Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Dystopian Nightmare title was catch bait so I thought it wouldn't be as insightful as it was but the guy was well researched and balanced.
There is a perfect storm of issues right now. All of them need to be addressed but the demise of Canada is just a drama statement.
We need to
1) reduce cost of living for Canadians
2) reduce immigration levels for a few years so the housing supply/demand forces can move to a more balanced position
3) wartime effort to increase housing supply across all levels of government. If this means some indviduals need to deal with more dense hoods and shadows - oh well its either that or your kids will live with you until you 65 or they'll have to live in a tent.
4) paradigm shift in moving our education system to a more STEM based system. Maths, Sciences, Engineering etc need to be encouraged along with trades. We need social sciences but we need more STEM! More of those less bloated government officials.
5) Investments that will provide real economic benefit for Canadians and increase productivity.
6) wartime effort to maximize resource extraction including things like critical minerals and energies the world needs that we have.
Well I should have also added the U.S to that list of 3. But between those 3 countries alone they contribute almost half the worlds emissions. I want to be clear as well, i'm not advocating not moving towards more and more of a green economy. It is the future, i'm just saying that right now, I don't think the carbon tax is helping Canadian consumers. I think there are other ways we can invest in green innovation. I'm not even talking about scrapping it altogether, but perhaps reducing it a bit would be helpful right now.
I think the reason emissions are increasing in countries like China and India in particular is because of massive populations and a growing/developing middle class. I'm not faulting them for this - however the truth is absolutes matter more than per capita emissions when it comes to climate change. Western demand, sure is part of that but it is mostly just what is going on domestically in those countries in terms of increased domestic consumption.
Per capita values also don't show the whole picture. Canada is a cold country so we are going to consume more than the average peer nation. You can't compare the per cap emissions between developing vs developed nations on a level field either - obviously a wealthier country means consumers will consume more
I'm speaking to this on very basic levels PDW - people are really struggling and I don't think the carbon taxes are helping. The latest carbon tax increase in July is being largely attributed to an increase in inflation in August. The B.O.C thank goodness accounted for this by not increasing the interest rate yet again.
I am concerned about the cost of EV vehicles in 2035. I hope hope hope that they will not be 2X the cost of a gasoline powered car developed in 2034 or it'll just mean that other countries C.O.L will have yet another big advantage over Canada. We may actually reduce our per cap emissions over time - because our economy starts contracting and Canadians becoming poorer. So again - I'm not some climate change denier - at all. I just don't think right now, our current carbon policies and taxation are going to improve the climate change trajectory and may actually just be a contributor to Canadians being poorer and struggling more. People will just move and immigrate to countries that make it more affordable just to live life.
It would be useful if we invested in materials that don't require petrochemicals. That would reduce fossil fuel demand as an example. It could also be an innovation boon for Canada. Throwing money at a problem without focus and balance isn't always the best solution. There are for example plant based alternatives that could be used instead of petrochemicals. It isn't just the materials themselves but how to manufacture such materials and actually make stuff to export.
This argument I keep hearing pointing the figure at China and India just doesn’t make sense to me when their per capita numbers are lower. Do you see what I mean that it looks hypocritical when we sit here on our high horses pointing the finger at them when we are one of the largest emitters per capita in the world? We consume more as a wealthy country yes, and demanding they reduce emissions before we do while they’re trying to pull their population out of poverty seems unfair. Yes being a cold country and using natural gas to heat our homes plays a part but Quebec for example uses mostly electric heating and has for decades due to their investments in hydroelectricity making the energy more cost efficient. The truth is, the carbon tax is pretty much the last frontier of doing any sort of climate action at all. It’s a free market solution proposed by right libertarian economists in the 1980s. It shouldn’t be this politically polarizing but here we are. I’d vote liberal on that issue alone if the Conservatives want to scrap it.
Canada and the whole world are facing a crisis. Other developed countries are struggling, even developing countries are struggling. We, the humanity, chose it. When we seem to think that the economy is a game which we can change the rules as we want and that money is endless, we're choosing crisis. Let's face the problem and deal with it
But chill out, Canada still is a first world country.
I remember worse inflation. I remember accepting a 9% 5-year fixed rate for my mortgage. I remember Canada Savings Bonds offering a 19% interest rate for the first year (that was in 1979 I think). I remember people losing their homes because they could no longer afford their mortgage. I remember an occasional story about seniors on fixed incomes eating cat food (the Canada Pension Plan was only started in 1965 so any pension received, if any, would have been tiny).
A couple of key differences from now though. Wages rose at the same time inflation did (although I’m not sure if it was to the same extent). That may have been partly due to stronger unions back then. People lost their homes because they really couldn’t afford to buy them in the first place and when inflation and high interest rates hit, they were screwed. Back in the late 70s, a home could be purchased with a down payment as little as $1,000. That’s equivalent to about $5,000 today. Minimum required down payments were raised quite a bit after that.
Inflation is temporary. It will pass. Hopefully people will retain the lessons learned about how to deal with tough times though because they will happen again, although maybe not to this generation. The silent generation who went through the depression certainly retained the lessons they learned. What they didn’t do was whine. They just silently played the hand they were dealt as best they could and became a lot more resilient.
As far as the housing shortage is concerned, we’ll that is something new.
The silent generation who went through the depression certainly retained the lessons they learned. What they didn’t do was whine. They just silently played the hand they were dealt as best they could and became a lot more resilient.
