Classism in Canada
By Carolyn Burke, Sept 09 06
How free are you really? Let's take a survey.
Do you rent your home or own it? And if you own it, do you have a mortgage? Have you purchased a car, or do you take the TTC, or perhaps like me you take cabs everywhere? Do you own the company, or do you work for someone else?
If you own outright, you have entered a different class in this society, the class of people who aren't scrutinized.
If not, then you need to deal regularly with bureaucrats who can affect major parts of your life: where you live, where and how you work, and how you get there everyday.
Most of us work. that's just a fact of life. You're either draining your savings (or trust funds), or you are accumulating wealth, saving for the future. Wealth is a funny thing. Unless you're super wealthy and can live off the monthly returns, you need to earn a living. And you're either saving more than you make, or you are draining your reserves. Even worse, you could be living on credit, generating a debt. Where are you in this range? I like to accumulate personally.
And even if you can accumulate, you still service debts, like your mortgage or monthly rent, like the car lease or loan payments. And you show up to work regularly to earn your paycheck.
It doesn't have to be like that. Being free includes being free of all these obligations. No debts to honour. No bureaucrats to report to.
Sound good? I highly recommend it.
=====
So what is it like to be free of bureaucrats?
I've lived for 4 years in my own home, free and clear of a mortgage. I don't have a car. I could, but instead I take cabs everywhere. Turns out to be less expensive overall. And I own a company from which I earn a good enough salary to save a little more away each year. I don't owe money to anyone. No bureaucrats. No mortgage company. No leasing company, or car loan debts to cover. I don't have furniture that was shop now, pay later. And although I use credit cards to pay for almost everything, I manage to avoid monthly interest charges. I'm generally one of those people who pays the card down every month. (Yes there are exceptions, but rare enough.)
Most of my friends are the opposite. They rent their home, pay monthly to cover their car lease or loan, and work for someone else. Each of my friends seems to be free of at least one of these outside obligations, but are still subject to the others.
And now to my story.
A few weeks ago - less than 3 - I had been planning a move to the United States on a TN visa. A client was sponsoring the move, and covering relocation costs. Seemed like an exciting adventure. Living in San Francisco for a year or two, meeting new people, doing important work for a non-profit. I was ready to go. Very ready. I had all the paperwork for the visa lined up, and was ready to make a cross-border dash to validate the visa. A moving company was booked, and I was looking seriously for a modest apartment in San Francisco. I spent a few days there last month in sticker shock. Price are high there. Meanwhile my wonderful real estate agent succeeded in finding a tenant for my home here in Toronto. I was almost ready to move to the US for October 1. So far, no surprises. And then, two weeks ago, a Friday, I signed the offer to lease. I didn't do this in a vacuum. I spoke with the client to let them know this was it, the real deal. After signing this offer to lease, there'd be no turning back. Were they sure I should come down. "Of course. Absolutely. We need you here. Sign the lease. We'll see you in a month!" I felt good about this decision, confident and ready to go. And as you might imagine, a little scared. This was going to be a big change for me. Moving to San Francisco. So many songs running through my head.
In San Francisco, I'd be renting an apartment. From a landlord. Credit checks in a foreign country that doesn't have much of my credit history. I can't provide a letter from my former landlord. I was my former landlord. And my own former boss. I lack that thing most people have when they rent an apartment. I lack references. But okay, I'd deal with that. My banker and accountant both jumped in with letters to assist. I was ready.
In San Francisco, I'd be focusing on one client, one contract through my company. I'd be reporting to one person, a boss. A little loss of freedom, in exchange for a big adventure for an important cause. Exciting!
And I'd need a car there. I'd decided to lease one when after I moved.
All told, this decision to move was going to allow bureaucrats back into my life, to effect my life. A landlord, a car dealership, banks, and a boss! Yes, even entrepreneurs have bosses - their clients. The difference here was that I was switching from having many clients to just one. The cause seemed that important.
So I signed the offer to lease with my new tenant.
Now, I'd leased my home already, signed the paperwork accepting the offer from my new tenant, when 20 minutes later, the executive director called me back. My client was pulling out, no reasons stated. My contract ended right then and there.
I wasn't going to be moving to San Francisco. I wasn't going to rent an apartment, drive to the office, and work for the non-profit. I was staying in Toronto.
Normally, I wouldn't blink. Clients go sometimes, and new ones arrive. It's just business. They have their business reasons. But in this specific instance, I had already rented out my home.
