Fed Issue #23 - Federal Liberals eye tax on private health and dental plans, grabbing $2.9B

[JBen]

Much much earlier I asked the question. Who are the middle class? And to draw or make your own conclusions.

An interesting read.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...service=mobile

A couple of very interesting paragraphs towards the end of that.
one is the paragraph about using net worth as a metric. Is it a good barometer? Well to me no, because "net worth" is heavily affected by ones ability to accumulate assets, pay down debt. When you can take advantage of so many way to reduce taxes......many Canadians these days rely heavily on real estate for their net worth. Housing market the last 20 years? Well if one group of people in the middle class have Pensions, and another group doesn't. The ability to direct what little disposable income they have towards paying off the mortgage vs having to do both....and what if that crash finally occurs. A whole bunch of people are going to be wiped out.

another paragraph towards the end delves into a few things but to me this is the take away.

[But the sun is not shining on everyone equally. According to a recent analysisfor the University of Calgary’s School for Public Policy conducted by former Statistic Canada economists Philip Cross and Munir Sheikh, lumping middle-class factory workers together with middle-class teachers – as politicians are wont to do – “obscures the truth about which members of that group are struggling to keep up.”

By every measure – assets, income and the share of earnings – the wealthiest Canadians have done better, while those in lower income brackets have fared significantly less well. This pattern also holds true within the middle class, where the gap between the top and bottom has widened.

In fact, that 2013 internal government memo (leaked from Employment and Social Development Canada) was downright gloomy. It described a middle class that was shrinking and falling deeper into debt, and “increasingly vulnerable to financial shocks.” The “springboard to higher incomes,” the memo suggested, was losing its bounce.

financial shock meaning life.
Chit happens. Job loss, illness, legal defence, divorce, a ton of things.

as I said since the 60s.......
Won't argue "everyone" is taxed to the teeth. Won't argue the "upper middle class" or "well off" don't need and deserve all those tax breaks.

Whats been done for those a little further down the ladder/food chain?
TFSAs wonderful things and thank god Harper created them, and yup the limit should be higher. Helps the upper MC and/or WO off a lot.

People who are finding it very hard to scape a couple grand a year together?
not so much.