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Old 08-23-2015, 04:23 PM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,791,632 times
Reputation: 4707

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Quote:
Originally Posted by boochild View Post
Canadians are incredibly vital to the local economy. In 24 years in Bellingham, I've never had any problems with Canadians visiting our lovely city. The more, the merrier, I say.
The Canadian dollar is inevitably tanking due to Canada's socialist economy and the large amount of Canadian currency going into the US retail businesses is taking its toll on Canada now.

Now, with the Canadian dollar being 30% weaker than the American dollar I am thinking we are going to start seeing a scaling back of Canadian shoppers and even may see some of our American dollars being spent over the border, as Canadian vacations are going to get a lot cheaper. The Canadian border guards may even have to start being nice to us yankees for the sake their economy now. However, I am wondering what impact this may have on Bellingham's economy. Canada's mismanaged socialist bureaucracy probably means Canada's economy may only get worse before it gets better and that may also hit Bellingham hard, which has no real local economy and whose economy thrives mostly on the nearby metropolis of Vancouver, BC. Sure, Bellingham does have some tourists and retirees to help boost it up a little, but tourist and retiree money can go only go so far and generally doesn't help the local working population and even can go as far as to harm the economy in some ways as average working class people cannot survive with bloated property values.

If Canadians had any sense, they would not tax to death their citizens and import ungodly duties on all their products (many which are imported) that make it so hard for average Canadians to survive. On average, Vancouver residents make much less than Seattle residents, yet pay even more money to live, including both high rents , utilities and other living costs.

It would make sense that Canadians would make products available cheaper in their country and it woudl be Americans hording the Canadian stores and borders to get better deals which, in combination with retaining the dollars of Canadian citizens, would generate considerably more revenue, jobs and an economic boost than the more socialistic system of heavily taxing all the country's imports.

But, crooked politicians have deep pockets and don't generally care about their citizens, who naively keep supporting them.
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Old 08-23-2015, 05:24 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,063 posts, read 106,870,458 times
Reputation: 115814
Pssst, Rotse..... Canada's dollar has been about 25% weaker than the dollar, give or take, for idk, most of the last 70 years, at least. It's been rare that it was at par or stronger. And that weakness never stopped people from shopping in the States.

One reason Canadian-made goods are more expensive is that Canada believes in paying it's workers decent wages and good benefits. Plus there's that universal health care.... Unfortunately, Canadians don't seem to believe in supporting their own; they undermine the system by buying cheap US goods (most of which are imported, these days, from places where workers don't get a decent wage or benefits).

Bellingham and Blaine will do fine. Don't worry.
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Old 08-23-2015, 05:25 PM
 
617 posts, read 1,196,067 times
Reputation: 721
Quote:
Originally Posted by RotseCherut View Post
The Canadian dollar is inevitably tanking due to Canada's socialist economy and the large amount of Canadian currency going into the US retail businesses is taking its toll on Canada now.

Now, with the Canadian dollar being 30% weaker than the American dollar I am thinking we are going to start seeing a scaling back of Canadian shoppers and even may see some of our American dollars being spent over the border, as Canadian vacations are going to get a lot cheaper. The Canadian border guards may even have to start being nice to us yankees for the sake their economy now. However, I am wondering what impact this may have on Bellingham's economy. Canada's mismanaged socialist bureaucracy probably means Canada's economy may only get worse before it gets better and that may also hit Bellingham hard, which has no real local economy and whose economy thrives mostly on the nearby metropolis of Vancouver, BC. Sure, Bellingham does have some tourists and retirees to help boost it up a little, but tourist and retiree money can go only go so far and generally doesn't help the local working population and even can go as far as to harm the economy in some ways as average working class people cannot survive with bloated property values.

If Canadians had any sense, they would not tax to death their citizens and import ungodly duties on all their products (many which are imported) that make it so hard for average Canadians to survive. On average, Vancouver residents make much less than Seattle residents, yet pay even more money to live, including both high rents , utilities and other living costs.

It would make sense that Canadians would make products available cheaper in their country and it woudl be Americans hording the Canadian stores and borders to get better deals which, in combination with retaining the dollars of Canadian citizens, would generate considerably more revenue, jobs and an economic boost than the more socialistic system of heavily taxing all the country's imports.

