There’s an old observation often made about families and money. The first generation slaves and stresses to make a fortune, but neglects their children in the process. The second generation learns enough from their elders to keep the business going, but resolves never to treat their children like that. Thus the third generation grows up spoiled and entitled, without the motivation or ability to keep the business alive. By the fourth or fifth generation, the money is all gone.
Sound familiar? Canadian society over the last hundred years has pretty well followed that pattern, though on a longer term. Past generations have earned a wonderful life for us, but now we’re not willing to accept that we could be losing it.
Economically
The War Generation came out of the Great Depression hungry and willing to work, and fought the forces of evil to keep what they had earned, but their children were not their primary focus. The Baby Boom generation did a decent job of continuing the economic growth, but gave their children too much in terms of material goods, and failed to pass along the urgency of the need to keep society going.
Socially
In terms of social development, The War generation made great advances in medical services and treatment of labour, and the Baby Boomers did the same with human rights. But it all has to be paid for.
That Was Then
Succeeding generations now take all these things for granted. They assume (correctly) that every human has the right to the advantages every Canadian receives. (Most of the rest of the world agrees. Look how many people want to come and live here.) However, what we have lost is the idea that every generation must fight, not only for their own freedoms, but also for their own privileges. As a result, those benefits are slipping away from us.
Think about it: our medical systems are in complete disarray. Our transportation infrastructure is falling apart. Our bureaucracy (think about recent passport and airport problems) can’t cope. Housing creation is lagging far behind demand. Sure, COVID put a big strain on everything, but failure was creeping up on us already.
The Big Problem
The main trouble that all societies have always had is that errors in the social system are often created by competitive types striving for their own success. This would be fine, except the overt luxuries of their success mask the fact that the disadvantages are felt disproportionately by the poor.
Probably the most obvious example of this is the housing market. Everybody agrees that the lack of lower-priced and rental housing in the big cities has been caused by developers who coerced governments (sometimes by very shady methods) into letting them create mostly upscale housing units, because that’s how they make the most money. Everybody ducks inserting social housing in their projects.
And don’t get me going on the Toronto Green Belt. That scandal should hammer Doug Ford enough that he loses the next election. But it probably won’t (More on that later; refer to the title of this article).
And if You Thought COVID Was Bad
That was only the dress rehearsal; we’re lucky we had it. If we’re also smart, it will wake us up to opening night for the Climate Change show. But at the moment, I’m still doubtful.
This weekend I’m watching the Conservative convention with interest. Not because I particularly care about what happens in that unwieldy alliance of disparates. I’m just waiting for the shzt to hit the fan.
Because, you see, I’ve noticed something that I haven’t heard mentioned by the news media yet. It has to do with global warming.
Everyone agrees that we have just had the worst summer in Canadian history. Between the drought and the wildfires, our whole society and economy has been slammed. And where has the pain been felt the worst? Certainly not in the left-leaning cities. No, the effects of global warming have been the strongest on the farmers and loggers in the rural areas. The Conservative strongholds.
And here’s my question (Put into the vernacular of Pierre P). When are the people who live in those areas going to realize how much their livelihoods are threatened by Poilievre’s alliance with Big Oil and the other anti-carbon-tax interests? Not until it’s too late, I’m sure.
The Bottom Line
The Roaring Twenties (where a very few rich people roared and everyone else cowered) were followed by the Great Depression, which led to another World War. We must learn from that, because history is about to repeat itself. Our governments need to act now to bolster our social systems, to even out the distribution of wealth and to get us all working like diligent little ants to prepare for the lean times ahead.
As long as we let the grasshoppers run the show, we’re headed straight for a very cold winter.