You\u2019ve probably heard people extolling the virtues of self-sufficiency, how if we work hard and pull ourselves up from the bootstraps, we can care for ourselves and mitigate the risk of unforeseen circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
However, I don\u2019t think self-sufficiency is a reasonable expectation for most people. Sure, some people will be able to create a life for themselves that allows them to live comfortably for years. But I think that is unattainable for the majority of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Providing our own food is nearly impossible. Sure, you might be able to grow a garden in your backyard or even have a couple of planters on your apartment balcony. But providing all the food you need will be difficult. Some estimates I\u2019ve seen<\/a> say that people need 4,000 sq ft per person to grow enough produce to feed oneself all year long. In my house, that\u2019s nearly 30,000 sq ft!<\/p>\n\n\n\n My entire residential lot is 4,833 sq ft. My house is 798 sq ft. I\u2019d have to basically use every inch of my lot outside of my house to grow food. Get rid of the garage, the tool shed, the patio, the sidewalk, the garbage cart, the recycling cart, the playground, the fence, the steps, and so on. And that\u2019s just for me. I\u2019d need another 6 lots to feed the rest of my family. Then I\u2019d have to find somewhere to store everything I preserve for outside the growing season. And that\u2019s just for produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you eat eggs, meat, or dairy, you\u2019d need even more space. I\u2019ve heard that people could raise a cow on an acre of land, but that\u2019s 10 times the size of my lot. Now, I\u2019m up to over 15 lots. I\u2019d have to buy up all my neighbours\u2019 lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Producing your own clothes is just as impossible. You need space to grow cotton or flax, or to raise sheep for wool or other animals for leather. And given that more than 80% of Canada\u2019s population lives in a city<\/a>, it\u2019s impractical for everyone to live on the kind of land we\u2019d need to grow our own food and the raw materials to make our own clothing. And again, I\u2019m not even talking about the land needs for a self-sufficient family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the impracticality of producing the goods we need to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, we exchange our labour for currency, which we then can use to purchase food, clothing, and housing. In essence, we trade our labour for those things, using currency as sort of an intermediary, a representation of our labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of growing all of our food in the summer, then storing most of it, we just buy it from the store as we need it. Which seems easy enough. And it would be if all we needed to buy was food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Canadians cannot take care of their basic needs. They\u2019re in debt, and their wages are too low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For every dollar a Canadian earns, they owe $1.77<\/a>. In 97% of the country, Canadians can\u2019t even afford a one-bedroom apartment on minimum wage<\/a>. In fact, the average wage in Canada is $21.63<\/a> an hour, but the average wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom apartment is $22<\/a>. 4 in 10 Canadians can\u2019t afford to follow the newest Canada Food Guide<\/a>. In Alberta, the average household spends over $100,000 a year<\/a>, but the median family income in Lethbridge is only $90,000 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average cost of living is higher than the average wage. It\u2019s too expensive to cover everyday living expenses. And if you bring in additional expenses\u2014such as appliance replacement, roof repair, car repair, birthday and Christmas gifts, and so on\u2014the gap between debt and income just gets bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Self sufficiency is impossible for most people. Not everyone can be a surgeon or a partner at a law firm, or a millionaire. Someone needs to flip the burgers, and dig the ditches, and trim the trees, and mow the parks, and drive the buses, and put out the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For capitalism to succeed, it needs low-wage labour, and for people to survive, they need jobs, even if it\u2019s low-wage labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Self-sufficiency is a myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n