One clear impact of wealth inequality is on house prices. We’ve seen a huge spike in house prices in the last twenty-five years. And while this benefits a broad section of Canadians, it also makes the housing market much more difficult to access.
People talk a lot about demand for housing coming from immigration, but we don’t talk about the demand for housing that comes from investors. And the fact is that there is a growing group of ultrawealthy people who have money to spend and are looking for assets to invest in — their demand for housing is also going to drive up the price of those houses, making housing less affordable.
People talk a lot about demand for housing coming from immigration, but we don’t talk about the demand for housing that comes from investors.
On the workplace side, it means that most people don’t have a lot of control over their workplaces. It means that most workplaces are owned by a few ultrawealthy individuals who get to decide how to run those workplaces as they see fit. This can lead to a lot of corporations taking stances that tend to benefit their owners rather than the majority of people who work for them.
We’ve seen examples in the United States like with Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post. He takes over the Washington Post, and we very immediately start to see a change in the newspaper’s editorial stance. Most recently, we saw a massive gutting of the journalism taking place there. So, we can see really direct effects when these very few ultrawealthy individuals take control of these massive workplaces.
Auteur: Silas Xuereb
