Anti-Canadian Content (Laughing With Us, Not At Us) Pt. 5

[David Baxter PhD]

I thought about it but became lightheaded and needed to rest :lol:

Even homeowners in Vancouver, Toronto want housing prices to fall, poll suggests

Vancouver prices are insane and Toronto will approach that if they aren't careful.

Most of the problem comes from foreign speculators with a lot of money buying up real estate and then jacking up the sales prices. Canada and the provinces are looking at ways to combat this and they really have to.

We used to have laws about limiting this sort of foreign speculation and investment regulations requiring Canadians to retain controlling interest in Canadian companies but somewhere along the way greed and the far right weakened that legislation. If we're not careful, we're going to find ourselves renters to foreign interests in our own country. That's not sensationalism or alarmism or some conspiracy theory either: It's already happening.

Regular people and even the upper middle class can no longer afford to but a home in Vancouver, or in many cases to even rent a small apartment, and Toronto is heading that way rapidly.

I only learned the other day that Saudi Arabia owns our Wheat Board. I don't know when that happened but that's just insane. Our natural resources and our agriculture are not things that should ever be sold to foreign interests, no matter how much money they are offering. Now we have a situation where Saudi Arabia is looking for reprisals against Canada because we tried to protest their human rights violations - and they own our Wheat Board?

These are crazy times. We have been betrayed by our politicians over the years but I guess we have been complicit in this by not being vigilant and simply not paying attention.

/rant

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[GaryQ]

I seriously doubt any of the respondents to that survey were wanting to sell their home and thought housing prices were too high.

Yup that’s the effect of low interest rates combined with people that never learned basic math or how interest rates hikes affect your ability to make ends meet.

common facts:

1- housing prices are based on what people can afford at that current time: Ex: “it wil only cost you $2000/month to buy this beautiful home”

2- Pure greed combined with pure stupidity. Undeniably the two go hand in hand. I’ve never heard of anyone selling a house for as much as they can get. When idiots flood the market thinking that prices will always go up they are prime for the slaughter. And the auction frenzy begins.

3- no matter how bad it gets when the feces hit the fan. Ex: Phoenix Arizona. People will forget what happened as soon as it goes back on the up.

4- sooner or later when you buy high at low interest rates you will most likely lose your home and your pants

 

[GaryQ]

David, the wheat board of Canada with its headquarters in downtown Winnipeg used to be the exclusive agency that monopolized the sale of wheat and I believe barley. Like all government run bureaucracies was not well managed and farmers were limited in how much they could sell and for forced to accept the price.

in 2015 Harper eliminated the Wheat Board’s monopoly and sold it of to an US-Saudi backed firm. It is now only a broker. The wheat act was eliminated and it is now free and open markets. So doesn’t matter who owns the Canadian Wheat board since it’s just a name now. Just one of many options farmers have to get their grain to market.

Probably the only only good thing he did that didn’t ruin our country. Every once in a while a screw up actually works out for the better.

Personally Im for complete deregulation of all quota based farming. Since it just leads to the same price jacking for the sale of a quota. Many dairy farmers sold out and left the industry not because they didn’t make a good living but because they could get rich selling off the quotas that they had inherited from their parents.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

David, the wheat board of Canada with its headquarters in downtown Winnipeg used to be the exclusive agency that monopolized the sale of wheat and I believe barley. Like all government run bureaucracies was not well managed and farmers were limited in how much they could sell and for forced to accept the price.

in 2015 Harper eliminated the Wheat Board’s monopoly and sold it of to an US-Saudi backed firm. It is now only a broker. The wheat act was eliminated and it is now free and open markets. So doesn’t matter who owns the Canadian Wheat board since it’s just a name now. Just one of many options farmers have to get their grain to market.

Thanks for that information. I wasn't aware of that.

Nonetheless, my general comments apply. Here in Ontario, the previous Liberal government was pushing to sell off Ontario Hydro to private enterprise. We all know how well that has worked for the US. Nobody will argue that it doesn't need to be better managed and that governments need to start using profits to lower hydro rates and not use it to pay off other debts they have accumulated first, but selling it to private enterprise is a terrible idea. Similarly, the previous Ontario government wanted to sell off the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). Now that may not be an essential service (I imagine a few would argue otherwise but really it isn't) but it is almost the only Ontario owned business that actually makes money, contributing several billion dollars a year to provincial government coffers and that's separate from the tax they collect on sales, so that too was a totally dumbass idea. That's like saying, "We have a lot of enterprises that are losing money or were never designed to turn a profit. How about we sell off anything that makes a profit and just keep those that are actually draining money from tax funds? Sound good?"

I usually try to avoid political debates, if only for the sake of my blood pressure, but we have been seeing some seriously stupid moves and proposals from politicians at all levels in Canada, in the US, in the UK, and probably in every other nation on the planet. It makes you wonder whether the anarchists aren't right sometimes...

 

[GaryQ]

Totally agree like I said it was Harper... he was doing it for a few good friends so they could get richer he messed up did something good for the country I’m sure he regrets it now lol.

i thought most of the power grid in Ontario was sold off like Hydro One years ago?
i remember paying x cents per kw on the meter. Then y cents for power line losses and z cents for the debt repayments for my house just outside Kapuskasing. We have the lowest (or had) rates here in Manitoba but with the Conservatives in power now I’m sure they’ll be selling it their friends if long enough in power.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It'sall just so garldang shortsighted and/or corrupt.

 

[GaryQ]

It'sall just so garldang shortsighted and/or corrupt.

Garldang?
i don’t know if it’s my Wellbutrin kicking in or you two clowns are just too funny today but man I haven’t laughed so much in a long time!

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It's been a very busy day. I'm tired.

 

[Daniel E.]

BTW, you know the American economy isn't the best when the dollar store is giving people recipes:

Dinner On A $5 Budget - Dollar Tree, Inc.

(I do like their burrito bowl idea.)

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Now THAT ^^ is one bigly yuge chunk of styrofoam!

 

[GaryQ]

Now THAT ^^ is one bigly yuge chunk of styrofoam!

Go BIG or go home

 

[Daniel E.]

It is a big country, after all. (It just doesn't seem that way when it costs $1000 to rent a walk-in closet in Toronto.)

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It is a big country, after all. (It just doesn't seem that way when it costs $1000 to rent a walk-in closet in Toronto.)

In Vancouver these days, people are paying $1000 for a cardboard box and pretending they live in a walk-in closet.

 

[Daniel E.]

That's about similar to the people who pay $50,000 for a tiny home of 200 square feet, not including the cost of setup, land, etc.
But at least with the tiny home you own the box.

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]