What's happening in Canada?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwdFIk ... heNational

All these tiktok/reel videos of Canadians crying and whining about the economy being unbearable; these people sound as if they are about to go homeless. Came across one claiming that the "the 20 CA$ is the new 100"

So how bad it is really being there?

Waiting for Canadians to speak from their own experience

I don't use TikTok so haven't seen those particular themed videos. I'm on Facecrack way too much, though, so I see posts related to the economy.

The most desirable places to I've in Canada have become astronomically expensive. People from most of the world could not imagine how much it costs to live in the Vancouver area vs. local incomes. Only people from Hong Kong have it worse, and people in London or Sydney can relate. I live in a regular 3200sf suburban home that was purchased brand new ~17 years ago for $450k. Its current market value is over $1.8M. The average income in the region is ~$63k iirc. The math doesn't add up. Things have changed to where it requires several incomes to get a mortgage on a house, or a lot of equity from prior asset appreciation.

Anyways, I see posts DAILY from people looking for either single rooms to rent that they can afford (that wasn't much of a thing for decades, now it's very common to rent Only a bedroom in a shared accommodation home because people can't afford to rent the whole home/suite/floor) and for families seeking 2-3 or 4+ bedroom places they can afford. People get evicted all the time because landlords are using loopholes to get rid of low rent paying tenants so they can re-rent at high rates. Peoples budgets Might get them a 1 bedroom place but they need 3 due to multiple kids etc.

There are also more and more posts of people seeking work, especially contractors as housing starts slow and major renovations come to grinding hault due to interest rates rising. Property developers can earn as much interest with their big $ sitting in the bank as the profit they make developing homes so they're not even bothering starting on new towers.. why? Free money for just parking money vs. do all that work for the same return = no brainer to just park money. Home owners aren't borrowing 100k to do a renovation like they were now that borrowing costs have doubled.

Many peoples mortgage payments have skyrocketed as they've renewed their next mortgage term under new higher rates. One couple I know bought a house after a sizeable inheritance (one of the main ways anyone can buy a home anymore - older generation dying and leaving their wealth) and while they have a few sources of income they're kinda broke so I asked her why and she told me their mortgage payments doubled since they bought the house and rates went up. Too many people borrowed the Max to squeak into the red hot market and then as payments go up.. they're cash poor, spending less on dining out etc etc, and having to rent out rooms or Something to make ends meet.

I've also seen posts of legal and illegal immigrants seeking work more than ever before. It used to be easy to get some kind of work, but now that things are slowing down.. not so much. I've seen a few posts in the last week from people trying to get enough work and money to pay their tuition so they can continue studying and not get deported, and I've seen others from people who were unable to get visa extensions etc and plan to return back to their home country but have no money for a flight out so are just trying to get enough to leave.. and others from people who've basically given up on staying because everything is so costly they just want to go home as soon as they can get enough money for a flight out.

Whether locals or newcomers, people have to have a pretty solid plan of working together with other working people in order to split the costs of housing and make things affordable. Some workers come from Mexico and several people will live in a 1 bedroom apartment and split the costs so they can all afford to stay and make some money to send home.

Everything is expensive. Housing, transportation, food - everything. Add it up and compare it to your pay and if you're single living solo then chances are pretty good that expenses exceed your income Unless you're reasonably well paid And make living arrangements to rent a cheap room somewhere with roommates or whatever. It takes teamwork/collectivist culture family type economics to make a go of things anymore vs. the individualist ways we've had here for a couple hundred years.

The video doesn't lie. If that's accurate about mortgage renewals next year.. then there may be a wave of foreclosures. Will prices fall? Maybe. Or maybe since there's still such high housing demand and it's next to impossible for anyone to save up a massive down payment, housing corporations and already rich people will buy those homes and then rent them back to the same group of people that lost them for as much or more than they were already paying.

There are record numbers of homeless people/people living in cars etc due to high rents.

As I've disclosed many times: If it weren't for my father buying a house and paying it off I'd be up s**t creek without a paddle just like so many others. Instead I have savings, multiple vehicles, and options open to me that I might explore - like returning to University. If it weren't for living cheaply in the house he paid for, I'd be scrambling to pay rent and doing something like studying again would be a completely impossible pipe dream.




*Canada is a huge country. There are cheaper places to live. But no one Wants to live there. That's why they're cheap. If people choose to go work in forestry or mining or oil and gas etc and live in some small frozen town somewhere then they can have cheaper housing, higher incomes, savings/vacations/retirement etc so some people leave, others stay because this is Home and it's beautiful with top notch world class features + family/friends/life etc all rooted here. Some people leave because they want to start a family and it's VERY difficult to afford to raise a kid here unless you are paid very well.


