stalkerbunny

This is an interesting cultural experiment, because where I'm from, the lines between lower and upper middle class are pretty blurry. In a sense, the entire country of Canada is resolutely middle class, except for the Indian reservations and sections of urban areas where drugs and alcohol abuse are prevalent.



The gap between lower middle class and poverty stricken is clear:

Poverty entails hunger and malnutrition. Fresh, wholesome food is out of one's price range unless the person can rely on food banks.

Poverty entails insecurity about shelter, where meeting the monthly/weekly rent is always a stretch, where one must sleep at the homeless shelters or where accommodations must be shared with strangers just to cover costs.

Poverty entails monumental complexities simply to handle one's basic rights as a Canadian. Without a home, there is no address to receive correspondence, so social services which the rest of us take for granted — medical coverage, sales tax rebates, voter registration, even employment services — are supremely difficult to impossible to arrange. The banks will not allow the person to register an account, so cheques must be cashed at Money Counters which slice off a hefty percentage. One is subjected to harassment by local authority figures like the police. And it tends to precipitate a downward spiral with negative effects on health and happiness which are nearly impossible to counteract.

With lower middle class, such things are a struggle, but not an impossibility.



In the past 20 years, the gap between the Canadian rich and poor, however, and upper and lower middle classes has certainly stretched.