I have to move now before October 1. But I'm not moving to San Francisco! I have to move, to here. Even though I own my own home. The costs for breaking the lease are too high, and there'd be a lot of bad will.
So in a few weeks I am moving, in Toronto.
And here's where the real story begins.
=========
I've switched classes. I have a landlord with bureaucratic procedures and policies. There are restrictions on what I can do, when I can do it, who I can do it with. There were forms to fill out. And since I'm my own boss and since I'm my own former landlord, many of the forms can't be completed. So the bureaucrats made up all sorts of other requirements for me to meet instead. I ended up visiting the rental office 7 times, the bank 5 times for letters of reference and certified cheques, and I made dozens of phone calls to my accountant, banker, and credit card companies. Why?
To prove to this new landlord that I'm an acceptable tenant.
I realize in this age of easy digital fraud that protective measures are important. It's vital that when large sums of money are involved that we verify peoples' claims. It is reasonable precaution.
But the process also puts you into a different class, the class of people who aren't immune from scrutiny. And since the people doing the scrutiny are generally also in this class, they seem to enjoy making the process humiliating. You know what I mean here. Suddenly, I'm not trusted, at least in these procedures. I've put myself out there to be judged worthy or not worthy. Can I really pay the rent monthly? Am I reliable? Will I obey all the landlord's rules? Am I the sort of person they want anyway?
I'm used to lacking this scrutiny. I show up to work when I want to - when I need to based on my clients needs. I grab a cab when I need one, no need to worry about parking regulations, spots or tickets.
And I live at home knowing that it is mine. I'm used to freedom.
I am used to living freely, without scrutiny.
So through a set of unfortunate or at least badly timed decisions, I'm about to lose this. I'm about to be scrutinized. I already am. I've filled out reams of forms. I've smiled disengenuously at bureaucrats who can effect my life choices. And said nice things about their kids. Or their earrings.
I've entered the class where sweettalk and asskissing pave the way to pretend freedom.
And I remember the feeling. It was what drove me to succeed in business. The need to be free.
So while my circumstances are now surrounded by bureaucrats scrutinizing my every move with their procedures, I find myself suddenly envigorated again, to attain freedom from them.
When I was younger, I bought myself a plant everytime I had to fill out a form or smile at a bureaucrat. Now I think I'll land a new contract, and grow my company faster than I had planned to, and with new clients.
There is nothing like living on your own terms. I want that again. And it's time to create that space again.
In a year, my new tenant's lease will expire, and so will mine. I'll move back into my home and re-attain my freedom. I know that. But for the next year, I'm switching classes, backwards. It's going to be interesting, humbling, and motivating. After all, we each work hard to pay down the mortgage, pay off the car, and save to retire. I quite liked having already done those things.
I quite like being in the unscrutinized class.
I'll get there again!
Now let's take the survey for real:
Check back here in a few weeks for the summary results. How free are we?
Carolyn
How free are you really? Let's take a survey.
Do you rent your home or own it? And if you own it, do you have a mortgage? Have you purchased a car, or do you take the TTC, or perhaps like me you take cabs everywhere? Do you own the company, or do you work for someone else?
If you own outright, you have entered a different class in this society, the class of people who aren't scrutinized.
If not, then you need to deal regularly with bureaucrats who can affect major parts of your life: where you live, where and how you work, and how you get there everyday.
Most of us work. that's just a fact of life. You're either draining your savings (or trust funds), or you are accumulating wealth, saving for the future. Wealth is a funny thing. Unless you're super wealthy and can live off the monthly returns, you need to earn a living. And you're either saving more than you make, or you are draining your reserves. Even worse, you could be living on credit, generating a debt. Where are you in this range? I like to accumulate personally.
And even if you can accumulate, you still service debts, like your mortgage or monthly rent, like the car lease or loan payments. And you show up to work regularly to earn your paycheck.
It doesn't have to be like that. Being free includes being free of all these obligations. No debts to honour. No bureaucrats to report to.
Sound good? I highly recommend it.
=====
So what is it like to be free of bureaucrats?
I've lived for 4 years in my own home, free and clear of a mortgage. I don't have a car. I could, but instead I take cabs everywhere. Turns out to be less expensive overall. And I own a company from which I earn a good enough salary to save a little more away each year. I don't owe money to anyone. No bureaucrats. No mortgage company. No leasing company, or car loan debts to cover. I don't have furniture that was shop now, pay later. And although I use credit cards to pay for almost everything, I manage to avoid monthly interest charges. I'm generally one of those people who pays the card down every month. (Yes there are exceptions, but rare enough.)
