Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
From about 2002 to 2014, Albertans' sense of a normal lifestyle was dramatically out of whack with the rest of the developed world. Incomes were way higher and taxes were way lower. The new reality is we're going to be like everyone else now. People expecting to have the same income and pay the same extremely low taxes they paid five years ago are in for a rude awakening. Politicians will try to cover up the shortfall by running massive deficits, but eventually we'll have to get spending and taxes in line with our new reality.
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I don't think their sense of a normal lifestyle was out of whack, so much as they were living within an unsustainable economic system. It was much like a workeR who spends their entire paycheque without putting anything away for savings. They will own a lot of stuff and have a fun lifestyle but eventually something will come up where they need extra money and they will be in a tough spot. Basically our government has been living paycheque to paycheque for a long time and now the extras they had to use a credit card to cover until the next expected oil boom have to be paid for but the boom funds aren't coming in. So we have to look at how we can prevent this from happening again, while at the same time paying off that credit card. It wouldn't be easy for an individual and it's certainly not going to be easy for the province, but if we keep doing business as usual it's only a matter of time before we find ourselves back where we currently are at.