August 31, 2016 4:41 PM EDT
As of Sept. 1, the price of industrial milk goes up for the second time this year — as if Canadians weren’t already paying far too much for dairy products.
The reason milk, cheese and butter (and poultry and eggs) are so expensive in Canada is simple: supply management. That’s the system where producers pay thousands of dollars to acquire a permit for the right to operate. Since the number of permits granted by the government is limited, our supply of milk, cheese, butter, poultry and eggs is limited as well.
However, as Canada’s growing population keeps getting richer, demand for these foods keeps increasing. The result is soaring prices, since Canadians can’t import these goods from abroad because of the sky-high duties imposed to keep foreign dairy out.
The burden of this system falls more heavily on poorer households. A one-dollar increase in the price of milk or chicken means much more to a household earning $25,000 a year than it does to a household earning $100,000. Recent estimates show that the cost burden created by the supply management system represents 2.3 per cent of the incomes of the poorest 20 per cent of households in Canada. For the richest 20 per cent of households, the added cost burden is a much less painful 0.47 per cent.
Supply management actually has the concrete effect of effectively pushing many Canadians close to or below the poverty line. So, how many Canadians could be lifted out of poverty (or low-income status as defined by Statistics Canada) if we abolished supply management? In a recent study, we undertook to provide such an estimate.
If Canadians were free to import their dairy and poultry products from the United States, the average household would save $438 per year — a significant savings. Anybody who falls below the poverty line by less than this amount can be considered to be in poverty as a result of supply management.Up to 189,000 Canadians are pushed into poverty due to the burden of supply management.
To be on the safe side, we decided to use two different concepts of poverty in order to generate a range of estimates. The first is a measure of absolute material privation designed by Christopher Sarlo of the University of Nipissing. The second is a measure of relative poverty — the low-income cut-off line — designed by Statistics Canada. Both lines capture different concepts of economic vulnerability.
Using these lines, we find that somewhere between 133,000 and 189,000 Canadians are pushed into poverty because of the cost of supply management. This represents from 67,000 to 79,000 households.
While this may seem like a relatively small number of Canadian households, it is several times the number of households that benefit from supply management. Our lowest range estimate is about five times greater than the 13,500 dairy, poultry and egg farm households in Canada.
Anyone preoccupied with the plight of the poor should reflect on the burden imposed upon them by supply management. A reform plan that would phase out production quotas and import duties would benefit all Canadian consumers, but it would especially benefit poorer individuals, raising their living standards and effectively lifting many of them out of poverty.
source: https://business.financialpost.com/opin ... to-poverty
references:
as of: used for saying that something will start to happen on a particular day, and will continue after that day
As of April 6, all applicants must complete both forms.
permit: an official document that gives you permission to do something
Carrying a gun without a permit is punishable by up to four years in prison.
参考译文
到2016年9月1日，工业化生产的牛奶的价格今年第二次上涨，然而加拿大人已经对奶制品支付了很高的价格了。
牛奶，奶酪和黄油（以及家禽和鸡蛋）在加拿大如此昂贵的原因很简单：供应管理(Supply Management System)。这是一个制度，生产者支付数千美元获得经营权的许可证。由于政府颁发的许可证数量有限，我们对牛奶，奶酪，黄油，家禽和鸡蛋的供应也有限。
然而，随着加拿大人口不断增加，对这些食品的需求不断增加。结果是价格飞涨，因为加拿大不能从国外进口这些货物，因为高额的进口关税，将国外乳类产品挡在大门之外。
这个制度的负担更重的是较贫穷的家庭。牛奶或鸡的价格增加一美元，对于每年收入25,000美元的家庭的影响要比对收入100,000美元的家庭的影响要多得多。最近的估计显示，供应管理系统造成的成本负担占加拿大最贫穷的20％家庭收入的2.3％。对于最富有的20％的家庭，增加的成本负担是0.47％。
供应管理实际上有效地推动许多加拿大人接近或低于贫困线。那么，如果我们废除供应管理，有多少加拿大人可以摆脱贫困（根据加拿大统计局定义的低收入地位）？在最近的一项研究中，我们提供这样的估计
如果加拿大人可以自由地从美国进口他们的乳制品和家禽产品，普通家庭每年可节省438元 – 不是一个小的数字。任何刚刚低于贫困线一下438元以内的人，都可以被认为是由于供应管理而处于贫困之中。
为了确保评估的准确，我们决定使用两种不同的贫困概念来产生一系列估计。第一种方法是绝对数据评估，这是由Nipissing大学的Christopher Sarlo设计。第二种方法是由加拿大统计局设计的相对贫穷的的评估法 – 低收入分界线。
根据以上两种评估方法，我们发现，由于供应管理的成本，使得133,000到189,000加拿大人被迫陷入贫困。这意味着67,000到79,000个家庭。
虽然你可能觉得因为供应管理系统而陷入平困的家庭数目相对较少，但这个数字却是受益于供应管理的家庭数量的几倍。根据我们最保守的估计，这个数字也是加拿大13,500家乳制品，家禽和蛋农家庭的五倍。
任何关注贫困问题的人都应该关注供应管理对贫困人群的负担。一个改革方案，将逐步淘汰生产配额和进口关税的改革计划将使所有加拿大消费者受益，但它将特别使较贫穷的个人受益，提高他们的生活水平，并有效地使许多人摆脱贫困。