Most of my friends are the opposite. They rent their home, pay monthly to cover their car lease or loan, and work for someone else. Each of my friends seems to be free of at least one of these outside obligations, but are still subject to the others.
And now to my story.
A few weeks ago - less than 3 - I had been planning a move to the United States on a TN visa. A client was sponsoring the move, and covering relocation costs. Seemed like an exciting adventure. Living in San Francisco for a year or two, meeting new people, doing important work for a non-profit. I was ready to go. Very ready. I had all the paperwork for the visa lined up, and was ready to make a cross-border dash to validate the visa. A moving company was booked, and I was looking seriously for a modest apartment in San Francisco. I spent a few days there last month in sticker shock. Price are high there. Meanwhile my wonderful real estate agent succeeded in finding a tenant for my home here in Toronto. I was almost ready to move to the US for October 1. So far, no surprises. And then, two weeks ago, a Friday, I signed the offer to lease. I didn't do this in a vacuum. I spoke with the client to let them know this was it, the real deal. After signing this offer to lease, there'd be no turning back. Were they sure I should come down. "Of course. Absolutely. We need you here. Sign the lease. We'll see you in a month!" I felt good about this decision, confident and ready to go. And as you might imagine, a little scared. This was going to be a big change for me. Moving to San Francisco. So many songs running through my head.
In San Francisco, I'd be renting an apartment. From a landlord. Credit checks in a foreign country that doesn't have much of my credit history. I can't provide a letter from my former landlord. I was my former landlord. And my own former boss. I lack that thing most people have when they rent an apartment. I lack references. But okay, I'd deal with that. My banker and accountant both jumped in with letters to assist. I was ready.
In San Francisco, I'd be focusing on one client, one contract through my company. I'd be reporting to one person, a boss. A little loss of freedom, in exchange for a big adventure for an important cause. Exciting!
And I'd need a car there. I'd decided to lease one when after I moved.
All told, this decision to move was going to allow bureaucrats back into my life, to effect my life. A landlord, a car dealership, banks, and a boss! Yes, even entrepreneurs have bosses - their clients. The difference here was that I was switching from having many clients to just one. The cause seemed that important.
So I signed the offer to lease with my new tenant.
Now, I'd leased my home already, signed the paperwork accepting the offer from my new tenant, when 20 minutes later, the executive director called me back. My client was pulling out, no reasons stated. My contract ended right then and there.
I wasn't going to be moving to San Francisco. I wasn't going to rent an apartment, drive to the office, and work for the non-profit. I was staying in Toronto.
Normally, I wouldn't blink. Clients go sometimes, and new ones arrive. It's just business. They have their business reasons. But in this specific instance, I had already rented out my home.
I have to move now before October 1. But I'm not moving to San Francisco! I have to move, to here. Even though I own my own home. The costs for breaking the lease are too high, and there'd be a lot of bad will.
So in a few weeks I am moving, in Toronto.
And here's where the real story begins.
=========
I've switched classes. I have a landlord with bureaucratic procedures and policies. There are restrictions on what I can do, when I can do it, who I can do it with. There were forms to fill out. And since I'm my own boss and since I'm my own former landlord, many of the forms can't be completed. So the bureaucrats made up all sorts of other requirements for me to meet instead. I ended up visiting the rental office 7 times, the bank 5 times for letters of reference and certified cheques, and I made dozens of phone calls to my accountant, banker, and credit card companies. Why?
To prove to this new landlord that I'm an acceptable tenant.
I realize in this age of easy digital fraud that protective measures are important. It's vital that when large sums of money are involved that we verify peoples' claims. It is reasonable precaution.
But the process also puts you into a different class, the class of people who aren't immune from scrutiny. And since the people doing the scrutiny are generally also in this class, they seem to enjoy making the process humiliating. You know what I mean here. Suddenly, I'm not trusted, at least in these procedures. I've put myself out there to be judged worthy or not worthy. Can I really pay the rent monthly? Am I reliable? Will I obey all the landlord's rules? Am I the sort of person they want anyway?
I'm used to lacking this scrutiny. I show up to work when I want to - when I need to based on my clients needs. I grab a cab when I need one, no need to worry about parking regulations, spots or tickets.
And I live at home knowing that it is mine. I'm used to freedom.
I am used to living freely, without scrutiny.
