Generational Theft Canadian Style: Secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are

 What's the result of nine years of the left wing government of Justin Trudeau?  National collapse according to a report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  The RCMP's report was obtained by Canada's National Post via an open records request.  The report is highly redacted so one can only assume that the parts that are taken out are even more dire than that which remained.  

The report states: "The coming period of recession will … accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations" and that "[e]conomic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak."

The Post adds more detail on Canada's dire economic situation and how high housing costs--higher relative to incomes than the United States--mean that young Canadians are unlikely to ever afford to buy a house.

In terms of declining living standards and inaccessible home ownership, the RCMP’s warnings are indeed in line with available statistics.

Canadian productivity — measured in terms of GDP per capita — has been trending downwards since at least the 1980s. But this has accelerated dramatically in recent years — even as per-worker productivity rises in many of our peer countries.

An analysis last year by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe found that if Canada had merely kept pace with U.S. productivity growth for the last five years, Canadian per-capita earnings would be $5,500 higher than they are now.

Meanwhile, housing affordability has reached “worst-ever” levels in most of Canada’s major markets, according to a December analysis by RBC. On average, even condos are now so unaffordable that only 44.5 per cent of Canadian households had sufficient income to buy one at current prices. As for single-family homes, only the richest 25 per cent of Canadian households had any hope of obtaining one.

According to the Heritage Foundation, economic freedom in Canada declined sharply since Trudeau took office.  

The Canadian experience again shows how socialism harms the interests of the young.  Nine years into the Trudeau Administration, young people in Canada can only look forward to declining living standards and renting in perpetuity.  Not a happy situation.    

Lack of Hope Making Young Americans Into Doom Spenders

Two in five Gen Zs and Millennials are doom spending according to a survey of 1000 consumers by Credit Karma.  Doom spending is defined as spending money as way to cope with stress about the economy and war.  It's evidence of a lack of hope in the future.    

Jake Peirce, 25, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the reason he is doom spending is that “with inflation and the cost of living increasing, it makes me wonder where our world is heading. I know it won’t get better, and I would rather live it up and spend money as opposed to saving.”

There are a lot of factors leading young Americans to give up hope for the future.

Soaring housing costs and lack of availability are causing a lot of young people to give up on ever being able to own a home.  House prices have doubled since 2010 far outstripping the growth in wages.  

High home prices make it more difficult for young people to live on their own.  For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s a majority of young Americans now live with their parents.   

Inflation and falling real wages are another concern especially among Gen Zs.  Employment services find that young Americans are more concerned about salary and wages when looking for a job than any other generation.  

War is also am concern.  Over the last two years the United States has been the primary weapons supplier and financial supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, a country with over 6,000 nuclear weapons.  According to the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the world is closer to a nuclear war today than at any time in history.

Young people are also concerned about the prospects of war.  Half of Americans between 18 and 29 think that it's very or somewhat likely that there will be another world war within the next 5 to 10 years and more than half think that a future world war would involve nuclear weapons.  

There are also other signs that young Americans are losing hope in the future.  Young Americans are increasing depressed, unhappy and lonely.  

All of these signs point to a difficult future for young people and for America.  Our lives are path dependent.  The early years of adulthood are the time in which we form our vision of ourselves and for the world around us.  That vision stays with us the rest of our lives.

The effects of rising unhappiness and hopelessness among the young will permanent change the character of America.  Gen Zs and Millennials will be less entrepreneurial and optimistic, as well as crankier and less trusting of others, when they reach middle age when it is they, not the Baby Boomer and Gen Xers, that are in charge of the institutions of American political and economic life.   

   

Bidenomics: Financial Difficulties Causing Fewer Gen Zers to Get Engaged

 

Marriage is a key life milestone and engagements are a step towards married life.  However, the economic state of young Americans is so poor that fewer Gen Zers are choosing to get engaged.  

Signet Jewelers, the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales reports that the upswing in engagements that they predicted post-COVID is not working out as planned.  

Signet Jewelers Ltd., the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales, had previously signaled to investors that there would be an upswing in US engagements this year as dating patterns returned to normal. But that forecast was downgraded on Wednesday as the jeweler warned that persistently high inflation and job market uncertainty have forced some young folks to delay engagements. 

"If right now they're worried about their jobs or they're still paying a little bit more for rent or for gas, then they might wait a few months for that engagement," Gina Drosos, the CEO of SignetSignet, explained in a Wednesday interview quoted by Bloomberg.

Drosos said 2.1 million couples were engaged last year, the lowest in years, but recovered from the dating dry spell during Covid. Still, the number is well below the 2.8 million level seen pre-2020. 

The downshift in the outlook comes after three years of elevated inflation, which has strained consumers' finances. 

 

Switzerland Votes to Fleece Its Kids

 

The Swiss might have a reputation for thrift and self-discipline.  However, the results of Switzerland’s March 3 pension referenda show that even the Swiss have no taste for entitlement reform.  If pension reform is a political non-starter in Switzerland, why should young Americans have any hope that Washington will save Social Security? 

On Sunday 58% of Swiss voters decided to give themselves a pension raise and stick their kids with the bill. 

The raise took the form of a thirteen monthly pension check.  Starting in 2026, every Swiss pensioner will get a double payment in the month of November.  Payments in the other months will remain the same.  This amounts to an 8% pay raise for every pensioner, every year, forever. 

A sweet deal if you can get it.

Younger Swiss voters opposed the pay boost.  The vote reflects a generational divide.  Fifty-five percent of voters under 40 opposed the pension hike.  Older Swiss voters showed that they had no qualms about fleecing younger generations. 

Swiss voters also rejected by a margin of 75% to just 25% a proposal to raise the pension age from 65 to 66 by 2033.   

The proposal to raise the pension age was put forward by the Young Radical-Liberals.  The group gathered 145,000 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot. 

The Radical-Liberal Party, better known as the Free Democratic Party or the Liberals, is Switzerland’s classical liberal party.  The Free Democrats are the fourth largest party in the Swiss National Council.  The Young Radical-Liberals are the youth wing of the Free Democrats.

The proposal for the pension raise was put forth by labor unions and Swiss left-wing parties.  Unions and left-wing parties also opposed the increase in the pension age. 

Young people in Switzerland and elsewhere should take note:  unions and the left are not on your side. 

Switzerland badly needs pension reform.  The country is running out of young people.  Swiss government pensions are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis.  Low birth rates mean that the number of Swiss workers per pensioner is going to collapse in the near future. 

Below is the population pyramid of Switzerland.  The Switzerland is about to experience as wave of retirements as the Swiss equivalent of the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are reaching retirement age in the next decade and a half.    

The results of the Swiss referenda show how unlikely it is that voters or politicians will enact reforms that put entitlements on a sustainable path. 

America also has a generational divide on entitlements.  As in Switzerland, young Americans are more likely to support changes to Social Security like cutting benefits or raising the retirement age.  A majority of older voters and organized interest groups like the AARP oppose changes that will improve the financial viability of the Social Security System. 

If even the Swiss have no taste for even modest changes to their pension system, there’s little reason to expect that Washington politicians or the American electorate will back changes to Social Security or other entitlements absent an imminent financial collapse.