Ten reasons Canadians are unhappier
I was
surprised but not shocked when the latest international survey of happiness found that Canadians have become considerably less happy. In 2012,
when the survey was first published, we were the fourth-happiest
country in the world. This year we are 15th.
The index
of happiness used to create this ranking is based on survey respondents’
subjective assessment of where on a scale of zero (least happy) to 10 (most
happy) they find themselves. As in all surveys that rely on the use of
subjective criteria, the results should be treated skeptically. But since the
same reasons for skepticism exist for all countries in the survey now and ten
years ago, the causes for this drop in our ranking deserve consideration.
The
happiness of every individual is influenced by many things that are highly
personal but it is possible to identify some factors that are almost certainly
shared by most Canadians. For example:
• Inflation has
caused real incomes to fall, recently at 8.1 per cent annually, with more price
increases expected in the coming months. Policies to stop inflation are likely
to cause significant economic problems.
• The
cost of housing relative to income (affordability) is
the most important component of inflation. It has risen sharply and has made
Canada’s largest cities among the least affordable in the world.
•
Canada’s federal debt has
reached its highest peace-time level. When interest rates rise, as they are
widely expected to do, the cost of servicing it and the consequent fiscal
burden on taxpayers will increase as well.
• Health
and health care have
serious effects on Canadians’ happiness. Many of us cannot find a family doctor
and face long waits to consult specialists and get access to emergency
services, medical imaging and needed surgery. By these measures and in several
other ways, we do very poorly in comparison with other developed countries
offering universal, free health care to their citizens.
•
Immigrants require housing, health care, education and public recreation
facilities, all of which are in short supply. In the 1980s immigrants numbered
about 100,000 a year. Their number has since increased steadily and will
be 400,000 in
2023.
• Freedom
of speech is essential to the functioning of liberal democracies but in recent
years has become more and more restricted. Codes of political correctness
dominate conversations in universities and on the pages of popular media.
Violators of these codes are “cancelled” by self-appointed guardians, usually
without the opportunity for self-defence.
• In the
past, the main role of governments has been to create equal opportunities for
success in life but now, increasingly, it is to equalize outcomes. In trying to
do so, governments impose taxes and regulations that severely distort
incentives to work, save, invest, take risks, and own property. Such policies
not only decrease economic growth but are considered by many to be unfair.
• Another
important aspect of this redistribution policy that many Canadians regard as
unfair involves regulations requiring
employers to give various forms of hiring preference to women and people from
visible minorities even if other Canadians have the same qualifications, skills
and work habits.
• In the
past, the public could hold politicians accountable for the environmental and
social policies they create. Now, under the new ESG system such policies will be made
by businesses without the traditional accountability to the public.
•
Canada’s federal government has promised to design policies consistent with “Great Reset”and “Build Back Better” paradigms for organizing the economy and society, creating worry
that democratic, free-market capitalism increasingly will give way to
government planning and massive redistribution of income.
Space
does not permit the listing here of more of the many government policies that
make many Canadians unhappy. But every year scholars construct the Economic Freedom
Index, which
measures a wide range of policies that affect happiness. They do so under the
headings of: countries’ size of government; characteristics of the legal system
and security of property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally;
and regulation.
As it
turns out, countries’ level
of economic freedom is highly correlated with the level and growth of their per
capita income, life expectancy and other important indicators of economic and
social well-being, which in turn seem likely to determine happiness. By this
measure, Canadians have not done well recently. The country’s ranking has
fallen from seventh in the world in 2012 to 14th place in 2021.
A study
by the OECD indicates
what lies ahead. It forecasts that the growth in Canada’s per capita income in
the year 2030 will be the lowest among all members of the OECD. Happiness is
almost certain to follow the same trajectory unless we see a wholesale reversal
of the damaging government policies of the recent past.
Herbert
Grubel is emeritus professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and a
senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
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