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Moncton Times & Transcript ~ Tax Help Plus ~ UN and Us ~ October 17, 2006 - 29 Oct 2006 by TaxHelp
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While it might be a function of age, I’ve been thinking about quality of life issues. You see, the kids were home from school to celebrate Thanksgiving last week. During our conversations, they were surprisingly open about their hopes and dreams. It seems funny to think that theirs aren’t very different from most people of all ages. And while they chatted about issues related to their age, they also were wondering about how they were going to make it safely to retirement and in what form their lives would unfold. A certain level of anxiety must reside in all of us. Those conversations gave me a chance to revisit something I wrote about here a few years back.
The United Nations publishes a report each year based on a set of measures formally referred to as the Human Development Index. It began in 1990. The HDI measures life quality and expectancy, education and standard of living. This year’s global version has yet to be released so it’s interesting to review the 2005 findings. If you’re looking for something to give thanks about, you could begin by considering how fortunate we are to live in Canada. Since the grading began, our country has been for the most part consistently ranked in the top five. In many of the years we have either been first or second. In this report we are number five while Norway ranks first. Comparatively, our American neighbours rank tenth.
This report indicates that the best country for life expectancy at birth is Japan where one will live on average to the ripe old age of 82 years. In Canada, it’s expected that we will live 80 years. One can be thankful they are not a resident of Swaziland where the life expectancy is 32.5 years. Want to consider change and health care? In Canada, in 1970 the infant mortality rate was 1.9 per cent. Put another way 1 in 52 infants died. In 2003 the rate had dropped to 5 per thousand or 1 in 200.
A broad measure of a country’s wealth is Gross Domestic Product, which is the value of all goods and services produced within a geographic territory. Leading the list far and away is Luxembourg with a GDP per capita of US$62,298. Far behind is number two Ireland at $37,738. Slightly farther down is Canada at $30,677. Be thankful that you don’t live in Sierra Leone, which has a per capita GDP of $548.
Of course, not everything is rosy here. Just over 8 per cent of those born today are not expected to live to 60. More than 14 per cent of adults lack functional literacy skills. When looking at poverty, nearly 13 per cent live on less than 50 per cent of the median income. Still, we don’t have bombings as a daily way of life.
An interesting note in the report from a couple of years ago that I didn’t see in the latest dealt with national pride. Of those countries surveyed, we were second in this measure. Close to one hundred per cent of Canadians were most likely to answer with the highest responses when asked the question “How proud are you to be a national of ____?” A large part of this is because of the stellar performance of our military around the world, and just another point to be thankful for. And might I add the report points out that military spending as a per cent of GDP is 2 per cent. Compare that to Kuwait where it is 48.5 per cent.
While everyone has personal challenges to consider, we know that the future always promises better days ahead. So while sometimes ‘I wish I would have known then what I know now’, it’s comforting to know that disadvantage during one’s life is relative. After all, as the HDI reports, most of our global neighbours would be delighted to enjoy the hardships of living in Canada.
Roger Haineault is with Help 4 Taxes. His column "Tax Help Plus ..." appears each Tuesday. For questions, comments or column suggestions he can be reached by calling 855-HELP (4357) or by emailing roger@help4taxes.ca
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