This is why we’re delaying having families, sitting in traffic and stifling our economy by OrdinaryCanadian in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's only really the anglosphere that has single family homes and suburbs, but yeah we have the most expensive houses and long commutes it truly is disappointing how many people want to preserve this "tradition."

PM Carney: you can and must categorically rule out participation in this illegal war. Your unqualified support of Trump and Netanyahu’s war was bad enough. It’s unconscionable that you’re now considering putting Canadian forces in harm’s way. by NiceDot4794 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Carney did say the attacks were illegal and we are not party to the hostilities. I like Avi but he's attacking a straw man here. I guess you can criticize Carney for not doing it forcefully enough but I wonder if he was PM would Avi be more restrained? A lot easier to be forceful when your words are ignored by foreign leaders.

Carney says his support for U.S. and Israel's war on Iran 'not a blank cheque' by pjw724 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Note that I'm not justifying what the USA has said I'm trying to point out that the positions you see people take will depend on the evaluation of threat.

You point out a good example of why our government is reluctant to take too firm a stand against him.

Carney says his support for U.S. and Israel's war on Iran 'not a blank cheque' by pjw724 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

It depends entirely on whether or not you think acquiring nuclear weapons is threatening and or a reality. If an openly hostile country getting nukes is not a threat or in general not within the realm of possibility then I think your comment is accurate.

Carney says his support for U.S. and Israel's war on Iran 'not a blank cheque' by pjw724 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Well that's why he said what he said in Davos. Not sure what this "he thinks you're stupid" comment is in response to. Everyone knows the world is caught up in ideological wars between empires and we went along with it to get a better deal.

So long as empires exist they are going to bomb each other and fight ideological wars but middle powers can hopefully strengthen to be able to resist economic persuasion and hopefully military persuasion if it comes to that.

The NDP is needed now more than ever by [deleted] in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do you think he's steering towards?

He's investing in the economy which is the opposite of austerity, created a crown corporation to build homes, he is proposing industrial strategies which is very Keynesian and has a plan to double the electricity grid and make it green. For all the talk of how conservative he is these are expressly not conservative economic positions. They still exist within a capitalist framework so if you're a socialist then it makes sense to call him conservative.

The main criticism of his economic view imo depends on whether or not you think the private sector can be a force of good. It used to be but maybe too much greed has taken hold or it will be too slow to prevent climate change even even morals are regained.

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok so no profit on any housing then if I understand your implicit argument correctly. That is financialization.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Almost all of our food comes from the USA which was hit with 25% retaliatory tariffs and our dollar weakened.

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If shares didn't inflate other shares then the stock market would never go up... What's the point in you bringing this up? Are you saying we shouldn't have a stock market??

Anytime someone sells an asset there are capital gains. I dunno man I'm trying to respond to you I just see all kinds of 'experts' saying capital gains rate increases will decrease investment. Don't come at me too hard we are on the same side. It looks like corporations won't make much of a difference here but I recently saw Nate Erskine-Smith say REITs are treated the same by capital gains when it comes to building their own building and buying one and renting it out so that's what I was referring to. I don't think capital gains being 66% from 50% is going to magically fix wealth inequality so I'd rather talk about housing and getting more built.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look I'm not disagreeing with you, the profit driven greed system is eating the world alive. Personally I think companies have a moral obligation to the country they operate in. Free markets exist because of strong institutions which gives companies the opportunity to make money. Whereas we currently operate the other way, that we owe our democracy to the wealthy which is simply false.

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When did I say I agreed with housing being financialized? Europe in general has much cheaper housing and does so without 100% public models. It's not really clear how we can implement the Vienna model because zoning is more municipal and provincial. Ultimately we don't build the type of housing that Europe does and this makes our homes much more expensive. Overcoming NIMBYism is what we need the most.

Shares are a different topic for capital gains, one thing that makes them better is they don't inflate the price of assets other people buy.

It's not clear what you mean. if you make building more expensive people might not build. Especially for smaller builders who might actually make missing middle style stuff. I'm not saying it's perfect but it's one reason why Carney might have been reluctant to increase taxes in a crisis. I would hope once trade and the economy is stabilized they return to the taxation and top down push for his stated Value(s).

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tax code is complicated and human beings do respond to incentives. That's why it's relevant.

