When I slid through Vancouver airport on Sunday morning, I was sure that’s how the Alamo felt before the Mexicans attacked. There were, literally, armies of security staff ready for what was expected to be the worst one-day onslaught in Canadian aviation history. Forty thousand passengers, nine hundred flights, hours of delays and even a special terminal built to be used – if you can believe it – for just one day.
Yeah, The Olympics were cool, even when a business traveller like me ran headlong into them on two separate trips. But what I saw and heard suggests the cost will also be Olympian – six billion, with a billion alone for security. And how much did it cost to cover a mountainside with snow carried in by helicopter?
But this is not about the games. It’s about government. And us.
BC will be paying for this for a long time, as the province’s budget this week will suggest. It’s widely expected people will be seeing more schools close, more essential services curtailed, user fees go up and, of course, the HST arrive.
Like Ontario and Alberta, BC will be mired in deficits for years to come. In fact, add in Quebec (where debt now accounts for 94% of the entire economy), and the picture is brutal. It means higher provincial taxes and less spending. Meanwhile on Thursday we get a federal budget that will formally announce the greatest budget deficit in national history, as the country slides towards a $600 billion debt.
Here’s why this stuff matters: Add in the aging population and the crappy global economy, along with America’s worrisome decline, and you have a recipe for semi-permanent deficits in Canada. In fact, if we stay on this path, within thirty years our debt will equal over 300% of the economy. At that point nobody will lend us money, our currency will be used on board games and we’ll have Detroit-style house prices.
So, obviously, that won’t happen. Instead, governments will raise taxes and slash spending, while at the same time they pray for an economic boom (which won’t come). These things are now totally inevitable. The GST is going back up. There will probably be a new surtax on the ‘rich’ (starting at around 100K income). There may be a spec tax on houses. Plus new land transfer levies. RRSP contributions will go from being deductions to credits. The costs of a passport will soar along with user fees for air travellers and drivers.
As for spending, the inevitable result of cuts will include higher university tuition, a two-tiered medical system and no more free garbage pick-up.
This will all take some time, of course. For example, there will be no GST increase until after the next federal election – which will be waged on the promise of no tax hikes. But it’s best to start preparing now.
The world we are moving into will be one of reduced government services, and less disposable income. Even if interest rates are kept below market levels for a while, higher taxes and fees and the inflation they’ll breed will blow a hole in family budgets. Simply stated, there will be no room for a real estate bubble, and no fuel to keep it inflated. The insanity of the last 10 months will become apparent – a time in which young people without money bought better homes than their parents ever owned, using 95% leverage at the very top of the market, backed by the government.
It’s a recipe for negative equity, as it is for consumer shock.
The games are over, dude. This is budget season. The suits have taken the torch from the latex.
And it sure as hell is a good time to exit Vancouver.
175 comments ↓
Garth, since you took the opportunity to call me an idiot on my last comment, I’m going to take the opportunity to call you an idiot on this one.
On a day where the country has united with pride, where 30 million stand together as one, you take the opportunity to dump on the country we all love yet again.
Take a day off Garth.
There’s a reason the Romans loved circuses. — Garth
Less disposable income? Much less and I won’t have any.
I say they should raise the GST back to 7% to get the country out of deficit sooner than later. We lived with it for over a decade, I don’t know why it would hurt to go back. Going from 5% to 7% beats going from zero to 7% when the GST was introduced.
Olympics were great for the 18 days, sports theme very entertaining, however in the long run it only benefits the folks who could profit from this, very few who got the contracts.
What is needed is an economic olympic event, to develop technology and manufacturing jobs that last a lifetime, real industries RE bubbles aren’t one of them.
Well,guess everyone will move here now after the olympics.That has been the mantra here for years.Prices have to keep goin up in VAN and VIC.That’s what agents say,must be true.We’ll be flooded with retiring boomers and foreigners dazzled by how cheap it is to live here.
Of course, what they should be doing is slashing government spending instead of trying to keep all the balls in the air with tax increases…
They’ll cut, yes, but it will be in services instead of in public employee salaries, pensions and benefits – which is where it SHOULD be. High time to privatize garbage collection, policing, fire departments and even education. And do away with the crippling and job-killing minimum wage while they’re at it. There are masses of unemployed or underemployed who’d love to “fight fires” at $8.00/hour ~ LIKE THEY DO IN THE REST OF THE WORLD.
Ironically, we’d get affordable housing as an added benefit!
Tax and fee increases – like the Olympic Pageant – will only further reduce already dismal Canadian productivity and competititveness. Instead, we need DEregulation, lower taxes, lower salaries, incentives to SAVE.
Canadians need the freedom to set up small businesses without licensing, fees, insurance requirements, minimum wages, mandated benefits, consumption taxes, parking fees, GST-complaint anything, hiring restrictions…
It’s time to start thinking like the rest of the world.
And, by the way…if our currency will be used on board games (it isn’t already? The “nickel” is STEEL) and we can look forward to semi-permanent $600B deficits, shouldn’t your long- term savings be in GOLD?
More trouble ahead..
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=12adc52f-cf9f-4b91-8c69-cfea044c5d43
“Big versus small often plays out in business.
And it’s currently at work thanks to a recent draft advisory issued by OSFI on the conversion to International Financing Reporting Standards for federally regulated entities. The advisory focuses on the new IFRS rules, which go into effect next year, a regulatory measure known as asset capital multiple and the resulting effect on insured mortgage backed securities. The Office of the Superindendant of Financial Institutions advisory states that as of Jan. 1 2010, National Housing Act MBS’s that are securitized will move from being an off balance sheet item to a balance sheet item, a move that boost the institution’s ACM ratio. At the margin, such transfers could limit the amount of securitizations that are completed in Canada every year, securitizations that lower the cost of mortgages more than otherwise.
While market participants await an updated advisory, some small players are less than happy with what has been proposed. The Trust Companies Association of Canada, a group of 19 member firms, has written to OSFI and to the Minister of Finance and given their views on the details included in the advisory. The members, whose largest include Community Trust, Equitable Trust and Home Capital, have more than $16-billion in outstanding mortgage backed securities. In all, CMHC has about $170-billion in outstanding issue in Canada Mortgage Bonds.
In that letter, TCAC argues “that potential accounting and regulatory implications that IFRS has on the MBS/CMB programs creates a scenario contrary to public policy due to the profound implications on mortgage lending and consumers in Canada.” It says over the next few years “it will become obvious that some of the country’s best capitalized financial institutions that participate in MBS/ CMB programs will have difficulty meeting its asset capital multiple requirements” unless OSFI makes some changes to its current position.
If the rules in the OSFI draft advisory do go into effect, the letter says “many trust companies and indeed other regulated financial institutions, will have no effect but to exit or significantly reduce MBS/CMB program activity as the cost of incremental capital required to meet the ACM constraint will make these activities unprofitable.” Aside from the earnings pressures that may result for the trust companies, the letter argues a smaller number of participants in the MBS/CMB program “will limit Canadian consumers’ choice of and access to mortgage lenders.”
That could be a good result for unregulated companies that also securitize mortgages, but not through CMHC. “Unregulated companies may seek to increase their presence to fill some of the void in the supply of mortgages for the MBS/CMB program.”
One academic, who requested anonymity, argued that through the new rules, OSFI is effectively creating an unfair advantage for unregulated players in the mortgage market “I think the credit crisis has taught us that it’s better to have large-scale lending operations [such as residential mortgages] in line of sight of the regulators and for borrowers to have the capacity to balance sheet their production [using deposits] if capital markets become shaky.”
Calls to First National, an unregulated entity that administers more than $43-billion of residential and commercial mortgages, seeking a comment weren’t returned.
So far TCAC hasn’t received a reply from OFSI. Nor has TCAC received a reply from the Minister of Finance. CMHC declined comment.
bcritchley@nationalpost.com“
Some folks really do not get it …
Lets privatize everything!!! … Sure bring on the US styled Health Care, costing more and covering less.
Do you really think you will love the quality of $8/hr police and teachers … Bring on third world corruption.
How about CEO wages 3x the average salary … $24/h C.E.O.’s … Top Salary for Canada!!!
Go For it … Everyone in Canada $8 – $24/hr
Pure Libertarian Hubris
#6 Taxhaven
With your utopian attitude all the $8/hour employees would be hard pressed to buy anything from all the small businesses.
Brew
# 6 – Tax Haven !!!
Would you fight fires for $ 8.00 an hour? I fought fires for 32 years. I had policeman tell me I’m nuts for running into a burning building while others are running out. Try it sometime. And YES I was scared, and always felt proud providing a service to the city I worked for. By the way, firefighers lives are cut short by 15 years for the hazards they face. Don’t believe me , checkout the stats. My $ 8.oo worth !!!!!!
“World Cities’s House price to income index”
Uhmmmmm, looks to me Hongcouver has all the finest, liveable elements.
…Garth is an ok guy, he’s just stuck in the last century…
http://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings.jsp
I don’t think the government is stupid enough to change RRSP contributions from deductions to credits. If it gets changed to a credit, what incentive is there for me to take my liquid cash and stash it away in an illiquid savings vehicle which is going to get taxed when I retire at a likely higher rate? This would just influence people to save less and depend on government even more to carry them through retirement.
I agree – increase the GST back to 7%, best of the worst pills to swallow
All that being said. Well done to Vancouver and all our atheletes . You made Canada proud.
For all the youngsters out there!
http://generationzeromovie.com/
Unless of course your a trust fund baby!…
Here in Ontario I find it funny that the Government has just handed Ford Motor Co. $82 Million to build engines for the Mustang’s and trucks.
http://www.thestar.com/wheels/article/772325–province-rides-to-aid-of-ford-engine-plant
Yet the policy to obtain a driver’s license for young people is a graduated licensing system-G1-G2-Full G.
and Insurance rates are crazy.
You would think the Government would invoke policies that would put young people in vehicles; not prevent it.
Here’s a better Idea. If the Government was really thinking about stimulating the economy…
Take on MASSIVE infrastructure and environmental projects. Nation Wide Underground High Speed Rail System(electric too), Tar Sands Clean up, Randel Reef, etc. etc.
Ask our young people if they are willing to hold the course the boomers have put us on?
The path to unsustainability.
I’ll be sure to do whatever is necessary to avoid paying a single penny of tax.
Thanks for the advice Garth! Just Got Money Road! Excellent!!
#1 Nolan and Garth, come on boys, take a break from all this and let’s just enjoy the fact we have won the most gold medals since 1924! Time for all the bad stuff another day, celebrate being a Canadian tonight ! Relax for a bit, get ready for the fight ahead>
Canadians haven’t had any real increase in their standard of living for at least 15 years. They have stood idly by and watched the Canadian manufacturing sector be dismantled for over 20 years. In that time they have probably heard 20 budgets and just as many throne speeches. Baaaaaa!
The way to play the sheeple is not rocket science.
a) threaten them with cuts to their sacred cow, health care
b) slide in lots of insignificant tax credits to make every Canadian think that he is getting away with something that his neighbour will be paying for. Violin lessons for the kids? Safe deposit box deduction? Public transit bus pass deductions?
Don’t worry about those daycare and summer camp deductions, someone without children is paying for that because we are Great Canadians! Yippeeeee!
The budget will be like every other budget delivered by any level of government in this country in the last forty years.
It will give Canadians everything that they continue to demand but lead them to believe that they are shafting their fellow Canadians with the bills. It is all so predictable and sooo Canadian.
Canadians don’t give a hoot about the deficit. It is someone else’s problem.
Hey TaxHaven,
Sounds like you don’t like it here. Get the hell out. We don’t ned you.
Garbage collection isn’t free now! You pay for it in your property taxes.
Everyone knew the big government experiment was going to end badly one day. We were just hoping we wouldn’t live to see it.
Increased taxes to support unproductive government spending will kill the economy. Taxes are too high now!
I say start cutting, and keep cutting until people decide what services they will actually pay for and then let the market take over. For example, where I live there is no free garbage collection, but there are several small companies competing to do collections. Their cost structure might be higher or lower than in the city, I don’t know, but it gets done and people pay for it. No city union or pensions though.
One thing I wonder, since the season is approaching: I’ve been filing my taxes on line ever since I found out you could, both personal and corporate. It still takes me just about as long, as everything keeps getting more complicated each year and there are more and more t-slips for every little thing, but I feel more confident I have the calculations right when my trusty computer does them instead of me. But on the other end, doesn’t this mean RevCan should be a computer and 2 geeks keeping it running? Why do they still need so much staff?
The only solution to the current spending crises (that’s what it is, a spending crisis. Not a deficit crisis, not a funding crisis, not a recession crisis, not a financial crisis, but a spending crisis. Everyone, personally and at every level of government, is spending too much money.) is to start cutting spending. They can start with the long barrel gun registry, a pork project meant to do nothing but employ people right from the beginning. “Keeping the honest folks honest at a cost of billions”. But there is plenty more to cut than that.
Parks and recreation is another good one. Here in Calgary, we have proven that you can build indoor soccer facilities with very little government support, and finance them through (somewhat) corporate sponsorship and (mostly) charging adequate fees for use. So here is what you do: Raise fees at pools, hockey rinks, and fields until they pay for themselves! And if nobody will come anymore, shut it down and sell the building (or land)! Soccer fields? I have a hard time believing that clubs wouldn’t find a way to maintain them themselves in exchange for reduced fees and exclusive use (home field type thing). Heck, they might even be able to grow grass on them, which the city can’t seem to do!
