We need to talk about Upper Middle Class Families in Canada.
Or, what used to be Upper Middle Class.
In the 1980s, a working doctor, lawyer, accountant, or businessman could buy a nice home 🏡 in a prime metro and raise 2.5 kids while his wife stayed home.
But—there’s more!
Generally he was able to do this working roughly 40-50 hour weeks.
This left ample time for sleep, hobbies, and volunteering in his community. His wife had time too.
Today, an UMC male working professional often works 50-70 hour weeks. His wife? She works too!
Hobbies? Volunteering? Community?Who has time for that?
In most metros, a combined 100+ hours of work/week between the two of them affords them an even better material lifestyle than their parents had: nicer cars, bigger home, takeout meals, and better vacations (during which they check email constantly.)
Essentially, this cohort is now Upper Class in material goods lifestyle but not in leisure time.
The 🔑: It requires over DOUBLE the amount of working hours per household to get to this materially better but quality-of-life worse place.
❌And it’s NOT doubly as well-off❌
So, what about the people who tried to continue with the quality of lifestyle their parents had—one stay at home parent and time for hobbies and volunteering?
They fell behind, materially.
They’re now solidly middle class, if not lower middle class, struggling to afford student loans, modest homes, and car payments.
This is what Gen X and the millennial generation is referring to when we talk about a decline in family living standards.
We either:
- Work all the time, with a spouse who works all the time, to try and capture that elusive slight upward mobility.
OR
- We pursue balance but fall behind into downward mobility.
The end result?
We are collectively exhausted and feel a sense of aching nostalgia for the way things used to be.
And our communities and mental and physical health are worse off for it.