better be cheap during blueberry season.
You can still get cheap calories if you cook big batches of stuff like rice and beans or potatoes... But people shouldn't be expected to live like peasants from the 1800s and we all need vitamins.
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u/breadispain 10d ago
They eat worse and worse.
This is me. I used to eat big salads at lunch and cook a nice dinner several times a week, now I eat mostly cheap deli meat sandwiches and scrambled eggs because I can't afford to do otherwise.
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u/Throwaway47321 9d ago
They eat worse and worse.
This is really the big take away.
When I go to the store I see that things like eggs, produce, and raw meat have almost doubled in price in the recent few years. You know what is still $1.75, a box of Kraft Max and Cheese.
Your frozen, processed, and shelf stable foods have been hit much less hard by inflation (for obvious reasons) but it’s really causing people to make some poor food choices, even if they know it’s not the best.
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u/Zergom Manitoba 10d ago
I’ve noticed too that prices have not gone up quite as extremely at Costco.
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u/Stockengineer 10d ago
Because costco actually doesn’t rip of its members by price gouging Did you know loblaws has contracts with its vendors for certain prices per good, so when “inflation hit” they jacked up their prices anyways to increase profit margins. The supplier didn’t get any increase in profits they had to supply at the pre-inflation contract price
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u/CDNChaoZ 10d ago
Even then, some items have prices that float. Tins of corn for example went crazy high about six months ago and have come down a bit.
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u/veggiecoparent 10d ago
How the hell do lower income families survive?
I imagine a combination of foodbanks, being extremely frugal with sales, coupons and price-matching, dollar store food, going into credit card debt to afford groceries, relying on family/friend support and going hungry.
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u/jrobin04 10d ago
Spot on, this is how I lived for a long time. Still paying down that credit card debt now, it took a while but thankfully I was able to get out of extreme poverty. I'm just getting by now, able to pay my bills and pay off debt at a slow and steady pace. I don't have a lick of savings, I'm just thankful that I'm not going into more debt (for now...)
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u/veggiecoparent 10d ago
A win is a win. Holding steady isn't losing ground so, you know, keep doing what you're doing.
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u/RubberReptile 10d ago
It definitely depends on where you are, too. I was at Walmart in a medium sized town recently and bacon was more than double the price compared to Superstore back in the Vancouver area. At a friggin Walmart! I thought WM was supposed to be cheap. Not like this was a boutique grocery in a tiny town with no other options either....
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u/NegativeReward 10d ago
I was thinking about this the other day. How the hell do lower income families survive?
When I read that I saw one of those old photos of people waiting in a breadline.
That's where we are heading. Banks gotta get paid, people gotta eat, somethings gonna have to budge, and it will not be the banks.
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u/RedHeadedBanana 10d ago
I know for myself in regards to groceries, we’re buying less quality meat, such as ham and ground pork instead of pork chops and chicken breast. We also are eating an awful lot more beans and legumes for a protein source because meat is just so much more expensive.
We’ve also switched from eating lettuce to eating cabbage for cost efficiency. And overall focus on buying staples in stead of snack food, and drink exclusively water and coffee (the one thing we couldn’t cut back on).
Basically, eating for pleasure is a rarity, and instead, it just turned into eating to provide enough nutrients to survive.
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u/LuangPrabangisinLaos 10d ago
Foodbanks are seeing a massive influx of applications with donations down.
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u/TheBathrobeWizard 10d ago
As someone on ODSP, we're already broken. My income, with one dependant, is less than rent for a 1-bedroom apartment. That's before food and expenses. We're in a Family shelter in Niagara and they have no rooms left. Welland, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, St Catherines... all the same story.
Those of us with lower incomes have already been consumed by the system... nobody noticed. Nobody cared.
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u/Organicgrowth 10d ago
Feels like a slap in the face, doesn't it? It's not like people were living high on the hog on ODSP twenty years ago.
People are dying.