Snow removal and road construction? Gasoline taxes. (And yes it’s fair. An 18 wheeler does way more wear and tear to the road than a Honda Civic or a motor cycle.) Education? Privatize the whole thing. We pay for it anyway through property taxes, so send the taxes back to parents who have children of school age in the form of vouchers and let schools compete for the business. Probably cut costs by half. Plus increase diversity and choice.
Etc.
#6 – We’ve tried private fire and police services. It doesn’t work. The folks who can afford to pay are the only one who get service – so other people’s homes and businesses burn down and threaten other homes, sections of the city ghettoize and crime rises. Read a little US history – there are plenty of graphic examples of fire services just watching a house burn down because they weren’t on their insurance list – or extorting home owners who did have a fire. (This is not the same thing as volunteer fire services, which many smaller communities use successfully, but which are difficult to scale up as the community grows.)
Private police forces throughout history have been used as more than just security guards – they’re mercenaries involved in private armies, for violent strikebreaking, industrial spying and sabotage. Blackwater/XE ring a bell? Shining examples of the type.
Some things are a public good and should be paid for by the public at large. Education is another example – educating everyone ensures a more highly skilled, productive workforce, for example, while public health care (especially services hat emphasize prevention) minimizes major contagions and keeps everyone more productive.
History of firefighting on Wikipedia
History/timeline of private policing in the US
Let Munch CHIME in on this one, as he happens to know something that may be relevant
South Africa will be hosting the Soccer World Cup – yes, while as poster # 1 says, we should gather together in pride, the reality is that we have spent R140 billion on 9 stadiums and a brand new train transport system, and we have done so with money we don’t have – there WILL be a massive fall-out (on the debt and on the “jobs” that will no disappear) – I don’t buy this national pride bullshit, I really don’t! Any big sporting event is a business opportunity and it should be run like a business! National pride does not pay the bills!
Regards
Munch
2 tier health care is so 90’s Garth. I think we are at least at 4 tier health care and getting ready for a 5th tier.
1st tier is the health care system
2nd tier is for the people who have jobs with a benefits package
3rd tier is for the people who can afford to buy quality insurance coverage. Think self employed people with incomes over 100k.
4th tier is for the people who can afford to also pay for quality out of country health care if the line up is too long here in Canada
5th tier = ?
The national debt has been as high as $600 billion before, during the late 1980s. It was wrestled down to about $450 billion and it probably will be again.
Harold
Ooo… better have a cuppa tea whilst I figger out who to vote against… OK, make that bourbon.
“. . . the cost will also be Olympian . . . about government.”
Seems TheBigLebowski and a few others (myself included) are right on the money — controlled, orderly takedown (destruction) of the middle- and lower-classes.
Same as the controlled, orderly implosions of the twin towers on 9-11. I would rather be referred to as a fruitcake (and right) than listen to the ‘establishment’, or controlled m$m.
There’s that word again — ‘controlled’ = sheeple.
——
Buffett’s name again. How did he know? March 15, 2010. Also –
Strange The last para.: “I also wonder if with the increased tempo of megadisasters — or scalar weapons strikes — if many more Live Aids are going to be feasable in a weaponized economic collapse?”
Well well well — lookee here.
A para. from the report says it better: “At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.” Not too hard to see what is going on, how the rich get extremely wealthy by bleeding us suckers dry.
This report is good, but the comment from wrh.com is better (keep in mind that any bombing of these facilities would lead to another Chernobyl or Three Mile Island cock-up, and they are not nuke WMD):
“If the nuclear stockpile is being placed in an above-ground plant, any bombing of facility that would send a cloud of nuclear material that could potentially poison the entire region – including Israel, depending on the prevailing winds – for some time to come.
“By placing their nuclear facility above ground, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is attempting to prevent an attack on Iran, rather than invite one.
“I find it difficult to believe, whatever one might think of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ ideology, that these men don’t love their children and families, and would not want any harm to come to them.”
Now that the ‘limpicks are over and done with ($6 bln. debt?), how about more crashes to join with?
Pound foolish (don’t ferget — if the pound continues sinking, Phoney Tony will instruct Gordon Brown to create new false flags for the purpose of starting more wars).
Anyone recall that pandemic thingy a while back? Well . . .
#1 wrote… “On a day where the country has united with pride, where 30 million stand together as one, you take the opportunity to dump on the country we all love yet again. ”
A few years ago, I owned shares in a private company. A private equity fund came along and offered to buy us out. At the time, our sales had surpassed all projections, profits were way up, new customers were signing up, and the forecasts were all rosy. Everything was going right and all shareholders were peeing themselves with excitement. There was an expectation that, in a few short years, the company would go public and provide shareholders with an even larger windfall.
Because the news was all good, many of the shareholders were reluctant to dispose of their shares to the private equity firm. I had to make a decision on what percentage of my holdings to sell. I distinctly remember driving in my car and suddenly coming to a realization… “What more good news can we reasonably expect when ALL the news is currently good and everything is perfect? Any news going forward can only be bad news. So sell aggressively.”
I sold a majority of my holdings at a price that turned out to be an all-time peak. Over the next few years, any news was bad news and the share price has been falling ever since. Those shareholders who didn’t sell ended up deeply regretting their greed.
Why do I bring up this story? Because all the news in Vancouver right now is good. We’ve survived the global economic downturn. Our house prices are way up. The economy appears to be strong, and there is an expectation of further strength. And, finally, we’ve just impressed the world with a wonderful Olympics. Emotions are running high.
We are the “Best Place on Earth”. What other good news can we reasonably expect when ALL the news and expectations are positive? There is only room for surprising bad news now.
All my investment experience tells me, as Garth suggests, it’s time to exit Vancouver.
Somebody let me know when they start pre-sales in Sochi.
Garth:
From the tone of your post it is obvious that you are up to something big in the next few weeks. I am glad that you are continuing the “Greater Fool” blog, because it is educating Canadian’s about the housing bubble, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and how to save and invest as an economic/real estate contrarian in you book “Money Road”
If you are planning to fight then you must “choose your battles well”. Canada needs a financial journalist/business leader who can help people in 5 ways. They are: (1) educate Canadians on how to save and invest from 2010-2015 and beyond as outlined in your book “Money Road; (2) outline where the jobs are going to be in the new economy and the implications for boomers, seniors, generation X, Y and Z . (3) promote small and medium size businesses and entrepreneurship;(4) promote the rise of B2B and C2C internet networked markets as well as home based businesses, franchises and direct selling and (5) get people to understand that governments of all levels in this country are in financial difficulty, ideologically bankrupt, cant breakdown social, economic and technological problems to a level that can be fixed and are losing the trust and respect of citizens. People must create business & social networks to solve local/regional economic and community problems!
The first point is self explanatory and requires no further comment. The second point is extremely critical and important because Canadians need to know what jobs will be created in the new economy. Nula Beck (an economist) in her 1995 book “Shifting Gears” identifies 4 engines of the knowledge economy. They are: (1) computers & semiconductors-hardware, software and information services;(2) health care and medical-medical instruments, care & diagnosis, pharmaceuticals and hospital supplies;(3) communications & telecom-radio, TV, internet, print media, entertainment and sitcom services; (4) instrumentation-optical cameras/camcorders, engineering and scientific, process control and environmental consulting. There is also the E-wave sector that is making discoveries in genetic engineering and biotechnology, AI, space commerce and the development of new metal alloys and composite materials. Bioremediation will be a new frontier in environmental science as we try to reuse our waste, detoxify contaminated soils and clean badly polluted wastewater from areas like the Alberta tarsands. Lastly we should not forget about the challenge mankind faces in the development of renewable energy from solar, wind, zero point energy (ZPG) and thermonuclear fusion.
Ms Beck believes that in theses sectors of the knowledge economy there will be individuals such as Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft who stand out as genius when IT was in its infancy. There will be winners and losers as well as roadblocks in the development of technology and it application to management systems in modern business practices. The major stumbling block is a lack of global, legal and yes social/political structures to make it work well not to mention the protection of intellectual property in a way so it does not impede technology transfer to the third world. If people do not know where the jobs will be in the knowledge economy, they can’t get proper training to qualify for the high wage technical/managerial positions
We need a business leader such as you Garth, to promote the benefits of starting a small business to meet the needs of the market as well as support the growth of medium size enterprises that require capital and technology to compete with big business. The growing interest by people across the country in running small business probably has little to do with entrepreneurship. It has more to do with 30-50 year olds being forced to seek self employment (contract/temporary work) after losing a long term job. There are now smaller numbers of middle management/technical positions as many have been outsourced to the third world at a lower wage rate. The small business man/woman who is successful is the one that have identified niche markets big business can’t exploit due to cost/overhead issues. There need to be a better way to promote small business services such as business plan writing, market research, financing and IT support. Government must support the creation of a LLC or a business that is in between a sole proprietorship and a corporation. The US has it enshrined in law and we should have it too! There is a need to reduce the administrative cost of business by simplifying government forms, using the right accounting/business writing software to reduce tedious and repetitive tasks so businessmen/women can concentrate in earning revenue/profit.
Since 1993 the internet has fundamentally alter the way we produce and distribute information and conduct our business. Our knowledge base is doubling every 5 years and most of Generation X and y are reading, storing and transmitting info in the 3-5 zeta byte range (over 999 trillion bytes). We are now seeing the rise of the digital economy where there is more virtual money than coinage in circulation. Financial transactions are occurring in the trillion dollar range every minute of the day. The FOREX market is a 24h, $4 trillion market as an example. Over the last 24 months the speed of the internet has been increasing to a point where you are getting over 500mb/s in the transfer of digital information from anywhere around the planet. This has opened opportunities in E-commerce where almost anyone can start a business and work at home with just a laptop (with accounting /financial mgmt software) and a good printer. You can direct sell products or provide any kind of services on the internet. There are also a lot of good franchise opportunities in traditional retail and in personal/ professional services. This will give people from 40-60 a chance to start an independent business, provide lasting income and help create a B2B or B2C/C2C network that would revitalize the local economy.
Canadians have to realize that big government, big business, big labour and education are in very serious trouble, because they cannot adapt fast enough to cope with the rise of the new economy and the global financial crisis (GFC). The Harper Conservative Government just posted a $43 billion deficit in 2009. There is a permanent structural deficit of at least $20 billion on the federal level due to pensions and transfer payments enshrined in law. Ontario has an astonishing $193 billion debt and is running a record $25 billion deficit. Quebec has an overall debt of $216 billion and is planning cuts to its public services to pay it down. The City of Toronto had a record operating budget shortfall of $821 billion and made cuts, reductions to staff and included last years budget savings to get it to zero. Big business is laying off thousands of people to cut cost, improve stock value even as sales/ revenue are dropping. Big labour are just protecting jobs that will not exist in the future as technology and management system are changing at a rapid pace. Big education is reluctant to embrace web based education while US universities such as Phoenix already have commuter campus in Alberta.
Don’t work for government, its ok to network with them, but as a partnership through a private/non-profit organization, your media and publishing company etc. You are more effective as a business leader who can encourage people to start enterprises, invest in their local economy, get proper retraining, help their communities solve problems and depend less on government
In response to Nolan’s comment above:
Maybe 30 million Canadians should stand as one for things that really matter. Like this country’s economic mess. Spending money we don’t have. Like the legacy of debt we will be leaving for future generations.
Six months from now will anybody be talking about the Olympics? I doubt it. I hope we never host the Olympics in this country again.
1# Nolan Matthias
Garth is not dumping on Canada…maybe he could’ve have waited until tomorrow with this post. We are all proud canadians to see what our athletes have accomplished but don’t tell me me that olympics wwas not mired with alot of political and business interest .
if they were interested in the olympics they would have had the olympics again in calgary. everthing is already built and guess what they have snow…go figure . Bc could have sent wood and workers to help shore up the place and in return calgary could have sent back some assurred profits instead BC will have huge defecits
I sure the athletes wouldn’t care where they competed either in calgaRy or Vancouver as long as it was canadian and the conditions were good
The games are over, let the real game begin …” The game of keeping your family’s heads above water” and 32 million plus people will be playing on the north side and 300 million on the south side.
The Olympics are over, let the economic games begin!
Bunch of overpaid public employee socialists.
You’re just damn lucky Canadians – or at least their governments – are willing to pay you wages/benefits/pensions that are six, seven or eight times what they are in most of the real world…
But are Canada’s customers willing to pay similar prices for Cnadin goods? One wonders…!
Or maybe we’ll have to just keep printing the money to pay you…
for Nolan from the #1 comment Garth is Just speaking the the truth about our economy.
