I am glad this is happening. No other province is taking measures like this. That said, I want more ambitious targets. The advantage I guess is that they seem to have a lot of buy in from the city councils and mayors, so these are durable changes. But I wonder if we can really solve the housing crisis without pissing a few people off.
That’s assuming that the point of all this is to move forward as efficiently as possible. In fact, the analogy works all the more because switching sides is less efficient, but gives the impression to untrained eyes of going down the middle.
I don’t canoe, but it sounds like the j-stroke serves its analogical purpose too. It’s when you want to be seen as being on the left (or the right), but, unbeknownst to the untrained eye, you’re paddling in such a way as to counteract being on the left, so that you actually end up going down the middle.
This kind of thing gives me hope. In Canada, we may have a lot of problems, but things do slowly get better when we decide to pay attention to the problem. I’m cautiously optimistic.
I like these answers. The BC NDP are doing a lot on housing. Not discussed in this article, but they also came out swinging against the investment side when they first came into power with a vacancy tax and other measures. It worked, prices dropped then flattened, but when there is fundamentally not enough housing supply, anti-investment measures alone simple aren’t enough.
Most of these worries are of long term deflation. If deflation is temporary and is perceived as “prices going back to normal”, as it is with cars and GPUs, I don’t think most of these worries would manifest. People aren’t holding off on buying a car because they think car prices will continue to fall long term.
It should be noted, however, that there are many ways in which deflation actually helps the rich more than the poor. Since money is worth more over time, it favours those who already have money. Conversely, inflation can surprisingly help the poor by making debt worth less.
But this assumes that rich people aren’t the very ones profiting off of inflation by price gouging, rent seeking, and manipulating the market, which they absolutely are. So I very strongly doubt that short term deflation hurts the poor and working class.
Poor people have tons of debt. Student loans, credit cards, car loans, rent-to-own furniture/appliances, pay day loans, medical debt in the US and recently installment purchases online. A lot of these are definitely extended to poor and lower middle class people.
The other classic way to reduce inflation is simply taxing the rich. It’s especially efficient to tax the wealthiest when inequality is high, as it is now. This is macroeconomics 101. Meanwhile, very dubious fringe conservative theories get mentioned instead, like intentionally causing unemployment. All the “solutions” put the burden on the poor.
The fact that taxing the rich never comes up in mainstream discussion as a possibility shows how captured our media and politicians are.
Do you think central bank rates “go to the source” and take money directly from the poor? No, it’s already convoluted. By raising the federal funds rates, it forces banks to raise the money it charges other banks to borrow money. This in turn makes loans and mortgages more expensive, which means businesses stop spending, loans and mortgages are more expensive, etc. This eventually “trickles down” to consumers. The most direct manifestation is a home mortgage or car loan, but that is only a small fraction of the economic effect of the central bank rate.
The basket of goods is NOT modelled around what poor people buy. I’m not sure where you got that from. The basket is modelled around what consumers buy overall, proportional to how much they are spending on that category of good. It is true that the poor spend a greater proportion of their income, which is I guess the grain of truth that you’re basing that mistake on?
Traditional views of inflation have been turned upside down by “seller’s inflation” (the media calls this “Greedflation”). This is when companies raise prices above increases in input costs. It was dismissed by economists at first, but the academic consensus is now that it accounts for a significant portion of inflation. Hurting the poor will not help with corporations forcing prices up through tacit coordination and lack of competition.
Ugh that sucks. Adding gaming functionality to a device shouldn’t make it less repairable. Minecraft can on a smart fridge or smart tv.
Actually, why does this loophole even exist? Because game consoles use a razor blade business model, console makers are already incentivized to make their consoles last as long as possible. Most people don’t replace their console for a decade.
That is absolutely not true. Tokyo famously has some of the most affordable real estate of any major world city. You can buy a spacious detached home in the Tokyo area for less than in Hamilton, ON. Despite the stereotype, Japanese homes are bigger than the average in most European countries.
Montreal has had the most affordable housing of the big Canadian cities. Why? Because they have the least land restricted to single family homes. Check out this zoning map. Even now, Montreal has three times the housing starts of Vancouver.
