There is a lot more to us. Canadian prairies are the breadbasket of the world with our endless farms with wheat, chick peas, canola alone plus other crap. We are a resource based economy overall so it doesn't do us any favors. Our tech industry is lacking and we can't attract big firms. I'm sure your not far off tho with oil and real estate being big. Oil is going going gone while they import from the saudies for canadian consumption while trash and defund our own.
That's why the cracks are showing now because our industry has been under attack and projects stunted by shitty constantly changing gov regulations (some projects tried for 10 year to comply with regulations to be shut down with new ones once they put shovels in the ground). We have a bunch of half abandoned projects and mines. We are tapped out. We didn't care that they bitched and moaned about us while we footed them with a lofty socialist lifestyle if they left us do our thing but if we are not rolling in the dough, there is nobody paying the tab, just accumulating debt.
The issue with our "budding" real estate market, a lot is from money laundering from massive drug and gambling rings or Chinese or other controversial foreign gang related activities trying to hide assets from their government but nobody ever lives there but it drives up property value pricing out locals meanwhile wages can't even come close to keeping up like Toronto or Vancouver. I think AirBnb has a part to play with that too because now everyone and their grandmas want to be a part time hotel and make more money renting to occasional users than long term tenants driving up prices further for renters.
You don't know how much you need from week to week. There are ways of shopping cheaply if you know the tricks by checking what's cheap where and the miss-shaped produce story is like 1/3 price of the supermarket price most people don't want to do the running around to save. I clued in quick when I saw it started a few years ago. I'm not even sure what causes these price fluctuations besides supply and demand dynamics. I know our currency stinks but it's not all over the map either.
Sadly being commodity rich doesn’t equal wealth like it should, if it did it would be a joy to live in South Africa lol we have gold, diamonds, thoreum, mercury, oil and agriculture but it’s a shit show of note we can’t even keep the power on for a full year without raging black outs, we knee cap any economic potential
I always enjoy your replies gives me so much to think about naturally I didn’t know all these things or how bad it is Canada like anywhere in the west is painted as a panacea compare to where I am and people drink the kool-aid to go take their talents and Elsewhere and become tax payers for another state only to find it’s only a marginal return for uprooting your entire life
We’re also pretty socialist here but we have a bigger population and a smaller GDP so it’s sort of curbed things to an extent from what you saying it’s been allows to prosper there sucking up more of the economy and making it hard for the private sector
Would be interesting to see what’s the percentage of the economy Thats government funded in Canada
Yeah it's sad how is happening in South Africa being ripped from resources and all. The people should benefit from some of that. Obviously resource base doesn't get the recognition it should have. In Canada we do have on our side that we are probably one of the most corrupt in the world on the global stage because of easily manipulated governments and skirting of regulations or accountability. (check out SNC lavalin, the world bank and Libya). Basically 2 major cities in Canada will dictate the fate of an election for an entire country (Toronto, Montreal) with imbalanced amount of representative per capita.
To be honest the former republic of North-west Territories ( Alberta+ Saskatchewan+ the current NWT and sounds like Northern Brittish-Columbia wants in on that too, who ever else wants to tag along) is about to re-glue itself and exit Canada altogether if they keep biting the hand that feeds but they keep laughing at it all except our province has taken steps to take control of police and stuff provincially rather than the standard federal police. Applied to move our National pension contributions to be managed provincially, so steps for separation are taking place in the background. There is a political party being set up as well last I heard but they get media censorship. Right now, it feels like we are stuck in a dictatorship disguising as a democratic system but as long as we are tied to that p**o queen, we get raped as citizens. (ed)
Well that's the thing, I'm sure our lives have many similarities yet can be different all at the same time. I don't know how the rest of the world really see us or have an opinion of the rest of the world since I never travelled but being on hive has opened my eyes many certainly have it way worse that's for sure, it's easy to look like we live in utopia in some regards with quality of life but you have to work much harder and be much smarter than the average immigrant currently coming in. I'm all for helping people but the life changes are are too much to handle once they get here that many don't adapt well and become unhappy and isolated because of it and wish they never came here, we are still a capitalist rat race after all, wanna make it gotta have knowledge, drive, skills or capital. Come in with none of that also most degrees abroad are useless in Canada unless you attended internationally accredited schools so many start from absolutely nothing and will settle for anything below standards and get taken advantage of just to have something or resort to a life of crime.
