This week, statisticians who continue to offer us needed glimpses of reality issued a warning cry over B.C.'s growing income inequality.
The gap between the rich and poor is getting wider, according to a report by BC Stats.
Canada - where the average income of the top 10 per cent is 10 times higher than the bottom 10 per cent - is doing worse than many developed nations, particularly in Europe.
B.C. has the distinction of the largest gap between the top 20 per cent and the bottom 20 per cent of income earners and the second-to-largest after-tax gap.
But Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said he doesn't see that as a problem, pointing to the example of Cuba where, "there's no income inequality, because they're all poor."
With his sound bite, Falcon sidestepped the point that in social democracies, we have tax and social welfare systems specifically designed to narrow that gap, should the political will be present. But in recent decades, we haven't had that will and have allowed those systems to erode.
This disparity is deeply disturbing and does not herald good things for a stable society. History shows the fate of the rich is bound up with the fate of the poor, however much those at the top would like to pretend otherwise.
It's time for our leaders to start paying attention.
