Haves and Have Nots

THEY USED TO talk about the middle class in Canada. That is, the “class” of people, assumedly, in between the lower class and the upper class.

Today, much of the middle class seems to have become the lower or upper class, and more so the lower. Even though young people go to college or university, they struggle to achieve a decent standard of living as they enter adulthood.

In the 1950s to the 1970s, a university degree guaranteed you a good entry level job and career advancement. Today, a university degree guarantees you nothing. Probably because so many young people have one; a university degree is no longer distinguished. The exception is earning a university degree in a profession regulated by law, such as medicine, nursing, all other regulated health professions, accounting, engineering (professional engineers versus engineering technologists), architecture, law, etc. An education in those professional areas will guarantee you a decent standard of living, as a university degree in anything used to do.

The trades are now one of the best career pathways for young men and women to take, should they have a mechanical aptitude, good manual dexterity and other required attributes of the trades.

Tradespeople today have ample job opportunities. They may charge up to $100 just to show up at your home, up to $150 per hour for labour, plus materials and sales tax on the whole thing.

Their university graduate counterparts who studied sociology, history or biology are working in call centres for minimum wage. With a $60,000 student debt to pay. Exceptions to all this are business and computer science graduates, who generally do well.

Instead of using the term “middle class,” I will refer to Canadians as Haves or Have Nots. The Haves are the professionals — the particular university graduates mentioned above, the tradespeople and the business and computer science graduates. The Have Nots work at Walmart, Tim Hortons and other jobs with poor chances of career advancement.

The Haves can afford to buy homes. The Haves can afford two vehicles per family. The Haves enjoy multiple vacations per year. The Haves can fill a truck with the Christmas packaging they bring to the curb each year from their children’s gifts.

The Have Nots live in 400- to 600-square-foot rental apartments, if they can find an affordable one, or in a room. The Have Nots take public transit. The Have Nots buy their clothing at second hand stores. The Have Nots use the food bank. And the Have Nots dream of having a family but wonder how the hell they’ll pull it off.

And then, of course, let’s not forget the public servants. These people earn above average wages for, often, unskilled positions, enjoy generous benefits including many weeks of time off each year and retire with very comfortable pensions. Some of them even come, at some point, to have an attitude of superiority towards the Have Nots, as if many of these public servants actually did something to deserve their bounties other than show up for work.

I have often noticed job ads for clerks and administrative assistants in the public sector which pay twice as much as ads for jobs in the private sector. Both ads, basically, contain the same job description and requirements.

Finally, have you ever wondered why there are so few cars on the road anymore? Cars, that is, as opposed to trucks and sport utility vehicles. It’s because if you can afford a vehicle at all in Canada, you can afford a truck or SUV. Or, you can’t afford a vehicle at all — car or other.

But there’s more. The Haves — especially the university prepared ones who work in areas regulated by law — are part of, and essentially form, the economic, legal, health care, government, financial and other structures of Canadian society. In other words, The Establishment. These people run things; they, essentially, run this country. The Have Nots, well, they spend their time struggling to get by.

Author Peter C. Newman, who wrote the trilogy entitled The Canadian Establishment, once remarked, if I remember correctly, that the people who really run this country could all fit into the ball room at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. Apparently, little has changed except there has been a transfer of wealth to information technology innovators over the years.

Now, even though I didn’t complete my university physics course, I learned a few things from it. For example, there is the concept of critical velocity. It’s the speed which aircraft must meet or exceed to escape earth’s gravity and go into orbit.

There’s also the concept of critical mass. It’s used in nuclear physics to determine at which point a nuclear reaction will occur.

I use the concept of critical mass in this book. I use it to describe the number of Have Nots and others who struggle, who are not part of The Establishment and, one day, may become tired of struggling while they watch the Haves take yet another vacation. These Have Nots may — either spontaneously or in an organized way — decide to take action to change their situations.

If critical mass is ever achieved in Canada, a rebellion may not be far behind.