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u/Mine-Shaft-Gap 10d ago
They absolutely are. My wife teaches at a school in a low income area. They run a community services program that will provide students with a meal. 4x as many kids are showing up since Christmas. They come at lunch. Then they come at the end of the day as they know there is a chance that there is no dinner at home. I think she told me last night that they blew through their January budget after the first week.
Edit: at the same time, people I work with who complain about the cost of food still buy their smokes, weed, beer, scratchers and other gambling bullshit.
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u/varitok 10d ago edited 9d ago
You're allowed to have your vices in life. I am very tired of the stuck up opinion that you're not allowed to complain about the costs of food and living while at the same time still being able to take what little you have to buy a case of beer or a few joints.
That kind of behaviour is just idiotic class in fighting. We're all struggling down here, who cares if someone buys a six pack while doing so. Stop gatekeeping what is considerED struggling.
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u/v13ragnarok7 10d ago
I cut a meal out of my daily routine and still can hardly afford food, always looking for sales or stickers on almost expired meat.
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u/black_cat_ 10d ago
I've started eating 1 meal a day of oatmeal. Not the small packages, the giant bag of quick oats. It's like $4 for a KG of quick oats. I opened a new bag a couple weeks ago and I've barely made a dent in it.
Cheap, delicious, healthy.
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u/DeviousSmile85 10d ago
You should add in some rice recipes. A 40lb bag is like, 25-30 bucks and will last a stupidly long time.
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u/geoken 10d ago
This comment string feels like what the internet would have been if it was around during the depression.
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u/Axemetal Canada 10d ago
Absolutely! Add in a little spice or some chicken broth and your rice dish is exponentially better too.
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u/SirHector 10d ago
Potatoes are versatile and can offer a lot of fullness and nutrition!
Also, for vegetables, I’m planning on having a small container garden this summer. Seeds are free if you harvest them from food, and pretty cheap otherwise.
Being vegetarian also helps cut down costs, but I do end up having an extra expense with daily vitamins ($14-$20 a month)
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u/NottheBrightest27783 10d ago
So what you do is: get Costco card. Eat substituted the chicken and sausage. Costco chicken is much bigger than anywhere else. Eggs, milk etc is much cheaper there. One Costco chicken is good for 4 portions at minimum. That $120 fee has $60 refundable if you don’t use the card enough.
We did a challenge w my wife on how low can we push the food cost and still have 3 meals a day each. We ended up at $48 incl tax. a week.
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u/MajinBuuMan 10d ago
I tried using what I thought was a reasonable amount of cash. Just to try hard budgeting cause swiping the card is too easy.
Made it a week in two week cycle before running out of cash lol.
I got money in my bank but I'm trying to budget dammit!! I still think it's doable but it's a shitty experiment, I don't recommend. I can't go do anything or even drive my car cause no cash.
Still splurge on my pets though. But holy shit, if you're low income you're skipping meals right now. It's not budgetable.
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u/Happy_Trails4u 10d ago
Don't forget this part:
Our lovely government gave Loblaws 12 million dollars of taxpayers money so they could buy freezers. Record profits and they are asking for handouts. The Gov and corporations do not give a shit what the people are going through.
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u/TheDrewCareyShow 9d ago
In NL our Dominion (Loblaws name here) workers went on strike and they didn't give a single fuck. You know what they ended up receiving after months of striking? A $50 Dominion gift card.
I do work on their bakery/meat room equipment and I enjoy charging them lots of money.
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u/jimmyhoffa_141 9d ago
I wpuld love to start an old-school co-op style grocery store chain. Customers pay $20 to become a member of the co-op, the store buys and sells food at a minimal profit, creating reasonably paid unionized jobs with benefits, and any net surplus goes towards opening more co-op based grocery stores that don't pay Galen Weston a penny. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would shop there if a few could get off the ground.
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u/yashdev1 10d ago
Am surprised it's only 22%.
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u/Magnamus0 Canada 10d ago
Well I mean SOME of us are simply burning through our savings accounts at an alarming rate to stay afloat. So not technically "out". But on the way LMAO
The future is grim
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u/TeamGroupHug 10d ago
Sad thing is as people struggle that money has gone somewhere. Bombardier is selling record numbers of private jets.