This is what happens when record numbers of immigrants come with no plan of how to house them. Plus very wealthy immigrants. Opulence for the monied class we build mansions for, and rice & beans for the locals who the monied class have decided are now all resort staff here to clean their pools and fetch their supercars or wine from storage.


edit: Pick an industry - yours - another - and do a search to see how much jobs pay in the Vancouver area vs payroll taxes/sales taxes etc & rent/food/vehicle expenses etc. My little car is paid for an my insurance discount is maxed out.. when I drive daily for work, driving expenses run about $900/mo including maintenance. And I get ~7.5-8L/100km fuel economy and have no car payment. E v e r y t h i n g is expensive. So many people can't afford to drive at all due to rent costs.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Cost of living has gone pretty nuts here over the past few years, or at least so it seems.

Canada is f****d. It's mostly sold out to China. It's unsustainable.

What’s China relation to all this? Public debt?

Thanks golden for the lengthy explanation; I can relate; I mean Lebanon got almost 2 millions of Syrian refugees in the last few years and house/rent pricing is soaring.

So in case of Canada, the immigration policy is one factor to be blamed? I did see few videos blaming it on migrants.

As someone who is lost in Canada, I am very worried and afraid that it's turning into a third-world country.

But since when am I not worried or afraid of the Earth humans?

I know nothing about economics, but -

Everything Canada sells has to have bilingual packaging.
That means basic imports even from USA cost too much for manufacturers.
Most big chain stores have gone under.
Walmart is pretty much it.
Hudson Bay Company went online because no one could afford their stuff.
They couldn't pay the floor space.

All import / shipping costs are ridiculous because the country is so large.
That includes hydroelectricity, gas, heat, oil, etc.

Canada has and will always have the highest petrol prices in the world.
Add that to the thousands of miles for transporting any product by rail or plane.

Your taxes don't need to finance people who live thousands of miles away.
Canadians do - Including all the social services like so-called "free healthcare".
The winter weather isn't great for agriculture so most food is imported.

Most of the country's media, business, and economy is owned by China.
Canadians aren't paid a living wage.
Close to 40% is taken in taxes.

Everything is highly regulated by the gov't, like Big Brother.
There are rules for everything.
People can be fined for letting a cat outside.
It's against the law to have a clothesline or dry clothes outside.
Everything is against the law.

Then there's government waste.
Multiple school systems (English, French, Muslim, Catholic, Private, Public).
Professionals are required to be bilingual and ideally know Muslim or Chinese languages.
There's a brain dead where educated professionals leave for other countries.

Immigration isn't a problem afaik, because the country needs more citizens.
The birth rate is down because no one can afford kids.
When I raised my kids, daycare cost $1500 /month back in the 90s.
I have no idea what it would be now.

My wee house with next to no land cost more than buying a European castle.

I noticed we had a new member with a Masters in Software Engineering, I believe?
They were from somewhere in Europe (sorry I forget).
They'd worked in several countries around the world.
They could not hold a job in Canada, and were fired twice.
This didn't happen in any other country.

Canada likes to fire / layoff / downsize full-time workers.
It helps them save on benefit payments like healthcare or pension.
It's cheaper for companies to pay several part-timers without benefits.

Canada is also gung-ho to offer assisted suicide to the surplus population.
That's another way of reducing the tax burden on citizens.
They actually send letters to army vets or people with mental health conditions.
They offer to let them die by MAID.

It's sick.

Canada is turning into a literal s**thole because of their milksop of a prime minister Justin Trudeau. The guy is milking the "nice Canadian" stereotype for all it's worth. His niceness is so fake, it's cringeworthy to look at. He freely gives away money to other countries that could be spent on helping Canadians get jobs. He claims to be a feminist and an LGBT advocate but then he gives money to Saudi Arabia, a country where women and LGBT people are treated like garbage. And the less said about his immigration policy, the better. Oh yeah, and despite claiming to be woke, he actually wore blackface once. He's just a whiny, spoiled little nepotism baby with no sense of reality.

I'm embarrassed to be living in Canada right now. I'm embarrassed that Justin Trudeau is my Prime Minister. He wants to quadruple the carbon tax. Rent, groceries, gas, electricity and medical supplies keep going up in price. He's a fake feminist and he hates Canada. He gives money to other countries. He refuses to help out war vets, yet he can afford to change the $10 bill. He hates Alberta. He called freedom convoy protesters Nazis, yet he let a Nazi who fought with the SS into the House of Commons. He legalized MAiD and marijuana and now he wants to legalize street drugs. Pot was safe in the 60s because there wasn't any fentanyl back in those days. Pot is more likely laced with that stuff these days than it isn't. He reminds me of Hitler every time he has an outburst.

I honestly don't understand how Justin Trudeau is still prime minister of Canada. Who the heck is voting for him?

I've heard horror stories about Justin Trudeau's brand of feminism. Just recently in Canada a middle-aged trans woman was allowed to compete in a swim race that was intended for teenage girls. Don't believe me? Here's the article: https://nypost.com/2023/12/15/news/50-y ... s-at-race/

No word on Justin Trudeau's view of it, but I have a hunch that he'd be in full support of it.