Mikey
Out of curiosity looked at New York (Staten Island) real estate market. I was very surprised to see that one could afford 3 bdr, 3 wrm 7 year old townhouse for $149,000. Previous selling price was $399,000 in 2007.
in defense of the free market…
bear with me as i mull over the notion of free vs pay garbage collection (relevant to the discussion in that, as Garth points out, public services will continue to be cut regardless). where i live (central america), there is no public garbage collection and guess what… garbage everywhere. i pay a buck a bag for private trash collection. i hate to see the garbage on the side of the roads, but i cannot begrudge the locals.. they simply cannot afford it.
my extended family lives in ireland.. totally other end of the spectrum. about $15 a bin for garbage removal, with discounted rates per bin of sorted recycling… maybe $5 per bin. rather ingenious, as an motivator for recycling, but still relies on some moral obligation to comply. for example, many have an incentive to burn whatever will burn, so as not to pay… not exactly a win for the environment.
in canada? free garbage collection, but can society afford the bill? even worse, market signals are lost when the service is free. i think of the costco “syndrome”… everything packaged with obscene quantities of plastic, such that you nearly cut yourself cutting the crap off your new product. bad for the environment, unnecessary tax on the system, in that it increases the volume of garbage for no reason.
long winded way of saying that we all need to re-examine the public vs private models as we head into an era in which the myth of public wealth is being blown apart. we can’t afford the system we currently have, and we need to start seeing the true (but hidden) costs of our current public services.
At least Saskatchewan won’t be a have not province:
http://www.torontosun.com/money/2010/02/22/12980111.html
If costs of this brown coal >> oil process are approximately $29/barrel, that’s the same or less than most oil sands projects.
TaxHaven,
Now, you see, Mr. TaxHaven, when you talk about cutting the pay of civil servants, teachers, perhaps firefighters salaries and the like, to make them affordable, instead of running up the deficit (thereby bankrupting the country/wiping out savings …etc) you have to realize that you just CANNOT do that.
These civil servants, teachers, and the people you speak of are HIGHLY qualified, usually with a degree in somethin’, and as we all know, they don’t just give those ‘degrees’ away. Not to get too anecdotal, but one that I know of (well, several), have to work from home instead of going to the office because there is so much to do. Now, this one (who works for the CFIA) is responsible for writing regulations on farmers, which, seeing as it is an emerging business, probably needs the regulations. She works up to six hours per week…
As we know, Unions protect these valuable Government Workers. These Skilled Workers who are NOT redundant, NOT easily replaced, and for which, if it wasn’t for Unions, the country couldn’t find anyone else to do the jobs. People like autoworkers.
Anyway, TaxHaven-man, with your “anti-Canadian, cut the deficit, show an inking of responsibility and pay people what the market dictates and not what their Union wants”… we don’t need that kinda talk in this country!
Let’s have a day to stand tall with pride to be Canadian. All of us. Joannie and Sydney and so many other of our athletes have done us proud. A new record for gold medals is no light achievement.
Congratulations to Vancouver on putting on a great Games. It has been a great thing for this country, from coast to coast, Canadians were united and feeling good. I honestly think it has drawn us together, and more than I thought it might. That has no $ price tag attached to it, but it worth a lot to me.
I am generally opposed to circuses like the Olympics because of the cost, and the IOC’s arrogance. You know going in that the budget will blow up and costs spiral upwards. And the price was not cheap for this party, but there are benefits that can’t be counted on the balance sheet. I really won’t mind that much if some of my tax $ go to paying for it. At least there is some visible result for the money, unlike for the most of the rest of the piles we send to Ottawa that seem to disappear into black holes. We spent a few Billion on the ‘Gun Registry’ idiocy after all, let’s keep it in perspective.
Tomorrow we can go back to arguing about the economy and bitching about everything. But remember, we still have the greatest country on earth. Our problems are pretty minor by comparison to most. Like Chile, where they have no food or drinking water. Or Haiti, word fail me. Or Europe, where the economy is imploding.
CANADA! CANADA! CANADA! my throat is blown out today
The question: “Would you fight fires for $8 an hour?”
The answer: “In a heartbeat(if I was 25 years younger) and a new Buick cost $2,500.”
The “relativity” of this debate over wages, purchasing power and the cost of services and consumer goods should become very clear as deflation gets into its stride. Steer clear of debt and enjoy the ride.
VI Funcanuck here.
Will say it right at the beginning-was not a fan of the “spending” of the Olympics.
Any citizen has the right to be critical. Many defenders of the Olympics accuse others who say anything even “mildly” critical of being opposed to the “entire” games or “unpatriotic.”
It simply ain’t so…life is rarely so black and white. Much of what Garth wrote is simply true, factual–with opinions thrown in of course (which isn’t a bad thing per se).
Back to more direct RE matters. I emailed a Nanaimo RE agent inquiring why the asking price was $250K+ over “assessed” value according to BC Assessment. Got the same old, worn response, they are not the same and the sellers “spent a lot on renovations.”
Hate to say it….but not worth hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars?!?
How many sellers are influenced by RE agents or TV (home & garden reno shows) to do expensive reno’s before selling?
They may think that they are savvy enough to make these investments and “not leave any money on the table” when they sell (i.e., get a return on investment or even break even).
I suspect the reality is different.
My Question is simple to eveyone.
Do you think that Canada needs another political party?
A new will might bring Canada back the way it used to be.
Our Elected officials from all levels of government are driving Canadians crazy.
Most Canadians are living one pay check to the next.
We see this everyday in Ontario.
Thanks Jean
#11 Nostradamus jr.
Hissssssssssssssssss …
Here that Nost? That is the sound of Vancouvers RE prices deflating.
#1 Nolan Matthias
…On a day where the country has united with pride, where 30 million stand together as one, you take the opportunity to dump on the country we all love yet again….
Ya .. but the tax payers will be paying for 30 years for that pride.
Hongcouver Proper (pop <1 million) is an entity to it's own due to it's wealthy Asian inflow.
…Nowhere else in Canada does a premium deserve an affordability index, including Victoria or Alberta….wealthy Asians rate Hongcouver unlike anywhere else in Canada.
Garth should move forward w/ his blog and find "significance" of his home province of Ontario where it's decimated Manufacturing economy can only get worse as it progresses to becoming another Michigan/Ohio.
…Those of you Hongcouverites who have drunk his kool aid and sold…..so sorry.
http://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings.jsp
with respect,
Nostradamus jr.
The purpose of life is not just making money or living on $4000 per month instead of $1000 per month when you retired.
Life will be miserable if you put everything a $ mark,no matter how many money you have.
#6 & #32 TaxHaven
How’s the crack?
I want one of the 6, 7, 8 times jobbies your going of like a brook about.
For this entry I have to change my name. I am a regular who can’t be identified. I would like to give some observations and important facts that have to be pondered. To the many who can’t fathom the destruction of living conditions that are facing this country I will try and shed some light onto a couple of serious topics.
We all agree that manufacturing in this country is tanking fast, we all agree that outsourced jobs are jobs sent over seas for a reason, big business bottom line; and these jobs are not coming back to Canadian soil.
Where does this leave us?
Where I work we send what we make primarily to the US (if you work in manufacturing and your largest customers are in the US pay attention). Can your company survive on hopes and prayers? And how many sunset companies are left compared to sunrise ones?
What is happening with us is that our customers are getting more and more behind in sending the cheques, and in turn, our company is 60-90 days out and even beyond. Our inventory is stock piled, and shut downs are more frequent. Over a year ago to keep our wheels turning there was a 10% wage roll back. This is not an inflationary scenario.
When you walk into the shop floor where you get your paycheque, take a good look around, all those familiar faces, that whizz bang against the wall, that office desk in the corner, and ask yourself this simple question, will this place still be here 30 or 60 days from now?
It is said that a great number of Canadians are one paycheque away from financial destruction, so are many many companies in this same boat. In these times of hardship (for individuals and corporations alike) hopes and prayers don’t pay the bills.
Those who are paying attention are watching first hand what happens when a snake starts to eat its tail.
Good job Tax Haven. If we disagree with you we must be overpaid public employee socialists. I work in the private sector sweetheart, and the difference between you and me is that I actually educate myself. History. You may be familiar with it? Tells us what has and hasn’t worked in the past?
Some things work well in the private sector. Some things work well in the public sector. In either case, the general public – us – need oversight to keep both sectors behaving themselves. That means transparency, good laws, and well-thought-out and well-policed regulations.
You complain about cost bloat in the public sector (without any numbers to back you up that it is wages that are the problem, I might add) while conveniently ignoring the crap that the private sector pulls in order to increase their profits. The private sector isn’t perfect – all you have to do is remember things like Enron, patent theft, e-coli scares, monopoly suits, and lack of employee mobility and entrepreneurship (can’t quit your job and get a better one or start a small business if you can’t get health insurance if you quit your job) and people denied healthcare because of pre-existing conditions to know that.
I know you didn’t read my links above, but perhaps you’ll consider reading The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. You know, the man who first described the “free market”? Contrary to popular belief among people who haven’t actually read the book, he knew that private enterprise needed to be regulated for the public good. He lived, after all, in a time when grit was added to flour to cheapen the cost of bread production and bakers would deliberately short the size of a loaf. For a more modern example, Operation Rotten Tomato
#37 Tim
I agree with your general statement in regards to TaxHaven.
However, what we don’t need from government is more regulations, especially on farmers. We’ve created a hyperbole of Canadian red tape where one can’t even have their meat butchered without Canadian “inspection” Which means driving an animal to the inspection office(most of the time its in another town), having the guy take a look, he says ok, then drive the extremely stressed out animal back and shooting it, then finally you can have it butchered . Ridiculous!
These “regulations” that are created are mostly formed by lobbyists who only have big business in mind, for example pasteurized milk. The scientist from Chicago who came up with the idea has even admitted that the reasoning for it is debunked. Farming isn’t a new business, it been around for longer than Plato’s republic.
If Canadians want to continue enjoying cheap food, don’t hamper your farmers. Help them. If you think that degree is going to help you aquire your food and provide for your family then you better pray our food chain never falls apart an peak oil never passes. BTW, don’t look in the rear view mirror!
For to long farmers have been taken advantage of with real wealth being assigned to intangible items, stocks or fancy cars. We’re not illiterate country bumpkins, who have never been to school, in fact you never stop learning when your a farmer.
What we have, is highly developed skills and knowledge that nurture, grow and provide for masses of thankless individuals who think beef comes from a bag.
Thanks to our corrupt former real estate developer turned premier, we are facing a massive debt in BC. The Economist even called him a mean spirited premiere. Massive cuts to health and education, even community centers so we can build a few stadiums for the elite. Most people I know didn’t see one Olympic event because they couldn’t afford it, yet they will be on the hook for the cost. Our incompetent city councilors have speculated in real estate and got their fingers burned, instead of trying to run a city. Even after they bailed out the developer they didn’t manage the project properly. Then people like Gregor Robertson have the nerve to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Olympic tickets! These people are incompetent. THey don’t deserve free tickets. While I cheered on the athletes, I voted against the Olympics. We still have the highest rate of child poverty in the Country. Something our former paver-turned Premier can be proud of.
And the debts just keeps on growing ……
Vancouver Olympics .. 6 to 7 BILLION dollars!
More than twice the original estimate.
Just a little perspective folks …. Taxpayers in Montreal finally paid off their 1976 Olympic hangover in 2006!!!! … and that was 1.5 billion dollars.
1 Billion for security!
After this orgy of Olympic speeding is over. What is left to fill the vacuum?
The imagery is amazing …… The Sea to Sky Highway ends at a bankrupt ski resort. An omen of what the future has in store for the lower mainland?
Let the Olympic finger pointing begin. I’m sure they’ll be handing out gold medals for that too.
Have to agree with Taxhaven–
If we want to keep pace with the rest of the world–as in–having industry/jobs stay in Canada–we have to stop trying to control wages and prices and let the market do this for us–
We really do not need $20/hr–
If today–you work for $20/hr and it costs $5 for a beer -would you be any less wealthy–if you worked for $1/hr and a beer costs 25 cents?
In fact–the world doesn’t need a lot of money to operate–
All the hundreds of trillions you hear about is only levered up credit—now debt–
(but still a money supply–that must be paid–or defaulted)
What we do need–is a stable money system–backed by something hard–ie–Gold–it worked before–it can work again–if—governments are not in control of it–
Step aside and let the free market work–
Yes–many bodies will be floating–but–your childrens future will be sustainable–
I know our manufacturing in NA is a far superior quality to China et al–
If we want a sustainable work force here–we need to compete against against a world–with wages that are much lower–
Privatizing police and fire services is just more libertarian nonsense. Have you really thought through the implications of creating markets for crime and fire? Has the US experiment with private prison-building and operation yielded any net savings? Doesn’t really look like it, since they are in the hock far deeper than Canada. Maybe they should see if the guards at private prisons will work for $8.00 an hour, or maybe $5.00. Hell maybe some people would agree to be paid in food or company scrip like in the 30’s.
Canada has its share of economic problems but is doing pretty well compared to 98% of the first-world right now. Hoping for some sort of race to the bottom is like deciding to blow up your car with dynamite because it has a flat tire.
#27 GTA001,
Long post. I agree with you. Canada has to devote more resources and energy into the new economy instead of trying to fix the old. It is critical.
Just a casual observation about private enterprize and government enterprize.
Langford, the little city I grew up in has some unique ideas.
When city hall was built they made the bottom floor commercial and have rented it out to pay for the building.
City works is private and regularly bid on.
A large number of big box stores that were trying to locate on the lower island were welcomed with open arms. They are pretty much located in one area.Large tax base.
Tax increases have been minimal, I believe it was 31 dollars this year. Unlike my 32% over the past 2 years.
