Canada’s Demographic Time Bomb: What Boom, Bust & Echo Got Right

Canada’s housing crisis. Youth unemployment. Immigration debates. A broken healthcare system.What if we told you a book published in 1996 predicted almost all of it?In this episode of The Missing Middle, Cara Stern and Mike Moffatt revisit the Canadian classic Boom, Bust & Echo to explore how demographics, especially the aging of the baby boomers, reshaped Canada’s economy, housing market, job prospects, and public policy.We break down:• Why youth unemployment was a policy choice• How demographics quietly drive housing prices• What governments got right — and very wrong• Why immigration policy, real estate, and healthcare are deeply connected• And how Canada ended up with a generational economic imbalanceThis isn’t just history. It explains why life is harder for young Canadians today and what choices led us here.If you care about housing affordability, jobs, immigration, public policy, and Canada’s economic future, this episode is for you.Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:49 Why Boom, Bust, and Echo (BBE) still matters03:00 What the book got right and wrong04:25 Prediction about the rise of home health care06: 06 Policy dilemma: high demand for PSWs & balancing budgets08:12 Immigration policy advice from Boom, Bust and Echo09:03 Governments didn’t take the advice 10:55 BBE real estate prediction11:45 Housing market predictions: what went wrong15:10 Boomers, Millennials & real estate16:40 BBE prediction on future changes to taxation policy17:13 The politics of moving taxation from income to capital19:50 Real estate prediction for aging boomers20:34 Naturally occurring retirement communities23:40 Following where people actually live24:47 Demographics are facts that help us understand the future  Research/links:Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shifthttps://www.amazon.ca/Boom-bust-echo-profit-demographic/dp/0921912978David Foot on Aging Society & Youthhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7y2w9i_aAWhat David Foot didn't tell ushttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/what-david-foot-didnt-tell-us/article784233/Finding Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities - Agenda segmenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynlwpsye2c0Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina MaddeauxProduced by Meredith MartinFunded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/