Has An Increasingly Open and Unregulated Market Improved Wellbeing?
It is generally asserted that free trade and other elements of an increasingly open and unregulated market improve the wellbeing of Canadians. However, income analysis does not support this assertion. In the 1980s, before the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, market income and disposable income increased for Canadians and Nova Scotians in all income groups. The income gap between rich and poor also narrowed, and equality grew. In every province, including Nova Scotia, the poorest 20% of households increased their share of income in the 1980s. Since the free trade agreements, incomes for poor and middle income households have fallen sharply in real terms, and inequality has grown. 80% of Nova Scotian households are worse off since free trade, with declines in both market income and disposable income. Only the wealthiest 20% have done better since free trade.
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