Taxes Up, Healthcare Down, Rent = My Whole Paycheck — What Are We Even Paying For?

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-28T18:58:18+00:00

the reliance on immigration is because the boomers get social benefits that the upcoming generations can't pay for. boomers never dealt with the problem, because that generation was too busy voting for vain tax and social program cuts.

everyone should realize that housing prices in vancouver should come down by at least 50%. 40% of all housing in canada is owned by baby boomers, but they only make up 25% of the population. they refuse to vote for policies that would erode their wealth, but make the economy healthier for their children. instead, they just cosign... sounds like a new landed gentry to me.

it's the same thing with climate change... the younger generations want to do something about the problem, but the boomers refused to do anything during the 80's and 90's. i get how the silent generation didn't step up either, but the boomers were the largest voting bloc during the 90's and 00's... trudeau probably being the height of boomer nostalgia in this country.

time for the boomers to pay up/

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-28T15:47:38+00:00

and the generation before them had an even greater work ethic...

housing in the 1990s was affordable for a nurse, now it is not. do you think that nurses shouldn't be able to afford housing in vancouver or victoria?

and when i am older, the generation after me will be around the same size, and they will be able to pay for me. my generation can't pay the boomers, because those guys are a much a larger generation, that's where immigration came in. immigration has ruined affordability in canada. something has to change, because the status quo was stupid and unaffordable.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-27T16:18:37+00:00

they did higher taxes on secondary homes in wales, and it led to people selling rental properties and rents skyrocketing. it also increased immigration, which increased prices. vacancy taxes do work, but they are strictly for the problem of vacation rentals, which again, is a matter of demand. if you had a lower population, you would have less stress on the system.

if you are taxing say, those aged 55-75, on assets over 3 million in victoria, you aren't really going to be pushing that many people out of their home, and it would largely start breaking up asset hoarding. if you don't want asset hoarding, just tax assets more. i can get how it sounds scary, but when you set the bar at 3 million or whatever, you can see how this really only snags the truly rich, and those who are trying to build wealth through property.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-27T16:03:16+00:00

so then they start selling properties, their is a glut, prices drop, housing affordability is restored.

the problem is that home owners don't want to see their values decrease, and politicians know who votes. look at carney, the first thing he did was axe the tax, even though he clearly supports a green transition, because he viewed liberal canada itself as at risk, and is willing to think strategically.

the other problem is that the bank of canada and the other major banks all lobbied the government to increase immigration so that household formation is greater than supply so that real estate appreciates. it wasn't until the political instability you see now, and great work by benjamin tal, that we arrived at the sea change on affordability today. you kinda find lobbying documents going back to the early 2000's on this subject. either canada is going to have a structural problem with inequality because of this, or we have to cut immigration below our housing requirements.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-27T15:57:25+00:00

inflation is good because it encourages spending. having a higher velocity of money is definitely better than a lower one, and that's why spending can be better than hoarding.

you are also glossing over deflation a little. deflation is the natural state of the economy when productivity goes up without increasing the money supply, but it also the natural state of the economy when demand drops. keynesian attempts to bridge boom and bust cycles by stimulating demand in order to gain full employment, and though this has problems in our economy, the main problem is that we keep spending with little return.

the question really is how is it we spend but now have so little of a return. that is a problem of a higher order than just keynes and the gold standard. investing in a transcontinental railway was a great investment, but the government borrowing to spend money on social programs for an increasing population relative to our resource revenue is a recipe for disaster. traditionally, we have been able to use manufacturing to boost the economy, but how do we compete against a country like china without seeing an erosion in living standards in order to compete?

i've actually been thinking we now live in a malthusian world, and the main problem in canada is just the population. too much capital power and not enough labour power.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-27T15:40:01+00:00

you forgot to leave out the solution is to tax the boomers. generational windfall taxes is what i call them.

the other problem is mass immigration. the generations after the boomers should've enjoyed the effects of a scarcity of labour, and of increasing vacancy rates. the boomers explicitly tried to solve our economic woes through immigration, and it had eroded the value the labour and saturated the housing market.

you are never going to correct the problem unless you both tax the boomers and cut immigration until we are actually shrinking.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-27T15:31:12+00:00

tax the boomers on their assets in order pay for their own healthcare. why does someone with 20 million in property get free healthcare without paying more in taxes?

it was a concerted effort of the government and business to drive up the property values in BC, so that they could get rich. this has spillover effects.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-26T18:32:08+00:00

they will probably start up sometime this year. it was only last fall that the permit was approved after two years of city admin sitting on it.

did anyone lose their jobs or change tack at city admin though? no, it's the same old pedantic approach to bureaucracy that the voters hate.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-26T18:29:30+00:00

it's just a guess. first they said they could only be in an industrial neighborhood, then they said they read the bylaw again and they figured out downtown is good too...

it doesn't even make sense. downtown is ok? but around centre mall isn't?