The reason why we build shoeboxes is because we preserve single family home zoning. Super high density towers, or super low density suburbs, the two most expensive forms of housing with nothing in between. To tackle affordability, we need missing middle housing. And I totally disagree about using up space: suburban sprawl sucks. I want to live in charming medium density!
I honestly don’t know where you’re getting your information from. Homes in Tokyo are famously very affordable, and units are bigger than in comparable cities like New York or Paris. This is very well known in the urban planning community, so it goes to show you’re new at this topic and making things up.
Montreal has had a growing population for years. The Francophonie is huge and Montreal is a popular destination. Your anti-French bigotry is showing. Last time they had a speculation bubble in the early 2000s, they quickly built more affordable medium density supply and the bubble receded.
Talking to someone like you, who is “doing their own research” is infuriating and pointless. It is impossible to convince someone who just rejects mainstream research and misinterprets information “on their own”.
Your personal research on this topic is wrong. House prices shot up everywhere in the world due to the pandemic, but less in Tokyo than elsewhere. Population went down in cities everywhere in the world due to the pandemic and WFH, so acting like this is some trend of decreasing population in Tokyo is just deeply ignorant. New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, all had a decrease in population due to the pandemic.
affordable doesn’t mean “cheaper” it means “cheaper as a percentage of income”
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. That is precisely how Tokyo is more affordable than Canada. Housing prices are WAY less than half of New York. It’s truly remarkable that you think New York is more affordable than Tokyo!
I also lived in Japan and speak the language fluently, and I met a lot of people like you who barely spoke the language and came back home acting like experts. Here is a $1.18 million USD home in Meguro city. It is over 2300 square feet! Garage, terrace, three large bedrooms, and way more nearby amenities than most Canadian cities. Also, this is freaking Tokyo! Comparing it to Hamilton is ridiculous. And yet, it’s still more affordable!
Affordable housing doesn’t exist for one simple reason, there are too many owners who benefit from using their housing as an investment.
And not ever because there is not enough housing?? After WW2, Canada built tons of new homes for returning vets. Are you saying housing would have been JUST AS affordable if we didn’t? That’s such a ridiculous idea, I don’t know how someone could believe it. Yes, make it hard to treat housing as an investment, but we also need people like you to stop obstructing supply.
How can you say we’re in this mess due to mainstream research when we are not following mainstream research! That makes no sense.
Oh my sweet Jesus, did you post the metro population of various cities and claim that the population of those cities never went down?? The metro population of Tokyo also never went down! Yikes, your whole comment is a mess!
No housing expert or urban economist agrees with you that we have sufficient housing, but I give up trying to reason with you. Have a good day!
So experts are wrong and you’re right, but also plenty of experts agree with you? How do you believe these contradictory things?
Experts agree on a land value tax and so do I. If that’s all you said, we wouldn’t be disagreeing. But the crazy thing you said is that we need no new housing supply, which no one agrees with.
You also seem to be completely ignorant as to why taxing land value works. When land value is not taxed, we subsidize inefficient use of land like the economically and environmentally disastrous suburban sprawl you seem to like so much.
I need to get back to my own students. Please consider taking an intro economics or urban design course, or even just read a book or two.
I am looking for some good tech sites that have longer articles and indepth reviews. Preferably without an obvious biased towards a particular company or brand. edit: I should have clarified what to was looking for. I would like to compile a list of lesser-known but useful websites so that I can stay current on tech news without...
Ars Technica has to be some of the most reputable high quality reporting in tech. I got hooked way back when they’d publish twenty plus page reviews covering operating systems.
The Philippines is dealing with a nursing shortage as countries like Canada recruit within its borders. When the nurses leave, it causes a ripple effect on those left behind in the Philippines.
I’ve always felt this system was morally dubious. A poorer country spends public money and social resources to educate their population and a rich country like Canada actively recruits them once they’re already trained, sometimes just to be Uber drivers who can’t get their certifications recognized. Meanwhile, Canada saves money on training their own nurses (and other professionals). Even straight A students can have a hard time getting into nursing programs because there aren’t enough spots. As usual, we underinvest.
Canada has literally the most educated populace in the world, but I’m not convinced we’re using all that human potential efficiently.
I genuinely don’t know if remittances justify the brain drain, either economically or morally. Are they really better off sending their most educated people overseas? Do remittances lead to the development of a sustainable long term economy?