Has it all been good, I don’t know, but at least they are moving forward, instead of arguing about every detail.
Alls I am seeing is the infrastructure slowly eroding in my community.
It was a great party, I enjoyed it on TV, but now the bill’s due and we’ll be paying for it for decades while cutting essential services. But hey, we had our moments of pride.
On that note…didn’t pride use to be the worst sin of all? When did that change?
#10 unbalanced you said:
“By the way, firefighters lives are cut short by 15 years for the hazards they face”
A link to support would be nice …here is one http://www.ehjournal.net/content/5/1/27 that says the opposite, so where is the truth. Appears everyone has a story.
Yes, firefighting is a tad more dangerous than sitting at a desk but then so is logging…the great thing about being a firefighter ‘jock’ is you do not have to be one.
If 15 years is actually true (use pension payouts as a base) then this would imply a large section of the guys you started with should be already be dead + very, very few firefighters over the age of 80 just like few over the age of 95 in the gen pop) and less than 50% of all firefighters never collecting any OAS at 65…highly unlikely so I call BS …just another union ruse to get more money… show me stats not opinions.
For all …
A little article on the fed spending …notice the union guys comment.
“The president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees argues the federal government should increase spending at even higher rates.” Gosh, unions asking for more …what a surprise!
http://www.calgarysun.com/comment/columnists/2010/02/27/13056091.html
50–tom
that would be great if those tickets were FREE but they were not—400k to the taxpayers of Vancouver
a-ron…
Your right. I grew up on a farm, drank un-pasturized milk, collected eggs, and cut the heads off 300 turkeys, plucked and gutted… so everyone in our tiny rural manitoba town could have a Thanks giving feast.
I was 8 years old.
Probably the most valuable lesson in my life.
Most people think chicken comes is grown on styrofoam platters!
And for the vegetarians against the seal hunt….
try growing broccli in labrador in february!
Anyone else try to call that number shown next to the Edmonton speaking date? The woman that answered the phone seemed to have no idea about the speaking engagement.
Please phone here: 1-866-824-8574. The number I was given is incorrect. An online registration link will (hopefully) be available soon. — Garth
“…we stay on this path, within thirty years our debt will equal over 300% of the economy”
Garth you sound like Gail Vaz-Oxlade. Actually it would be fun to see her tell our government to live within its means.
I have the added benefit of having been in Parliament, in government and in Cabinet. — Garth
@Nolan Matthias : Oh NOES! Someone is saying bad things might happen. Someone is saying that the olympics will cost us lots of money!
That someone MUST be un-patriotic! They must HATE canada!
.. Governments love people like you.
The Young bought “better homes than their parents ever owned”
Come on Garth, don’t try to sell that crap.
Today’s 35 year old has two choices if they want to buy a house
1. Pay a fortune for an inner city 1950’s Bungalow which is falling apart, needs new wiring, new plumbing, new roof, new foundation, …oh, and there are no schools nearby because a bunch of kidless geezers have moved in and driven prices sky high
2. Pay LESS for a new home with a terrible commute, but you have schools for your kids, friends for them to play with, and yes, its new and shiny which means no massive repair bills for at least a decade.
The Shiny new house is the CHEAPER, MORE PRACTICAL choice, because young buyers have been completely priced out of the inner city by 55 year old’s who got their first, or can afford paying twice as much per square foot.
We agree completely on the severity of the housing decline to come (I’m sitting with a nice pile of cash in the bank from a house I sold in Calgary – June 2007 and renting)…but your crazy if you think my generation wants to pay $900 K for a fifty year old house where my kids would have to be bused a half hour away to school, instead of buying a 10 year old house the same size for $500 K, where my kids can walk to school.
Yes, I have a lousy commute that way…but better I have a crappy commute than my kids.
But please, don’t pretend its because I want the shiny new house…if I could buy the rundown inner city house for the same price, with the same schools, I would.
I am trying to reserve my seat at your edmonton talk but found your number is miscoded. Thank you.
Try this: 1-866-824-8574. — Garth
All Government services including wages, benefits and pensions need to be reduced and cut. This includes cuts to police, fire, ambulatory, hospitals, education, teachers, service people, maintenance, libraries, political officials…..etc etc….etc…..NO MORE TAXES OR RAISES TO TAXES OF ANY KIND!!!! DON’T TOLERATE ANY TAX INCREASES AND INSIST ON DEEP CUTS TO GOVERNMENT SERVICES ACROSS THE BOARD INSTEAD!!! TAX INCREASES WILL NOT HELP YOU!!! DON’T LET THEM KEEP LYING TO YOU BY TAKING MORE AND MORE FROM YOU WHILE YOU GET LESS AND LESS SERVICE. DO IT RIGHT THIS TIME…….WE MUST SHRINK THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT AND CUT THEIR ABILITY TO SPEND OUR TAX DOLLARS!!! TEA,(TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY!) PARTY IN CANADA ANYONE?
Globe and Mail
“The Canadian economy expanded by a greater-than-expected 5 per cent in the fourth quarter, raising the likelihood of interest rate hikes later this year.”
I note that governments love to whip up public displays of national pride and group unity just before they drop the axe on the people. We are all too young to remember the 1939 Royal Family tour of Canada just before the outbreak of WWII, but that is the sort of stuff I am talking about. I am sure there are plenty of other modern examples.
What is to come next, now that the Olympic$ are over? War with Iran, some kind of North American trade war against Asia? A devaluation of the $, economic and/or political merger with the USA? Or is it simply a pre-election gimmick that will keep us feeling all warm and fuzzy until Harper et all get a majority and enact all of the measures Garth mentioned above?
Who will turn this national fever to their advantage, and what exactly is their agenda?
@ #49 a-Ron
Definitely agree we need to support our farmers but I differentiate between family farmers and corporate farmers. Cheap food prices are a benefit provided by corporate farms as they can take advantage of economies of scale and squeeze out the small farmers.
Remember the support that farmers were supposed to get because of the BSE (mad cow) scare? Most of that didn’t go to family farms – most of it went to corporations like Cargill (US owned, I might add). To add insult to injury, Cargill also owns the meat-packing plants that were buying cows off of farmers for pennies on the pound and then selling the meat to the stores at the same prices as before. They profited on both sides of the ledger, while the family farmers got next to nothing.
Family grain farmers – at least in the West – have it better because of the Wheat Pool. Yes, we need updates to the rules so that the new niche farmers (like organic and heritage seed growers) are better served – but undermining the Wheat Pool only helps the corporate farm who can market in the US and guarantee deliveries. Small farmers are stretched enough without having to add a sales and marketing department. If the Wheat Pool is undermined entirely, small farmers will end up selling to the large corporate farms at whatever price they’re willing to pay – and it’s not the small family farmers who have the power in that struggle.
I do agree with your point that people should have the right to slaughter and butcher for their own consumption without oversight. Hunters aren’t required to have a carcass checked before butchering – why should farmers. Heck, I don’t live on a farm anymore, but I should be able to put a back yard chicken in the oven if I want to. In fact, I do. But if you’re selling the meat to the public, then you need to meet public standards. Remember the Calgary backyard butcher?
We have fire supression systems, and insurance!
Firefighters make calendars…and too much money!
Boo on the TEA party posters. Our corporate taxes are among the lowest in the G8 – lower than the US and our companies don’t have to buy health insurance for their employees either. We can stand to raise them some.
Raise the GST back to 7%. We shouldn’t have lowered it in the first place – first we pay our debts, then we can talk about lower taxes. I don’t want to live in the Canadian equivalent of Colorado Springs.
Oh, and when it comes to deep cuts to services, politicians are past masters at turning special interest groups (yes, that probably means you and me) against each other.
The old will want health care and libraries, the young will want to keep schools open and recreation programs affordable (for their kids). DINKS will want to cut anything to do with kids. Immigrants will want to keep any programs that allow their kids to climb the economic and social ladder (e.g. subsidized university). Old and young and immigrants will want to keep affordable, widespread public transit, while middle-aged people will want it cut and the money spent on maintaining roads.
Politicians will set us all at each others’ throats, protecting our natural entitlements against encroachment, while advocating cuts to programs and services that have little impact on us personally. It’s the old tactic of divide and conquer.
#41 Jean
Definitely, we do! I don’t understand how our current parties pick their leaders – over 30 Million people and our choices are dumb, dumber or a wannabe brit?
The smartest and most inspiring leader is Duceppe but I’d have to move to Quebec to vote for him – and unfortunately, there’s that little problem of separation.
I will vote as always, but out of 6 elections I have only been actually excited once. An excitement that was dashed when Martin’s camp ousted Chretien, and turned almost to hatred when Dion was ousted in place of that poser, Ignatieff. The libs will have to get their act together if they ever want my vote again – it’s gonna take at least a decade post Iggy for my anger to die down.
In a nutshell – yes Jean! We need a new party! Perhaps Garth will form the Xurbans because that’s where the middle class will be flocking to!
Just what we need, another surtax aimed at the reasonably successful, quickly fading middle class because I worked hard to almost make $100K pre-tax.
Freedom 75 here I come…
For 6 billion $ everyone in the country could have had a real 99% pure solid gold medal.
http://www.scotiamocatta.com/products/coins_canada.htm
The government can easily cut 25% of their workforce and maintain current levels of service. Hell, make that 50%. Living in Ottawa, knowing what my friends and family do all day with their government jobs in various departments, and having worked for the government myself, there is definitely room for savings! I hope that’s the first place Harper looks when it’s time to do something about the deficit. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be.
Official stealth policy – debt will be liquidated.
Game Over, let the crash begin!
Garth…I am curious?…..just how bad in your estimation could things get? When I look at the macroeconomic reality as I see it….I see the greatest depression in modern world history. I see the potential for civil war in the USA and in many other countries worldwide….I see a decline in living standards that will not stop (due to energy depletion) until we are effectively back to the levels of the pre industrial revolution.
I see this scenario playing out over the next 25-30 years…..I have researched this situation extensively and I cannot in my little mind come up with effective counterpoints to the hardcore doomer outlook….barring of course la la land romanticism….zero point energy nonsense, or “alien” intervention.
T.C.–YOU SAID IT!!
I mentioned a great example of this in a previous blog post. I will re-iterate.
Source: Neighbor-28 Single..no partner.
Education: Two year college diploma
Occup: Paramedic-5 years service F/T.
Compensation: $35/$40 hour-100 % benefits-uniforms/boot allowance including wrist watch.
House: 189k-16k down three years ago-
Car: 2009-fully loaded.
THE REALITY: Since Jan 1st/2010…59 days.
*Two weeks in Carribean—-14 days
*5 days at family cottage—-5 days
*7 days skiing—————-7 days
*3-Four day weekends———-12 days
38 DAYS OFF!!!….38 DAYS OUT OF 59!!!
AND LIVING IT UP TOO!!….
NOW I’M NOT SAYING GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE’S SHOULD WORK FOR FREE!
PLEASE FIND ME SOME EXAMPLES OF COMPENSATION IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR THAT MATCHES THIS…
I JUST THINK WE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR SHOULD’NT HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.
Forget it Garth, Québec will never raise taxes and never cut spending. It can’t. The economy stays afloat with nothing more than tax credits to dot coms and a lot of denial.
Québec is Greece in America. Watch Greece collapse. Québec will go down the same way. The creditors will lose everything unless the BOC bails them out.
Property deals in Vancouver hit Olympic proportions during the Games:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100301/national/oly_real_estate_windfall
wow – now The Canadian Press is in the real estate marketing business! (not just specific papers like the Vancouver Sun)
D, thanks for your link to the”Rotten tomato” article, that’s appalling! Good rebuttal to TaxHaven, it’s crazy to believe that privatization is the solution to our problems. You would have to be blind not to see how poorly this has worked in the US. They keep “extending and pretending”, hoping that this will bring back the consumer spending they need. Most bankruptcies are due to medical bills, more and more people survive on food stamps, living in tent cities, yeah that’s what we need here!
Like many of you, I have been under the patriotic olympic spell for the last few days. There have certainly been some moving and emotional experiences. That being said, there will also be some emotional experiences when reality of the full cost sets in. This year is going to bring a lot of financial heartache to this country. Time will tell how much we actually won over the past two weeks.
Oh yeah, as far as breaking the Soviet Union’s record for most golds in a single winter olympics, I don’t think we can compare apples to oranges. Seriously, how many new sports have been added since the Soviets won 13 golds in the 70s? Answer: All of the snowboarding, curling, ski cross, L-bobsleigh, skeleton, women’s hockey, short track speed skating and on and on. We did great, but I think we have to put a few ***** by the record claims.
#63 David on 03.01.10 at 11:57 am
———————————————-
You just described Ottawa to a ‘T’. Why pay $800,000 when you can suffer a 45 min. commute for a newer version of the same house for $400,000?
throwstones #79
The average CEO make 400 times more then the average worker. The average CEO makes more money by 12 noon on new yeqars day then an average worker would make working the whole year. Roth of NT made 125 MILLION that’s $125,000,000.00 in one year. You would need 10-20 HUGE lottery wins to equal that amount. Let’s say you have a Paramedic who makes $70,000 in one year. you would need 1,785 paramedics working a full year just to equal ONE PRIVATE CEO Compensation. Wow private sure make alot more then public.