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u/Drunkpanada 10d ago
Yup, that's the scary thing. Burning through savings to sustain hlthe new reality. Prices won't drop. This is the new baseline.
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u/Windsor_Salt 10d ago
Burning through the money we saved up in hopes to buy a house. Not like that's going to happen anyways.
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u/Saiomi 10d ago
Burning through the living allowance of my student loans. Being disabled blows.
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u/Windsor_Salt 10d ago edited 10d ago
Shit, that's real rough. I applied for that years ago when I wrecked my back and the entire experience was absolutely dreadful. Good luck, hope things change soon!
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u/Rechamber 10d ago
Yes that's the thing - and the thing is these are savings, they are not meant to be used just to survive - they are for a house, a car, retirement or other such large ticket items - certainly should t be used just to survive with basic essentials and food. The percentage will continue to rise from this number.
My mother and sister live in Canada, and I'm here in the UK where we're also feeling the squeeze. It is not a good time, particularly with energy prices. I hope governments step in and actually do something at some point .
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u/Tangochief 10d ago
The other 68% just aren’t saying it.
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u/DeepTh0tt 10d ago
Some are debt free already and make more than enough to still be fine.
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u/Yewbert 10d ago
All this interest rate stuff is to SLOW inflation, this is our new reality, prices will never go back down, just maybe, maybe slow down its rise a little.
As a blue collar family dad, it's beyond disheartening and I'm on the brink of just giving up, things aren't getting better, the powers that be aren't even trying, they are just trying to slow down everything getting worse.
I was okay giving up ever owning a house, but now things like a used car, a bi-yearly local vacation and so much more are completely off the table. I work to survive, no frills, just keep the lights on and it's only going to get worse.
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u/neg_meat_popsicle 10d ago
When people get hungry thats when true revolutions happen.
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u/SorrowsSkills New Brunswick 10d ago
You are right that most prices will not be going down (they never do). The only thing people can hope for is grow their salary by as much as inflation, which obviously isn’t happening.
I think, and I hope, that we will see a lot more unions going on strike this year and the next and a lot more workers trying to form unions.
Hopefully the NDP is still able to get the anti scab bill to pass..
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u/Jagrnght 10d ago
Don't give up. But keep talking about your situation. We need sane voices like yours in the conversation.
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u/actingwizard 10d ago
Entire pay checks are going to the line of credit which are used for paying power, gas, food and rent. Living off of credit over here. And can never catch up. Maybe I can ask the power company if we can self disconnect for a few months and use an old fashioned fireplace (I mean barrel) with logs.
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u/YesIamaDinosaur 10d ago
Then the insurance company hits you with a higher monthly because of your fireplace in your home! Haha!
In all seriousness, though, it's ridiculously expensive to be alive.
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u/cfrey Ontario 10d ago
Meanwhile, the oligarchs are doubling their wealth every few years, and don't want you to see any connection there.
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u/Healthy-Lifestyle-20 9d ago
Oligarchs have used mainstream media to get voters on either right or left. That’s why majority of Canadians don’t want to protest because they don’t know who’s organizing the protests. The real enemies are those hoarding wealth while middle class has been eroding for decades now.
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u/Apprehensive_Idea758 10d ago
Enough is enough. People are getting sick and tired of this horrible inflation. Surviving is getting almost impossible for a lot of people.
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u/Logical-Check7977 9d ago
The inflation is what it is what im really getting sick of is the insane inequality of wealth distribution that is growing fast
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u/cipher29 10d ago
The malls/stores in Edmonton are absolutely crushed still… I had to go to the mall last week to grab something and I was absolutely blown away by how busy it was - stores full of shoppers.
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u/ywg_handshake 10d ago
Not only that but I see a good number of people still going on big vacations, doing big renos, etc. Granted, they all may just happen to not be in that 22% but I am not seeing any change at a superficial level.
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u/karnoculars 10d ago
Depends on the mall. You should go to City Centre Mall, it's a ghost town.