Faced with increasing pressure to respond to widespread concerns about the cost of living and questions about his leadership, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of new measures Thursday meant to deal with rising housing and grocery prices.
Taxing corporations does not just raise prices for consumers!! This is a hyper conservative worldview, and very convenient to corporations that don’t want their taxes raised. It is also contradicted by literally any first year economics textbook, so I don’t understand why it keeps getting repeated.
Tax changes to encourage rental construction have been advocated by urban economists for years. This particular measure was proposed by the NDP. An affordable rental market actually puts downward pressure on the overall real estate market.
That said, I agree the Liberals aren’t doing enough.
I general, I’d agree with that. On housing specifically, I wouldn’t.
Until recently, I would say Liberals were actively hurting housing affordability. Their signature housing proposal up to now is a tax cut for rich people who have maxed out their TFSA, which is the first time home buyers tax free savings account. That raises demand without addressing supply or disincentivizing investors. It sounds like a proposal written by the real estate investment community, and frankly, it probably was.
This recent proposal is full of good but minor stuff that should have been done a decade ago and will probably take another decade to have an effect. They’ve wasted a lot of time and I still doubt they’re taking it seriously.
Edit: I want to clarify that I think Conservatives would do an even worse job. Their voter base has even more home owners than the Liberals do and I seriously doubt they have any intention of shrinking real estate GDP growth, which is what is required.
I’m in favour of proficiency marks but only if they’re for specific skills. An “emerging” for math is as informative as a “B-“ in math. That’s a pointless change. But an “emerging” for “fractions” or “long division” actually says something descriptive. Parents can work on that specific thing with their kid, and the next year’s teacher can get a sense of what the students know and what they don’t know.
I think the best analogy is to cybersecurity. What’s the point of patching devices when they’re inevitably going to be hacked again in the future? Because they’ll also be patched again afterwards. Security is a dynamic equilibrium, not a static one. Similarly, no fix to corrupt corporate power is permanent. We need constant vigilance.
Also, it’s been a hundred years, and tech is a new sector that didn’t exist 100 years ago. Breaking up Standard Oil isn’t going to help with Apple and Google.
I wish Lemmy had the Mastodon functionality to create your own lists of communities. I subscribe to a ton of communities and I have a couple of them which are very low volume but I’m very interested in seeing each and every post there. Right now I have to remember them and go to them specifically once every couple of days to...
I think what’s so annoying about these laws is that they go à contresens, by strengthening religion in civic life. These girls are now forced to go to religious schools if they want to continue wearing their harmless cultural dress. In fact, religious schools have exploded in population since the laws on laïcité have passed in France. Many of those girls would have otherwise integrated into French society and become bored of religion, just like Catholic children do, if they went to a normal school. I remember listening to a French philosopher on a debate program say “Seuls les pays qui ont interdit le port du voile ont fini par l’imposer”. I don’t know if that’s literally true, but I think banning makes many muslims feel defiant and more passionate about their religious identity.
It’s especially galling in Canada, which has one of the most well-integrated and moderate Muslim minority populations in the world. A law like this is actively harmful to the goal of lessening “la pertinence de la religion dans la vie civile”. It goes against its own goals, to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
I’ve heard this argument that it’s “not so bad” in Quebec, but I don’t know why we need to accept any “badness” at all. What countervailing benefit justifies the cost? Students will not convert to Sikhism or Islam because they’re taught by a Sikh or Muslim teacher. It’s a non-issue.
Contrary to what you say, the affected groups are far from supportive. In fact, I would not be surprised one bit if, like in France, Muslims in Quebec have hardened their views, becoming more devout, in response to la loi 21.
How does a non-white defendant feel when a visibly white judge, which are most judges, makes a decision against them? Or a man rules against a woman who is a rape victim? Such things happen all the time. People seem perfectly happy with state representatives being white, without quotas or positive discrimination to improve diversity. Why all this concern for “social justice” only when it comes to these minority religions?
Do you really think there is no “badness” at all… for anyone? Some people have had to make a difficult decision between career and identity. You might be blasé about that decision, but for some people it would be as difficult as being forbidden from speaking your native language, or forbidden from being openly gay.
