Image: Flickr/Mike Hoff

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Under too much pressure in your life and  don’t have any free time? It’s happening to just about everyone — and it’s not your fault.

I was dismayed by the comments of two women on CBC Toronto’s Metro Morning Monday. The program deserves credit for planning all this week to deal with issues of stress and the fact that most people don’t have enough hours in the day to deal with important, often crucial, matters.

The two women were picked at random on the streets of downtown Toronto. They told the CBC horrendous stories about how difficult their lives are — from being unable to meet the needs of their children to too much stress at work, not enough money for childcare and having no time to themselves.

How serious is the problem? A poll conducted for the Heart and Stroke Foundation revealed that half those interviewed were unhealthy because of their lifestyle:

  • 44 per cent of respondents said they had no time for regular physical activity.
  • 41 per cent said healthy meals take too long to prepare.
  • More than half (51 per cent) said fast food outlets don’t have enough healthy choices.
  • And almost a third (31 per cent) said the time they would like to spend being active they instead spend commuting.  

These findings are of interest to the folks at Heart and Stroke because heart disease and stroke kills one in three Canadians and is the leading killer of women.

The two women interviewed by the CBC felt it was their fault that they couldn’t manage their lives better. Canadians are poorly informed when it comes to understanding the big economic and political picture. So it probably would never cross their minds that the real issue is the economic system we’re now living under.

Wait for it, and don’t be afraid: The problem is the out-of-control form of heartless capitalism we live under.

While I’m not fond of any form of capitalism, back in the 1960s and 70s we had what might be called “benevolent capitalism.” Money was more equally distributed than now. Most corporations felt they had an obligation to pay their taxes — well, at least part of their taxes. Both a university education and housing were cheaper.

Society began to change dramatically toward the end of the 1970s. A package of policies known as neo-liberalism — never before tested — was undemocratically imposed upon us. Trickle-down economics filled the pockets of the rich and corporations with billions in cash. The incomes of ordinary folks began to stagnate.

Both the rich and corporations now pay less in taxes. Many social service programs have been gutted. When governments didn’t have enough money to run the system because of the tax breaks for the rich, they imposed austerity on the rest of us. Unions were bashed into submission.  Mainstream media succumbed to the powers of the corporate world.

The impact on most people in our changed society is well documented. While the wealthy made huge gains in their income, real minimum wages in Canada basically haven’t budged from almost four decades ago.

According to Statistics Canada, the average minimum wage in Canada was $10.14 an hour in 2013. And when you translate the 1975 equivalent into 2013 dollars, it was “almost identical” at $10.13.

The biggest study in recent years on the workplace was carried out by the National Study on Balancing Work and Caregiving in Canada in 2012. It found out that almost two-thirds of Canadians were working more than 45 hours a week — 50 per cent more than two decades earlier. Work weeks were more rigid, with flex-time arrangements dropping by a third over the previous 10 years.

One consequence of both workplace and home stress is an increase in both serious short-term and long-term disability claims. Dr. Kevin Kelloway, Canada Research Chair in Occupational Health Psychology, says that work insurance providers report that between 30 and 40 per cent of their claims are related to occupational stress, manifested in mental health or heart conditions.

If Canadians were better informed by a comprehensive education system and a socially responsible mass media, the two women interviewed by the CBC would understand that they and millions of other stressed-out people are not primarily responsible for the near chaos in their lives.

What’s really to blame is the system that squeezes us more and more year after year. 

Nick Fillmore is a Toronto freelance journalist and social activist, and a frequent contributor to rabble.ca He can be reached at [email protected].

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Image: Flickr/Mike Hoff

Nick Fillmore

Mr. Fillmore, formerly was an editor and producer with the CBC for 18 years, which included the position of Canadian Desk Editor at The National TV News, and head of an investigative journalism unit...