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u/sloppies 10d ago
Foot traffic is a bit below pre-pandemic still, but spending-per-shopper has increased a fair bit. Most of that is explained by inflation, but it seems people are still spending. I reckon that this is going to change soon though - we will see a downturn to this type of spending by Q2 for sure.
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u/Financial-Hold-1220 10d ago
. me and my family were doing relatively fine before but when i have to pay about 250-400 for maybe if i stretch it out 2 weeks worth of groceries it gets really really hard
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u/chickenwhatsapp1 9d ago
Remember the guy who could skip high school, get a job at a factory making tires, pay for a house and a cottage, have a family of five and a wife who was a stay at home mom? Ya, he had it tough…..
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u/oxblood87 Ontario 9d ago
Buy a house for 3 years salary without graduating highschool, sell it for a lifetime of current earnings of a professional.
Put 3% into CPP and gets 40% out. Voted for successive tax cuts to services as soon as they no longer applied to them, without realizing that they might need to fund them again in their old age.
Polluted with reckless abandon to leave us a broken world and 1/5 the resources then call us slackers.
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u/Stunning_Working6566 10d ago
Puzzling to me.
Definitely increased number of homeless, they are taking over the parks and green spaces here in Kitchener.
And yet, every other vehicle is an expensive pickup or suv and you can't seem to buy a new one because they are sold out. Restaurants are busy and there are help wanted signs everywhere. Construction is booming, lots of new buildings going up. Apparently a million jobs are going unfilled.
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u/Existance_Unknown 10d ago
So I have 15 yrs of construction experience and I just moved back to northern Ontario, I've applied at tons of jobs in the last 6 months, I've gotten 3 interviews and 2 job offers. One job offered me 20$ hr, and the other offered 25$ an hr with nothing else, no ot pay, benefits, nothing.
I have not worked for the last six months because I can't find a decent job, but every company is complaining they can't find any workers, I don't know what I have to do to get a career job, but I'm not taking underpaid garbage,
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u/Colonel_Fart-Face 10d ago
My mom works for a landscaper and called me up the other day to ask if I knew anyone who needed a job. Asked her what the hours and pay were like and she audibly groaned and started giving me attitude.
"No job in the world is going to pay you more than $15/hr for your first year."
Then she told me that it's 10-14 hours a day 7 days a week and FUCKING SALARIED AT 40 HOURS WITH NO OT.
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u/Vassago81 10d ago
10-14 hours a day 7 days a week and FUCKING SALARIED AT 40 HOURS WITH NO OT.
How can company still try to do this illegal shit? OT is mandatory, other than for some sales or management position.
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u/Colonel_Fart-Face 10d ago
Because it's all under the table. What are you gonna do, complain that the company you don't legally work for is ripping you off?
The owner also likes to fire employees by pretending not to recognize them and accusing them of stealing tools, usually done when someone with authority is investigating the company.
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u/Office_glen Ontario 10d ago
Depends, landscaping might be exempt. I used to work turf maintenance at a golf course and I believe our designation was “landscape construction” which meant we were OT exempt, there was no maximum hours we could be worked in a week, amongst other things
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u/SargeCycho 9d ago
Killing OT in "specific" industries has been the greatest wage theft in the past 40 years. Went from 70% having OT to less than 30% of workers. Basically any specialized industry now is OT exempt.
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u/Risay117 10d ago
I feel most older people don't realize that time does not stand still and money is relative. Especially with the declining work force you are not going to get someone for the price of the past
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u/Better_Ice3089 10d ago
"No job in the world is going to pay you more than $15/hr for your first year."
Minimum wage in BC is higher than that lol.
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u/General_Asleep Québec 10d ago
"No job in the world is going to pay you more than $15/hr for your first year."
This is literally under minimum wage in a few provinces lol.
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u/Cassian_Rando 10d ago
Unemployed here since April. My EI has run out. I don’t get any interviews. I’ve had one since April. My wife makes good money.
