Generation Squeeze's Hard Truths

The kind of intergenerational framing and language that Generation Squeeze champions is increasingly making its way into the mainstream of Canadian political discourse. We've chatted in the past about Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland saying that the housing crisis is a form of "intergenerational injustice." In this episode, we talk about the kind of intergenerational analysis the new leader of the official opposition, Pierre Poilievre, has been using. We think it's great that the kind of framing we've helped to pioneer is becoming more common, but we're also wary that it's not always accompanied by the kind of nuance we would hope for.

To really fix a problem, we need to know the truth about what's caused it. But some truths hurt -- like telling our older family members that the costs of housing and raising a family skyrocketed and our climate deteriorated on their generation's watch. When we point this out, older people often ask, "Are you saying I did something wrong?" They played by the rules of their day -- paid their taxes, worked hard, provided for their families. But those rules were rigged against younger and future generations. The systems that benefited our parents and grandparents are now harming their kids and grandkids. Yet older people did not individually, knowingly do anything wrong. Why implicate them in the damage?

Young and old alike need to be onboard with fixing a systemic problem like generational unfairness. How do we point out what's broken without making older generations feel guilty? How can we inspire them to feel a shared responsibility for being part of the solution? These are some questions hosts Paul Kershaw and Angie Chan wrestle with in this messier, more challenging episode, as they reflect on how Generation Squeeze has evolved and explore what it means to be good intergenerational stewards. 

We always end episodes inviting feedback, but this time we really mean it. We would love to hear from listeners about the questions, problems and ideas we explore in this episode. Please reach out to us at info [at] gensqueeze [dot] ca or through our social channels. 

In this episode Gen Squeeze's Umair Muhammad and Paul Kershaw chat about the problem of campus affordability—an issue that is increasingly in the headlines, as some students are forced to rely on food banks and homeless shelters to get by. While the issue of campus affordability has many dimensions, the root of it has to do with the housing crisis that is affecting Canadian society more broadly. The discussion focuses in particular on the University of British Columbia and the potential steps institutions like it can take to help address housing unaffordability.

In this episode of Gen Squeeze's Hard Truths podcast Paul Kershaw chats with Bill Robson, President and CEO of the CD Howe Institute. They talk about intergenerational unfairness embedded in Canadian federal and provincial budgets. The existing fiscal reality is that older generations disproportionately benefit from government spending while younger future generations are left holding the bill. Paul and Bill talk about how we got into this situation and how we might find a way out.

As highlighted in this podcast episode, Gen Squeeze just launched a video contest intended to promote generational fairness among elected officials. Find out more about the contest (including details about the cash prizes!) here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/contest

The $10aDay child care campaign's success is a huge victory for Canadian families and a reminder that change can happen. Hosts Paul Kershaw and Angie Chan interview child care advocate Lynell Anderson about the campaign's history, why it was so successful, and what work still remains to create an affordable national child care system. 

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Gen Squeeze's Paul Kershaw sits down to chat with DT Cochrane, lead economist with Canadians for Tax Fairness (C4TF). Their discussion ranges from the personal to the technocratic—including some reflections on DT's complicated relationship with the field of economics, the work C4TF is doing to close tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy few while leaving us all collectively poorer, and the inherently failure-prone terrain of policy-making. 

Lots of great stuff in this one!

You can learn more about C4TF by going to their website: https://www.taxfairness.ca/

Gen Squeeze's million-dollar-homeowner surtax proposal has garnered lots of responses. As one would expect, there's a fair bit of support for the proposal but also... some people are not all that enthusiastic about it. Who would've thought that asking people to pay a modest surtax on wealth they didn't do any work to create would get them so riled up?

In this episode, we take a look at and respond to a sampling of the emails we've gotten about the surtax proposal. Our favourite email is one accusing us of wanting to force those who own million-dollar homes to live in "a shack on a dead end road with no running water or electricity." How did they figure out that that's been our goal all along?!

If you haven't had a chance to learn about our housing surtax proposal, you can do that by reading about it in Maclean's magazine or listening to our recent podcast episode about it.

We've proposed a modest annual surtax on homes valued more than $1 million as one strategy (among many) to tackle the housing crisis. The surtax could generate $5 billion per year to fund affordable non-profit housing. It would also disrupt a cultural problem that fuels the crisis: many everyday Canadians have benefitted from skyrocketing home values, creating wealth windfalls that are largely sheltered from taxation. Meanwhile those same rising values erode housing affordability for younger generations, whose earnings from work are fully taxed. Public opinion supports asking the country's wealthiest homeowners to chip in more to chip away at housing unaffordability, according to new polling data. In this episode, Paul Kershaw and Umair Muhammad chat about Paul's article on the housing surtax in Maclean's Magazine this month. 

"Canadians see how harmful this growing gap between home price and earnings has become for society. We have witnessed what it means to lock out literally generations of younger, talented, hardworking, well-educated folks from thinking that home ownership might be in their reach in cities across this country. And they're a bigger part of the electorate," Paul Kershaw says. "Public opinion is changing. Over 60% of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are actually supportive of the idea of putting a modest price on housing inequity." 

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B.C.'s Speculation and Vacancy Tax successfully returned 20,000 vacant homes to the long-term rental market between 2018 and 2020, according to a report released this summer. Gen Squeeze founder Dr. Paul Kershaw interviews journalist Jen St. Denis about her coverage of the empty homes tax and other solutions to the housing affordability crisis. 

"It takes a long time to get housing built, but we had all these units that were apparently just hiding under the couch cushions," said St. Denis, The Tyee's Downtown Eastside and "Hot, Hot Housing" reporter.

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Inflation seems like big news lately, but runaway inflation has been around for decades when it comes to housing prices in Canada. Gen Squeeze volunteer Kareem Kudus joins Umair and Megan to discuss how mismeasuring housing inflation has contributed to soaring home prices. Since 2005, home prices have risen about 300 per cent on average across the country. But the housing component of the Consumer Price Index -- which we use to measure inflation in Canada -- has only gone up 60 per cent. "So it's completely disassociated from reality," Kareem explains. Fixing this faulty monetary policy will help make homes affordable for younger and future Canadians.

Kareem Kudus began his career in finance, where his job involved developing investment strategies by studying financial markets and the economy. Through this experience, he began to recognize that our economic system is both less efficient and less fair than it has the potential to be, oftentimes due to well-meaning policies with unintended consequences. Kareem left finance to study artificial intelligence and its applications to the medical field. He is working with Generation Squeeze to try and apply the knowledge he gained in his former career in order to find solutions to Canada's economic issues.

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