Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Not-so Fun Facts
Taken from the book Affluenza: The all-consuming epidemic by John De Graaf
And The Current State of Canadian Family Finances – 2004 Report put out by the Vanier Institute of the Family
And The Current State of Canadian Family Finances – 2004 Report put out by the Vanier Institute of the Family
- The average new house has grown larger every decade. Family size has grown smaller.
- Many new homes have three-car garages, almost 900 square feet of garage which was the average size of a home in the 1950s.
- Since 1950 Americans alone have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before them.
- “Shopping malls have really become the centres of many communities. Children, as well as adults see a shopping centre as just a natural destination to fill a bored life.” -- Michael Jacobson, co-author Marketing Madness
- On average we shop six hours a week and only spend 40 minutes playing with our children
- By the age of 20 the average American has seen a million commercial messages
- Survey’s show that most Americans, regardless of income think they would find happiness if they only had twice as much money. But they also show that we are no happier than we were 40 years ago when we only had half as much or less.
- Each year more than a million and a half people in the U.S. file for personal bankruptcy, more than graduate from college. That’s been the case since 1996. Every fifteen seconds, an American goes bankrupt. On average, the debt load for such filers equals twenty-two months of income.
- “It’s a very socially acceptable way to be addictive, to get a temporary high, to feel good. I’m feeling depressed today – let’s go shopping. As far as society goes, it’s sanctioned.” -- Terri Pauly, family counselor
- A recent Ipsos survey found that 75 per cent of Canadians have less than three months worth of savings in the bank and that 42 per cent of Canadians admit to having no “rainy day” money.
- In Alberta, the richest province in the country, 8650 people filed for bankruptcy in 2004. Slightly higher than in B.C. which has a higher population
- From 1980 to 2004, total spending in Canada advanced by about 29 per cent per household while total after-income tax incomes per household advanced by a rather miniscule 4 per cent.
# posted by melanie : 10:38 AM
