Newspaper Clippings: “Canadian wages keep falling”

[Canadian workers are failing to keep up with the rising cost of living as real wages continue to fall dramatically, new data from Statistics Canada shows. Nov. 25, Metro]

Average weekly earnings for non-farm payrolls fell in September. Many already know that.

When the “3.2 per cent inflation rate for the month is taken into consideration, the drop in real wages was more dramatic.” (Metro) Many already know that.

Many also know Canada’s unemployment rate is hovering around 8 per cent, with my home region of London suffering 9 per cent rates. Many know that because of the high rate of under-employment, low wages associated with part-time employment and lack of reliable full-time jobs with some semblance of benefits, the true unemployment rate is double or triple the reported number.


["I'd like something smaller than a Falcon, please."]

What many do not know is if governments and businesses have plans to create an alternative economy to the unsustainable, market-first, high-production-of-wasteful-goods model that is faltering in most countries of the world at present, and that will continue to do so into the future as easy, cheap oil disappears.

May I suggest The Small Economy, based on the culture of small (rather than the culture of big)? May I suggest the building of small houses (900 sq. ft. and smaller, not larger) and accompanying smaller-scaled appliances and furnishings, small vehicles (e.g., a three-wheeled, enclosed scooter with a small bed in the back for groceries) and necessary smaller-scaled parts and accessories, and small, energy-efficient apartments close to the downtowns of cities to save on fuel and infrastructure costs. (I’ll take a one-bedroom on the fifth floor - close to Gambrinus - as soon as it’s ready!)

Don’t hold your breath waiting for governments or corporations to promote The Small Economy or the culture of small. But - as real wages continue to shrink - prepare for it nevertheless.

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Please click here for more reasons to adopt the culture of small.

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Zoom w a View: Is this London’s smallest house?

While pushing my twin grand-daughters around Old South yesterday I passed by one of my favourite small houses.

It is located on the west side of Marley Place, between Elmwood Ave. and Bruce St.


I asked a woman entering the house - I thought she was the owner - if she knew the square footage. She didn't know the answer but told me her friends, the real owners, said it was the smallest house in London.

“And the backyard has been turned into a natural paradise,” she added.


["Is this London's smallest house?": photos G.Harrison]

I’m just guessing. The front of the house looks like it’s no more than 14 - 15 feet wide and the back is less than 20 ft. wide. The length appears no more than 32 - 36 ft. Total sq. ft. could therefore be under 600.

I know there are a few tiny houses behind the Childrens’ Museum on Wharncliffe, but are they less that 600 sq. ft.? I’m not sure, so I can’t answer my question about the house on Marley.

Do you know the answer? Is it London's smallest house?

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Please click here for more about small things.

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Live Small and Prosper PT 2: “I love my three-wheeled truck”

[End of an Era - Ford of Canada St. Thomas assembly plant: Opened Dec. 16, 1967. Closed Sept. 15, 2011... last car off the line, Crown Victoria. Sept 16, London Free Press]


Though I don’t own one yet, I already love my future three-wheeled truck. It will be so economical to drive. I bet my monthly fuel costs will be under $50.

Plus, on three wheels, I’ll be the rebel in my neighbourhood.

I could buy a cheap e-bike right now but I don’t want electric because if everyone goes electric then the necessary infrastructure costs will be enormous. I also want an enclosed cab for winter driving inside the city and I think the millions of future drivers of three-wheeled trucks will want one too, so they can drive to work and later pick up three or four bags of groceries on the way home without getting wet or freezing to death, especially in Canada.


[“Can I get canvas doors on this one?”: photo link]

So far, my dream to buy one ‘Made in Canada’ is far from becoming a reality. Most automotive manufacturers remain in the grip of the culture of big. (I stood beside a pickup recently and it was so tall it blotted out the sun. Sorry, I digress).

Perhaps politicians and business leaders will see the connection between smaller vehicles and job opportunities in the near future and reopen the Ford Talbotville plant. The experienced workforce that hit the streets after the plant’s recent closing might appreciate the work.

What do you think of a three-wheeled truck for your urban transportation needs?

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Please click here for Live Small and Prosper PT 1: “I love my three-wheeled truck.”

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Should we demand tax freezes above all else?

According to a recent Letter to the Editor in the London Free Press, “before we roll over and accept more taxes as the mandate of heaven, let’s ask three questions.” (Aug. 18, D. Steers)

“Families, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, are forking over 40% of their incomes to governments. What level, if any, is too high? 60%? 100%?”

Let’s answer the last question for Mr. Steers first, i.e., is 100% too high?

Let’s say ‘yes.’ How could we buy toiletries if all our money was forked over to a rapacious government? I for one would say 100% is too high.

About the middle question... 60%. I don’t know. Depends on the circumstances.


["When dealing with Canadian badgers, stay way back!"]

Say we were under attack, say by the US after that country was completely out of oil and we wanted the last of the Tar Sands to ourselves. Say we needed bigger, hungrier dogs to protect the Saskatchewan-Alberta border. Would we balk at paying 60% until the ‘superdogs’ were trained and at their posts? I think I’d pay, but (and leave it to me to think of a better plan) I’d be recommending ‘superskunks’ and a phalanx of badgers.

(Sure, some will think that if we have ‘superskunks’ we don’t need no stinkin’ badgers, but I disagree. They’d be a perfect compliment. Sorry, I digress).

