Waitaminute!
While we're busy trying not to lose our shirt in the Great Recession, those
sneaky Canadians managed to get richer than us Yanks. But how did it happen?
On July 1, Canada Day, Canadians awoke to a startling, if pleasant,
piece of news: For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian
is richer than the average American.
According to data from Environics Analytics WealthScapes published
in the Globe and Mail, the net worth of the average Canadian household
in 2011 was $363,202, while the average American household’s net
worth was $319,970.
A few days later, Canada and the U.S. both released the latest
job figures. Canada’s unemployment rate fell, again, to 7.2 percent,
and America’s was a stagnant 8.2 percent. Canada continues to
thrive while the U.S. struggles to find its way out of an intractable
economic crisis and a political sine curve of hope and despair.
The difference grows starker by the month: The Canadian system
is working; the American system is not. And it’s not just Canadians
who are noticing. As Iceland considers switching to a currency other
than the krona, its leaders’ primary focus of interest is the
loonie -- the Canadian dollar.
Stephen Marche of Bloomberg explains:
here.
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