Totally agree. BC is one of the few provinces that significantly raised teacher salaries (not to mention healthcare salaries) during collective bargaining, but it could still be higher. Pay in BC used to be the lowest in the country under the previous conservative government, but now it’s middle of the pack.
But honestly, even more than the pay, the other part is that teaching is a super demanding 70 hour a week job that doesn’t have the prestige from society that it used to.
Probably because buses don’t make partial journeys like that on both ends of a closed route. A very early sentence says that he discussed his options with BC transit and I think it would make for a boring article to discuss that in detail instead of just believing him.
I didn’t realize it was so difficult to actually force landlords to pay up, even when they’re in the wrong. I can’t believe this family expects to never see any money when the RTB has already ruled in their favour.
What I mean is someone sets up a new community, blasts it with a bunch of content to get things started, or sets up a new community bot that makes 20 posts and every other post in my feed is that community. Usually with 1 or 2 votes each and no comments. No matter what way I sort I see this....
I agree more needs to be done, but I’m always dumbfounded that the loudest criticism, even on Lemmy, seems to be against the NDP or about any NDP proposal more than any other party.
I don’t understand why the museum has become such a touch point. Reminds me of the prime minister’s dilapidated residence. Why are we incapable of funding public goods? Victoria is a major tourist destination, and the current museum is outdated and falling apart.
When is a good time? This remodel project has been in the works for almost 20 years, which is classic for Canada. Local input slowing down infrastructure construction is such a microcosm for so many of our problems. It makes costs skyrocket for no benefit and nothing gets done. Just like the PM’s residence. Meanwhile, in Europe or Asia, they’ll build public museums, public transportation, parks, schools, etc. for half the cost and a quarter of the time.
My apologies for assuming. I sometimes feel like my fellow Canadians will just knee jerk oppose or criticize any new policy or project. And then we’ll also criticize inaction.
This is still year one. I think it’s way too early to infer a trend which may well be cyclical not linear. I’d hardly say nail in the coffin for the theory.
According to a new report from Rentals, In July, the Canadian rental market hit a record high with an average asking rent of $2,078, marking an 8.9 per cent annual increase.
Why wouldn’t it make sense for renting to be cheaper than buying? Would I prefer to pay $3000 in rent or $3100 in mortgage+all other fees? Even though I’d be cash flow negative by $100, I am building equity. At the end of 30 years, one person owns a home and the other doesn’t, for the difference of just $100/mo.
Renting is in fact cheaper than buying in places like Vancouver, where wages are low but real estate prices are high.
No, cash flow negative does NOT mean unprofitable!
Imagine you are a landlord that owns a $500k unit. You are renting it out for $2000, but it costs you $2001 after your mortgage, taxes, maintenance and fees. Is that worth it? Think about it this way: it costs you $1 a month to own a $500k appreciating asset. That’s a ridiculously good deal.
The reason why it can make sense that renting is cheaper (as a monthly ongoing expense) than buying is because you get less when you rent than when you buy: when you rent you merely get the right to use the property, whereas when you buy you get the right to use the property as well as the value of the asset itself.
This is fake GDP. Investing in land value is unproductive. Unlike a business, nothing of value is added.
In Canada, spending a million dollars to open a restaurant or found a tech start up is a worse bet than just buying a house. Not to mention these businesses are simply harder to keep open when real estate expenses are so high. This is terrible for our economy and one of the biggest reasons why our GDP-per-capita is falling behind peer countries.
Hard to tell. Lots of Canadians, including probably our prime minister, genuinely believe that high and rising real estate prices is good for our economy.
This is great, and I hope they exceed it. 8 years is still less than what Apple’s oldest phones are getting. The 2013 iPhone 5s is still receiving security updates this year in 2023.
But that just further corroborates the point: when housing was at its most affordable it was not considered a good investment.
It’s also important to note that housing remained flat even when interest rates went down, partially because of a healthy stock of non-market and market housing.
B.C. sets housing targets for 10 municipalities (www.winnipegfreepress.com)
Non-Paywall Article
Newsom adopts Jerry Brown's 'canoe theory' of political shifting (calmatters.org)
Ding, dong the efficiencies defence is dead (canadiandimension.com)
‘We’re So Far Behind, We Need It All’ | The Tyee (thetyee.ca)
ANALYSIS | There's something worse than inflation, and it's on the radar for next year (www.cbc.ca)
The popular idea that prices should fall to previous lows gives most economists chills. Deflation is bad for everyone, they say.
