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More inflation isn't going to affect most of us. We've already had so much that we can't afford anything anyway. If a house already costs a million dollars who cares if it goes up to 100 million. Is truly not worth working during this period of time until work pays a living again. I'm at the point I'd rather go live off the land on a commune

The problem is simple. If its an issue of cost of living, while its true that it is very high, its very high across the industrialized world. That is because the causes influencing cost of living are not related to inside Canada but are being influenced by foreign actors which Canada has no control over. The Ukraine-Russia War for example is causing increases to food costs which are not easily overcome. The situation in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel threatens to spiral into a regional war and that threatens the oil supply and the present price for oil and gas. The Houthi have been making it hard to traverse the Red Sea which is forcing shipping to travel around Africa rather than directly through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea meaning those additional fuel costs get transferred over to the consumer. As for housing, while efforts to cool housing markets have been made, Canada's housing market is still relatively hot meaning the prices remain high in big cities. Its like a perfect storm. Increased costs on mortgages are an attempt to push down inflation but in the short term you are going to feel that as well. Also we are living in a transition period as the world sinks back to the older model of trade before before Bretton Woods in 1947 which is leading to a decoupling of product lines that at one time coming from Asia were cheap but are not more expensive because they are being made back in the home countries. Transitions do come with a price. Finally, add taxes which help to deal with health care, social programs and government services like embassies, foreign missions and the army well yeah its a perfect storm.\n\nI hope you have luck where you end up but do not for a minute assume that the grass is greener on the other side. Even Japan which attempts to keep certain costs low, has been forced to increase its national consumption taxes to offset overall costs. It isn't going to get cheaper but more expensive as we move back to the old trade model. However, as the world weans itself off of the World Trade Organization and the IMF, the world also re-opens the potential to a Great Depression because that was the reason Bretton Woods appeared in the first place. The world isn't going to get better but far worse.

The reason why it's increasingly more expensive to live now is mostly due to Covid. Worldwide, aproximately 1.7 TRILLION USD was given to corporations after Covid, and almost none of the money has returned to the governments, because well... they didn't plan for it to happen. The rich have gotten richer and the middle class have gotten poorer. When giving away so much money, there is bound to be inflation. The money was used to invest by the rich, buying mostly properties, which is why property prices are skyrocketing. There are so many apartments, particularly in Canada, where nobody lives, because there are so many rich investors buying properties. This phenomenon is not restricted to Canada, but most other large cities in western countries.\n\nYou might think the grass is greener in other parts of the world, but it literally isn't. I live in Norway, one of the richest countries in the world, and the situation is exactly the same here. Everything is getting more expensive, salaries stay stagnant and our currency is absolutely dogshit at the moment due to a failure of basic economics by our government and the central bank. Our oil fund, the wealthiest fund in the world, is actively making trades against our own national currency to make money, but they are making the currency itself worse, thereby reducing the value of it. The value of the oil fund evens out, but it lowers the purchasing capacity for everyone else. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. \n\nPeople would chop off a limb to get a passport in Canada. It is, as you said, a relatively safe place to come home to. There aren't too many countries like that in the world, and you are fortunate. I would advice you to reconsider moving abroad. Sure, Canada has many problems, but I can guarantee you, that living elsewhere in the world at this point is not going to ease your grievances unless you live a very frugal life.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when you let the amount of new immigrants into Canada in the last 3 years that exceeds the total immigrants admitted in the prior 10 years, you are going to see major shelter inflation. Couple that with a low-interest rate policy post GFC and leave rates for that low for that long and you are going to witness an epic housing crisis. But not just that - these new immigrants become fodder of cheap labor that pushes out our very own Canadian citizens from these positions, with the more marginalized ones ending up on the streets. \n \nThere is a Motel 6 in my neighborhood that has been taken over by the Canadian government and converted to temporary housing for new immigrants. All paid for by Canadian taxpayers. Why isn't our own government using these funds to fix the housing crisis, or help it's own citizens with more affordable housing but instead they continue to exacerbate this problem by letting a huge wave of immigrants that overwhelms the Canadian infrastructure. More proof? Notice more locked up goods in your local stores? The demand shock has pushed the cost of living for everything from food to shelter that these Indians who are these same new immigrants are resorting to shoplifting, and extortion! \n \nIf you are going to bring in immigrants to prop up Canada's aging demography at least tighten your admission standards and bring in more educated ones, with more liberal, more considerate and more courteous dispositions. Trudeau has got to go.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when you let the amount of new immigrants into Canada in the last 3 years that exceeds the total immigrants admitted in the prior 10 years, you are going to see major shelter inflation. Couple that with a low-interest rate policy post GFC and leave rates for that low for that long and you are going to witness an epic housing crisis. But not just that - these new immigrants become fodder of cheap labor that pushes out our very own Canadian citizens from these positions, with the more marginalized ones ending up on the streets.\n\nThere is a Motel 6 in my neighborhood that has been taken over by the Canadian government and converted to temporary housing for new immigrants. All paid for by Canadian taxpayers. Why isn't our own government using these funds to fix the housing crisis, or help it's own citizens with more affordable housing but instead they continue to exacerbate this problem by letting a huge wave of immigrants that overwhelms the Canadian infrastructure. More proof? Notice more locked up goods in your local stores? The demand shock has pushed the cost of living for everything from food to shelter that these Indians who are these same new immigrants are resorting to shoplifting, and extortion!\n\nIf you are going to bring in immigrants to prop up Canada's aging demography at least tighten your admission standards and bring in more educated ones, with more liberal, more considerate and more courteous dispositions. Trudeau has got to go.

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.