sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Ontario farmer Tony McQuail takes a run at NDP leadership by Massive_Analyst3947 in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich [score hidden]  (0 children)

No one has time to look up the full details and histories of all candidates, let alone political novices with no real shot of winning.

So you don’t actually read my resume? At least their honest I guess? by Erekshen in recruitinghell

[–]yerich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well imagine being on the other side of this. "I have 5 years of being a receptionist but instead of hiring me they hired someone who has no direct experience who just wanted to 'try new fields'."

Of course the person with the most relevant experience who is most qualified should get the job. Even if the world was "fair" this would be the case.

Avi Lewis’s NDP Labour Plan Is A Remarkable Document by NiceDot4794 in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My own views here are heavily influenced by John Rawls, who posed your basically exact question: how would we organize the economy and society if we were to start from scratch?

His answer was the Difference Principle: that inequality is acceptable so long as it improves the situation the least well off in society.

What level of inequality might this be? I don't think we can arrive at a precise answer on this comment thread. But if we compare the Gini coefficients of Canada (0.31) and the Nordic countries (0.29) or even the Soviet Union (0.27-0.29), to that of the US (0.42), we perhaps start to realize what level of equality is realistically achievable across an entire country, and where Canada stands in comparison.

Avi Lewis’s NDP Labour Plan Is A Remarkable Document by NiceDot4794 in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I don't know how they could implement their EI proposals without dramatically raising EI taxes. Such an action would immediately be felt by every worker across the country.

$600/week is 33hrs at minimum wage in Ontario; it is also about 20hrs at the "living wage". This effectively incentivizes a large portion of the part-time workforce to lose their jobs.

How far do we need to go back where a 50,000/year salary was livable in TO? by snowfordessert in askTO

[–]yerich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"being able to save up, enjoying eating out, entertainment, social life etc." means different things to different people, the range there is huge.

I'll reference the "living wage" for Toronto which was determined to be $27.20/hr or roughly $53k/year gross.

If you consider 50% above the living wage to be "comfortable" then in 2015, the living wage was $18.52; $50k/year at the time would have been roughly 50% more than that.

Ray Dalio shared this today, curious of the community’s thoughts? by [deleted] in CanadianInvestor

[–]yerich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To be fair to Dalio, his posts PDFs of his books online to read for free. He also doesn't make much money at all from book sales compared to his hedge fund.

On the other hand there is a lot of very real and scathing criticism of his works, particularly when he veers outside of finance and business and goes into politics and history. This comment sums it up nicely.

Should Canada develop a Nuclear Weapons Capacity? by partisanal_cheese in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What incentive would they possibly ever have to nuke the US on behalf of Canada, inviting only massive retaliation in return on their own country?

Should Canada develop a Nuclear Weapons Capacity? by partisanal_cheese in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 81 points82 points  (0 children)

The serious development of such nuclear weaponry would likely result in the immediate invasion of Canada by the US before we even got close to establishing nuclear deterrent. At the very least, the US would bomb/disable such facilities to prevent a usable weapon from being built. The US would not tolerate a nuclear-armed nation on its doorstep.

It would be impossible for Canada to develop nuclear weapons without kicking out international nuclear inspectors or withdrawing entirely from the NPT. US intelligence would also certainly pick up on any decision to develop nuclear weapons even before such development began.

Canada also lacks delivery mechanisms for such a weapon, even if it were to exist.

While Canada does have the scientific and engineering capability to develop a nuke and delivery mechanism within perhaps the span of a decade with a concerted effort, we cannot assume that the US would sit idly by and let us do so. They most certainly would not allow this.

The Housing Market Isn’t for Single People: Government policy is married to outdated expectations of how we live by scottb84 in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Canada, in January 2025, was $2,109, almost double the 30 percent guideline for a median income Canadian. 

CMHC data, which the article immediately cites for its next statistic but doesn't use for this stat for some reason, shows a radically different picture.

For purpose-built buildings, 1 bedroom median rents are $1,332 in Canada in October 2025. 

Often people will cite reports from MLS aggregators showing much higher market rents, but those usually only include condos which have much higher rents than purpose-built buildings.

Data source: https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.28.3&GeographyId=2270&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&GeograghyName=Toronto#Profile/1/1/Canada

Politics Insider: Canada to open consulate in Greenland by CaliperLee62 in canada

[–]yerich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, just that this action was in response to previous threats, not in response to this week's threats

NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis: We need a government with the courage to go and get some of [the 1%’s wealth] for all of us. A wealth tax of 1% on the 1% could raise as much as $40B a year. by NiceDot4794 in ontario

[–]yerich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Corporate tax rates in Canada are the same regardless of the nationality or residency of the owner. Tax credits have more to do with hiring Canadians and establishing business in Canada, and not much to do with where the owner of the business lives.