I’m in my early 50s and I think ageism is real for me. I’m getting worried. I’m over qualified for minimum wage jobs and like I said, people want to hire someone they can squeeze for 20 years.
Fuck.
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u/purplegreendave 10d ago
Getting no interviews is crazy. You might want to adjust your resume, there's no reason for your age to be on it. Slim it down, remove some of the older experience so you aren't dating yourself, remove years from qualifications etc. At least get someone to interview you.
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u/kerowack Ontario 10d ago
There's people who own property and then those who don't. Those who do are still riding high from the last three years, if they were in any way smart about how they handled themselves during that time.
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u/-ArthurMorgan 10d ago
As a person who managed to buy a home about 10 months before covid, I can assure you that I am not riding any high whatsoever. Except for the drugs of course.
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u/v13ragnarok7 10d ago
I can hardly afford food and will never retire. I have what's considered a decent paying job. Luckily there's overtime. So I can bust my ass with 16 hour shifts so I can pay my bills. Until I die.
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u/Berkut22 10d ago
Yup, this is me.
My plan is to kill myself when the day comes I can't take care of myself anymore.
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u/pharmaco123 9d ago
Perform ritual seppuku on parliament steps
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u/Berkut22 9d ago
This isn't a bad idea. Might get the point across
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u/Better-Director-5383 9d ago
We had a climate activist set himself on fire in DC in the last year.
Media totally ignored it and covered the stories of people throwing paint on paintings while clutching their pearls instead.
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u/GhostyRosey 10d ago
So can we revolt yet? Working three jobs and yet still going into overdraft every month has been so fun but I'd really rather not anymore lmao
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u/astroturfskirt 10d ago edited 9d ago
i look at france losing their shit and i’m asking “why not here? why not now?”
edit: me fail english? that’s unpossible! “i saw at france…” come on.
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u/JustFerne 9d ago edited 9d ago
a ton of Canadians (and north americans in general tbh) are super politically apathetic. i feel like a lot of us tend to just roll over and take the punches instead of fighting for better things.
really makes me wonder what causes this difference - is it a cultural one or is it intentionally pushed on us somehow?
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u/UncleFred- 9d ago
Frontier culture from 150+ years ago created a strong societal preference for rugged individualism. Unfortunately, the frontier has long since evaporated in most areas of economic opportunity outside things like technology careers. Instead, this culture now allows oligarchs to put into place policies that exploit workers. Economic conditions now heavily favor capital over labor. People won't organize and collectively strike or unionize, so capital squeezes ever harder, allowing living conditions to deteriorate with rising costs.
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u/Admiral_Odysseus 9d ago
By far the closest store to where I live is a Loblaws, I dont have a car so that one's gotta do. And every time I go grocery shopping I physically want to cry, these prices are nothing less than criminal
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u/helio987 9d ago
loblaws is the biggest rip off. Fuck Galen Weston. I just go there if they got some sales going on. Luckily I have a Freshco, Food basics and couple independent meat and produce stores near me. I saw at loblaws a head of iceberg was $5 and peppers $4/pound. I got them at the produce store for $2.99 and $2.29/pound and it was good quality.
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u/Cold_Beyond4695 10d ago
Have a relative who works in finance. Says you wouldn't believe how many people are one paycheck away from bankruptcy.
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u/SIXA_G37x 10d ago
I remember reading articles before 2019 about 50% of working Canadians being less than $1000 from insolvency. So yeah...who knows what that number is now.
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u/LastInside6969 10d ago
So is it gonna happen or not? I've heard that line for a long time and even with these rate increases there's no mass insolvency
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u/HugeAnalBeads 10d ago
There are other steps before bankruptcy. Steps the bank and government want you to take first. Like consumer proposals and debt consolidation
Bankruptcy is like someone shitting in the hot tub. It doesn't benefit anyone
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u/x100fGuy Ontario 10d ago
Currently working in finance. Previous roles allowed me to see customer accounts for fraud / other tasks.
It's insane just how many people are in debt to their eyeballs.
Often I'd see accounts overdraft 1-2k, yet people were still making uber eats purchases, lcbo, etc etc.
