Close Reading

Some of the stats cited here are straight up wrong or... creatively employed, and there's a lot of contradictory information and the typical conservative 'the sky is falling' sensationalism and misattribution. That said, the bas supposition isn't wrong. The bubble we've been sitting on for 20 or so years has completely burst. As someone born and raised in the Toronto area, it's impossible for me to afford to own a house or apartment here on a teacher's salary. Even rent pushes me to the limit unless I want to live in a... less than nice area. I'm living hand to mouth and enjoying the benefits of living in a 'developed' country less. Here's why:\n\n1. Wages aren't really even close to keeping up with the cost of living. The first tick upwards a bit. The second just keeps rising on the back of housing, food, amenities, and inflation: the four horsemen.\n\n2. Our grocery cabal ruthlessly raise prices whenever we look away, and their lobbyists are all ensconced within the leadership of our three major parties, particularly the Conservatives (so if anyone thinks that electing them will help, they're in for a nasty surprise).\n\n3. We're experiencing 'labour shrinkflation': increasing duties are downloaded onto workers and more is expected: more productivity, more availability (almost 24/7 in some jobs), and higher qualifications. Meanwhile, real wages are decreasing relative to living cost, more positions are 'contract', which is basically a way for employers to not have to give you benefits, and job security is tenuous for a lot of people.\n\n4. Houses are being bought by investors and not owners. Foreign entities are money laundering. The wealthy upper crust of high population countries are moving here and buying property because Canada is (still) more safe and stable and less repressive than their home countries in most cases. \n\n5. There's a cycle beginning: as people are squeezed and forced to spend more on 'needs', they spend less on eating out, entertainment, and other 'wants'. These are significant drivers of the service economy and they're being hit hard. So, what can they do? They can let go of workers or lower product costs to remain profitable, but they their quality declines and, in a market where people are pinching every penny and looking for quality for their dollar, they're less likely to go back. They can raise their prices, of course, but then they price people out completely and their profits still tank. I went to a decent steakhouse for my dad's 60th last week. I can't remember the last time that I went to one before that. \n\n6. Our politicians and news cycles focus on the most niche and irrelevant stuff because it'll stoke anger and get tongues wagging. This carbon thing is almost a non-issue, but our conservative leader is harping on about it like it's singlehandedly the death of the Canadian economy when it's a drop in the bucket. Trudeau focuses on 'equity' measures, hoping for a bit of cheap good press, while his efforts are, for the most part, just window dressing and the issues, while meaningful, are often not of paramount importance or even applicable to the vast majority of the people who elected him. Meanwhile, the middle class is pretty much evaporating as he speaks. The NDP keep talking about this in a pretty real way, for what it's worth, but Jagmeet Singh is giving off an increasing vibe of just being another fat cat politician beneath his rhetoric these days. Also, third-party trolls and screeching conservatives try to bury him on social media whenever he speaks... a lot more than other leaders as well, oddly. I wonder why? Oh yeah, the Greens exist and there's Quebec and the conspiracy theory party.\n\n\nUltimately, what we're experiencing is the revenge of the feudal system. Instead of paying rents to your lord and doing labour on the land for him whenever commanded to, you pay rent to your landlord now and go to work even when you're sick or when work hours are over because you have no union protection or are working 'on contract'. Unless we want to live in the armpit of nowhere, 95% of us are going to be wage slaves living hand-to-mouth, not owning our own property, and working to please our corporate overlords if current trends continue unchecked. While some of Canada's problems are unique, I fear that most aren't. As for me, I'm headed to the 'armpit of nowhere' where I can at least have a ghost of a chance of affording life.

IRRELEVANT. IT IS TIME TO TAKE CARE OF CANADIANS. TRAIN CANADIANS. EDUCATE CANADIANS. ALLOW CANADIANS To BUY HOMES. TIME TO REDUCE IMMIGRATION BY 99% OF ALL COLOURS AND CREEDS UNTIL WE TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE HERE AND SOLVE OUR OWN ISSUES. YOU WANT TO HELP THE WORLD? DO LIKE CHINA AND GIVE THEM LOW INTEREST LOANS TO IMPROVE THEIR OWN COUNTRY.