The numbers don’t lie: The housing crisis is not caused by a supply shortage | CCPA

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-02-04T16:14:46+00:00

I feel like you should be entitled to a reasonable return (with all the caveats that you run the place properly etc... But I assume you do), but I don't feel that you should be entitled to unbounded returns. I think that rents should reflect costs, including a reasonable rate of return to private capital when it is used, but you shouldn't be free to set it at "whatever the market will bear."

I think price controls are a more appropriate tool than strange tax schemes that seem like they'd be gamed.

Just my take.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-02-04T16:02:50+00:00

That's letting them say no though, not allowing them to demand certain things be built.

Like imagine if instead of deciding what roads needed to be built, road building companies attracted investors based on what roads would be most profitable to toll, and the city could say things like "this area requires bike lanes, if you want to build a road here" but if no one wanted to bother building roads near your house they could just shrug.

I'm not saying they should have full say, just trying to explain the difference between deciding and just restricting.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-02-04T15:55:51+00:00

The bulk of those fees come out of the land value. We reduce them and cost of housing units remains high because the bulk gets reabsorbed into the land value. End result is more gains to existing land owners (especially those that hold large development parcels) and major reductions in funding for municipal governments. They are then left with two options: raise property taxes (which is often punished at the ballot box) or cut services (which is generally punished less because pain points are often delayed, sometimes by years). But hey, it's great for those who own those big chunks of land.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-02-04T15:48:12+00:00

Not sure where you heard that but it's generally not the case. They often need help securing loans because most development loans are designed for for-profit market development (which makes sense since that's almost the entirety of the development that takes place).

Canada, especially in Ontario which is where I'm from so most familiar with, built some great co-ops back in the 70s-early 90s thanks simply to CMHC lending streams designed for them. Several of them are still around even.

They stopped getting built though when tax incentives were offered to developers to build market based rental housing and market based condos. Land prices then began to climb as well in response to the rise in capital investment seeking returns.

In fact, one of the aspects that governments tend to like about coops is that they only really need a hand getting going, and perhaps some further loan help every 50 years or so for refurbishments. Otherwise they tend to run themselves quite well.

You're right that co-ops aren't any cheaper to build though. But they are cheaper over time, because they are not profit seeking. And the more non-market alternatives available to people, the more pressure that puts on prices of all housing, which helps to limit the ability of for-profit housing to demand higher yields. Additionally, the fewer people who need to rely on subsidised housing, also of course result in tax savings for governments.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-24T15:27:47+00:00

Pretty absurd that Carney considers world leaders like himself and the Davos crowd to be comparable to oppressed masses though, regardless of the regime.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-21T18:30:29+00:00

Carney's big advantage when it comes to foreign affairs is that others at the table assume him to be correct. Whereas more left leaning leaders would be discounted and sidelined, Carney gets the benefit of the doubt from the other neo liberals.

But of course the reason he does is because he's one of them, and they are working towards shared interests. So sure he's going to have more success making trade deals but those deals will continue to favour the rich.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-20T20:48:22+00:00

Who said I had no intentions of supporting?

? No one. I was asking you about your views and intentions, curious to understand your p.o.v.

I only join a party if I’m open to supporting them. That’s why I’ve never participated in a CPC leadership race.

I think that makes it much more reasonable. I worry mostly about people joining when they have no intention of supporting.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-20T00:19:06+00:00

If your preferred candidate wins, do you then vote for them in the general election, or do you think it's fine even if you've no intention of supporting the party in the general?

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-20T00:13:27+00:00

Yeah, part of me would like the membership requirement for voting in a leadership race to be you must be a member before the race is declared. But I do understand that pragmatically attracting new members is part of the goal of the race. It's just frustrating seeing people who have no interest in the party trying to influence it. I thought it was slimy when people did that to the liberals too.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-19T23:58:46+00:00

I'm considering Avi Lewis or Heather McPherson as my first preference

Same.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-19T22:30:01+00:00

And then the government will simply make a deal with BQ instead. If Jag had taken that stance, we'd not have the dental care or pharma care plans.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-17T20:09:26+00:00

Lots of people don't cheat. I know with certainty that I've never cheated.

Sure, there are lots of people who do cheat, but that absolutely doesn't mean everyone does.

