Maybe money isn't everything but, like it or not, Canadians have very distinct, and strong, attitudes towards it. In this provocative and amusing sequel to the bestselling book Sex in the Snow, Michael Adams, president of Environics Research Group, updates his portrait of Canada's "social values tribes"by looking at our attitudes regarding money. In his discussion of making it, spending it, stealing it, investing it, giving it away and losing it to taxes, Adams, one of Canada's most influential pollsters, outlines the changing perceptions and enduring ambivalence of Canadians towards money: they lust after it but resent those who have it, and unlike more garish Americans, those lucky enough to have it are averse to flaunting it. It seems the era of "a penny saved is a penny earned"is dead. Today's fiscal credo is "live for today."Where cash is concerned, Canadians' attitudes have changed in ways that would make our grandparents cringe. We are becoming more and more spendthrift and focused on instant gratification. Adams explains that changes in our general beliefs and social values can explain why the Canadian savings rate is at a forty year low and why consumer debt and personal bankruptcies are at record levels.
So how do we gauge our own attitudes when it comes to money? Adams groups Canadians into "tribes"based on information gathered from in-depth surveys. These "tribes"include the Thrill-seeking Materialists with their overt consumption, the New Aquarians with their uncompromising idealism, and a new tribe of almost monastic young people with a focus on money not seen since the Great Depression.
