The Low Income Measures Act
I would like to go on the record as saying, I want to invoke the following, "Low Income Measures Act" for Canada and other well-to-do "1st world countries";
A new report prepared by Hill Strategies Research Inc. for Canada Council For The Arts shows that 451,000 Canadians 15 years of age or older made direct financial donations worth about $47.9 million to arts and culture organizations in 2000...
The art works and events category includes spending on works of art, carvings and vases: $530 million; Art works and carvings are considered “household furnishings” in the Survey of Household Spending, and were grouped with vases in a 1997 reorganization of spending categories. and artists' materials, handicraft and hobby-craft kits and materials ($500 million). The spending growth for items in the art works and events category was works of art, carvings and vases: 48%
The figures in this paper have not been adjusted for the 14% inflation between 1997 and 2003, nor have adjustments been made for the 6% increase in the Canadian population between 1997 and 2003. Comparisons between changes in cultural spending and overall spending - the main comparisons used in this paper - would not be affected by adjustments for inflation or population growth, as all figures would be adjusted equally.
Cultural spending levels in Alberta, Ontario and BC are above the Canadian average, while all other provinces have levels of cultural spending that are below the Canadian average.
British Columbians spent $3.1 billion on cultural goods and services in 2003 or 3.3% of total consumer spending in the province, $24 million (9%) on art works and events, $14 million (5%) on art supplies and musical instruments. The $3.1 billion in consumer spending on culture is four times larger than the $760 million spent on culture in British Columbia by all levels of government in 2002/03. On a per capita basis, British Columbians’ cultural spending is the third highest of all provinces at $787 per resident.
Compared to other metropolitan areas in Canada, cultural spending is high in both Calgary and Edmonton. Calgarians spent $867 each on cultural goods and services in 2003, third among 15 Canadian metropolitan areas, while each Edmontonian spent $865, fourth among metropolitan areas. Total cultural spending was $870 million in Calgary in 2003, $70 million (9%) on art works and events. Albertans’ spending on photographic equipment and services ($270 million or 11% of cultural spending) is slightly higher than spending on art works and events ($220 million or 9% of total cultural spending). Albertans spent about $140 million (6%) on art supplies and musical instruments. Spending on art supplies and musical instruments grew by 33%, while the other cultural categories increased by much smaller amounts.
The bohemian index emphasizes the concentration of cultural occupations in metropolitan areas. Overall, it appears that the cultural occupations variable (bohemian index) and the two spending indicators do not follow a consistent pattern. Victoria, Calgary and Ottawa rank fairly highly on all three indicators, but the largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - rank higher on the bohemian index than on the spending indicators. The reverse is true for Edmonton and Regina, areas that rank higher on the cultural spending data than on the cultural occupations data.
I would hope that some of that data rubbed off and actually went to pay artists for "their craft or sullen art" - Dylan Thomas. Of poverty he knew and wrote, Dylan Thomas was akin;
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~mdaniels/
Dylan Thomas - A Turbulent Life
I would venture to say that this include commercial art galleries, but probably lacks in unreported income from artists living below the poverty line, which is $18,000 per year in 2001. I would venture to call it $20,000 today in 2007, when factoring in inflation. Since people living in “low income cut-off” situations as they are called by Statistics Canada are usually living below the radar, they don’t even count unless there are a greater number of them than in mainstream poverty. Anyway, those people are still only one step above poverty. Take away their job and you have homeless malady. This doesn’t even begin to measure the homeless who are off the radar and go entirely undetected and uncared for except by emergency shelters and social services. I wonder if food banks are considered "culture organizations" too?
Basically, with all the job retraining help I have been on in the past 10 years, I feel like I actually "work for the government". So do people on disability assistance, medical care and welfare. We are the working poor and probably contribute in ways that are unseen to communities where we live, we are “Mr. Canada's bitches”. And here's the latest scoop on that...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/poverty-line.html
Like, "Say 54 per cent of a family's income goes to food, shelter and clothing, it still has 46 per cent to spend elsewhere. That's not poverty." Spend 46 percent where? Like on taxes, schooling for education “to get a better job or a viable career”, transportation, cell-phones, internet, bank-card interest and other "essential services"? - If that's not poverty, what is?
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