Give m a break, you remember the great depression? How old are you, are you 100 years old? I'd also be surprised if no one in 1929 complained when they lost their life savings, but then again unlike you I wasn't alive in 1929. What a rude and ignorant way to dismiss the fact that Canada literally has a declining per capita GDP.
It isn't "whining" to ask how the heck Canada became a dumping ground for millions more third world migrants when we already can't afford housing, or why people can't even get doctors anymore when it is taken out of your paycheck. Do you want mass homelessness? Why aren't we allowed to talk about it?
Is it whining to ask how Vancouver became the drug capital of the world, and why insane leftists in the government are literally handing out crack to crackheads? You need to have a combined income of way over $100,000 to even rent a relatively safe and decent place, but you still can't buy anything. Have you guys ever made well over $100,000? If not, cut the BS.
If that is whining, then you just don't care about anyone other than yourself. No doubt if you really are that old then you are part of the generation that is making dividends everyday off of a property bought for peanuts that is now worth well over $1 million while university educated families are can't even afford to feed their families.
I suspect it makes some of you feel guilty to be part of screwing over your own grandchildren if you actually have any that talk to you.
And i'm talking to you in particular Zoisite not Netwit. This is way more serious than that other LGBTQ thread where you were crying about gay people using bathrooms.
This ass backwards mentality of trusting the government to just resolve everything is insane when the entire issue is created the government. This isn't a game. Stop being a shill.
You know that Argentine was once as wealthy as Canada before WWI, and their economy never just recovered by chilling out like Eduardo said. That was their problem, they chilled out so much that their elites tanked the country. They have a poor country for over a century now. Countries don't just deserve to be part of the first world they actually have to earn and maintain it.
Probably because the old generation proved allowed themselves to be rippied off over and over and bent over and took it. Canadians have a reputation for being easily manipulated, of course we'll continue getting ripped off.
It's not that I'm unsympathetic. You do rather make Vancouver sound like the worst place on earth. Since I'm not in Vancouver I won't contradict you but ever since I can remember, Vancouver has been making the news about real estate prices. Since Manitobans have so little to brag about vis-a-vis BC, newscasts would show a Vancouver dump of a house for an outrageous price and the mansion that money would buy you in Manitoba.
Not new news when you're as old as the hills.
I know you focused on the Depression but the 1979 referenced in Irene's post doesn't seem that long ago to me. I remember those interest rates and I remember people losing their farms and my father had always been a cautious farmer, squeezing the last little bit out of equipment unlike some farmers who bought new. And I remember neighbours arguing with my father about how the younger generation would never be able to afford their own homes and my father arguing back that if he could do it with nothing but hard work so could everyone else.
A lot of people here would consider $100,000 to be a good living wage and they certainly buy their own homes. Maybe some people in Vancouver should do what Newfoundlanders did in moving to Alberta order to survive and move to less popular provinces?
And of course I come from a background of immigrants a lot of Canadians didn't want so while you may have a point on housing, to me the phrase "dumping ground" implies that our immigrants are worthless and there's not much I can agree with you on that. Who is going to be chipping in for your Old Age pension down the road?
The problem with drugs is that they are illegal.
Property bought for "peanuts" wasn't peanuts to the people who worked and saved to buy it. We didn't have the free money that's been floating around for quite a few years.
I know those years must seem as ancient history to you as the Depression years did to me.
One thing about getting older is that you see how history keeps repeating itself, right down to a newer Trudeau to blame for everything. All that being said, I think things will get much worse.
Give me a break, you remember the great depression? How old are you, are you 100 years old?
...... And i'm talking to you in particular Zoisite not Netwit. This is way more serious than that other LGBTQ thread where you were crying about gay people using bathrooms.
I'm not quite 100 yet but closing in on it too fast for my satisfaction. I have great grandchildren in their teens and I remember the events and the food rationing and victory gardens and sacrifices everyone had to make during and just after World War 2. I remember a lot about the past. Where were you then?
I can tell from the way you complain and snivel that you were probably still just a hopeful gleam in your great grand-daddy's teenage eyes at that time and you likely didn't put in your appearance until after 1999 so don't give me your complaining wiener's guff like you think you know what you're talking about. Get a grip on reality and do something positive and pro-active instead of complaining and singling people out to point your finger at anonymously on forums about things you have no experience with. The world is never going to be handed to you on a silver platter the way you want it to be if all you can do is complain about how things aren't going the way you want them to.
You have me confused with somebody else anyway - I don't have a problem with real gays, I never cried about gay people using bathrooms and I don't care if gays need to use bathrooms. I'll gladly hand them some toilet paper under their stall if they need it. I do not like the appropriation of the world's rainbow by the alphabet crowds who have abbreviated themselves into letters of the alphabet and I'm quite vocal about that. Also, I did complain about the actions of the perverted old man that was dressed in a halloween wig and a skirt that he was using as a flag to wave around on his little bobbing upright flag pole while he was pretending to be a woman taking photographs of women in the women's washroom. But that old pervert wasn't gay, he was just a pervert indulging himself and his flag pole. I said he needed some woman there to give his bobbing flag pole a really hard smack on it with a heavy purse and then kick him and his flag pole out of the women's washroom. If I'd been there I'd have been just exactly the right little old woman to do it because my purse is practically big enough for me to climb into, it's heavy and I really know how to swing it hard. If you have a problem with any of that, well that's YOUR problem not mine, and I don't care about your problems. I'm sick and tired of the sniveling of entitlement minded whippersnappers like you. So grow up.
.
Last edited by Zoisite; 09-24-2023 at 03:19 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