With all of the above in mind, is 40% too high? Again, it depends on the circumstances.

Instead of demanding a tax freeze just because the Canadian Taxpayers Federation drops stats in our lap, let’s demand more information.

Please click here to explore some of the different questions we should be asking. Tell me what you think... even about the badgers.

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London’s Job Summit: We can dig a grave. Can we climb out?

[What is London, Ontario? “It’s a low, wide city several degrees hotter than surrounding forests and farmland, built in sprawling, extravagant fashion when fossil fuels were cheap.” G. Harrison, Londoner, July 28]

Tomorrow, Mayor Joe Fontana will preside over an emergency summit involving some business leaders, politicians and interested parties that will brainstorm solutions to our city’s jobless crisis.

The mayor and many others now realize that with unemployment at 9.1 per cent, the highest rate of a major Canadian city (the number employed is down 3.5% over last year with reportedly 8,300 fewer people employed), if something isn’t done now to fill the hole we will not only appear to be standing in our own grave but making it deeper.


["I kin dig a hole so deep you can't get out."]

Unfortunately, I feel the summit will fail to reverse the grave-deepening trend if local politicians and business leaders adopt one of Mayor Fontana’s mantras, i.e., that it’s only a short-term problem, that if we can get over this jobless hump we can return to business as usual.

Fontana says we need to “get over this hump for 2011,” that he’s “not so concerned about our future, but... 9.1% (unemployment) causes us all to gasp and say in the short term, there are headwinds we are facing.”

Though I appreciate his confidence and enthusiasm, feigned or otherwise, I think we need to bear the long term in mind, especially now that the ground upon which we stand is sinking.

For several decades London has been growing far, fat and wide - in pursuit of the culture of big - on the back of cheap oil. Many citizens of this fair town have made a show of prosperity with bigger properties, homes, closets, cars, pools and countless material possessions while household, provincial, national and global debt has been growing deeper.

For a dozen decades or more, many cities and countries have become accustomed to growing productivity on the back of finite resources, e.g., petroleum, wood and metals.

Ron Wright, in A Short History of Progress, describes our prosperity in this manner:

“We in the lucky countries of the West now regard our two-century bubble of freedom and affluence as normal and inevitable... Our age was bankrolled by the seizing of half a planet, extended by taking over most of the remaining half, and has been sustained by spending down new forms of natural capital, especially fossil fuels. In the New World, the West hit the biggest bonanza of all time.”


["I'm jist lookin' fer the right way to turn."]

Many citizens and businesses have grown prosperous, even excessively so, and visible signs of increasing wealth (the big houses, cars, closets, computers, etc.) are commonplace, as is associated debt.

Now, trapped by the trappings of the big lifestyle they desire and somehow feel entitled to, many countries and cities face the long term battle of not getting buried in a grave of their own making.

Will a frozen pizza factory on the 401 bail London out? Are more companies like it the answer? Is a stimulus package that will return us to ‘business as usual’ the way to go?

I think not. The Corporation of the City of London needs to make a fundamental shift away from the culture of big.

In my opinion, one part of the answer will be found where some business minds (especially in the home construction industry) would least expect it - inside an 800 square foot house.

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Please click here to read more about The Culture of Small.

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The Culture of Small: Live under your means. Then what?

[Human beings and our economies have to find a place within the environment. The economic assumption that endless growth is not only necessary but possible is suicidal for any species that lives in a finite world. pg. 298, The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki]

The following recent headlines in the London Free Press tell a story:

Economic outlook, gas prices hit auto sales (Aug. 4)

Stink bug sizes up Ontario (Aug. 4; click here for the stinky details)

Drought worsens in American Midwest (Aug. 5)

Markets brace for the worst (Aug. 8)

(Tiger) Woods looking clumsy (Aug. 8)

And what’s the story?

That we should brace ourselves for tough times ahead because more than Tiger is off of his game.

We are mishandling the economy, personal and national finances, carbon emissions related to industry and human activity (resulting in climate instability), in much the same way that Tiger Woods mishandled his first marriage and recent golf tournaments.

Can things get worse? Of course they can, and they will, because we have a decades-old habit of pushing past personal, economic and environmental limits in just about all we do.

Allow me to offer the following advice:


["Buy a small house. Live small and prosper": illustration by GH]

Live under your means by at least 10 per cent. That is, make sure you spend - on essential expenses - no more than 90 per cent of what you earn.

Then what?

Open a savings account and deposit at least 10 per cent of earnings for the tough times ahead.

Certainly, pressure to spend, spend, spend will still come from many sides, from countless glitzy TV, radio and magazine commercials, even the Joneses next door. But resist the temptation.

I read the following under the headline ‘Economic outlook, gas prices hit auto sales’ (London Free Press, Aug. 4)”

Ford and General Motors sold fewer of their flagship trucks in Canada in July as consumers yet again opted for smaller cars as gas prices stayed high and confidence about the economic outlook wavered...

(I predict gas prices will only tend to move higher. Start saving soon).

...independent automotive industry consultant Dennis DesRosiers said, “There are a lot more economic problems and a lot more hesitation in the market-place than what people want to talk about, especially the politicians.”

As an old economist (I have a valid library card), I don’t mind talking about it. We are on a path that leads past personal, economic and environmental limits. It’s time to trade in the culture of big on a more efficient and affordable model, i.e., the culture of small.

What can you do to live smaller?

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More to follow.

Please click here to read more about The Culture of Small.

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