Have Not Nation Or How to Avoid the LCD

I referred to Canada being a "Have Not Nation" recently in this Blog. Canada has the 9th largest economy in the World. We have a similarly ranked Per Capita Income. We are, when you do not look very closely, the most "like" the Americans of any people in the World. I personally count my blessings daily for being born, raised and living in Canada, ranked 5th highest in "economic freedom" (12 places ahead of the US but lower than Ireland which will be seen to be significant).

What am I talking about then? Am I saying that we are all like the perennial Have Not provinces, Quebec and the Maritimes? No, not yet. But we are in danger of getting there. Argentina used to be the richest nation in the World. Now they're one of the poorest in the Western World. The World is no less competitive a place than it was in the 1930's to the 1960's when Argentina lost her place. It can happen to us in this hyper-competitive, ultra-Globalized World we live in now.

How are we "Have Not"? Let me count the ways. It will not be possible to list them in this one blog which is why this will be another ongoing series. What are the blessings? As uncountable but I'll review - the Rule of Law, relatively low corruption, ease of business starts, still relatively low taxation by comparison to most OECD nations, an intimate integration with the US economy by trade and low crime to name a few.

But the key is the word "relative". We are only ahead in quality of life and economically in some metrics because our competitors are so bad and because of the enormous cornucopia and treasure house we sit on in natural resources and space. This is already changing, especially compared to the US both our biggest trading partner and our biggest competitor. The chief area of Have Not is not in public services (the basket of goods that the Equalization Formula is based on in deciding who is Have Not). We have at least as good public services as other Western nations do and the US (although the medical and post secondary education systems we get for the money we pay are arguably inferior to theirs).

We are Have Not simply because we make less money than the US does. They make $65000.00 per year per capita. We make $43000.00. Yes, the Americans now make fully 50% more than we do every year. It is not the only way we are deprived compared to the US but it is the most important way and it is the root of our deprivation in many other areas and those other deprivations contribute to our principal lack - money. What is more it is really the main thing most ordinary people worry or care about. 

Are we as good or better than nearly every other nation in the World? Yes. But that is irrelevant when we are so far behind our closest and biggest ally, partner and trader. All of our politicians should be talking all of the time about this comparative lack and yet none of them do it any of the time. That means we are Have Not in yet another way -  our political leadership.

Every Canadian thus must ask themselves honestly the question: why do the Americans make 50+% more money than we do every year? Until we ask that question, it will be precious hard to cope with, manage and finally begin to solve or reduce the scale of the problems we face in countless other realms. Can we really decline absolutely? We already have our own homegrown example of the relative and then absolute decline that Argentina has seen occurring in Canada. 

Ontario used to be the economic engine of Canada, its unchallenged leader in all departments. It was the classic Have Province of Have Provinces. It has been claiming Have Not status since 2009. More not less provinces are have not since the equalization regime was first brought in. We are all moving then to the Lowest Common Denominator and now even Alberta may be sucked down into it. Until we make our politicians study how we arrived at this pass, we will simply be moving on to the same relative and absolute decline. 

Our natural resources will not rescue us either. Iran, Argentina and Venezuela all have massive natural resources and they are some of the poorest nations. Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong have nothing and are leading us now. As I come back to this theme, we will not only look at the other critical ways we are have not but at how nations like that have moved out of that category and better.