I agree with every comment except for the follwoing:
“As for spending, the inevitable result of cuts will include higher university tuition…”
True, tuition might jump initially, but in the long term, if the government butted out, prices would come down, because universities would have no choice but to cut costs as no one would be able to afford their exorbitant fees and the university would go bankrupt.
The only reason universities can demand the fees they do is because the government subsidizes these fees by having lax lending standards for student loans.
If these programs disappeared, universities would drop prices, because their primary customer is no longer the government.
Look at Lasik eye surgery, when it first came out it was a couple of thousand dollars per eye, but year after year the prices have come down until you can get it for about 500$ an eye. What do you think this procedure would cost if this was covered by the government?
I don’t think it would be to strong to say that anything that the government is involved in, makes it cost more.
Well, if there was an opportunity to throw in my two cents or a even a toonie on ‘What does the Olympics mean to you’, well this is it. Maybe I’m just getting old, or I am a miserable old fart (at 50), or I’m jealous, or maybe I just don’t give a rats ass …. but when Brian Williams stares into the camera and says that these Olympics have changed the way Canadians think about themselves, I want too put my foot through the screen. I don’t need to see one Canadian have a medal put around their neck to be proud of being a Canadian, and I am the first to stand up to any one dissing our Country. Am I really the only one that has a bad taste in my mouth with this whole ‘Own the Podium’ infintile crap. Lets see, take the richest countries the world, spend untold amounts of money and then bask in the glory of seeing every other country humiliated. Is this what the Olympics is about? …. Is this what I want my Country to be about … alot of people say yes! You can just see that the IOC fights with this mentality at every step. What about the over 2000+ athletes from all over the world who spent countless hours and money, and go home without a medal. I know this is a whole other blog .. but I needed to get it off my chest. I cheered for everyone, not just Canadians, and I sat in awe watching participants from all countries display amazing feats of athletisim. This is want the Olympics are about … bringing the world together and realizing that no athlete, no one team, no amount of medals is more important than the message of sharing a moment where countries playing together instead of being at war with each other. My recomendation … ban medal counts!
Firefighters/Policemen/Teachers Unions are members Canada’s “Have Society”.
…The rest of us, the “Have Nots” are peons/serfs.
I was fortunate to relocate here 22 years ago from Toronto.
Hmmmm…and just how many of Asia/North America’s wealthy/elite have been quietly relocating to Hongcouver?
You think they announce their moves in advance?
Nostradamus jr.
I agree with the overpaid dead weight in Government.The only problem with thinning out thoes that go to work everyday with their thumbs up their butts is THE UNIONS !!! They had a purpose at one time now they are a pain in our society and every person not in the union means less income for the union.Alberta is a good example of too many chiefs and no indians making too much money.As far as Quebec that’s a big hole to throw money into…4th generation welfare we pay for that, the province and it’s leaders are a joke.Lets not forget the large payouts when we must eliminate a government position that wasn’t necessary in the first place. I feel sorry for our next generation there won’t be jobs and lots of debt.
Must be some wicked hangovers today. Out of context quotes, OxyMORONS galore, where’s Peter Wiener? I love it when he takes some of these brainiacs to task.
Is it comforting to replace your intelligence with ideology?
Perhaps the free-enterprise glorifiers would be good enough to specify what part of the free market mechanism required that the market sink itself through “hundreds of trillions … levered up credit – now debt” (jr @ #52)? How, for instance, deregulation worked out in the California energy market, not to mention the global financial sector? Or how privatization saves money despite adding return-on-capital and operating profits to the cost of providing services?
“Taxed Enough Already” would be a great and necessary movement if it were not a false flag for an ideology. There really are things that governments at all level do that could and should be cut, but they are done in response to a demand by particular interests with enough influence/clout to force a government to act. Lots of oxen out there to gore, but the biggest are the best-protected – see TARP and miscellaneous bailouts.
Take it out of ideology and make it real: identify the government services that can be dispensed with, tell us and the government, and if enough voters demand that the government make it so, it might. There is $35 billion in federal salaries and benefits to hack at, not to mention another $60 billion or so in programs, not to mention transfers etc. Then there are the provincial and municipal levels to be pruned to the essential. Just don’t insist that a government continue to look after your interests, then pass the bill to the general public. That would be the socialism you love to hate, instead of the straight-up capitalism that doesn’t exist anywhere.
How many people were in attendance at the Scarborough Chapters event last Thursday?
It’d be a decent measure of how many bears are left in the GTA. Unfortunately I could not attend due to a business trip.
Thanks
81 TO Boy
Nice find! As I said before, our fantastic weather has put a new international spotlight on Vancouver’s real estate!
From the article,
“A spokesman for the group marketing the developments says a stretch of unseasonably warm, sunny weather helped seal the deals, which were closed within the 17 day span of the Games.”
The divide between the rich homeowners and poor tenants will become even further entrenched in this city. Sorry, Vancouver bears – you had 8 years to get in, and you can now watch as prices go ballistic.
The fantastic Olympics means that sellers will not budge on their prices….
#80 Future former Canadian
How much hydro is Greece selling to Europe? How is the mining sector in Greece?
Give your head a shake, Quebec and the rest of the country will do alright. But the times of becoming rich from owning/swapping a dwelling are over.
So as a future former Canadian, when do you leave?
yay knucklewalker is back! hahahaha awesome!
All this vagueness on paper and off,honest services
nameless trusts (special purpose vehicles) kept in secret spaces that are here ,elsewhere, and then nowhere, regulatory arbitrage/capture …huh?
At least I understand why humans deserve gold medals.
Hello Garth. Six billion to have the Olympics in Vancouver and we only got 14 gold medals. Thats expensive gold. It makes the 1976 olympic games look pretty cheap in nominal terms. As for the tax payer getting stuck with the bill I think maybe the bill should be given to the silly politicians who authorized such an outlay of money as a personal debt rather than a public one as an incentive to be more frugal with the spending. Perhaps they need businessmen instead of lawyers as finance ministers federally and provincially. Someone who stands where the profit is if you know what I mean.
Steven
#70 D
Raising corporate taxes would result in more jobs going offshore. Canada corporate taxes are applied to all worldwide profits while the US taxes only the profits brought back into the US. Obama’s International Tax Proposal is a looming threat to US corporations and may cause even more North American jobs to disappear. The following article is 8 months old and I do not know where the proposal stands today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amBiYGyHOkZ8
@ #41 Jean
Hell yes we need a new party, or at least a slew of independents. Voting Liberal or Conservative is like voting for the same party. Voting NDP is no better.
We need Garth Turner to run for PM!
“You just described Ottawa to a ‘T’. Why pay $800,000 when you can suffer a 45 min. commute for a newer version of the same house for $400,000?”
Yup. And the $800 K house is in a neighbourhood where there are no schools and no kids…because most people raising kids can’t afford it.
The Boomers and their real estate bubble, and the University bubble, have priced kids out of the market.
No affording a family home in an established neighbourhod on one salary from someone who had a dirt cheap university degree…or a high school diploma anymore.
Now its spend $50,000 getting a Master’s Degree (because a plain BSc doesn’t get much anymore) to make less adjusted for inflation than my uncle did at 18 as a plumber in the 70’s…and if you want to buy a house pay way more times your annual salary to get it…all the while paying much higher income taxes on your lower income.
But we’re just spoiled kids who like shiny. Hey Garth, lots of my Mom’s generation are ripping out their kitchens to put in Granite and Stainless…not many of the people my age.
#75 S
Problem is if you start kicking out some of the older folks from all levels of public service via attrition, your still on the hook to pay these folks a hefty pension.
Add in the fact that there is a lot of work done by private corporations for the public service it means less jobs all around.
Its the reality, cutbacks are coming public and private but there are still oppurunities out there if your willing to dig.
http://www.merx.com/
#82 Ginger on 03.01.10 at 1:45 pm
D, thanks for your link to the”Rotten tomato” article, that’s appalling! Good rebuttal to TaxHaven, it’s crazy to believe that privatization is the solution to our problems. You would have to be blind not to see how poorly this has worked in the US. They keep “extending and pretending”, hoping that this will bring back the consumer spending they need. Most bankruptcies are due to medical bills, more and more people survive on food stamps, living in tent cities, yeah that’s what we need here!
**************************************
I think people are living in tent city’s mainly because of their reckless past lifestyles–
Borrow and spend–run up debt,with the expectation that their ATM machine–
“increasing house prices”–would never come to an end–
Well–it did and with it–went their jobs–that were also underpinned by the housing/credit mania bubble–
We are in a massive debt unwind–Deflation–
Nothing can stop it–
Debt must be unwound to where an acceptable debt to cash ratio is established–
Maybe 10-15 to 1–
We are way up there–we’re not even sure what the ratio is–because very little has been marked to market -
So where are we now?
90-120 to 1?
We have a derivative market that is over a quadrillion $–
That no one knows the real value of–in fact–
the debt to value levels are growing as leverage has turned negative and now winds up negatively as the underpinnings–homes/autos/toys/non viable commercial businesses deflate in value–
Below the debt level–
Governments and bankers have created this mania- –but–people had a choice–to live within their means or get caught up in this insanity–
They made the choice–it wasn’t a good choice–
We need Governments for very little–
To enforce laws–that “people/society” establishes–by choice–
Medical systems that are sustainable and not propped up by vote buying Governments–
We need to allow the free market to work–
It is very efficient–if left alone–
It will bring affordable medicare and low prices to the people-
It is your friend–not the one eyed monster–that Governments and Bankers fear –
People need to understand–
Real money/wealth–is not “created” by Governments printing for vote buying–or banks lending to irresponsible people-with the knowledge–that taxpayers will back them– when it all goes wrong—
Hello Garth.
I noticed a lot of talk about $8 to $24 an hour wages being too much or something to that effect. I would say that given the average house price in canada the minimum wage for an adult male worker should be between $50 and $60 an hour. Then again may be we need a 80 to 95 percent discount in real estate prices instead. Tough choice don’t you think?
Steven
VI Funcanuck-second post today
I’m not on the same page as some bloggers re: govt staff wages, pensions,…. There are many talented pubilc sector workers–highly educated, highly skilled, very committeed. I think many also go waaay above and beyond re: working hours that they don’t get paid (especially gov’t managers who don’t get OT in BC).
Govts cannot simply cut their staffing by 25%–that is just absurb–a broad generalization. I have to agree that there are examples of gov’t inefficiencies.
For anyone to say, however, that the private sector is more efficient or effective–does the word “bailouts” mean anthing? What about the incompetence of the lending practices?
If govt wages become so low, there’s the old saying, “you get what you pay for” and you’ll get very poor service and staff who do not perform well in complex gov’t work.
Govt work is complex and there is much more to it than “maximizing profit” or “maximizing shareholder wealth” that private sector does. I’ve worked both sides, I know.
re:
#1 – Nolan Matthias on 02.28.10 at 9:52 pm
“On a day where the country has united with pride, where 30 million stand together as one, you take the opportunity to dump on the country we all love yet again.
Take a day off Garth.”
Funny thing how you were the first reply post… on a day like today (I’m quoting you there toots…) don’t you have anything better to do than lurk online waiting for Garth to post his blog? Get a life!
#65 TC on 03.01.10 at 12:07 pm
Easy and quiet with your words Sir/Madame
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ex-reformers-face-embarrassment-of-pension-riches/article1476522/
Next would would be CCP & OAS & RRSP & Health Care for what? More helicopters that will not fit on ships or tanks that will not work, or fancy bullets and bombs. OR more prisons to house people at $90-$120 yr/ each
Dare we mention H & F spent $525,000 each on every soldier in Afghanistan not including wages and equipment last year.
Dare I mention the 160 + suicides and counting plus the 4000 wounded and no entitlements to LTD being tosses on the street mentions in your loud words to have their pensions cut.
Those “Canadians” you have centred out have paid for their pension and worked day in and out for years under trying conditions making this country what it is to-day or at least what is was before 2006. Our seniors have benefited our youth have benefited as has every Canadian and visitor to country ….. Up until 2006 Canada was ranked #1 country in the world more often than not! Government workers work for government and make them look good …. police and firemen protect all Canadians ….. so please turn your voice down and stand tall besides those who look after you and your family. The choice to move south always remains an option for you.
#91 Herb on 03.01.10 at 2:53 pm
Perhaps the free-enterprise glorifiers would be good enough to specify what part of the free market mechanism required that the market sink itself through “hundreds of trillions … levered up credit – now debt” (jr @ #52)?
******************************
Very simple–Default–
#95 Hi Hoon…..I would really like Garth to comment on one of my rants at some point. I know that he is slowing changing his tune on “the RRSP is safe from government confiscation”…but I would really like to buy him a beer in private and hear his….”this is what I think will REALLY happen”
The situation worldwide is just so damn bad it bears repeating….we are not in Recession…we are not even in depression…….we are entering the dark ages…….we just cannot see it because we are to busy watching the olympics and trusting in MSN, BNN, and the fairy tale of modern economics as a “science”…….what a load…
#81 T.O. Bubble Boy on 03.01.10 at 1:43 pm
———————————————-
There are lots of people out there that have too much money in their hands. Easy come easy go I guess.
