Economic Challenges

Debt Statistics

• Canada’s debt to income ratio went from 2:1 in 1972 to 23:1 by 2004, and for Ontario it is now 63:1. For comparison, the United States’ debt to income ratio stood at 2.9:1 for the same period.
• High levels of debt and lack of free and clear collateral, makes loans much more difficult to obtain.

Economic Systems

• Economic growth has become and is unquestioningly assumed by governments, politicians, economists and businesses to be the keystone in achieving prosperity. In the long term, perpetual expediential growth is not sustainable on a planet with finite resources.
• Many people are dissatisfied with an economic system that globalizes production to countries with the lowest labour rate, promotes endless consumption and places profit above local participation and community.
• Countries tied to each other through currency foreign exchange and lending to one another are vulnerable to the deepening global financial crisis.
• Lawmakers from 13 States in the U.S. are considering alternative currencies. Over 3,000 functioning alternative currencies exist throughout the world.

“You and I, and our government must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.”  ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower