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Canada is a one-trick pony. Half the economy is digging up fossilized dinosaur parts. The other half is selling overpriced fixer-uppers to Chinese money launderers. No innovation, no jobs, no future.
It doesn't sound like you know anything about Canada's economy (not surprising).
Oil accounts for 8% of Canada's GDP, and housing accounts for 12% (same percentage as it does for the US economy). Manufacturing is a larger contributor to Canada's GDP than oil.
"half and half".
lol.
Granted Canada is extremely rich in terms of natural resources, everything from oil (3rd largest reserves in the world) to fresh water (7% of the world's supply and it's renewable) to rare earth minerals. Even with arable land, if based on your numbers Canada has 25% of what the US does, it only needs it for 10% of the population.
The issue is our population is low (though always growing), so realizing this wealth is a process. But we do well for our size and provide a very high standard of living for the average citizen. You go from San Francisco to Vancouver and it's immediately noticeable the night and day difference in quality of life, and San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the USA with a lot of numbers for randys like you to pump up.
Also you're a moron to compare the GDP per capita of an urban center like NYC to an entire country like Canada, where rural areas bring down overall numbers. But it's also significantly cheaper to live in these areas than it is in NYC.
Last edited by Mr. Burns; 12-23-2016 at 01:23 AM..
So you visit the U.S. and go out of your way to visit every city possible (as you've previously stated)
Actually 47 American states. Only three left to go are Hawaii, Alaska, and Minnesota. For major cities, only Minneapolis, Honolulu, Charleston (S.C.), Savannah, and Anchorage remaining (and several dozens of smaller cities still left to see). I've been to South Carolina (Columbia and Greenville) and Georgia (Atlanta) before though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by manitopiaaa
just so you can later complain about how terrible they are?
Half-true.
No doubt about it, I definitely alluded to how terrible some cities would be for me, but I was talking about from the perspective of actually having to live there. Some cities are not at all a good fit for me for a multitude of reasons, so yeah, several would be terrible for me.
Aside from one city (that city is not Chicago or San Francisco - just clarifying before you twist things), I haven't been to any others in America that I hated spending time in for a visit. Yes, I do think after seeing most of them at least once that it makes going back to see them sort of pointless. Mainly because the majority didn't knock my socks off. I had a decent to good time (not great, just good) in majority of them. Had a great time in a minority of them. So yeah, I don't want to spend my time and money going back to places that were just alright. Again, not to say that I hated the visiting experience in them, but it isn't practical to go back to places that just didn't connect. I mean time and money are finite, not like they grow on trees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by manitopiaaa
Why don't you just visit Toronto every day if their cookie cutters are so special to you?
I do think it is interesting that my post didn't even mention Toronto, not even once, but that your response to me throws it in anyways. Why is that?
You realize that custom user title under my handle name says "the Triumvirate: Miami-Sydney-Melbourne". If you want to attack my taste in cities, you should probably start with these three since these are bar none, absolutely without question my favorite cities in the world. Three way tie for #1.
To you though, you'll just keep thinking Toronto is my favorite city in the world. No doubt, Toronto is among my top 15-20 favorite cities in the world. Just stop mischaracterizing it though. If I cannot live in Sydney or Miami or Melbourne, then Toronto is as great an option for me as any after that. I wouldn't hesitate to live in Toronto, that's for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by manitopiaaa
Whatever helps you sleep at night I suppose.
Trance music, occasionally dubstep or house. You should look into it.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 12-23-2016 at 01:43 AM..
Strange how the same occurs for people from Chicago, San Fran, Boston, NYC, LA, Seattle & every other city, town, state, & village if their place is slighted.
Strange how the same occurs for people from Chicago, San Fran, Boston, NYC, LA, Seattle & every other city, town, state, & village if their place is slighted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ant131531
Strange how people from Toronto come from a great city, yet still have a huge insecurity complex.
Doesn't bother me a bit if someone doesn't like Toronto or has objective and fair criticism of it. I get this is a vs forum but some people in here here are just over the top and go out of their way with things.