Coming from the public sector I have seen both sides: Privatize a service and the costs largely remain the same. The corporation takes the profits for new boats and Beemers. On the public side yes Govt. payrolls are bloated and union benefits have gotten ahead of the real world.
Simple answer is to just cut 20-30% of govt. services because you are not going to find any big efficiencies any other way.
Do you think any of the tax payers will put up with that? People want gold plated govt. service in Canada and they will have to keep paying dearly for it. The alternative is to figure out what they can really do without or arrange on their own.
#63 David
Out on the Prairies that statement holds water. Growing up most people I knew lived in 1000 sq feet or less. Kids shared bedrooms, the living room was the family room, guest bedrooms were non existent, finished basements a luxury. My first house had all the above (I’m 33), most of my friends have nicer houses than me….but nothing as far as savings go.
A note for you flatlanders out there. My real estate buddy has put his house up for sale in Regina before the Spring rush. His words ” I have never done say many f***en home evaluations as I did last month.” Interesting times.
#101 smw on 03.01.10 at 3:19 pm
—————————————-
Hefty pension? Let’s see, they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into their pension plan over the past 30 years (sacrificing most if not all of their RRSP room), and with the market gains in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s it’s safe to assume for each individual there would be well over $1,000,000 in funds. This amount of money, if managed according to Garth’s suggestions in his new book, could sustainably throw-off the yearly pension owed. What’s the issue here?
Garth wrote:
“← The fanatics
Oops.
February 28th, 2010 | Book Updates | E-mail this blog post to a friend
When I slid through Vancouver airport on Sunday morning, I was sure that’s how the Alamo felt before the Mexicans attacked. There were, literally, armies of security staff ready for what was expected to be the worst one-day onslaught in Canadian aviation history. Forty thousand passengers, nine hundred flights, hours of delays and even a special terminal built to be used – if you can believe it – for just one day.
Yeah, The Olympics were cool, even when a business traveller like me ran headlong into them on two separate trips. But what I saw and heard suggests the cost will also be Olympian – six billion, with a billion alone for security. And how much did it cost to cover a mountainside with snow carried in by helicopter?
But this is not about the games. It’s about government. And us.
BC will be paying for this for a long time, as the province’s budget this week will suggest. It’s widely expected people will be seeing more schools close, more essential services curtailed, user fees go up and, of course, the HST arrive.
Like Ontario and Alberta, BC will be mired in deficits for years to come. In fact, add in Quebec (where debt now accounts for 94% of the entire economy), and the picture is brutal. It means higher provincial taxes and less spending. Meanwhile on Thursday we get a federal budget that will formally announce the greatest budget deficit in national history, as the country slides towards a $600 billion debt.
Here’s why this stuff matters: Add in the aging population and the crappy global economy, along with America’s worrisome decline, and you have a recipe for semi-permanent deficits in Canada. In fact, if we stay on this path, within thirty years our debt will equal over 300% of the economy. At that point nobody will lend us money, our currency will be used on board games and we’ll have Detroit-style house prices”.
Yes Garth debt and deficits are a problem. They also happen by choice and not accident. Politicians have choices. To make laws that dictate spending or not, to borrow or print money or to tax more or less. All the debt could have been avoided and we could have had slow steady progress due to productivity and savngs.
But thanks to socialists and lawyer politicians that was not to be and now the world in general and europe and north americal in particular is in deep trouble financially as well as morally. Frankly Garth there is no way out but to radically slash spending and repudiate political promises to provide social programs and subsidies either in whole or in part.
Thats what must happen if debts are to be honored and the core functions of government are to be preserved.
Doing a zimbabwe is not an acceptable option because everyone gets wiped out by the currency restructuring
that occurs through knocking 3 to 6 zeros off the money supply. Deflation may be painfull but hyperinflation is worse.
Steven
A New Low In Vancouver Real Estate Marketing
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/crosby-slept-here-may-bolster-vancouver-rating-canada-credit.html
” That won’t stop Olympic Village boosters from exploiting the condos’ Olympic connection.
“In a perfect world, we’d love to have the athletes’ signatures beside each front door.” Rennie said in an interview. “We’d love to find some sort of ‘Who’s DNA is on your floor?” “
DAN, YOUR COMPARISON IS STUPID.
PRIVATE SECTOR CEO TO A PARAMEDIC?…
AT LEAST COMPARE CEO’S FROM PRIVATE SECTOR TO PUBLIC SECTOR.
DON’T BE A DORK!…YOU KNOW YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER
#79 throwstones on 03.01.10 at 1:01 pm
Occup: Paramedic-5 years service F/T.
Just some questions there “Stoney”.
When did you last have to pick up a bleeding body at the road side?
When did your next door neighbour have to be rushed into the hospital at 3 am. Being kept alive ONLY by your skills at CPR?
When have you had to control a distaught Mother as your partner tends to a badly injured preteen in the ditch just struck down by a drunk driver????
When did you have to save that preteen (Or even worse he/she dies in your arms)
while his/her Mother screams and wails in your ears?
When you can answer all of those questions positivly.
THEN you can complain about a peramedics pay cheque.
I for one will not.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ex-reformers-face-embarrassment-of-pension-riches/article1476522/
so just where will F start his cuts?
#93 Vancouver Rocks,
You said, “Sorry, Vancouver bears – you had 8 years to get in, and you can now watch as prices go ballistic.
The fantastic Olympics means that sellers will not budge on their prices….”
First of all, most of the Bears are in the market – most for longer than 8 years. You constantly make this unwarranted assumption. Furthermore taunting people with the “get in now or you will be priced out forever” mantra is unsavoury and shameful – IMO. If young buyers go out and take your advice and find themselves in trouble in the coming months we can be sure you will not be there to bail them out.
I am as glad as anyone that the Olympics went well but they will not have anything but the most marginal impact on home prices in the long run. Tsur Sommerville’s report on this says it all.
Just so I follow your logic – if it had rained (or snowed) throughout the Olympics then prices could be expected to go down? Are prices really that fragile? It seems to me that you think it is all about emotions.
On the other hand, I think emotions only play a role in the near term – in the long run fundamentals matter – and they are sending the market down this summer and fall.
#22 Harold
“The national debt has been as high as $600 billion before, during the late 1980s. It was wrestled down to about $450 billion and it probably will be again.”
Harold… isn’t the late 1980″s when housing last crashed about 50%?
I’m currently on contract in downtown TO where 100 year old houses go for a $illion. Right next door to my accomodation is a place that just sold and the buyer is totally gutting the place and I mean totally gutting it! A king size dumpster out front is hauled away full every morning filled and replaced with an empty one. Everything from glass dining room doors to kitchen sinks are being thrown out. You can probably had on another half mil when this project is completed.
Ya it’s downtown, kind of but… the subway is right out front, the place is surrounded with apartments. I wouldn’t call it the choicest of places but one doesn’t have to commute 2 hours one way to work either.
The combination of fantastic weather, positive world media attention (with the exception of the Brits), massive displays of national pride, and a series of Olympic firsts, this Olympics will have a positive impact on Vancouver.
Do not count on the bubble deflating for sometime. Many potential sellers just got a shot of adrenaline from the games, and their arrogance will remain for a long time. And just as the fickle Vancouver sentiment went from negatively to extreme positivity and support for the games almost overnight, you can count on many people following up with their indoctrination and renewed love of Vancouver to become committed buyers at all costs. The outburst of pride will galvanize the population and reaffirm the belief that Vancouver is the best place. After all, we have been telling ourselves that for 7 years, and now it was supported by a fantastic medal performance and international media coverage saying the same thing (again not the British). And previously posted, we have already had brisk sales of luxury homes in Vancouver during the Olympics.
While many bears would have liked the games to fail, the gods parted the skies, and gave us sunshine and historical victories. I think we know that the gods are now on the side of Vancouver real estate.
The real estate delusion will continue for many many more years so best to get prepared for a very long hiberation bears….
79 throwstones
your analysis of your neighbours time off is not unusual for most firefighters, police, and paramedics.
they all usually work 12hr shifts–4 days on 4 days off then 4 nights on and 4days off—its a tough hawl
4 day weekends are only regular days off
12days off are only 48hours of annual leave entitlement sandwiched between two blocks of regular days off–hence 12 days off
their first day off after a night shift (off at 7am)is spent sleeping, so 1 day off gone
there’s a lot more to 11 and 12 hour shift schedules than meets the eye
i tried it 11hr days) many years ago–hated it!!!!
State of Illinois…Ontario’s neighbours on verge of Bankruptcy.
Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York States not far behind.
…Does not bode well for Southern Ontario…
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
Nostradamus jr.
Economic and RE perspective from Calgary……..
Driving around Calgary with the wife a lot this weekend. Must have done 250 KM on Saturday alone.
Market Mall, South Centre, Chinook, Holt Renfrew, TD Square and the Bay DT were dead……..you could have yelled “FIRE !!” and no one would have come running. We parked about 2 stalls down from the parkade entrance beside the +15 on Saturday afternoon at the Bay DT…….imagine that.
Wife says to me “boy there sure are a lot of empty commercial properties in the streets and the malls”……..we must have counted 25+ FOR LEASE signs during our afternoon travels. “Look at all the condos for sale in the beltline”……..signs everywhere.
Meanwhile……..we bought some Ralph Lauren clothes for 50% off the last ticketed price…….or in other words……about 85% off the original retail asking price shown on the tag, as most items were already 25-35% off……spent $210 in total for $1,100 worth of “stuff”.
Ahhhhhhh deflation…….love it !!
Meanwhile the wife of a friend of ours who lives in the Hamptons on the golf course had a realtor knock on her door this week, asking if her house was for sale at $900K. You see, the neighbours house just sold for that, and she had “someone interested in theirs” LOL !!!! They built it for $500K back in 2003……in 2007 it was “worth” $1.2MM……and it is almost paid off in full.
All this hysteria about greece defaulting is so lame greek pop. is 11 million what a joke you guys and ireland oooooo 4.5 million . Are you kidding ? greece could be a good size american city . What is there 20 million in mexico city . The eurozone would love a 125 euro just as much as the forest industry in bc/quebec would love a 75 cent dollar . Some of the crap being peddled in msm about europe makes remax etal look like truth .
Tax haven et al who are raggin’ on front line emergency personnel. Here’s a tip for ya…we’re hiring.
A hiring boom in the ’70’s should leave many, many departments with a shortfall as a good chunk of them are nearing the end of their service. (Boomer population discussed here frequently). Fire Departments nationwide are requiring schooling prior to hiring but here’s another tip…it ain’t cheap in cost or time.
If you’re not happy looking at these important public services from where you stand, I know many co-workers who left whatever job they were performing (and many of those risking a lot with families to think about) to commit to schooling for a shot, just a shot, at serving YOU.
Ask any member of any emergency service and I’ll lay big dollars down that they feel LUCKY to be doing what thier doing. Lucky that they get to run into your burning house, lucky that they were able to deliver your close family member to the hospital on time, lucky that they could resolve a crime in your neighborhood, and yes, LUCKY to be able to do these things and receive a good wage and benefits.
Do I think I make too much?…uh…no.
I don’t know what Hamberg, Germany is doing in reference to an earlier link, but look up PRESUMPTIVE LEGISLATION. A proven fact that firefighters have a shorter lifespan. Cancer being the culprit. Sure, new technologies in protective equipment, but new technologies in building materials too. Gases from burning plastic will get on you EVERYWHERE…don’t let those big suits fool you.
I can only laugh at what a privatized emergency services would look and run like. Whatever town, city or community, would soon see its citizens exiting stage left.
Lets stick to bashing Stephen Harpers fat pension and not worry that your neighbor probably just had his years holidays around this time to travel.
Besides, he was getting a good tan for his calender shoot…you know…it’s for the kids.
Program spending has been increasing by 8% per year over the past three years. It was a smart move when worked into the budgets and it will be a smart move when they criticize wasteful gov’t programs and begin to hack away.
There was a ‘fiscal imbalance’ during the last election – a few billion a year more of Cnd tax $ was offered to Que to correct this problem. And people believe the entity to criticize is Que for saying sure send me the money.
Used to require max 25 year mortgages with 10% down, then Flaherty announced 40 years/ zero during boom market. That was intelligent. To prevent overheating reduced to 35 years; again intelligent.
Cutting the GST / corp taxes was wise, raising the GST to partly fill of our revenue hole will be even wiser.
Examples continue to eternity.
Real salaries decreasing slowly for 30 years, taxes on bottom 90% of Canadians funding ever greater share of gov’t revenues. People covered by pensions decline each year. Retirement age will rise. The economy has grown (in real terms) almost every year over the last 30 years – so has productivity and corporate profits. The top 5% (no one on this board) have received almost all the gains our economy has generated over the previous 30 years. Buffet was right when he said there was a class war going on but the rich were the only ones who showed up to fight.
And people here argue about garbage collection fees and which avg Canadian working salary is too rich and could be cut back to save Canada. You are politicians wet dreams.
Predatory Lending is a major contributor to the economic turmoil we are currently experiencing.
Here is an example of what I am talking about:
Scott Veerkamp / Predatory Lending (Franklin Township School Board Member.)
Please review this information from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley regarding deceptive lending practices:
“Steering payments were made to brokers who enticed unsuspecting homeowners into deceptive and expensive mortgages. These secret bonus payments, often called Yield Spread Premiums, turned home mortgages into a SCAM.”
