Why We Can’t Afford Poverty

There is a great ad from the 1980s about Fram oil filters you can still find on Youtube. A mechanic is telling his customer that his colleague, Joe, has been fixing a lot of engines recently. To avoid this cost, he affirms in a friendly and confident way that it is important to change the oil regularly and “put in a new Fram filter when you’re supposed to.” The ad concludes with these legendary words:

Narrator: “You can pay me now [for the filter].”

Joe: “Or you can pay me later [to fix your engine at a much higher cost].”

Since the dawn of the welfare state in Canada (and everywhere else in the developed world for that matter), policy makers and citizens alike have struggled, whether consciously or not, with whether the state should pay now or pay later for health and social services. To a large degree, the pay-later school of thought has won out. With a few exceptions, our systems of care for individuals and families in need are almost...