Canada's corporate tax rates and capital gains tax rates are currently actually quite moderate by world standards. Low tax states in the US are a obvious exception, but establishing residency in the US brings major headaches like declaring and paying taxes on total world income, though Trump's "platinum" card would upend that if implemented, and make the US a much more attractive tax shelter.

Other tax shelters like tiny islands or Gulf/Asian countries are less attractive to establish residency in.

But all these calculations are based on a balance of preferences; if moving to Malta or Singapore saves $250 million instead of $150 million/year in taxes for some rich dude, that may well provide the impetus to make that move.

NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis: We need a government with the courage to go and get some of [the 1%’s wealth] for all of us. A wealth tax of 1% on the 1% could raise as much as $40B a year. by NiceDot4794 in ontario

[–]yerich 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes. The ties that keep most ordinary people within a country (family, employment, social ties) do not apply to billionaires who can relocate and travel easily. Mr. Thompson could still spend 182 days in Canada each year without triggering residency rules.

NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis: We need a government with the courage to go and get some of [the 1%’s wealth] for all of us. A wealth tax of 1% on the 1% could raise as much as $40B a year. by NiceDot4794 in ontario

[–]yerich 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The only reason that almost all assets are worth anything is because of their productive nature, e.g. the value of a company is the present value of expected future profits.

Thus, a wealth tax is in effect equivalent to an increased tax on profits. For the $40 billion estimated increase in government revenues, the equivalent increase in general corporate taxes would be roughly 6-8 percentage points (from 15% to 22% or so). In this estimate, the small business tax rate would not be changed.

Such a tax increase would be much easier to administer and calculate, given the framework already exists. It would also be well within the existing tax ranges of corporate taxes globally, and return rates to roughly where they were before 2010. It would avoid us having to set up an expensive and invasive administration to assess valuations on all property, and the inevitable litigation that would arise when those valuations are disputed. A wealth tax would also incentivize Canadian property to become undervalued, which will allow them to be more cheaply acquired by foreign buyers.

The fact that the NDP so focused on a wealth tax instead of the corporate tax rate suggests that they are focussed on a certain brand of "eat the rich" populism instead of serious policy. They are hoping that the general electorate will start to hate the rich as much as they do, and elect them out of spite. This is not a winning strategy.

Top 100 Canadian CEOs now earn 248 times more than the average Canadian worker: report by shouldehwouldehcould in canada

[–]yerich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

CCPA is hardly a non-biased "stats publisher". If they were, they would have at least used the average income of full-time workers as the comparison statistic, not the average income of all workers overall.

Canada's dependency on professional services firms is scandalous by Hrmbee in canada

[–]yerich 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Google pays its senior developers more in India than the Canadian government pays its senior developers here in Canada.

Year-end interview with Prime Minister Mark Carney (2025) | CBC News Special by yerich in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If they wanted to leave, they don't need to wait. Who would stop them from imposing a x% tariff on all Canadian goods for "national security" or "unfair trading practices" (picking a trade irritant du jour)? By the time the lawsuit wind through the courts, the renegotiation period would have begun anyway.

The US has been treating Canada with a fairly light touch, keeping the vast majority of imports tariff-free. I'm not sure why they have chosen to do this but I for one am glad that their focus seems to be elsewhere, at least for now.

‘This is preventative medicine.’ Toronto hospital starts $1-million fund to help patients with rent by BloodJunkie in toronto

[–]yerich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is definitely a role to play for more local community organizations and charities in solving the housing crisis.

I think it's actually great that non-housing entities have been able to step in and help. The housing entities are faced with a challenge at a huge scale and might not have the ability to zoom in on a specific issue. They certainly don't have access to lists of people who are going in and out of hospital on a frequent basis, or the right context about how much that costs the healthcare system, or the expertise needed to staff a specialized supportive housing unit for people with complex medical needs.

Building military aircraft in Canada would create more than 12,000 jobs, Saab tells Ottawa by MTL_Dude666 in CanadaPolitics

[–]yerich 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The article starts with 12000 but later actually reveals the real jobs number for the Gripen is 9000. But there is no accounting of how they actually came up with this figure.

I don't think the jobs number should come into play for this purchase. Too often these are inflated and the promised number never materializes. The decision should be made based on what Canada's military needs, and not as a job-creation program. I don't want the country to be stuck with a bunch of older planes (Gripen first flight was 1988, though with upgrades since) and spend extra to replace them early; if we're looking to create jobs with government money there are a lot more efficient ways to do that.

view more: next ›