It's time to replace urban delivery vans (www.youtube.com)
It’s nice to see larger outlets talking about urbanism topics and Vox has made a few videos in this area recently.
Inflation jumped up to 4% in August thanks to rising gas prices (globalnews.ca)
August's consumer price index figures mark the second consecutive month inflation has accelerated in Canada, even as grocery prices saw some relief.
Apple Answers of All Our iPhone 15 Pro Questions: 'It's Going to be the Best Game Console' (sea.ign.com)
Waiving the GST was just a start. These 3 ideas could help get more housing built in Canada (www.cbc.ca)
From faster approvals to hiring more workers, governments need to step up: experts...
Any good tech sites without the fluff?
I am looking for some good tech sites that have longer articles and indepth reviews. Preferably without an obvious biased towards a particular company or brand. edit: I should have clarified what to was looking for. I would like to compile a list of lesser-known but useful websites so that I can stay current on tech news without...
As Canada recruits Filipino nurses, those left behind struggle to care for patients (www.cbc.ca)
The Philippines is dealing with a nursing shortage as countries like Canada recruit within its borders. When the nurses leave, it causes a ripple effect on those left behind in the Philippines.
Trudeau announces new measures to deal with housing, grocery prices (www.cbc.ca)
Faced with increasing pressure to respond to widespread concerns about the cost of living and questions about his leadership, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of new measures Thursday meant to deal with rising housing and grocery prices.
Forget letter grades, it's all about proficiency in B.C. public schools now (www.cbc.ca)
Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (arstechnica.com)
Cory Doctorow: Interoperability Can Save the Open Web (spectrum.ieee.org)
How to free users from Big Tech’s walled gardens...
I hate it that I miss all interesting low volume communities posts
I wish Lemmy had the Mastodon functionality to create your own lists of communities. I subscribe to a ton of communities and I have a couple of them which are very low volume but I’m very interested in seeing each and every post there. Right now I have to remember them and go to them specifically once every couple of days to...
Big Real Estate Executives Among Top Donors to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives (pressprogress.ca)
Big Surprise, faux populist backed by real estate moguls
Schools in France send dozens of Muslim girls home for wearing abayas (www.aljazeera.com)
Schoolgirls who refused to change out of the loose-fitting robes have been sent home with a letter to parents on secularism....
New school opens in Coquitlam as call for action on B.C. teacher shortage continues - BC | Globalnews.ca (globalnews.ca)
‘A last resort’: Man walks Kelowna to Penticton following Highway 97 closure - Okanagan | Globalnews.ca (globalnews.ca)
'The landlords have no accountability': Wrongfully evicted B.C. woman wins tenancy branch battle, but says former landlord refuses to pay up (bc.ctvnews.ca)
New communities and flooding the feed
What I mean is someone sets up a new community, blasts it with a bunch of content to get things started, or sets up a new community bot that makes 20 posts and every other post in my feed is that community. Usually with 1 or 2 votes each and no comments. No matter what way I sort I see this....
Almost half of Canadians living paycheque to paycheque as Tory support grows: poll (www.winnipegfreepress.com)
Non-Paywall Article
Singh to push for another housing benefit payment (www.winnipegfreepress.com)
Non-Paywall Article
Nagorno-Karabakh: 'People are fainting queuing up for bread' (www.bbc.co.uk)
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/2122033...
B.C. posts $704-million surplus, audit shows (www.winnipegfreepress.com)
Non-Paywall Article
We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions: Visits are Down 29% since May, Programming Assistance is 30% of Use - SparkToro (sparktoro.com)
Canada's landlords now asking a record-breaking average of $2,078 per month: rental report (www.ctvnews.ca)
According to a new report from Rentals, In July, the Canadian rental market hit a record high with an average asking rent of $2,078, marking an 8.9 per cent annual increase.
Fairphone 5 launch event (www.youtube.com)
The federal government used to build social housing. Then it stopped. How is that going? (www.cbc.ca)