But, crooked politicians have deep pockets and don't generally care about their citizens, who naively keep supporting them.
Another major factor that plays into it is the fact that Canada's economy is largely energy/resource dependent. In other words, China dependent... With so much Chinese investment in Vancouver, the effects are definitely going to be felt when China's economy goes south. This will likely have some kind of impact on Bellingham. How much remains to be seen.
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Old 08-23-2015, 05:57 PM
 
67 posts, read 208,096 times
Reputation: 54
Quote:
Originally Posted by leon_foonman View Post
But Texas has Ted Cruz, who is one of the only real American patriots in the US Government. And Texas doesn't buy in to all that political correct crap like Washington hippies do. Frankly why anyone would want to live near any *******s is beyond me.
You couldn't give me a home on the West coast, no way. Tree huggers have ruined business opportunities by keeping industry out of public lands. National Parks are just a lame excuse to keep the timber and mining industry from developing the land they rightfully own. The whole PNW thing is about keeping good paying jobs away so the greenies and *******s can live off their trust funds.
Down here in the panhandle we treat the land the way it ought to be treated, like dirt!

tell that to the guy in Parker County Texas that has a 7 million dollar home ruined from fracking. He turns on his water to fill his 200 gallon bath tub and fire comes out of the faucet when he waves a match under it ! Take a look at google maps and zoom out to view all the gas wells, they are flat destroying the state and destroying the water of so many homes it is very sad to see. I guess if you are a land owner with mineral rights you may be laughing all the way to the bank, but the state is paying dearly for this destruction and will do so for many years to come. Washington state would never allow this to happen they care too much for the protection of the natural resources...
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Old 08-24-2015, 05:24 AM
 
Location: Forest bathing
3,184 posts, read 2,443,493 times
Reputation: 7219
Quote:
Originally Posted by leon_foonman View Post
But Texas has Ted Cruz, who is one of the only real American patriots in the US Government. And Texas doesn't buy in to all that political correct crap like Washington hippies do. Frankly why anyone would want to live near any *******s is beyond me.
You couldn't give me a home on the West coast, no way. Tree huggers have ruined business opportunities by keeping industry out of public lands. National Parks are just a lame excuse to keep the timber and mining industry from developing the land they rightfully own. The whole PNW thing is about keeping good paying jobs away so the greenies and *******s can live off their trust funds.
Down here in the panhandle we treat the land the way it ought to be treated, like dirt!
Sarcasm? Timber and mining companies do NOT own national parks. They belong to US citizens.
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Old 08-24-2015, 07:43 AM
 
67 posts, read 208,096 times
Reputation: 54
I moved to Midlothian Texas in 1986, bought a house and raised 2 kids there. From way before 86 the town allowed cement companies to move in and blast the limestone to make concrete, it is the concrete capitol of Texas. My second child has suffered from asthma and other immune related illness since his birth and so do many thousands of other people who live around that area. Then in later 2014 I move to Concrete Washington where they once had a huge cement company. The state saw early on what was happening to the soil, air and rates of pollution where destroying the area so they put a fast halt to the operations. I am so glad they did this even though it cost the town many jobs. The population dropped by half as a result. In Texas they would have never done this. In fact the city gives them a 3 way tax abatement to move in and pollute away, that is a good ole boy state that cares about one thing, cha-ching..
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Old 08-29-2015, 07:26 PM
 
