Our current immigration policy, built around cheap and exploitable labour, is an admission that Canada has created a giant demographic Ponzi scheme.
I couldn’t help but notice how defenders of the current work permit and immigration system rarely talk about the demographic crisis. Instead, we get a mishmash of justifications that are suspect at best, usually centered around the supposed need for low-skilled foreign labour, dealing with “labour shortages,” and growing the economy, even when that growth comes at the expense of people already living in said economy.
But everyone knows there is only one argument that can actually justify the current policy, Canada has an aging population and a shrinking ratio of workers to retirees. We need cheaper health care workers and a larger tax base.
But if that is the real reason, why is it always the last thing mentioned? Often, it is not brought up at all.
It's because saying it out loud is an admission that this is a Ponzi scheme, paid for by young Canadians and recent immigrants. Our social benefits and fiscal system have always depended on continuously expanding the population to support the previous generation. Or in other words, an ever-growing influx of new participants is needed to pay off the earlier participants.
We are told that people are supposed to fund their own retirement through savings and investments. If retirement were primarily financed that way, the future labour force would not need to keep growing just to make the math work. But instead, we have a system where a significant portion of health care spending, benefits, and unpaid government debt depends on taxes generated by younger workers and future generations.
I find this particularly ironic because the people retiring right now are often the same ones complaining about younger, lazier generations. Meanwhile, many of these retirees don't actually have enough money to retire, just the illusion of it, and they will do it anyway, at our expense.
We are constantly told there is a labour shortage, yet many of the jobs supposedly suffering shortages do not pay enough for workers to comfortably support a family. We went from celebrating the automotive factory worker who could raise a family of five on a single income to complaining that health care workers are too expensive, many of whom can barely raise one child on two incomes.
How exactly is it possible there is a labour shortage when, at the same time, workers are unable to negotiate higher pay or better working conditions?
News flash: retirees cannot afford to pay PSWs and RPNs a good wage. If you are unwilling to work for 'barely enough to cover rent and living expenses', then retirees have a serious problem. And so does the health care system as a whole. No one wants PSWs to be paid more.
It’s okay, though. They found a solution. It’s called supply and demand. They’ll just find more supply. And as I described in a previous post, any time you underpay and refuse to provide compensation at the market-clearing wage, there will be a labour shortage. So now there is a labour shortage. So now the LMIA has been approved. So now they are legally allowed to bring in more supply.
Because why should they pay you more? You should be grateful you even have a job in an economy like this!
But it gets worse. Most immigrants do not move to Canada because they want to spend decades transferring wealth to retirees. They come seeking opportunity, higher incomes, and a better future for themselves.
As these more recent, exploitable immigrants become a larger share of the population, why would they support policies that require them to shoulder ever-growing costs for an aging generation, especially ones that benefited from cheaper housing, and more favourable economic conditions? Why do the baby boomers get to cash out a winning lottery ticket that everyone else has to pay for?
This whole scheme is going to fall apart once the retiring population loses its position as the most influential voting bloc.
And that’s not all. The story keeps getting worse. Even if a large influx of workers temporarily solves the worker-to-retiree ratio problem, it does not solve the underlying issue, it only postpones it. Everyone agrees the global population is stagnating and will eventually stop growing. Many developing countries are already experiencing rapidly declining fertility rates. Even India recently announced its fertility rate is below replacement levels.
This is also the argument for a more sustainable earth. There is no endless growing population left for millennials, Gen Z, and everyone after them. YOU WILL BE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG. That post-industrialization era of explosive population growth is ending with you.
And what will the current retirees have to say about this? “Well, I can barely figure out how to properly sign and email a PDF, but I hope those new fangled robotics and AI work out for you!”
The model was never sustainable. Even the assets they hold to fund their retirement are built on inflated valuations that are unsustainably high, and those valuations will inevitably come under pressure as retirees sell assets to pay for their medical bills... And you’ll be holding that bag too.