(These thoughts are purely the blunt, no nonsense personal opinions of the author about financial fairness and discrimination and are not intended to provide personal or financial advice – financialfairnessforsingles.ca).
Wages and taxes have been separated from and are considered to be less important than capitalistic wealth creation of rising housing prices, huge inheritances and the stock and bond markets. The wealthy and married are more likely to achieve wealth because they are more likely to own all three wealth creators of owning homes/property, participating in stock and bond markets and receiving huge inheritances.
As stated previously singles don’t get to income split, pension split, etc. so they are forced to pay more taxes. It is impossible for singles to save for retirement on a present day $50,000 income plus they are forced to live on very frugal wage incomes after taxes and EI/CPP deductions. A single person with a 2019 $50,000 Alberta gross income ($25/hr. and 2,000 worked hours) and $11,000 tax, CPP and EI deductions results in a net income of $39,000 ($19.50/hr.). When young millennial singles are faced with purchasing a used vehicle, trying to save for house purchase and retirement and possibly pay off student loans all at the same time these wages do not allow for accomplishment of all of these financial goals; they have to pick and choose. Throughout their entire employment lives it will be difficult to maximize $9,000 RRSP and $6,000 TFSA contributions (35% of $39,000 with tax reductions for RRSP) even though many believe $50,000 is a good income for unattached individuals and single parents. (Single parents do receive Canada Child Benefits until children reach the age of 18). No median income family spends 35% of their income on savings and 10% for emergencies leaving 55% for living expenses. As seniors these singles will likely be living only on CPP and OAS benefits.
Singles are not fortune tellers and, therefore, cannot forecast whether they will marry (excluding those who do not wish to marry ever) or if they will get divorced. According to research, (see following articles from USA) at least 25 percent in mid-40s to mid-50s have never married, so why do society and governments continue to make them pay more and receive less than their married counterparts?
Liveable wages are being replaced by the graft and greed of capitalism which ensures the wealthy are becoming wealthier and married at the expense of keeping wages low for singles and the poor.
“Winners Take All-the elite charade of changing the world” book by Anand Giriharadas (HOW THE ELITE SABOTAGE) describes how the Marketworld and thought leaders of capitalism instead of addressing poverty believe poverty can be addressed by writing cheques. ‘ “But inequality you can’t, because inequality is not about giving back, but how that money is made in the first place.” To fight inequality means to change systems as a group of people. With charity the elite work ALONE.
From behind private gates, schools, and jets the elite promote their private world-saving behind the backs of those to be saved through organized philanthropy while getting tax credits and maintaining their wealth. For all the good they do they are marred by their own “narcissism.” “When help is moved into private spheres, even when efficient, the helping context is a relationship of inequality: giver and taker, donor and recipient”.
“Thought leaders” have permeated higher learning institutions by purposefully changing the language in which public spheres think and act. Young people are taught to see social problems in a “zoom in” fashion by confining questioning to what socially minded businesses they can start up like “buy one, give one”, but not inequality. Many right and left political leaders have bought into this ideology.’
Interestingly enough one presenter at the civil rights activist John Lewis funeral called the graft and greed of capitalistic wealth achieved at the feet of black slavery ‘plantation’ capitalism. Today, it could be said that wages are being replaced by the charitable organizations of the capitalistic wealthy instead of increasing wages to liveable wages.
Yes, it could be said that the “WE” charitable organization and its founders Marc and Craig Kielburger with head office in Toronto have had considerable success in their reduction of poverty goals. But, when one researches the wages that the Kielburgers pay their employees, the lower salaries appear to begin at $30,000 to $31,000. The minimum wage of Ontario is slightly higher than $14 per hour. How does a single person with a $30,000 salary ($15 per hour and 2000 worked hours) begin to survive in the atrocious housing and rental prices of Toronto? Meanwhile the Kielburgers appear to each receive $125,000 as the heads of the “WE” organization or four times more than the salaries of their lowest paid employees.
CONCLUSION
The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has highlighted how low minimum wages and lack of full time jobs have been detrimental to society as a whole. One great example is nursing home wages where low paid employees were never allowed to be full time employees so that employers would not have to pay benefits Suddenly with the crisis, these employees had to be reclassified as ‘essential’ employees and paid a higher wage so the Covid infections would not be spread between nursing homes.
In order to increase financial fairness and equality of low income persons, it is imperative that more value be placed on increasing wages instead of the wealthy increasing their wealthy through owning properties, stocks and bonds and huge inheritances and replacing wages with charitable causes.
https://time.com/3422624/report-millennials-marriage/ by Belinda Luscombe, 2014
‘Fewer young people are getting married and many are getting married later. About 20 percent of Americans older than 25 had always been single in 2012, up from 9 percent in 1960. In the black community, the numbers are even starker: 36 percent of black Americans older than 25 have never been married, a fourfold increase from 50 years ago.
PEW 2014 report authors Wendy Wang and Kim Parker state for each decade, the percentage of people of marriageable age who are single has grown. “When today’s young adults reach their mid-40s to mid-50s, a record high share (roughly 25 percent) is likely to have never been married,” they write. “This is not to say that adults in their mid-40s to mid-50s who still haven’t married will never marry, but our analysis suggests that the chance of getting married for the first time after age 54 is relatively small,” adds Parker….The three main reasons people give for their singleness are that they haven’t found the right person (30%), aren’t financially stable enough (27%) and are not ready to settle down (22%).’
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/case-against-marriage/591973/ by Mandy Len Cantron, 2019
‘While marriage is often seen as an essential step in a successful life, the Pew Research Center reports that only about half of Americans over age 18 are married. This is down from 72 percent in 1960. One obvious reason for this shift is that, on average, people are getting married much later in life than they were just a few decades earlier. In the United States, the median age for first marriage rose to an all-time high in 2018: 30 for men and 28 for women. While a majority of Americans expect to marry eventually, 14 percent of never-married adults say they don’t plan to marry at all, and another 27 percent aren’t sure whether marriage is for them.’
(These thoughts are purely the blunt, no nonsense personal opinions of the author about financial fairness and discrimination and are not intended to provide personal or financial advice – financialfairnessforsingles.ca).