Yes we have nice apartments with big tv's to live in but it will cost 2k/month + to have or you can pay half a million for a house and a 40 year mortgage in one of the low key cities if your lucky if you don't have that well you can live outside, find a tarp or something, who cares if it's winter, they have shelters, early bird gets the bed, rest of you don't worry we'll open the underground city train stations at night on the colder days! In other words, if you have the tools and creativity to do well, the world is your oyster but If you don't it's a never ending poverty circle and it's not fair but at the same time when you try to direct them into how to thrive but they don't want to give up their old ways and it just doesn't work here but then you have some that take the bull by the horns and implement our way of life with theirs they are familiar with and reach the stars. It's a hard situation to explain. Overall, we probably are one of the better countries to live in on more than one aspect and wouldn't want to go anywhere else but conditions are deteriorating fast and the population needs to step up before it's too late, while we still have the right to do so and that is eroding quickly too.
How is life in Canada? Depends on who's narrative because there is major wealth gaps and inequalities. Life can be a paradise or it can be an absolute never ending nightmare, depends on personal choices and opportunities taken I suppose. I do well enough having a highly sought after and rare skill and education around the world for my industry(visas are easy to get for us too), worse case scenario I can just move for a job if things get too bad as it diversifies into many industries but I came from nothing and it was rough getting here and had to take some pretty bold chances that could have catastrophically blown up in my face (and still could literally and metaphorically). Anyone can have the dream lifestyle but too many assume it's easy or free and that's not the case and the high paying jobs are not always the dream jobs. To have the things others don't have be willing to do the things others wont do but too many just want easy high pay without making the sacrifices or getting the skills required and life will be extremely rough for those out here. They always show the good stuff and Canada is pretty good at keeping it's skeletons in the closet, if you only knew the genocidal shit and human rights disasters that went on here yet most assume we are harmless welcoming peacekeepers including our own citizens.
I enjoy our chats too, I like talking politics and humanity and learning how others are dealing. Especially with the conditions in Venezuela, Africa, and everywhere really because I think it's coming to a neighborhood near anyone that isn't quite under that struggle yet. The more I know the better I can prepare in case it gets really bad.
I don't think all forms of socialism are bad but the communist-socialist agenda isn't my cup of tea. I'm more for a compassionate capitalism social model. You help the lower class that wants to be helped move higher and it pays off in the long run but the system currently supports leeches personal , government and corporate and not everyone can be an entitled leach stripping everything from the hard working middle class. Right now the middle class is tired of getting steamrolled when we foot the bill.
Yeah well its a financial world and when thing we measure trade-in is manipulated and can be controlled stuff of real value can have that value hidden, we so concerned by this number on a screen or paper rather than what the value is and what we get out of it. So commodity-rich means very little until there's a supply shock.
Why do those two cities have so much sway? It's not like they're port cities or have major resources? Are they just financial and political hubs?
I didn't know it becomes that fragmented, I think when the chips are down people want to protect what they have and aren't happy to be exploited like in the good times. We can see separatist movements all across the west from America to Spain, to France, so I shouldn't be surprised about Canada, I just guess it's not well publicised as the rest.
I get that it may not be as developed here but we also see the split between the class in tech and degree jobs vs blue collar. I have a degree, I am in tech, I earn some capital from US, AUD and EUR and locally and in general I am better off than most here.
I can also take my skills anywhere since tech is tech. But I'm by no means living a lavish lifestyle, I scrimp and save and invest because trying to build anything with working wages - our inflation rate is already impossible.
Lol, kudos to whoever does Canadas PR because that's EXACTLY what most of us think, that and its cold. I think also the fact that your noisy neighbours to the South take a lot of the attention Canada can sort of fly under the radar and deal with China and no one says shit.
I am by no means against certain socialist policies as long as its funded by the people. If you want public housing sell it as a bond and let the wage earners CHOOSE to fund it, not take with a mandate.
I'm fine with taxing consumption, if I use the roads more than others, I should pay more on my petrol. There is room for funding centrally planned stuff but not with unlimited money printing.