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u/Mr_ToDo 9d ago
I worked in payroll. The only thing that surprises me is that it's only 2k.
There were always a few that, no matter how much they made, were out of cash by the time pay day came around.
It takes all kinds. Generally those kinds adapt to income changes well enough, they sell off some of their junk, downsize their house, miss/skip out on a few bills, and go back to living pay cheque to pay cheque.
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u/Unlucky-Ad-1523 10d ago
But the restaurants are still full with burger week, and the local breweries are still packed.
Groceries kick my ass every week, so idk how these businesses and patrons aren’t feeling the pinch.
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u/chewwydraper 10d ago
Inflation hits different age groups differently. I make more money than my dad, but his mortgage is only $250/month so it leaves him with a lot more expendable income compared to what I pay in rent.
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u/Schmorbly 10d ago
That's less than my Condo fees
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u/karnoculars 10d ago
The condo fees for my 1 bedroom rental is $520/month. THE CONDO FEES.
At this point, I'm just praying that the building burns to the ground one day so that at least I'll have a new unit.
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u/99drunkpenguins 10d ago
This is the most frustrating part, when your earnings eclipse your parents even when adjusted for inflation, but the cost of housing leaves you with a lower standard of living then when they where your age.
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u/Max_Thunder Québec 10d ago edited 10d ago
Widening gap between the lower and upper middle class.
Real estate ownership is also a huge factor. Imagine being a couple both aged 40 with a paid home bought for 250k ten years ago vs the same couple just getting into a 500k mortgage. The difference on their disposable income is huge.
Another thing that's surprising is just how popular food delivery (Uber Eats etc.) is despite how much more expensive it typically is.
There's a lot of people with money to spend and there's a lot of people being stretched to their limit.
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u/swiftwin 10d ago
Exactly this. Lots of people are actually doing quite well right now. Not just because of real estate. It's not just the ultra wealthy who are doing well. The upper middle class has seen their wages go up a ton, while also saving a ton due to changed spending habits because of covid and WFH.
We've known for a while that the post-covid recovery was going to be K-shaped. This is what that looks like.
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u/lvl1hydromancer 10d ago
While there is a large demographic of people that still have cash to spend - prices won't ease.
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u/chmilz 10d ago
There's still lots of people who live comfortably. Inflation is hitting them, but it's hitting them in disposable income. I'm an example of that. My income more than meets my needs (home, food, savings, etc), but inflation means I have less for fun after. I've had to cut back somewhat, but I haven't cut back restaurants because that's one of my favorite things to do with extra money.
I'm gonna have a bad time when my mortgage renews in June though. The rate increase will wipe out nearly all disposable income.
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u/Far-Flung-Farmer 10d ago
This is not true. Here in Kingston, ON where we have a huge amount and an amazing quality of restaurants, I'm seeing them no more than half full anymore.
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u/GameDoesntStop 10d ago
These surveys are usually pretty exaggerated. Google "Canadians insolvent poll" and you can see just about any year you have polls claiming 40-50% of Canadians are close to insolvency... yet somehow the economy keeps roaring on, years later.
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u/CheeseburgerLocker 10d ago
These headlines are a real pain in my ass. "soaring inflation", "inflation bites", "inflation hits savings accounts", "37.876% of Canadians now living paycheque to paycheque." FUCK. OFF.
Inflation is causing a lot of chaos for everybody right now. But you know what's worse? Guys like Gaylen Weston and his stupid fucking commercials. Fuck your cedar plank salmon and your $145 shirt. Fuck these guys who are profiting off our hard earned paycheques so they can get another $2mil bonus this year.
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u/KeziaTML 10d ago
I just paid 40 fucking dollars to buy stuff for tacos for supper.
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u/Mynoseisgrowingold 9d ago
Yep, we just did ground beef tacos the other night for 6 (2 adults + 4 boys) and my grocery bill came to $66.29. I had to lie down in a dark room to recover.
