Rare though it may be, I agree heartily with a recent article by Andrew Coyne in this weeks Maclean’s magazine. In it, he argues that the problem isn’t with the super rich one percent. It’s them and the eighty nine percent under them.

Here in Canada, we don’t have the same issues as are motivating the Occupy Wall street movement in the U.S. The fact is, we’ve experienced a combination of good management and good luck. Every time I hear someone advocate for less government regulation I just point at our respective mortgage and housing industries and smile.

So the Occupiers in Canada make me laugh. It’s just more enjoyable and polite than swearing at them. Their main protest seems to be that other people have more than they do. Oh boo hoo.

As Mr. Coyne points out in his article, our housing market didn’t collapse, so our banks didn’t need to be bailed out. The gap between the top one percent and the next eighty-nine percent isn’t as serious as the one between those ninety percent and the bottom ten percent.

Maybe we can’t get that second car, but the bottom ten percent can’t necessarily get that second meal. I lose my job and we have to cut some corners until I find a new one. For the bottom ten percent, the only corner they have is the one they are backed into. They have nothing left to cut.

Probably the most telling comment in the piece was in the last paragraph. If the money went into the hands of the bottom ten percent, it would take only a two percent increase in the HST to bring their standard of living above the poverty line.

The poor aren’t poor because of the top one percent. They live in poverty because of everyone who believes that tax cuts are the way to create economic health. Sure they are if you already have enough. Sadly, if you have nothing to spend, HST cuts don’t actually help you all that much.

If you want to make the world a better place, how about making better for people who need it more than we do.

Cheers, Winston