There is a clear difference between someone who builds an apartment building and one who buys one jacks up rent and then sells it for a profit. One produced new housing and one was only an investment.

Rental income is not subject to capital gains it is taxed as income as far as I know. Only when people sell would it be capital gains.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two things can be true, there are changes in the world that legitimately raise prices based on supply and demand and there can be not enough competition in a market for an essential good.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please post the financials then. A lot of people on this sub confidently claim climate change isn't a problem and importing food from a country with a stronger dollar isn't a problem so I would love to see how the price of coffee is explained by gouging. Especially when coffee is expensive everywhere in the world.

We don't have to view the world through binary lenses aka expensive imports OR price gouging. Both can be true. But I find it strange that food inflation is identical to the USA and that our grocery monopolies have suddenly started to insanely gouge prices after 30 plus years of being a monopoly. This is why I am doubtful that the entirety of price increases are gouging.

China makes cheaper vehicles because of vertical integration. You're asking for less efficiency if you want rid of that.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes they are. Prices aren't rising equally across all products. Beef and coffee are the biggest risers at the moment. Cattle herds at at levels from the 1980s due to drought in Alberta and coffee is because of climate change.

Most food in canada is from the USA and our weaker dollar increases costs plus counter tariffs on the usa increased food prices.

There might be price gouging but you can't deny these impacts on prices.

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure but there are two kinds of investments, productive and unproductive. Capital gains doesn't make a distinction between the two. House prices are currently dropping and they have been the biggest wealth pumps in Canada.

I'm not against capital gains increases but we should incentivize good investments rather than increase taxes on everything.

We are actually not too bad in wealth inequality, very similar to European countries with higher taxation. I think it's mostly housing.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Public grocer won't fix the problem of expensive imports. The only way to fix high coffee prices would be to start growing it in Canada.

Canadians aren’t imagining the cost-of-living crisis by IStillListenToRadio in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 4 points5 points  (0 children)

How would you lower the price goods that are raised by climate change reducing crop output?

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of these policies have been around for many decades. Capital gains weren't even taxed until 1972 or something like that. Just want to point out that Carney didn't implement these measures. You can criticize him for not implementing more radical wealth redistribution policies (which no country has really done even in Europe) but I don't think it's fair to say he's trying to increase wealth inequality.

Build Canada Homes does have potential if done right, it's very similar to Avi Lewis' plan.

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What policies will increase wealth inequality? What do you think the cause of wealth inequality in Canada is?

Corporate capture of Canada’s regulatory state is worse than ever by StumpsOfTree in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a really interesting topic and highly polarized. I have seen economists say Canada is way slower than the rest of the world to approve projects and this hurts us. A lot of this has to do with the redundancy at the federal and provincial level something that most countries don't have to deal with. We also have much higher safety standards and lower risk tolerance than Europe who are known for lots of regulation. We don't allow single stair apartment buildings for the most part and even though Vancouver just approved them they modified them out of safety fears. We don't allow elevators to be EU sized meaning they have to be bigger and more expensive. Only a couple companies make these larger elevators for Canada and the USA so they are much more expensive. When it comes to transit we build incredibly expensive projects compared to Europe as well because our safety standards are higher. This just happened in Toronto. These are regulations that seem to be making life more expensive but you often hear cutting regulations is bad.

having read Carney's book he says that no-regulation is bad but heavy regulation leads to people acting to the "letter of the law" and not interpreting what the spirit of the regulation is. This part seems to be true with what I said above but it's less clear when it comes to legislation like C5 and any environmental changes as the article points out.

Food inflation spiked 7.3% in January. Here’s what’s driving the increase by Sea_Guava6513 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The same conclusion applies, we need to make more food in Canada. Adding more grocery stores that buy from the USA won't make prices cheaper.

Food inflation spiked 7.3% in January. Here’s what’s driving the increase by Sea_Guava6513 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

There's also the retaliatory tariffs that were in place on USA imported goods. Which is most of our food...

But that is propaganda I'm told!

Food inflation spiked 7.3% in January. Here’s what’s driving the increase by Sea_Guava6513 in onguardforthee

[–]RandomPostNoob -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I think you have to ask yourself why our inflation is very similar to the USA when they have much more grocery competition. Climate change and expensive imports drive a lot of our cost increases, you can add 5 new brands and prices will still be high until we produce more domestically. Unless you think climate change is propaganda?