No one cares how they spend if they didn't earn it or work for it.
The population per delegate is unfairly divided that way as in a delegate in that region will have a pop of about 100 k to speak for versus anywhere else it is 130k to 140 k pop per delegate. To add to that, midwest Canada is like mid west US, we are mostly farms, mountains and boreal forest in other words rural lands as far as the eye can see so the population isn't large. The dense population helps the 2 cities along with that's where the un-elite live also where all of our money is getting sucked to in a interprovincial socialist program called federal Equalization Payments where provinces that make more contribute more taxes t help lift the basic standard of living for all Canadian. Sounds nice ate first glance right?
Quebec isn't a have not province and they have the best social programs in the entire country but they are also theones blocking our industry and buying foreign oil viaUS but I just read Biden is cancelling that so who the the fuck knows, maybe suddenly our oil wont be so dirty anymore and our pipelines for transportation wont be as offensive? Our leader is a globalist puppet, they must have some good dirt on him.
The part that is real fucked in all of this, Quebec never signed the confederation and refuse to sign it. That is the document that unifies all of the Republics (provinces& territories) as one country and until it is signed by all territories the agreement isn't ratified. So for one we never were a country yet, we are supposed to be a group of independent republics making our Federal government a scam outfit to begin with, it never had legitimacy. Secondly, why is the only province not signatory receiving a grotesque portion of payment from a country they refuse to join. That money , poor people assume it's corporate money and taxes paying this and suck it dry like it's free money, the corporations are doing the same and middle class pays that equalization via our income tax. After all the income tax and all the sales tax, carbon (air) tax and tax on top of tax over 50% of our incomes are taxes (over 30% before you even get your paycheck) for anyone earning 6 figure income. In other words, on a normal work year without a hostile goverment, I would, and many more Albertans pay about 30k-40k per year in taxes to receive 5k worth of services. The rest goes to the "have nots"
The problem is more what the taxes are being spent on, lavish politician globe trotting vacations during the pandemic while telling everyone not to go visit grandma family or friends for christmas. Our taxes were used to funnel money to shady well known charities tied to criminal activity (we don't need to get into specifics) that much ends up getting lost funding terrorism in the middle east. Some of it is spent on destroying our economy funding eco protests while some spent on hookers and blow and diamonds for gadaffi's son (for whatever reason...once again snc lavalin, whatever he got seized with when he got caught in South-America, was courtesy of Canadian tax payer). So many freaking scandals. They paid a terrorist that was detained at GITMO millions of dollars and made him a fucking celebrity and guest speaker at universities. Under the emergency cerb payment for the pandemic (UBI light), they paid 300k teenagers living at their parents house going to high school 2k/month (for a total of 14k each) meanwhile the population was really struggling. It was intended to help canadians impacted by the mass job loss we experienced but much of it went to people that didn't qualify because they had been on social assistance all along already so now they are looking how to claw it back from a lot of the people it got paid to, it's a mess.
Under that same plan, they gave a bunch of money to corporations that claimed to be struggling to save jobs meanwhile they were paying themselves and shareholders with huge dividends and laid off everyone anyway but their excuse was well it was different money we already had. Some of these included for profit long term care homes that have experienced difficulties and sub standard conditions that led to many covid outbreaks ravaging the elderly right now including some being abandoned all together because the staff is so low paid and overworked, they had to call in the military to help while fat cats are bankrollin. To this day, it persists.
So the rest of us are like why are we pushing ourselves to pay for this fuckery. The saddest part is, the same people doing it to us are the same people covertly doing it to you. Canadian corporations rape the resources of African countries. They may not be outright Canadian but will have many large Canadian shareholders that own other corporations here, if you really take the time to inspect and investigate. Canada is where the shady funding funnels thru because of lack of regulation, why we are seen as the nice problem solver because we are, we are the background facilitator to all the bullshit because who doesn't trust Canada eh!