The Center for Responsible Lending says YSP “steals equity from struggling families.”
1. Scott collected nearly $10,000 on two separate mortgages using YSP and junk fees. 2. This is an average of $5,000 per loan. 3. The median value of the properties was $135,000. 4. Clearly, this type of lending represents a major ripoff for consumers.
http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=A09C6A80-537A-4EB1-83C5-31925F046B6F
#121 Vancouver Rocks,
You said, “While many bears would have liked the games to fail, the gods parted the skies, and gave us sunshine and historical victories. I think we know that the gods are now on the side of Vancouver real estate.
The real estate delusion will continue for many many more years so best to get prepared for a very long hiberation bears….”.
First of all, being a Real Estate Bear in 2010 does not make you for or against the Olympics. That is a ridiculous statement. You are allowed to cheer your country and be proud of your city at the same time as being skeptical about price trends.
Secondly, now I see prices will increase because of the Gods. I guess that makes about as much sense as any other justification you have made.
Finally, what did you mean by Real Estate “delusion”? Are you finally admitting that the high prices are based on delusions and have no basis in economic fundamentals?
When I saw London I thought you might be coming to the UK.
Oh well
@ #122 poco
I totally agree with what your saying.
You have to understand where throwstones is coming from though. He has this deep-seated jealousy towards his neighbour and her ability to generate a much larger income than his own even though she didn’t go to school for as long as he did. And it apparently is going to eat at him for the rest of his days since this is now the 2nd time that he has posted about her………get over it man! ahahahaha
TZA April Call Open-Interest
March 1, 2010
The graph below shows the put and call open-interest for TZA, which is a triple inverse small cap ETF.
If it’s true that most options volume is buying as opposed to selling, someone is betting huge the market is going to get clobbered in the next 6 weeks. Your thoughts?
I’d say this is good reason the market will continue to chug along just fine.
http://leavittbrothers.com/blog/?p=2746
#114 Gord in Vancouver,
Thanks for posting the link. As a Vancouver tax payer this has me very worried. Now could be the best time to sell these units for many years. It will be interesting to see how the City approaches the market. I think Bob Rennie is handling the marketing and sales. How he handles it will give us a good indication of what he really thinks about the market.
It will also be interesting to see the impact on the market of this many listings available all at once.
#125 Debtfree,
The sovereign default issue in Europe is very important. Greece is important because how it is dealt with will impact the other troubled economies in the Eurozone. Germany and to a lesser extent France will have to bail out the Greeks which will further drag their economies down.
#125 Debtfree
The concern is the domino effect. If Greece defaults on 40 billion collectively owed to US, UK, Italy, Spain, etc, then it makes those next debt-laden creditor nations more likely to default. The smaller population of Greece means higher debt per capita, and therefore even more likely to default.
Nationalism is a disease and pride is a deadly sin.
The way it seems to work is that one individual or group gets a lot at the expense of another individual or group getting little, nothing, or less than nothing.
Please hate me
#76 Michael
And on that note I could not resist quoting a little Andrew Mellon:
“Liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers (I prefer to substitute bankers, the farmers have already taken enough of a beating), liquidate real estate…It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people…”
-Andrew Mellon, US Treasury Secretary 1929
“Gentlemen prefer bonds.”
Andrew Mellon, responding to a question about investing in the overvalued stock market of the late 1920s (hmm).
“I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism…I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year (1930) the country will make steady progress.”
-Andrew Mellon, 1930 (oops, kool-aid dose requires some adjustment)
Hoover blew the whistle
Mellon rang the bell
Wall Street gave the signal
The economy went to Hell
-Schoolyard ditty from the 1930s
#76 Michael — “. . . debt will be liquidated.” / #77 Joe 86 — “. . . let the crash begin!” / #80 Future former Canadian — “Québec is Greece in America. Watch Greece collapse. Québec will go down the same way.”
All excellent posts and right on, ‘tho timelines vary slightly. Soon enough, something will happen somewhere that will get govts. ticked off and then major fisticuffs will break out.
Curious — can GS and JPM handle the country’s and provinces’ debts and deficits, pay them all off so we can start squeaky clean again? They were handed untold trillions from Obama’s govt.
They seem to be fairly good at handling other’s misteaks (sorry, mistakes!).
#88 Nostradamus jr. — “. . . just how many of Asia / North America’s wealthy / elite have been quietly relocating to Hongcouver? You think they announce their moves in advance?”
The less sheeple know the better. That is why all of the stuff happening in the world — m$m junk — is nothing more than contrived garbage.
Why are the elite trying to control the ‘net? Because they can’t stop the truth about them being made publicly available.
#117 David B — “so just where will F start his cuts?” — Forthcoming election would be a nice start, when they are railing against the policies they introduced themselves!
.
#127 Ottawa on 03.01.10 at 5:43 pm
And people here argue about garbage collection fees and which avg Canadian working salary is too rich and could be cut back to save Canada. You are politicians wet dreams.
*****************************************
And you need to pull your head out of your ass and look at the Globe and consider what global wage arbitrage has done to us–
Every one of your so called “politicians wet dreams” have said–our money system must be backed by a hard backed currency–which–if you’ve been paying attention–would realize–that all your points above–would be impossible for “governments”and the “few” rich to achieve–
Go back to 1913 and do some studying–
Since no one is picking up on the Latex reference here it is ———–
During the Games While 100,000 free condoms had been provided to the roughly 7,000 athletes and officials staying at the village — about 14 condoms per person — the Village ran out of prophylactics on Day 13, forcing an emergency restocking.
Garth, where is this free garbage pickup of which you speak?
‘Free’ in this context means ‘without user fee’. But you knew that. — Garth
Where’d this idea that we have to pay public employees whatever they think they need come from?
Dream on. Salaries have to have at least SOME relation to productivity and to how much one’s customers are willing to pay for one’s labour.
I CAN’T AFFORD MY MORTGAGE! says Mr. Fireman, so BEND OVER, Canadians…
Would you fight fires for $ 8.00 an hour? I fought fires for 32 years. I had policeman tell me I’m nuts for running into a burning building while others are running out. Try it sometime. And YES I was scared, and always felt proud providing a service to the city I worked for. By the way, firefighers lives are cut short by 15 years for the hazards they face. Don’t believe me , checkout the stats. My $ 8.oo worth !!!!!!
—————————
let the market decide if firefighters are willing to do this job for $8 an hour. Maybe double or triple is required. I agree with Tax Haven, it’s time for the market to decide things. People might actually be able to afford a decent lifestyle with lower pays if the cost of everything else becomes cheaper because of productivity increases.
#18 nonplused on 02.28.10 at 11:45 pm
great post!
#112 DUI on Money Road
…they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into their pension plan over the past 30 years (sacrificing most if not all of their RRSP room)
The price of more secure employment, and assuming that most that have been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 years into a pension; and is a millionaire is ridiculous.
The issue is this, do you want to pay people a pension or pay them to work, especially when there isn’t cash in the kitty to hire people to replace them. Provincial and federal governments can’t afford it.
Dilly of a pickle. But I have a solution, and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, work longer.
#115 throwstones
Your a bigger idiot, your retort (pardon), YOUR RETORT WENT OUT THE WINDOW WHEN YOU TRIED TO COMPARE THE CEO OF A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION WITH THAT OF PRIVATE CORPORATION.
You might as well be comparing a CEO to a EMT. Maybe if we paid members of federal and provincial parliament as well as other government leadership roles better, we might get a few more stars instead of career politicians.
# 86 Hell in a Hand Basket…
“universities would have no choice but to cut costs as no one would be able to afford their exorbitant fees and the university would go bankrupt.”
Period. Universities would close and not open. Only the very wealthy could afford higher education. This would be an enormous regression.
“Look at Lasik eye surgery,”
Ha ha ha!! This is what MBA morons don’t understand…. governments are in the business of providing public and merit goods to increase positive externalities. Example: our society is strengthened when more education is available than would be if it was only provided by the free market. It’s called a merit good. Look it up. You’ll find it right next to public good and market failure.
Take healthcare, if the government cut subsidies, people would routinely die in the street. Can’t afford private health care? Hey, your wife can give birth at home and birth-related mortality can mirror Afghanistan. Sure, it’d be more “efficient”; but at what cost?
Or education – you can’t afford to send your kid to a private school? Fine, they can wash windshields at intersections. Great.
Or police – can’t afford private security and bodyguards? OK get a gun and don’t let your daughter outside. Wouldn’t it be nice?
It’s scary that people think like you. But it’s not really a threat, because the people who actually lead the country know what’s involved. They know it would be a disaster to implement your backward ideas.
I’m not saying there’s no fat on the government; I’m saying you have no idea what you’re talking about.
You never stop in Kingston ON Garth! I’d love to listen to one of your talks. Please keep Kingston in mind.
Don’t go wobbly on us now Ben Bernanke.
Barack Obamas home state of Illinois is near the point of fiscal disintegration. The state is in utter crisis said reprenstive Suzie Bassi. We are next to bankrupcy. We have a 13 Billion hole in a 28 Billion budget.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7338857/Dont-go-wobbly-on-us-now-Ben-Bernanke.html
And we are arguing about what? Pay attention to whats going on around you.
#134 bullybear — “The smaller population of Greece means higher debt per capita, and therefore even more likely to default.”
Greece, huh? 2:03 clip of Greece this morning (soon happening here!). Whoa baby!
Main reason to avoid vaccines.
Anyone remember Larry Silverstein? Plus here.
Debt junkies, including Canada. Heroin, LSD, money etc. are all hallucinogenic drugs. Too much turns one highly stupid.
Dirty gold joke.
Comparisons PIIGS now, Germany pre-WW2. Not the politics, the economy — roughly the same.
Evidently there is something to the pound’s plunge. If it slides further, Phoney Tony will order Gordon Brown to do the nasty to Iran to divert attention.
2102 — The Unofficial Forecast.
Peek into the future? No one can foretell what may come, any more than Wiarton Willie is bilingual.
let the market decide if firefighters are willing to do this job for $8 an hour. Maybe double or triple is required. I agree with Tax Haven, it’s time for the market to decide things.
Wow Original Dave,
I will let the $8.00 p/h firemen in your world come and rescue your children in a burning school.
In my reality, the well-paid, smart and well-trained firemen will be rescuing my children.
They deserve top pay / nest egg /pension, so that their families are cared for if they get critically hurt or killed.
I doubt that any of the people holding strong neo-con positions in this blog posting have any children.
#145 Guy Smiley on 03.01.10 at 8:30 pm
**********************************
Why will no one be able to afford all your points?
Here is an economic fact–
Prices “must” meet market clearing levels in all arenas–
If our wages fall by 50% –then prices must come down to meet the available money in circulation–
Your not taking that into consideration–
“Hell in a handbasket”–is correct–
waste not want not?
1000 bucks for a toothbrush
23 bucks for a piece of cotton
migraine 1 bag of saline charged her for 42bags
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2010/03/01/cohen.health.care.bills.cnn?hpt=C2
CDSs to speculate against governments.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/03/so-why-hasnt-the-credit-default-swaps-casino-been-shut-down.html#comments
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,679502-2,00.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aQ9wHnlOENSc
#121 Wrote: While many bears would have liked the games to fail, the gods parted the skies, and gave us sunshine and historical victories. I think we know that the gods are now on the side of Vancouver real estate.
I would advise caution! An ancient greek play write once said. “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad”. Thats mad as in crazy. I believe Garth has pointed out quite clearly how crazy the real estate market is in places like vancouver.
Steven
#141 Mr. Taxhaven,
Right on! That Mr. Market will level out the playing field if we give him a chance. It might even be a karma event. What moron would hang with a job that cut their life short by 15 years anyways. Ya let me see being showered with bennies and bucks – cut life short 15 years hmmmmm.
Priceless!
@145 Guy Smiley
A standing ovation for you, sir! Well said!
It doesn’t matter whether government employees are hardworking/educated/etc. or not, or whether we think we need them or not. We simply cannot afford them all. This includes management.
We need legislated spending restraint so that it is illegal for the government to spend more than 85% of the previous 12-16 months realized income. Elected officials would have abosolute responsibility for spending and therefore would be held legally responsible for violation of the spending law with mandatory minimum prison terms of 10 years, with retroactive siezure of family wealth…
IMHO farming/fishing (domestic food supply) should be considered a matter of national security, along with our water and energy supplies. Protection of family farms, and fishing operations, in the interest of retention of farming expertise and diversity would be required. We can do without flat screen TVs and jets, but we can’t do without food and energy.
#132 junius
Not worried at all. If Vancouver real estate bulls are right, rich Asians will buy up all the athlete’s Village suites at full price and bail us out ! Problem solved !
I can’t believe all the people taking swipes at public sector wages. You’re barking up the wrong tailpipe.
Take a look at the auto sector. They’ve held the public ransom for eons and as I use to tell a friend and neighbour twenty years ago. “You guys are going to price yourselves out of the market.” It took awhile but it happened. Most municipal wages even the ones with college education are way below that of an autoworker.
All it is, is steady work but not get rich quick work.
Can you do without your wheels? Didn’t think so.
How about the water that comes out of your tap. Are you happy that the waste in the crapper doesn’t stay there longer than it takes to push a lever.
Think about it!