So through a set of unfortunate or at least badly timed decisions, I'm about to lose this. I'm about to be scrutinized. I already am. I've filled out reams of forms. I've smiled disengenuously at bureaucrats who can effect my life choices. And said nice things about their kids. Or their earrings.
I've entered the class where sweettalk and asskissing pave the way to pretend freedom.
And I remember the feeling. It was what drove me to succeed in business. The need to be free.
So while my circumstances are now surrounded by bureaucrats scrutinizing my every move with their procedures, I find myself suddenly envigorated again, to attain freedom from them.
When I was younger, I bought myself a plant everytime I had to fill out a form or smile at a bureaucrat. Now I think I'll land a new contract, and grow my company faster than I had planned to, and with new clients.
There is nothing like living on your own terms. I want that again. And it's time to create that space again.
In a year, my new tenant's lease will expire, and so will mine. I'll move back into my home and re-attain my freedom. I know that. But for the next year, I'm switching classes, backwards. It's going to be interesting, humbling, and motivating. After all, we each work hard to pay down the mortgage, pay off the car, and save to retire. I quite liked having already done those things.
I quite like being in the unscrutinized class.
I'll get there again!
Now let's take the survey for real:
>>>> Click here to take the personal freedom survey <<<<
Check back here in a few weeks for the summary results. How free are we?
Carolyn
7 Comments on "Classism in Canada":
Here's one interesting comment I received:
Anonymous writes:
Just read the classism post you wrote. Interesting perspective for me on how you are feeling about all this. You'll still be free because it is largely a state of mind.
Which brings me to my perspective on classism. I think of freedom as being able to do what you want, when you want it but also being free of major worries, and comfortable within yourself = free mind – which is different for different people.
I think of class as monetary, education and behaviour. I hadn't associated freedom and class in the same way. Freedom can be elusive to anyone or obtained by anyone. However, thinking about it like your post, you almost have to go to either extreme to be free. Wealthier, self-sufficient people who don't need to go through the system have more freedoms. Who else has that? The bums in the park. Extremes. : )
I think living how you were is more free and most would enjoy it, but I think in the end true freedom is in your head.
And my response to Anonymous:
I feel that freedom isn't a feeling, isn't a thought or a concept one has. It is a relational term, about one's status within the world. And it's a relative term, meaning that you can be more free or less free than someone else or over time.
So having a reduction in freedom is about losing some opportunity to act in the world -- the future opportunity space reduces.
What I feel is in your head is your interpretation about the freedom you do have, and the lacks. Do you decide to work to remove obstacles? Do you feel sorry for yourself and sulk? Do you decide to work on a societal condition that blocks others from a certain type of freedom?
I've separated the real world relationship (how free am I, and with respect to what), from the personal reactions (what do I do with my freedom, or lack).
=======
As to class, class is this social construct that groups of people fit within. The classic classes were wealth and power, majority membership or gender or age. Etc. But new classes can arise as the nature of society and our interrelations change. Canada classes are almost exclusively formed by wealth status. This is disputable. ;)
And yes, wealth-based freedoms fall at either extreme.
That is pretty horrific. Did you ex-client at least compensate you for your deposit onto the new apartment. The hard part is having to lose your home for no reason at all.
I totally agree with your concept of freedom. Rent and a mortgage, is what prevents most people from living a lifestyle of their choice. I am not a lazy person but I wish to work on the things that I like and that inspire me rather the things that make a company run. I don't think, I see it as a classism though, I see it more as consumerism. If you share a home as in a co-op the mortgage becomes manageable enough that you can live off of very little. Having a car is problematic. I had to pay off my car before I could consider quitting my job.
Recently I have developed an interest in squatting rights and temporary structures. Land should be free. If you think about it land ownership is bizzare. Land exists no matter what, just because you fence it off, shouldn't mean that it is yours. I think people should be allowed to own structures that they build on land, but land itself should be free. People should not be allowed to build a fence, station an armed guard, and then call a natural resource theirs.
Maybe you lose freedoms simply by belonging to a society, or belonging to a group and trying to get along, or maybe you lose freedoms simply by having a governing body and a court system.
I guess it really is about being on some part of the spectrum between anarchy and state.
It's an interesting study. I tend to have an intuitive response to many situations, the full dimensions of which become clear only after I've put up with them for a long time.
