Morning Spotlight 🔦 🔍 [Canada] Fraser Institute

2023-06-09  |  Last modified: 2023-07-15 12:00:13 -0700 (PST)

The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity.

The Fraser Institute has received donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars from foundations controlled by Charles Koch and David Koch, with total donations estimated to be approximately $765,000 from 2006 to 2016. It also received US$120,000 from ExxonMobil in the 2003 to 2004 fiscal period. In 2016, it received a $5 million donation from Peter Munk, a Canadian businessman.

The Fraser Institute produces quasi-academic, pseudo-intellectual propaganda - intended for Canadian conservatives, policy-makers, politicians and legislators.

The Fraser Institute has notably produced this nonsense.

(Fraser Institute, 2022-12-20) Fraser Institute: Poverty is a Trendy 'Lifestyle' Choice.  More people than ever are increasingly embracing 'frugal' nomadic lifestyle, right-wing think tank claims.

According to a recent report from the right-wing Fraser Institute, the "official poverty line" is completely wrong and many Canadians increasingly live in poverty because they simply choose to live a "frugal" nomadic lifestyle.

That's one of the takeaways from a recent series of essays titled "Thinking About Poverty," in which Fraser Institute fellow Chris Sarlo argues "traditional" poverty metrics are being skewed by new "lifestyle" trends that challenge old assumptions about "poverty and well-being."

In fact, the Fraser Institute fellow goes so far as to suggest it's time to rebrand people living in poverty to reflect their newfound status.

More Canadians than ever are choosing a poverty "lifestyle," Fraser Institute fellow argues In his Fraser Institute report, Chris Sarlo claims people are increasingly choosing poverty as a trendy "lifestyle" choice.

"Surprisingly, there are a large and growing number of households who seem to have found ways to live below the poverty line," Chris Sarlo notes. ... adding poverty may be a "healthier, simpler and more frugal lifestyle" - which is why poverty is increasingly "finding many adherents."

As an example, Chris Sarlo cites the 2020 Netflix film, Nomadland. (Comment: Nomadland is actually a film about poverty, inequality and survival lifestyles - not choice, and the glamorization of poverty, snake-oiled in that Fraser Institute piece.)

Reflect on that - according to Chris Sarlo and the Fraser Institute - people in poverty are purportedly embracing the poverty lifestyle.

That article espouses the pseudoscience of social Darwinism - the study and implementation of various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics. Social Darwinism declined in popularity as a purportedly scientific concept following the First World War, and was largely discredited by the end of the Second World War - partially due to its association with Nazism and due to a growing scientific consensus that eugenics and scientific racism were groundless.

And there's also this.

That's the Fraser Institute's position. Here's the reality.

• (CTVNews.ca, 2023-04-07) One in three Canadians believe grocery store price gouging is the main reason for food price increases: survey.

• (Jacobin.com, 2023-02-09) Loblaws Is Crushing Canadians With High Food Prices - While Raking in Enormous Profits.  "Let them eat price gouging" appears to be grocery giant Loblaws' response to the rising number of food-insecure Canadians. The company blames supply chain issues and inflation for soaring grocery costs - yet is posting stratospheric profits.

And then there's this.

According to a new report from the right-wing Fraser Institute, Doug Ford hasn't gone far enough in reducing public sector workers' wages. In the report - titled "Comparing government and private sector compensation, 2023 edition" - the Fraser Institute, a right-wing think tank, argues that Ontario could "reduce costs" by simply paying public sector workers lower wages.

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