How many of us have personal household budgets that we faithfully stick to?  How many governments have budgets that they faithfully stick to (cue the laugh track).  By provincial decree, Saskatoon is not allowed to run a deficit.  The province doesn’t apply the same rule to itself, however.  And the federal government also does whatever it wants, or it would say it needs to, when it comes to budgeting.  When the current Liberals ran in 2015 one of their pledges was to ask those at the top to pay a little bit more and when they came to power there was an income tax increase on individual taxable income in excess of $200,000/year.    It’s budget time once again and you know what came down.  No political party wants to target what they call the “middle class” when it comes to extra taxation.  They want to target the middle class with goodies at election time to get their votes.  8 in 10 Canadians consider themselves middle class and the term means different things to different people but a middle- class household income appears to be between around $54,000 and $107,000 per year.   $107,000 to $236,000 is upper middle class and household incomes above $236,000 would be considered upper class.  Personally, I think it’s hard to pin down exact numbers but those are what they say.   It’s also hard to pin down what is considered rich in Canada.   There’s high and then very high and then ultra-high net worth. For definitions go ask your financial guru. 

That’s Coffeetalk.  I’m Vic Dubois.