Store brand cheddar $11.49 1 flour soft shells $2.99 1 corn soft shells $3.99 Large tomatoes (approx 230g ea/$2.02ea) $8.08 Romaine lettuce $4.49 500 ml sour cream $4.69 store brand salsa $4.69 Family size extra lean ground beef $15.69 (on sale) 1 Black beans can $2.99 1 Avocado $2.99 1 Onion $1.10 Garlic .90 Lime .99 3 jalapeños $1.21
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u/Twyzzle 9d ago
Wealth has been funnelling in to fewer and fewer hands for decades and the pandemic sped that up astronomically. When interest rates rise and cash is equally pulled out of the system, it’s the average and poorest people that will suffer. We need a wealth tax. We need to tackle profiteering. And we need to massively increase compensation compared to corporate profit.
Canada has too much cash yet not enough in normal Canadian hands. Tax billionaires and corporations on their wealth, not income, to fix this. Stop squeezing every dime out of people deciding between food and their heating bill.
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u/jaretok 10d ago
When you have to make $80k+ per year, just to be broke, something is very wrong.
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u/Ryansahl 9d ago
Maybe the government will have to open Not For Profit grocery stores. It would help the people and help keep the prices somewhat competitive.
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u/I_HATE_BOOBS 9d ago
the heads of broccolis are shrinking every week while the price increases. I'm fucking starving.
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u/1baby2cats 9d ago
Anecdotally, when I go to the ATM, some people leave their ATM receipt by the machine in plain view. Lately I've seen quite a few negative balances.
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u/blindwillie777 9d ago
Don't worry - the elite rich from other countries will continue to stash their money here, most likely in real estate. Nothing is going to get cheaper anytime soon if the gov doesn't change their policies.
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u/Operative427 10d ago
Yup. Last 3 paychecks have been gone on the first day I was paid. I don't have money for rent this month. Fuck this system dude.
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u/Darkrush85 Ontario 10d ago
Just remember it’s really a labour shortage, and rising inflation or anything else really.
Just don’t pay attention to how much money all these CEOs are making while you go broke.
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u/iPhoneMiniWHITE 10d ago
I had a comfortable nest egg of $55,000 before the pandemic started. It’s waddled down to about $20,000 now.
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u/FuckDebitsAndCredits 10d ago
Meanwhile, every restaurant I go to is packed and there's long waits to get in.
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u/Fatesadvent 10d ago
Went to the mall on the weekend. It was pretty full. Tons of people in the apple store, line ups for the new trendy coffee shop.
I think many people are doing alright (myself included fortunately), but its also a bit of a sampling bias. You're only going to see the well off in these environments, none of the 22% out of money will be there, why would they?
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u/taxrage 10d ago
...which demonstrates that there is increasing wealth disparity in Canada (and the west, in general).
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u/Status-Ad-7020 10d ago
Some of it is people can afford it, others is those who can’t but charge it to a credit card. I used to it all the time. Couldn’t afford it but didn’t care and charged it to my credit card.
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u/HotBananaSlurpee 10d ago
There's people in here who will shit on you but the reality is this is probably a good portion of Canadians these days. The question is what happens when that card gets maxed out?
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u/ChangeForACow 10d ago
Debt... we're taking on more debt.
When the powers-that-be started rolling back the progress labour fought for -- literally -- and won throughout the 20th century, first we maintained our lifestyle by becoming two-income households, and then working longer hours, and then taking on more debt.
Indentured workers are less likely to demand higher wages, because we live in a Company Store economy.
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u/Artistic-Ad7063 Lest We Forget 10d ago
$8 for a bag of bagels. Why? Fuck you that’s why.
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u/ButtahChicken 10d ago
i'm not 'completely out' .. but damn near close. i cannot handle a surprise bill or expense of any kind more than like 100 buck. FML!!!!
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u/trunkandbranches 10d ago •
I think most Canadians had been poorer than they thought (thanks Scotiabank) for while, cheap credit and rising equity in their homes led them to believe they were doing better than they were. Well I shouldn’t say they, I should say we. I’m in this camp. I