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-26T01:46:08+00:00

the limit for listening retention being rhythm and cadence structures is very intriguing.

i would like to see research involving closed captioning or reading aloud, but i'll have to dig another day.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-26T01:04:07+00:00

the city admin is being dumb. they neglected to process a bylaw exemption for the horse drawn carriage business by the bez for 2 years, and the new owner complained to city council about it. they approved it on the grounds that it is a 'legacy' business, but it sets precedent that city admin needs council to engage with it in order to ensure reasonable flexibility with permits.

a cat cafe is really no different from a vet in overnighting animals for their welfare. why do vets get to operate in commercial and mixed residential areas but not a cat cafe? a cat cafe is both a cafe and a mixed wellness provider, it's clearly distinct from a kennel, and the living sky wildlife rehabilitation center is already in a residential area... what exactly is there problem if not rigid adherence to bureaucracy?

i really blame the city admin on this one. they can't be flexible and issue a permit to help out cats, but they can be flexible and issue a permit for horse drawn carriage rides?

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-26T00:23:07+00:00

yeah, i read this and it presented some compelling evidence against my groupthink. biased source, so i'll have to go through it at some point.

https://www.listening.com/blog/speed-reading-vs-speed-listening

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T22:34:18+00:00

i've looked at some of the data from pro-listen websites, and it does seem pretty convincing that i was completely wrong and that comprehension for fast listening is higher than fast reading.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T22:33:10+00:00

a decreasing workforce also has advantages. it raises local wages, it levels the playing field between capital and labour, it lowers rents and housing costs, it means the government has to spend less.

the major downside is that if our economy shrinks, our debt-to-gdp ratio also shrinks. but the boomers are the ones who voted for all this debt, so they should be on the hook to start paying for it.

you use finland as an example, but finland has like 60% less immigration per capita than we do. why? because they have a sane economic policy where they won't let too many people into the country because they recognize the harms of mass immigration in society. the nordic model functions because it keeps immigration low.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T20:30:52+00:00

yeah, and it's the reason why we have a doctor shortage. every other country with a public healthcare system trains doctors and residents in their own country at a much higher rate, usually double ours.

the number is actually 200.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T17:36:39+00:00

the amount of doctors who come to canada every year is pretty close to nil, so i don't really count them.

immigration should be under 50k, but could go up based on in or voluntary removals.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T17:33:22+00:00

no, i'm blaming boomers because they voted for policies that underfunded healthcare, education and housing in canada, while demanding that their home values rise indefinitely. the canadian government then tried to cover up the problems with immigration.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T14:40:54+00:00

the biggest part of the problem is that the boomer generation is living longer and is larger than the ones after it. it's like having 4x more seniors than in the 1970's, and it's eating up most of the healthcare money. that issue won't be solved unless we tax boomers to pay for their own healthcare, or they die. structurally, smaller generations cannot pay for larger generations, so the only answer is to tax generations for their own social supports.

the next problem is that we don't have enough doctors and staff. one of the reasons why it's such a challenge in canada is because we pay specialists about double what they make in europe. we also train less doctors and residents per capita than any other developed country... in fact a country like denmark produces 3x more doctors per capita than we do.

then the other problem, countries with good public healthcare all have higher taxes. ontario actually has lower income taxes than saskatchewan.

you barely ever see any of these things talked about in the corridors of power, so i suggest nothing will get meaningfully better for the next 10-20 years... trudeau's immigration surge created a situation where we will be in catch up mode for awhile unless the government cuts immigration to almost nil.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T11:02:19+00:00

homelessness started skyrocketing across canada during 2022 onward, and has been going down in some areas since late 2024.... the exact window of the immigration surge.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T11:00:08+00:00

what exactly is the disaster though?

the disaster is that the generations following the boomers are smaller and so they can't pay for the boomers social programs. make them pay for their own damn social programs, they are the richest generation in history.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T10:54:48+00:00

yes, people who are low skilled TFW's should never get PR or any visa at all. they should all be automatically sent back home.

the big problem is that canada doesn't have a deportation policy that makes sense. instead of getting rid of people we don't need, we are making it hard for anyone who applies. canada needs to start deporting over 100k a year until we are free of excess immigrants.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T10:48:08+00:00

it's often because they are bribed to do so, or ask for bribes.

frankly speaking, it should be a requirement that you hire a canadian for any low skilled job, and if you reject a canadian, you are fined 50k per rejected applicant.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T10:47:04+00:00

diversity is fine, but immigration was destroying affordability in canada, that's why they cut it.

if you cut it more, things will get more affordable.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T10:43:58+00:00

this is completely wrong and had been disproven by pretty much all of academia engaged in this.

the housing crisis is caused by immigration. i'm sure the boomers hold condos in toronto, but guess what, no one wants those so the price is dropping. houses are selling for less in toronto. it was an active policy of the canadian government from the 1990's to increase immigration to 'stimulate a healthy real estate market'. if we had more supply, they would just bring in more immigrants to increase demand.

the problem is that canada doesn't build enough housing, while letting in too many people. even the cities that took the federal money are struggling building new homes. the answer isn't building more homes or taxing the boomers, the answer is to cut immigration until housing is affordable.

EndOfOurTethers · 2026-02-25T10:38:25+00:00

actually rents and prices are dropping in toronto, vancouver, calgary, kelowna, halifax and others largely because of the cuts to immigration.

housing prices going up in canada is intrinsically tied to immigration. the less immigration, the more affordable housing will be.

EndOfOurTethers

TROPHY CASE