So you visit the U.S. and go out of your way to visit every city possible (as you've previously stated) just so you can later complain about how terrible they are? Why don't you just visit Toronto every day if their cookie cutters are so special to you?
And you "completely despise" Boston, Chicago and San Francisco and yet still pretend you're neutral here? Whatever helps you sleep at night I suppose.
He's not neutral. He's always pushing agendas from his "London flat" at 3 AM London time.
To be completely fair, my personal issues with America are not tied to its politics. While I'm no fan of Donald or Hillary and if I still lived in America, I would have just stayed home this election and not have voted at all. However, personally speaking though, they aren't my biggest gripe with the country. At the end of the day, I can live with the results.
America is one of my favorite countries for a number of reasons but my beef with the country is that I loathe its collection of cities and some of them I loathe quite a lot.
If you go through the list, lets say we approach this as hardliners and put a cut off of sorts at the 5 million people or more mark. This means we're looking specifically at the first 12 metropolises on the list (everything from New York, which is #1 on down to Detroit, which is #12). Of those 12 places above 5 million, I only happen to like 2 of them enough to ever consider living in (Miami and New York) and consider going back to for a visit on leisure again and again (Miami and New York). If we use the "approval rating" process, then that means I only can stomach 16.6% of America's top 12 largest metropolises (2 out of 12). Meaning I either am neutral of and by neutral meaning I don't hate them but I don't go out of my way to like them either (Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Washington), don't care for (Detroit), or completely despise (all the rest) the other 10 (the other 83.4% of the top 12).
When you expand the list to metropolises over 1 million people, then there are 60 of them, lets also round up Honolulu as well (because by 2016 its likely already crossed 1 million), so 61 places in America over 1 million people. Out of 61, I only happen like 18 of them enough to consider living in and have a desire to go back to for leisure. So I approve and accept 29.5% of America's 61 largest metropolises, and completely disavow and want absolutely nothing to do with the other 70.5% completely. I'll be perfectly happy if I never have to see those 43 out of 61 places again in my life.
Just speaking for myself, I'm no fan at all of that country's cities. I only like a minority number of them. I like a lot of things about America and overall it is one of my top 5 favorite countries in the world but it didn't get into the top 5 because of its collection of cities, it got in for other reasons (location, variation in topography and climate, economics, cost of living, ethnic diversity, variation in ethnic foods, my family and friends living there, so on). This is where some of the other countries have the edge with me, countries like Australia or Israel or Canada or Germany or Japan or New Zealand or Thailand or the United Kingdom or Spain or some Northern European countries. I happen to like a majority number of their cities, the complete opposite of my personal take on America, where I only like a minority number of them.
How many other countries can you name where there are 18 or more cities where you would "consider living in and have a desire to go back to for leisure"?
How many other countries can you name where there are 18 or more cities where you would "consider living in and have a desire to go back to for leisure"?
Most US cities are pretty lacking in regards to what I like, especially as this is an extremely wealthy developed country. There have been some heartening trends over the last decade or so for building better cities, but there's still a lot of bad planning and leftovers from disinvestment that's not going away all that quickly.
Most US cities are pretty lacking in regards to what I like, especially as this is an extremely wealthy developed country. There have been some heartening trends over the last decade or so for building better cities, but there's still a lot of bad planning and leftovers from disinvestment that's not going away all that quickly.
You're never going to transform a place like Dallas or Atlanta into a place like Chicago or Philadelphia. It's just not going to happen. It would take literally DECADES of coordinated planning from the top down and I don't see that happening. How much of a "city" is a city that has a bunch of skyscrapers in a sq. mile core and then almost entirely SFHs for literally dozens of miles in each direction? I guess you have to start somewhere, but traditional urbanism has always been developed organically. Retrofitting usually results in New Urbanist developments where parking is just hidden behind the building. It's an improvement though. Can feel a bit like a theme park when done poorly.
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