To wit, an over-extended enjoyment of my summer, and an extremely lackadaisacal attitude towards business development shoved me into debt, which I really hate, and thus into an urgent search for work. I'm now on a fulltime contract, working on site, in a horrible environment at an organization of dubious coolness with the shittiest cubicle in the house. A cubicle. Imagine that.
My reaction to this has only taken a couple of weeks to come into focus, but it is clear to me now. Never, again, will I make the same mistake that led me to this situation.
I can endure a mortgage, since it is essentially a loan while I build up capital. And the banks are great at staying out of your hair once the loan is approved, and they will approve nearly anything that looks almost reasonable.
I can endure being forced to maintain a motorcycle, or hopefully soon a sailboat, since these things buy a freedom that I consider worth the trouble.
But wow, will I never go back into fulltime employment.
Interesting post and comments.
I agree with Carolyn that freedom can be both relational and relative, but do not accept that it reduces to a materialist expression or experience. It seems to me that freedom gains real meaning only outside the circumstantial hemisphere.
It is undeniable that physical, economic, political, and social circumstances can constrain one's liberty materially while undermining one's sense of security and emotional well-being. But the absence of these constraints is not (logically or even statistically) what really enables freedom.
In my view, freedom is about the ability to say no to circumstances; to refuse them outright or to refuse to have one's important choices confined by them -- freedom as a principle, not a material condition. The logical extension of this view is found in the writings of Sarte (and arguably Socrates), for whom death was the ultimate freedom because it was the ultimate refusal of the circumstantial. But one does not have to go so far.
To me, the most compelling part of Carolyn's commentary is her elaboration of the costs of relying on circumstance, and the benefits that accrue when one takes care not to. These benefits may (or may not) include economic wealth, social status, and liberty from bureaucrats, but far more importantly, they are tied to not approaching life (including its material aspects, such as relative wealth or status) as supplicants -- as people who depend on these things for our sense of security, well-being, or freedom.
It would be an error to say that the wealthy or socially successful have freedom becasue they can afford not to be dependent upon circumstances. The reality is that nobody can afford to be dependent upon circumstance. Any freedom that depends upon the circumstantial isn't freedom at all: it is merely a temporary evasion, lasting only as long as cirucmstances remain favourable.
And so what? It is unpleasant to be dropped by a client. it is even more horrible to have to move out of one's own home for a year. But real freedom is deeper. it comes from the unbroken ability to choose not only one's circumstances but how one will respond to them. And it is one's choice of the latter that makes the former possible. That's far more than a state of mind -- it's a matter of principle. And that's what I think is most worth gleaning from Carolyn's articulate commentary.
(By the way: for those interested in stories of those who choose not to be confined by material circumstances, two Toronto books worth reading are Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall's Down to This: Splendor and Squalour in a Big City Shantytown (2004) and Rosemary Aubert's novel about a disgraced former judge who lives in a shack in the Don Valley, called Free Reign (1997).
Amy Lavender Harris
(Academic Entrepreneur)
Funny. "Freedom" could be defined as not getting interfered with at all. Or it could be defined as not getting interfered with as much as others get interfered with. Or, it could be defined as still doing what one chooses -- despite getting interfered with.
I've noticed all these definitions implied in the post and comments following the post.
What's interesting to me is that the third definition seems inconsistent with the first two. But I don't believe that it is. I think it belongs to a different category. A category so different in character it can't even be considered consistent or inconsistent.
Put it this way. Someone knowing the trick of doing what one chooses despite getting interfered with would have a different kind of freedom.
I've been trying to figure that trick for the past 30 years or so.
But Carolyn, freedom is the currency of civilation. By living in a civilized society, you agree to give up part of your freedom.
Just because you don't have a mortgage doesn't mean that you are free in that respect. You still have to pay the city property tax, and that property tax was probably calculated by bureaucrats. People who own their own companies might still be a salaried employee of that company. In such a case, you would probably have to make CPP payments as an employer and have it deducted as an employee. Either way, you are probably working until July for the government.
On a more personal level, we give up part of our freedom to harm others in exchange for the same consideration. We are dependent on so many things for our day-to-day existence that the only way to be truly free is to live under a rock. You take cabs everywhere, so you aren't paying for gas, car payment, maintenance, but if there is a transit strike, you might still find yourself temporarily losing some freedom, as the demand for cabs go up.
To fly to San Franciso, you would have to allow the airlines, and various government employees to verify your identify and prod through your private belongings. If you are of a certain nationality or religion, you are probably subjected to more verification.
I guess the real question is, "How much freedom can you tolerate losing before you no longer feel free?"
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