Toronto in Recession: 1982 vs. 2008
Back in 1982, E.T. was tops at the box office, "Mickey" was so fine that it reached #1 on the pop charts, and Rance Mulliniks was playing his first game as a Toronto Blue Jay. Bill Davis was the Premier of Ontario, and Art Eggleton the mayor of Toronto. Minimum wage was $3.50, and we were in the midst of a serious recession.
A recent report by the Conference Board of Canada has revealed that consumer confidence right now is at its lowest since 1982. What did a valley in consumer confidence mean in 1982? What does this mean for Toronto today?
If the current economic nose dive continues, our lives will most certainly have to change some. We already have to work a lot longer hours to enjoy the many things the city has to offer. Don't believe it? Check out some examples.
In searching for things to do in Toronto in 1982, I came across this old travel article written by none other than Margaret Atwood for the New York Times in 1982.
I've done a brief cost-comparison of then versus now, with the time required to work at minimum wage ($3.75 in 1982, and $8.75 in 2008) to pay for each purchase shown in brackets.
Round trip to the Toronto Islands by ferry:
1982: $1 (0.29h)
2008: $6.50 (0.74h)
increase: 2.5x
Admission to the ROM:
1982: $2 (0.57h)
2008: $22 (2.51h)
increase: 4.4x
Visit to the AGO:
1982: $1.60 (0.48h)
2008: $18 (2.06h)
increase: 4.3x
Romantic stay at the King Eddy on a Saturday night:
1982: $60 (17.14h)
2008: $280 (32h)
increase: 1.8x
Dinner for two at Scaramouche:
1982: $60 (17.14h)
2008: $210 (24h)
increase: 1.4x
With the cost of living having gone up by such an extent, and an economy tanking before our eyes, I suspect that many Torontonians will be having a lot less fun and leisure and a lot more scraping for necessities.
Comments (19)
are u sure we were in recession in 1982? that was the time a lot of immigrants from Hong Kong came to Canada, driving up house prices and property value, everyone was laughing at how much money they made off these new immigrants when they paid a premium to buy properties
Jack, aside from your ridiculous assertion that Chinese immigrants single-handedly drove-up housing and property values in the early 80's, are you texting all your comments via a cell phone? Because that would explain the bizarre lack of punctuation, capitalization, and letters.
Elle Driver, what year were you born? you were too young to remember what happened 20 years ago.. you might want to do some research first
Hey, Zanzibar doesn't have their neon sign yet!
To Jack:
Hmm, I'd be more inclined to believe the Conference Board of Canada on economic trends, forecasts and research than some anon. person on the internet. You might want to get your facts straight too.
@Jerrold
I don't define recession like the economists.. when you go out on friday night, there is no line up at any restaurants, that's recession... that's what happened in the early 90's
So if we see dropping GDP for two or three consecutive quarters, you won't call it a recession unless restaurants are empty?
Jack, you might also want to do a bit of research yourself: the mass-migration of Chinese immigrants didn't happen until the early 1990's. With the 1997 hand-over of Hong Kong back to China looming, the spike of Chinese immigrants arriving in Toronto actually happened between 1990-1996. The Chinese were definitely migrating in the early 80's, but not enough to effect the housing market.
And for the record, I was born in the 70's. I am old enough to remember my days in public school in the early 80's, when I was the ONLY Chinese student in my class. Things were drastically different when I was in high school in the 90's, when half the population of my school were new Chinese immigrants.
I don't know much about economics, but I was conscious enough to see what was happening around me at the time.
(And you've yet to clarify your original ridiculous claim, and explain your mysterious lack of punctuation.)
You need to adjust these numbers to reflect inflation. I think you will find that the increase in "Real Dollars" will be mush less.
Considering even just 2% inflation over 26 years would mean a big difference.
Patrick Buckley - no that is totally incorrect. These figures do not need to be adjusted to take into account inflation. The end result of the analysis is a figure indicating the number of hours worked at the then-current minimum wage required to pay the ticket price. Inflation is only relevant when comparing PRICES at different times. This analysis compares HOURS WORKED at different times.
It's clear that we are currently under recession and to compare the recession before (if there really was) is a bit off. We all know that whatever economic status we have before the recession is way too different for more than a decade ago.
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