A spending gap which reacted to the population

Dominique Scali

Saturday, 17 march 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 17 march 2018 01:00

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The gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and there is no need to be very rich to be part of the privileged, say the researchers.

“More and more middle class people have a feeling of insecurity because of the debt and the slight increase of wages,” explains Julia Posca, of the Institute of research and socioeconomic information.

For the past week, several people expressed on social networks about their expenditures on food and hygiene products, following the publication of the Journal folder.

“I understand that people have jumped to the ceiling. The reality on the ground, it is not pink, ” said Benoît Duguay, a researcher in consumption at the UQAM.

From affluent to poor

Mr. Duguay recalls that a lot of people spend less than $ 210 per week, maximum amount that would remain in a family whose parents work at minimum wage, because they simply can’t afford it.

Still, thanks to taxes and to transfers from the government, the gap between the rich and the poor has been rather stable in Québec, nuance tax expert Luc Godbout.

The Journal asked a wealthy family of four people to do the test cut half its budget at the grocery store throughout the month of February.

Paul Sabourin, a researcher in food aid at the University of Montreal, believes that this experience has illustrated to what extent it is complex to change its food habits when you find yourself suddenly poor after having been wealthy.

A point of view shared by the Coalition des associations de consommateurs du Québec, which has launched an awareness campaign on the debt this week.

Other tests

Exercises similar to that of the Log have been carried out repeatedly by the media since the 1950s, tells Jean-Philippe Laperrière, a lecturer in urban studies at the UQAM.

It evokes a, realized in the 1980’s, designed to test whether it was possible to eat by following the food guide.

“It was a huge debate. The social groups have said that it was very difficult. But the people said : “no, No, it was a low income, but we eat very well” “, he says.