Coyne on Inequality
Letter to the Editor
Ottawa Citizen, December 18
Â Andrew Coyne (December 14) leaps on a study by TD Economics to claim that â€œincome inequality in Canada has remained more or less flat since the mid 1990sâ€ and that the big surge in the rising income share of the top 1% took place before 1998.
Â As Coyne himself says, â€œthe reigning Canadian expertâ€ on the incomes of the top 1% is Michael Veall of McMaster University.
Â In the most recent issue of the Canadian Journal of Economics, Veall says that â€œthe surge in top income shares began in approximately 1985 and continued through to 2007.â€ The top 1% share of all income fell slightly from 1998 to 2002, but rose to 2008 before falling back a bit in the recent recession.
This pattern is important because it shows that inequality in Canada rose even in a time of low unemployment and steady growth. A rising tide no longer lifted all boats.
Coyne should take much more seriously the fact, confirmed by the TD study, that the share of all income in Canada going to the top 1% has almost doubled from 8% in the mid 1980s to almost 15% today.
Chair, the Broadbent Institute.