I guess it's different here than where you live in that aspect, tech doesn't always pay the best because everyone rushes for white collar job/degree so the market is oversaturated, many with university degrees don't work in their respective fields no it's nothing more than an expensive piece of paper they can't really do anything with. If you go in rare and highly skilled trade in the oil/nuclear and coal power production/fertilizer plants, any unit that generates highly pressurized steam generation and superheated units used in basically any heavy industrial setting but very common in oil refining. Our organization were the inventors of the steam locomotive and steamships but we are still blue collar work but damn you make a killing but it's super hard and dangerous ( we work in explosive atmosphere and with inert atmospheres, under water in shipyards, hanging in the air standing on a structural beam(tied off but sometimes as high up as 240 ft in the air) assembling processing equipment along with other weird shit)along with lots of training and safety codes so it's still a 3 year degree plus all the continual side training but it's so rare that it's mostly funded by the government but people here laugh at those jobs yet it's very similar to engineer, just more hands on, I never heard anyone spit on an engineering degree before, blows my mind. It's how I lifted myself out of poverty and it pays well everywhere in the world. I moved here for a better life and I'm hoping I can stay here because I don't want to uproot my life again. Lucky I put some away for the good days to survive the last few years but I would like to start moving forward again as I'm not getting any younger and it is a young man's game, I'm neither or.
You could also point out how socialist values can work, I was tax payer and union funded out of poverty and have since contributed large amounts of tax revenue for the last 15 years both to my country and organization. But what we got now, it aint workin. If we paid a percentage of the taxes we pay to cover essentials like roads, hospitals , getting clean water and affordable food to northern indigenous communities(they live in third world country conditions up there), healthcare, schools, police, military and a basic standard of living, you know. For the rest well like you said, people can privately fund these programs by selecting them with an other portion of our taxes like higher education, special needs programs, veteran programs homeless programs. Another portion could be used to fund corporations or industries in trouble that we want to help individually. A blockchain program would probably make that possible.
The thing is with with taxing usage of gas, it impacts everyone especially the poor. We live in a country where we have to heat our homes at the tune of $200/month or more for half the year, $200 is being cheap because I live in the middle townhouse so I only heat 2 walls. In a country where you probably don't have to heat your home or live 6 months in mostly darkness, you might not factor that in. Plus all the food needs transportation, the cost gets absorbed into the price of essential goods making it harder to access for many. Sounds practical until you actually put it in practice.
Like you, I don't live lavishly and don't work year round but I do indulge a bit and save some here and there diversifying into strange unpopular undervalued assets. I worry a lot about my future but that stems from my childhood I think so I constantly squirled away since and now I'm seeing all these things go up in value so as much as I worry, I remain calm, my savings are getting spent but not my investments. With all the hyperinflation coming after the pandemic, it's probably better off where it currently is and all can only go up while my pension I worked so hard for tanks, can I at least break even? Time will tell. I'm going to give it a couple more years out here in the oil industry but if that keeps getting beat up I have been pondering moving to Ontario (eww) and switch over to Nuclear power production with a 10 year work vision.
The pr for Canada is good because there is no free press, only government sponsored propaganda.
I forgot, here is a map of canada with names of territories so you can get situated with the equalization payment map.
So let me get this straight there was some old ass agreement to get everyone to sing kumbaya back in the day with the British and the french and it sort of crystalised into this weird state within the state thing. Fitting that it would be French, Europeans tend to like that sort of thing we see it with Spain and Catalunya and so many other examples. So to keep everyone on the same page some had to be sweet-talked and got a sweetheart deal that is never enough and gets expanded grossly over time.
Ah the tax thing, I die a bit every time when people say oh no its corporate money or government money. First of all, there IS no corporate money and NO government money.
Yes, governments manage the accounting of it, poorly may I add. But the money only has value because of people exchanging it for goods and services. Corporations DON"T pay tax, they either tax their workers or tax the consumers of their product or service. So it's a misallocation of purchasing power and resources which often leads to laziness, waste and overconsumption.
Oh, I am well aware of how the west uses Africa as a money-laundering operation through IMF loans. It's probably one of my biggest gripes, I hate that sentiment I hear from other countries, sure we corrupt AF and all that shit, but the whole we send resources and aid is a bunch of horse shit. Western countries make us take out debt to fund projects that we don't actually need for a price we shouldn't have to pay, to fund their companies.
Western companies get the cash, we stuck with the debt so we have to up taxes or devalue the currency robbing everyone in the country to pay for a deal that a few African cronies benefit from sucking capital into the west.
