Canadian Conundrum

I went to an 'interesting' party in Toronto last night.  70th anniversary/double 40th birthday party for friends of my mother.  She was not going to go--the long drive, her health conditions, etc.--so I took her.  She really wanted to go, this couple means a lot to her. She has been friends with these two for over 40 years.

The 'interesting' part, though, were the guests.  There was a lot of money at this party.  The hosts were a vet to the wealthy and a psychiatrist. The guest probably spend more money over the holidays than I make in a year.  Mr. Glitter--hairstylist to the stars was in attendance.  Professional service people to the wealthy: dentists & vets to the rich and famous, power stock brokers and financial planners, etc.  Christ, their personal trainer was there, and from the sounds of his client list, he's probably making at least twice as much as me a year. Almost all the guests were over 50. 

So, there I am at this part, feeling rather out of place, and knowing no one beyond the hosts, who I only really know who they are.  But the affair is catered, servers walking around with trays of delicious food, and an endless supply of win, so I found a secluded corner to stand in, drank my bottomless glass of wine, munched some snacks, and observed people.  The sociologist in me was actually rather enjoying this, watching how people were interacting.  Throughout the night, different people came over to me, introduced themselves, and we chatted for a little while.  Much of it was older women (and gay men) trying to feel good about themselves, flirting with a younger, attractive man.  And they made sure I knew that they thought I was attractive....no worries.

One women in particular stands out though.  Wealthy, and flaunting it.  At first the usual small-talk: how do you know the hosts?  How have your holidays been so far? etc.  As the familiarly increased, however, so did the depth of conversation.  She started complaining how Toronto had no good shops.  Right, like I have a clue, or care.  To illustrate her point she told me that she had been in Paris over the summer and bought an Armani jacket.  Coming back to Canada, she regretted not buying the matching pants with the jacket, so she went to Holt Renfrew.  They did not have the pants, nor did they have any pants that would suffice.  She asked them to pull out the Armani catalogue and she showed them the pants that matched her jacket.  Holt Renfrew did not carry those pants, because apparently in their words, it was too sophisticated for Toronto shoppers....

So where's the conundrum?  Hold on, I'll get there...

So, the woman I am talking about is complaining about not being able to spend exorbitant amounts of money on excessive clothing.  Her next topic of conversation?  Poverty and wealth disparity in our country.  Pardon me?

That's right.  In her words, the levels of poverty in our country are disgusting.  But worse than the poverty it the inequitable distribution of wealth.  "How is it we can have people that are so rich, living such lavish lifestyles, while there are people who are struggling just to meet their basic needs?" she asks me. The conversation continued discussing social-political agendas of government and the influence of corporations on public policy, a comparison of Scandinavian counties with much lower levels of poverty, and a smaller gap between the rich and the poor, etc.










As is normal during party conversations, we went our separate ways shortly to mingle with others.

Really, I stayed in my corner, and she move on.  In solitude once again, observing the guests, I started thinking about good old Canadian social democracy politics.  Here is the Conundrum.  Perhaps dialectic, or conflict would be better.  But as a society, we, the people want more money, to make more money, to spend more money, to live in bigger houses, wear fancier clothes, have more toys, etc.  But we also want that for others.  Sometimes we feel guilty that others do not have what we have.  We recognize that there is a very distinct discrepancy of wealth in our country, and recognize the contradiction that some, many really, can live in extreme poverty, while many other can live in extreme wealth.  We donate money to charities, we talk about the poor and criticize some government ministry/department as being part of the problem.

But do we talk about a solution?  A real solution?
That's probably a topic for another post....