The average Canadian has experienced zero real growth in income or standard of living since the beginning of the new century 13 years ago.Less than 15 per cent of us think the next generation will be better off.The average Canadian is now much less likely to locate themselves in the "middle class" which has fallen below 50 per cent in self-definition.Vertical social mobility is no longer upward; it's downward as the diminished middle class falls backward into the working class or the poor.These are Canada's latest social and economic barometers according to political pollster and social anthropologist Frank Graves, founder and head of Ekos Research, one of Canada's leading public opinion research firms.In an essay titled 'Choosing A Better Future' posted on the Ekos website on July 26, Graves concludes that "while it may not be too bad, nothing in the future looks all that positive for the average Canadian...