Brew
Roial1 on 03.01.10 at 4:32 pm #79 throwstones on 03.01.10 at 1:01 pm
Occup: Paramedic-5 years service F/T.
Just some questions there “Stoney”.
When did you last have to pick up a bleeding body at the road side?
When did your next door neighbour have to be rushed into the hospital at 3 am. Being kept alive ONLY by your skills at CPR?
When have you had to control a distaught Mother as your partner tends to a badly injured preteen in the ditch just struck down by a drunk driver????
When did you have to save that preteen (Or even worse he/she dies in your arms)
while his/her Mother screams and wails in your ears?
When you can answer all of those questions positivly.
THEN you can complain about a peramedics pay cheque.
I for one will not.
___
Word.
#120 Ben
Ben, when we were looking for our current place we looked at homes about 45 mins. (peak hours) outside the city. At the time we owned a 3 story condo townhouse 15 mins. by car to downtown. When we considered the travelling time, gas costs, mileage on the car(s) potential maintenance costs, etc. it was cheaper to live closer to the city. Granted, we didn’t have to think of schools (a big factor) as we were DINKS. Best move we made. My husband has for the last 10 years a max. 15 minute drive to work during peak hours.
D
The wheat pool helps farmers, really? I cannot sell any of the grain I grow to anyone but the board. If I decide to grow wheat I cannot process it mysel and make it into bread myself to sell on to the consumer. I have to sell my wheat to the board then I can make my own bread, if I buy my grain back from the board. Stupid, no, fu##### retarded thats what. Government is a virus, it infects everything it touches and destroys it. Remember that a government strong enough to give you everything you want is also strong enough to take it all away. The conversation we are having as a society is the same conversation the Germans had in the 1930’s, lets wake up. The parasites outnumber the producers, thats trouble and we are going to see a collapse because of it. Ask Garth if he will give back every cent of his MP pension.
# 151, Jr.
You assume that the same basket of goods and services will be available, just at half the price. This is incorrect. Public and merit goods inherently operated at a loss. So, if half their “money supply” disappears, so do they.
My point is that the classical “market clearing” equilibrium price does not provide an efficient allocation of public and merit goods, because these goods have positive externalities for society beyond their direct provision. Thus, the government wants there to be more education, health care, security, etc., than would be provided by the free market. Canada’s post secondary education program is not comparable to a laser eye clinic.
Hobbs said it best (in 1651!)… life without a central government is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” That’s exactly what you and “hand basket” are gunning for. Seriously, you’re 360 years behind.
ROIAL1, Marshall, Paco, Prarie Gal…
FYI, in my previous work with the mental health field working night shifts(9 years shft/wrk) at a withdrawal center(detox) facility. I saw shit they make horror movies from. More vomit, s#!t and disease than you could ever imagine.
On one of SEVERAL occasions, a young client had come in seeking treatment all cracked and tracked up. He went VSA about 10 minutes into the intake process, and 10 minutes after that his parents-(Funny his dad was a firefighter) showed up looking for him, while I was assisting the medic with the BVM(as the newbie wuz puking her guts out from the smell). finishing the “load and go”, while dude was still going south, I turned my attention to my shift partner who was having a tough time with the parent, who was about to puke too.
Like I said, on SEVERAL occasions! I won’t discuss the brutality of the cases I have dealt with regarding children.
See I hold an EFR/EMT certs. too, including DFIB, O2 therapy, iv maintenance..It was health and safety certifications i had to receive for some of the facilities i worked with. So I know exactly what I am talking about. The funny thing is you have not shown one shred of evidence to prove me otherwise.
#122 PACO- Thanks for re-inforcing my point. I guess this schedule is “not un-usual” for EMS personnel. WORKING 3 OF 10 DAYS. FOR $70K A YEAR. and the night shift thing you mentioned you did years ago, well I did’nt do them years ago. So can it!
#131 MARSHALL- Your feeble arguement is back…let’s just change the tune then and maybe you’ll get it…but i doubt it, you just don’t have it…
My Ontario Correctional Officer friend who just received full time status and benefits. He was laughing when he said he already had benefits through his wife, but decided to get three pairs of shoes with orthotics for each, glasses and sun glasses(registered as the second pair of glasses he’s entitled to), then he went for a massage. Laughing he said he spent $3000 that day. BTW that day was early December 2009. He said he will think of dropping those benefits once he has “squeezed em dry”,so he can return to a higher wage. A return to $37/hr instead of $30/hr.
IT IS THIS TYPE OF WASTEFUL ENDULGENCE THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE SO PROUD OF….
I am still waiting for that link that one link that demonstrates any support whatsoever for your argument.
Marshall?..Paco?…Prarie Girl?…Roial1?….
Thats what I thought…feeble. just feeble….
BTW…MARSHALL HE IS IN ONE OF THOSE NO INMATE CONTACT FACILITIES. SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL CALL HIM A JANITOR, ACTUALLY….NO JANITORS ACTUALLY OPENS DOORS AND DO WORK, HE PUSHES A BUTTON!!
Wow Original Dave,
I will let the $8.00 p/h firemen in your world come and rescue your children in a burning school.
In my reality, the well-paid, smart and well-trained firemen will be rescuing my children.
They deserve top pay / nest egg /pension, so that their families are cared for if they get critically hurt or killed.
I doubt that any of the people holding strong neo-con positions in this blog posting have any children.
———————————–
as usual, most people, like yourself, cannot envision the big picture. I suggested that the free market should decide what things are worth – including firemen. With free markets, and less government interevention, we would see efficient labour and lower prices across the board which would increase people’s standard of living.
In the environment I speak of, firemen should be paid above the average income (I would hope so). We don’t know what prices and wages would be like without all this government intervention. I do know that there would be much more efficiency and higher productivity. I think this translates into a higher standard of living for everyone.
Period. Universities would close and not open. Only the very wealthy could afford higher education. This would be an enormous regression.
————————————————-
not true. You’re delving into specific areas while neglecting the fact that efficiency across the board would benefit your pocket book. Some things might turn out to be more expensive, but as a whole, how can you not see that efficient/private spending would trim the fat, and bring the costs down for everyone???
University isn’t for everyone. High school isn’t for everyone either. Someone argued that non publicly funded education is bad. I went to high school with all kinds of characters that didn’t want to be there. They spent years there vandalizing and stealing from the school while only getting a few credits. They didn’t want to be there, but it was free and their parents paid for it indirectly. Well, a lot of these characters turned out great. There’s 3 that turned into mechanics, 3 that turned into plumbers, 2 that turned into electricians, a police officer, and several others that went into the home renovation/speculation business. They all turned out fine. They spent 3 years in high school wasting time, and were gone by the time they were 17. They aren’t nuissances to society. Some guys, even though school was “free” still turned out to be bums. All they did when they were there was cause problems and didn’t graduate. So what’s the purpose of forcing these people to be there if they don’t want it? Why the larger classrooms and waste of space? People will find their way: if it’s via school, fine if it’s via a trade, fine, and some, regardless, will end up cleaning winshields at a downtown corner.
163 Guy Smiley on 03.01.10 at 11:22 pm
# 151, Jr.
You assume that the same basket of goods and services will be available, just at half the price. This is incorrect. Public and merit goods inherently operated at a loss. So, if half their “money supply” disappears, so do they
************************************
Show some proof that lower prices make goods disappear–
What your missing in is “at the margin”
That’s all that is important to a producer–
Of course his production costs will fall into line–
Show me an example of when they haven’t during a deflationary period “without” government influence-
Production costs “must” into line with sale prices,in a free market–
Producers don’t just “disappear”
If they do–then the product was never needed to begin with–
You and many others are too Canadian centric in your views–this is a global market now–
Also your “Central Government” argument–is about the lamest thing I’ve heard–ever
@#145 Guy Smiley
“Period. Universities would close and not open. Only the very wealthy could afford higher education. This would be an enormous regression. “
Have you looked at the trend of tuition compared to the rate of inflation? Tuition should increase at the rate of inflation and it clearly does not. So what else accounts for the increase? I say it is because there is no incentive for the universities to control costs as the bulk of the increase is borne by lax government loans and ultimately the student.
“Ha ha ha!! This is what MBA morons don’t understand…. governments are in the business of providing public and merit goods to increase positive externalities. Example: our society is strengthened when more education is available than would be if it was only provided by the free market. It’s called a merit good. Look it up. You’ll find it right next to public good and market failure.”
Yeah, I don’t have an MBA, I have something much better called common sense. I know that the government is not in the business of making money, and you obviously know that too. By extension the government isn’t in the business to save money either, they have no incentive to do so. Why do you think a government body is capable of running anything efficiently when it isn’t their money they are spending?
A government doesn’t have anything, doesn’t produce anything that it hasn’t taken from someone else or borrowed based on someone else’s ability to pay.
I have no problem with a government providing basic education, because that is the most benefit for the most people. When they begin meddling with higher education all that results in is higher costs for everyone. Students end up starting in the hole when other people are already living life.
“Take healthcare, if the government cut subsidies, people would routinely die in the street. Can’t afford private health care? Hey, your wife can give birth at home and birth-related mortality can mirror Afghanistan. Sure, it’d be more “efficient”; but at what cost?”
I never mentioned Healthcare or Police, only higher education. I recognize that the government must provide services that benefit the most people; higher education does not fall into that category.
A correction from my previous post where I surmise that the increase of tuition above inflation is solely due to the universities lack of incentive to control costs.
What has happened is the government has cut funding to the university and the university has shifted the cost onto the students via tuition increases. The government has taken on the role to offer lax loans to the students rather than grants to the university.
So the university still gets its money because the tuition price increases are sustainable as long as students are willing to take on ever increasing loans which are easy to qualify for but difficult to discharge.
Hey this sounds familiar.
How much did it cost to get the snow up the hill to Cypress?
Here’s my calculation per load based on construction experience:
One dump truck with pup costs $150 @ hour. It takes 2 hours MINIMUM to drive to Cypress from Manning Park where they got the snow. It takes an hour for the trucks to line up & load the snow, and an hour to dump it and reload the pup. Round trip per snow load = 6 hours……if there are any traffic issues…….longer.
Two cranes (a type of helicopter) to lift it up the hill. Price = $7000 @ per chopper PLUS $1700 for fuel. Also one 206 (a type of helicopter) @ $600 @ hour.
A guy & a machine to pile up the snow at one end plus a guy & a machine at the other end to spread it around.
The only thing I don’t know is the total number of truck loads they brought in. But they were lined up at Cypress for quite a ways.
Cool way to dump our tax dollars down the drain!!!!!!
Proud Taxpayer to the Olympics! They should give US a medal!
How much did it cost to get the snow up the hill to Cypress? $10,000 per dump truck.
Here’s my calculation per load based on construction experience:
One dump truck with pup costs $150 @ hour. It takes 2 hours MINIMUM to drive to Cypress from Manning Park where they got the snow. It takes an hour for the trucks to line up & load the snow, and an hour to dump it and reload the pup. Round trip per snow load = 6 hours……if there are any traffic issues…….longer.
Two cranes (a type of helicopter) to lift it up the hill. Price = $7000 @ per chopper PLUS $1700 for fuel. Also one 206 (a type of helicopter) @ $600 @ hour.
A guy & a machine to pile up the snow at one end plus a guy & a machine at the other end to spread it around.
The only thing I don’t know is the total number of truck loads they brought in. But they were lined up at Cypress for quite a ways.
Cool way to dump our tax dollars down the drain!!!!!!
Proud Taxpayer to the Olympics! They should give US a medal!
Hey throwstones, do your public service buddies know you come online to complain about them? With friends like you eh…………
Oh and good for you for having to deal with a few difficult situations throughout your career in mental health (Big pat on the back). Paramedics deal with worse on a regular basis.
I can tell, your a pretty wound up little dude eh…..just relax, you’ll live longer and won’t need the services of your overpaid neighbour quite as soon.
What has happened is the government has cut funding to the university and the university has shifted the cost onto the students via tuition increases. The government has taken on the role to offer lax loans to the students rather than grants to the university.
So the university still gets its money because the tuition price increases are sustainable as long as students are willing to take on ever increasing loans which are easy to qualify for but difficult to discharge.
**************************************
Great point Hell–
Shows how easy credit–masks the ever increasing fees and dupes people into believing the monthly payment is all that matters–which has another negative effect and that–is living within your means–
Get a loan for 30K–pay 200/month–pretty hard to talk yourself out of going out for a “few” drinks–every–weekend –
Of course I’m not saying–all–do this–but–this is the psychological effects of cheap money–
Marshall…Your funny!…Hilarious actually!
Let me guess?..Your a medic, probably been there too long(sense of entitlement). Too old and comfortable to get a real education, and leave that soft job and fat salary, which may inadvertantly match the waistline (from the free coffee and donuts at Timmie’s)….
Your probably the kinda person who NEEDS to wear a uniform and take directions! You also enjoy the attention from people in awe of your profession.(so shallow)..
BTW…. you have STILL not provided ANY evidence what so ever, to illustrate the UNDER compensation of government employee’s in comparison to the private sector.
Your ignorance is laughable…and typical.
i understand you’ll need some more time to get some facts together?
HILARIOUS…People like you..Gov. junkies…I love laughing at you people, you take it so personally …HEE HEE HEE!