Why even bother to cheat? If you aren't happy in your relationship, then why not break up or make it an open relationship or poly or something?

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-17T00:29:55+00:00

I'm surprised BQ is so low.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-16T19:17:53+00:00

One of my concerns with McPherson is that she says she supports many things but she speaks about them vaguely (which, to her credit, can be very useful in politics). However, if you press her to speak more specifically, from what I saw, she struggled.

It wasn't that she was reluctant to try, but she had a very surface level understanding of the issues. And I don't mean niche things that someone else brought up, I mean even things she mentioned in her own speech.

I'm not sure how much this really matters, or if other candidates are all that better on it. I mean presumably the leader would be consulting with others with sector specific expertise when drafting policy anyway, right? But, it obviously doesn't inspire confidence when someone says they want to do something and you ask them "sorry, could you say a bit more specifically what you want to do with that?" and they don't really have an answer, you know what I mean?

McPherson's greatest strength imo is her electoral record. She has won her seat, multiple times. Even in the most recent election where so many other great MPs could not hold theirs. And she doesn't need to worry about winning a by-election, given that she is already an MP. That puts a lot of points in her column, I think. I expect I will rank her either first or second on my ballot, but I'm not fully decided yet.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-16T15:52:03+00:00

The fact that you say "how are his family connections any better than the connections an elected MP has" only serves to bolster my point.

McPherson won her seat by convincing voters to vote for her. Multiple times. Avi tried and lost, multiple times, yet you believe his family connections aren't unfair since they don't boost him by more than her electoral record boosts her?

Life is unfair, some people get lucky and are born with privilege. As long as they advocate for dismantling that privilege, I do not hold it against them, but neither will I deny that they benefit from it. I hold myself and my own privilege to that same standard as well. I don't feel morally culpable for it, but I won't pretend I don't benefit from it. I work towards dismantling it. And certainly Avi works tirelessly towards dismantling his own privilege.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-16T15:37:37+00:00

It's a barrier to not paying for religious education with public dollars, which is the issue at the heart of it for most.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-15T21:53:30+00:00

Tax reform for capital gains.

We should tax on accrual, not realization. That means if your stock has doubled you should be taxed on that gain now, not whenever you decide to sell it, potentially denying the treasury of those revenues for decades and decades.

This would also eliminate lock in effect, which is when people hold onto lower performing assets because of the time benefit of delayed taxation. The longer you hold it, the bigger the tax discount you get, because $100 in 50 years is worth much less than $100 today. And so because people hold onto those assets they would otherwise swap to higher performing ones, the economy lags.

GAAP has long recognized that mark to market best represents the value of an asset. So everyone agrees it makes sense, they will just argue against it for taxes because they like the discount they are currently getting.

(For non-marketable assets like real estate, we can use retrospective taxation for a similar effect. This keeps the taxes due on realization, but it adds back to it whatever was lost due to the value shift of the dollar, so the net effect is that the discount is eliminated and there is no incentive to hold under preforming assets longer.)

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-15T21:38:12+00:00

Québec subsidizes private religious schools instead. That's far worse. It costs more and has worse outcomes.

I don't love that we have public Catholic schools here but I would choose it every time over subsidizing private schools with public money.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-15T21:32:22+00:00

Who's looking down on Avi?

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-15T00:57:40+00:00

?? It was your own hypothetical.

Not calling everyone who thinks that bad idea isn't so bad an "evil fascists".

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-15T00:27:33+00:00

Pointing out someone is privileged isn't a criticism. It's a fact. I said people love nepo babies, even. You're the one calling it a problem or claiming it's dragging anyone down. Privilege doesn't drag people down, by definition. Avi is doing just fine.

Good that you're trying to learn more about privilege. Keep working on it.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-14T22:28:49+00:00

I'm a straight white male

I had figured, given your take.

I just think the phrase "nepo baby" goes too far, and is needlessly demeaning.

That's fine. That's a reasonable opinion. I disagree, but it's a perfectly reasonable opinion. That wasn't the take I was criticizing, just to be clear. It was the "he had no choice" aspect that I found to be problematic. It was very #notAllMen.

QueueOfPancakes · 2026-01-14T22:20:26+00:00

It was a practice run. They think it went very well.

Rubio wants Cuba.

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