181 posts, read 268,394 times
Reputation: 181
Default The people

Quote:
Originally Posted by rkcarguy View Post
Alot of you I noticed are searching for info about Bellingham, and being a lifetime resident of Bellingham I will fill you in. My wife is 27 and I am 31. Bellingham was a nice little town. A skilled trade worker could make $12-$15/hr maybe more and median price homes were in the $140K range. A few years ago some dumb retirement magazine named Bellingham #2 in the nation to retire in. As you can imagine they came in groves from California, Arizona, Florida, and more. Some of them not the best quality of people either. Real Estate prices went thru the roof, and are still horribly high, averaging around $470,000 currently for the homes listed for sale. Very few jobs here are capable of supporting such a mortgage, it's said that 90% of the working families here can't afford a home. There are so many availiable jobs here for that reason, alot of the workers packed up and left because there is pretty much no hope here. The anti-growth attitude of our local government caused a massive price increase of real estate and cost of living. This inflated cost of living is passed down to everyone. We pay more for gas, food, homes, and property taxes, but the worst is that the jobs don't pay anymore than 5 years ago. A co-worker of mine built his own home on the lake in the 80's, cost him about $85K and they paid it off in the 90's. In 2006 it was assessed at $680,000, making his property taxes approx $780 a month on a home he built himself and owns outright! My wife is a Biology teacher with a Master's and I am a jouneyman union structural steel worker, and together we are looking at maybe being able to afford a home if we can get a deal on the lot and build it ourselves. Most of the working people here are stuck in apartments or, like us, living with relatives waiting for this hell to end. Last week some old bag in a big BMW backed into my car in the parking lot and ran, gotta love it. The police won't even do anything and my insurance either has to cover it, or we leave our car with a big dent in it. There's nothing to do here for fun and we have a high crime rate, almost 2x the average. Our police are worthless. Your car gets stolen, too bad. House gets burglarized, too bad. Doing 5 over, you're getting a ticket. I have family here that need us to be here, so I am stuck here unfortunately. Those of you looking to relocate, look carefully. Weigh availialble jobs and average pay with cost of homes, and choose a state that HAS an income tax. Go where everyone else, isn't. Remember our economy goes by "demand and supply". Retiree's are flocking to WA to avoid income tax which is really dumb because we have a nasty 8.5%+ sales tax, almost .50 of gas tax, and some nasty and still rising property taxes. Our medical services are overrun, everyone is short on nurses and doctors, yet doctors can do much better elseware so it doesn't improve. I don't even bother to go to the doctor anymore even with full benefits, by the time I can get an appointment whatever was wrong is gone or maybe one day I'll be dead. Most anywhere in the state will be better than Bellingham. In Seattle/Tacoma/Olypia you have a little bit higher prices but alot more potential for income and certainly alot more to do. The next few years will be very interesting, with so many people moving here to retire, it's creating alot of needs and less business/workers and industry to pay for it.
Anyway sorry to be so negative but in the last 5-6 years it's really gone in the toilet here, unless you're some Millionaire real estate land maggot.
The people need to start mailing the Governor. People should be able to put referendum on the table and have a vote. That happened here in CA with prop 13. The Democratic morons that run CA want to overturn prop 13 now. I'm moving anyway but the residents of CA have no idea what they are in for if the Democrats get their way.
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Old 08-30-2015, 01:24 AM
 
28,107 posts, read 63,385,620 times
Reputation: 23222
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teufelshund20 View Post
The people need to start mailing the Governor. People should be able to put referendum on the table and have a vote. That happened here in CA with prop 13. The Democratic morons that run CA want to overturn prop 13 now. I'm moving anyway but the residents of CA have no idea what they are in for if the Democrats get their way.
Washington voters approved their own version of California Prop 13 and it was called I-747

Unfortunately, it was tossed by a King country judge and my Washington Property Tax went up 80% the next year... it had been assessed at my purchase price the previous year...

Property Tax is a wildcard in Washington... my property tax is now $1,000 per month... about the same as the mortgage.
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Old 08-30-2015, 03:32 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,063 posts, read 106,870,458 times
Reputation: 115814
How did Bellingham fare in the recent windstorm? Or was that localized to parts of the Olympic Peninsula? A lot of huge trees were downed, due to the ultra-dry soil not being able to hold their roots. Something like that could cause chaos in a place like B-ham. But I hear that Bellingham isn't as dry, so maybe the soil hasn't turned to dust?
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Old 08-30-2015, 07:15 PM
 
Location: Bellingham, WA
9,726 posts, read 16,670,834 times
Reputation: 14887
We had some damage and a lot of power outages, but it was mostly just little branches scattered everywhere. I was at Hovander Park for the Muds to Suds race and the cottonwood trees were snapping left and right. Eventually they evacuated just to be safe. A few tense moments, but coming from the southeast, where tornadoes were a regular occurrence, it all seemed pretty mild to me.
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