But hey we all malnourished standing with flies on our faces and shit!
That makes sense everyone wants to fall into the so-called intellectual trap of a piece of paper defining your value. We've started on that route, but very few are there yet still a small part of the country has so-called higher education and it's losing its value every year as it continues to get bid up by government programs and false promises that education is freedom, not when it comes with debt slavery its not.
Yeah, we don't have all that heating needs, or permits or taxes, you can live pretty cheap here, build without much concern for the weather, we have sun all year so can run with solar and in general it's still affordable to live here.
However, the property is starting to pick up especially in our main cities, while not a Vancouver or Toronto level, it's pretty much out of pocket for most South Africans.
I don't know whats going to happen here either because even before the rona we were pretty much in the shit, our currency is devalued, our credit rating is almost junk, we sold out massively to China, we're massively corrupt in terms of the state plundering tax reserves and getting nothing for it so this could throw us for a real loop.
I'm not really tied to this place, I dig it don't get me wrong, culture-wise, weather, and living standard its great but i'm not blind to how quickly it can turn and while I don't want to I will go where I am treated better the instant it happens
LMFAO Toronto and Vancouver is outside of the pocket of most Canadians too, don't feel too bad 😂.
I hate to laugh at this one too but "But hey we all malnourished standing with flies on our faces and shit!" That is too funny because that is what we think because that's what the propaganda tells us. Sometimes some people can't grasp shit outside of their perspective. Sure I'm sure lots of Africa isn't the shithole they paint here , people just don't have as much importance on numbers on a screen or a piece of devaluing paper every time you blink or care about driving lambos to the local market. The shithole part is almost always because of Western interference, that's why we don't get along with the rest of Canada. If we didn't interfere where we don't understand the dynamics, places wouldn't turn into shitholes in return we wouldn't have to host a society that doesn't understand western ways and hate here but at the same time you have no other choice but to take care of them cause our gov and corporations are responsible.
The foreign aid is bullshit and it must burn your ass to hear about it, trust me it burns ours too because that also comes from government deficit, it's one big money laundering scam if you really look at it and it ends up back into their pockets as donations from other leaders and e know it, we have busted them but we have no legal recourse against them because of corrupt government that manipulates the court system (snc lavalin again) and those that don't comply just get fired. Most Canadians are unaware of what is going on. I know because... I don't know why I know, I just always investigated human rights issues and don't buy into the propaganda. I bet the companies that make you take out loans, if you look I bet you will find affiliations with Laffarge and snc lavalin, they re notorious for that behavior and that's why snc is banned from bidding on tax payer funded projects from the world bank. They did other shit here too but that's another long story.
Yep state within a state, that is exactly what it is. They have no allegiance to us, they hate english speakers and will spit in our faces over just about anything but suck all the money dry and think they are the only ones with the mental capacity to govern Canada (exact words of our current leader). That little province next to it in the water, that's where I grew up along with in Quebec, they use that kumbaya loophole to skirt regulations and federal projects as they are not part of Canada where they shouldn't have a right to deny like important infrastructure (our pipeline) . That little province has been impoverished by a monopoly and they have no money to run the province yet they might get a couple of bucks thrown at them. When I finished high school, they closed all of our jobs and sent them to the third world to abuse of the lack of safety, regulations and cheap wages so my entire generation and gen X had to move out so nobody that lives there pay taxes because there are no jobs.
Now there is a bit o an oil market but it requires the pipeline that quebec holds hostage to create high paying jobs in the little province of NB. The pipeline is built and operational on either side, it just needs to connect the two ends together. For now, because they keep blocking it, they ship thru BC ports all the way down to the Panama Canal all the way back up the east coast to the refinery on a rented tanker. One province shouldn't have so much power on important infrastructure. The english and the French have always been at each other's throat since early settlements but it's being carried on as a political divide to justify throwing tantrums and hissy fits when they don't get their way.
The money laundering of tax payer money and extraction of resources you speak of they do the exact same to us too, they also call it foreign aid except we have a stronger economy to be able to absorb it so it didn't show as much until now that people have time to look at things while we are all on lockdown and unable to go to work with no jobs to go to anyway.