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For measuring the success of a society I would look at metrics like GDP per capita, productivity, purchasing power, real wages adjusted for inflation, human development index, and quality of life For example, you can make a ton of money, but if it doesn’t buy you much, that’s a problem. If you’re sitting in traffic for 2.5 hours a day, that detracts from quality of life. If your housing costs eat up too much of your income, that’s a problem. If too much of your income services healthcare and other essentials, that’s a problem. Bottom line: After paying my taxes and for all my essentials (housing, health, commuting, etc.) what disposable income do I have? How much can I save? Am I upwardly mobile? Are there opportunities? Do I have access to quality education? Quality healthcare and other services? Amenities like sports stadiums, golf, etc.? Can I afford those Leafs tickets once in a while? Is the infrastructure in good shape or tatters? My general takeaway is that we’re overtaxed on energy costs, our commutes and transit are substandard, our cost of living is too high, our wages are growing tepidly Our essential services like healthcare have declined in quality in terms of waits and access to diagnostics. Basically life became more expensive and has declined or stagnated in terms of quality of live over the past several years We had a nice moment in the mid 2000’s to early 2010’s when our dollar was strong, our taxes declining, our tax credits up, and our infrastructure expanding, without the insanely rapid immigration and overwhelmed services that we see today. Basic services like getting a passport are a pain in the ass today I avoid hospitals now because I know I can’t get out in less than 4 hours no matter how minor the ailment. The roads are clogged Wages can’t keep up with inflation My kids can’t afford homes If I want to eat out, I have to decide whether I want to pay for that $20 burger, fries and drink for everyone in my family How often am I splurging now as compared to even 5 years ago? I think there’s an undeniable financial and quality of life squeeze for most Canadians today.

It is comical that when I travel to Canada for work, I get interrogated and have to bring a statement declaring that I am not there to work or perform any jobs Canadians can do and that I promise to leave when I am done with said business trip promptly... But if I sneak across the border from Africa, I guess I get to stay and live?

It was a very good speech in that it laid out problems in general and simple terms and followed that with solutions that were easy to understand. The speech attacked (mostly) policies and praised so many people. It had touching moments when talking about the people hurt in the shooting. They will attack him for "getting economic advice from a waitress" and jokingly saying he's buying votes (by making the economy better).

Sure. Tell that to Mike Pence, or Liz Cheney, Brad Raffensberger or any number of Republicans who simply did their jobs. And they're getting literal death threats for simply doing the right thing instead of following Trump. And people like Paul Ryan, once the VP nominee simply left because there was no room in the Party of Trump for conscientious disagreement.

I think August is right, it's mainly our massive population growth that hides the real picture. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/economics/2024/07/19/population-growth-masked-canadas-recession-like-economic-backdrop-rbc/ Though Canada’s economy is not technically in a recession, economists say it “feels like one,” given the current economic circumstances, as high population growth prevented an economic contraction. Nathan Janzen, RBC assistant chief economist, and RBC economist Carrie Freestone said in a report Wednesday that as per-person output is declining in Canada’s economy, population growth “prevented outright declines in Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP).” The report notes that this is occurring alongside unemployment rate increases that would be expected in a typical recession. “Higher interest rates alongside decades-high inflation in 2022-23 ate away at household purchasing power. Weaker demand spurred a rise in the unemployment rate of a size that historically only happens in recessions,” the report said. “But decades-high population growth has masked this recession-like economic backdrop. Canada has added 2.1 million additional consumers since mid-2022.”

“The US is not a Democracy” is one of those untrue talking points that Republicans suddenly started saying circa 2014 when Putin started grooming Republicans with online influence campaigns that included this message . The US is a democracy….at least for now….look it up. A Republic is type of democracy.

You're saying that to deaf ear's, blind eye's and mouths the size of 1000 watt sub-woofers.

I would put it another way, Joe collected the most ballots of any presidential candidate in history.😉

It wasn’t illegal or political violence. Stealing the documents was illegal and the “raid” was a polite and professional search arranged with Trump security in advance with FBI agents discretely wearing civilian clothes so as not disturb the other guests.

These numbers are based on projections of population growth. Note that the IMF does not refer to real GDP per capita. The economies of Canada and the US are growing because we have more people. Government leaders typically don't care about GDP per capita. They care about total GDP because this represents how much they can tax. When Xi sits down with Trump or Biden, the question is the waterflow they can divert through the hydro generators. They don't care about the height of the falls, their beauty or even the overall volume of water.

No, no, get this. Hunter. Wouldn’t that be hilarious? She probably owes him a favour. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Any one of those three would make a right pair if ever I saw one.

Why are you changing the subject toSyria? Lol...Assad managed to maintain control of that country despite the us efforts to assist isis in making Syria also uninhabitable. Israelaid was an ngo that was central to the project of relocating Syrians to europe..and for the most part it was done with excuses about them being good for business somehow. But Syria still has food and water and hospitals and electricity, making it quite different from gaza, of course. The only similarity it has is that Israel wanted to destroy the country, so it is interesting that you even brought it up. We already know...and even Angela merkell herself admitted, that millions of the migrants to Europe during that mass immigration crisis were not even Syrian, despite pretending to be...and many were not even the age they pretended to be as the Swedish dentist pointed out (and was thrown in prison for). The reality is that Syrians did not all have to flee Syria, so they didn't. The excuses for mass immigration were simply wrong...so this is a silly comparison. Unlike Syria, Israel actually could potentially empty out gaza (although they are kinda losing to hamas right now)...and all those people will be shipped to the west. Many to Canada? Sure, why not? But it is funny how you are changing the subject from already changing the subject. What do you think of my analysis for the reason to make antisemitism illegal? That was the heart of the issue, remember?

and here I thought only brooks babbled.

Maybe if Democrats had a deeper bench we could find someone who wrote a memoir but has almost no experience in politics or government. But hell, I suppose that's a pretty good resume for Republicans, who last ran a reality TV star with zero experience in politics and government. 🙄

money printing is a hidden tax upon the working & middle classes

You say the craziest things. Today's Republican party could not be any more top-down. The litmus test for viability is loyalty to Trump--agreeing with whatever crazy shit he says next. People are not allowed to criticize him or oppose him. They must either bend the knee and kiss the ring or they are exiled and punished. If someone (even a VPOTUS, for example) doesn't go along with Trump's crooked, schemes they are risking not just their political future, but even their lives.

30B a yr. I'm sure we can easily do that, when trudeau's insane spending and the giving away of money comes to a end. Lol

Also read as the world pop goes down,N.A pop goes up.

Yaaaaaa, that's why they didn't tell people that the jabs were genetic therapy, and not "vaccines" - most people wouldn't have taken them had they known. The question scientists are trying to answer now (way too late) is: Now that we know these jabs are altering DNA, what does that mean for fertility/future generations? So far, the answer from the pro-jab people is "Just don't worry about it, nothing bad will happen." I don't find that reassuring, after these same people have lied repeatedly about the jabs.

as usual, when backed into a corner you turn to dishonesty. Why? If you find yourself having to lie as much as you do to make your point - doesn't that tell you that you don't have much of a point and maybe you're on the wrong side?

But actually not a friend. Just a 'former classmate' . And his comments are in direct opposition to other people who went to school with him. For example other students and school professionals say he was badly bullied - this kid says he didn't think he was. So someone's wrong. And he's 20 so highschool was a ways back. It's not much of an indicator to what he's thinking now, that's a period of pretty rapid change for most of us. What he was like when he was 15 - 16 might be very different. So i don't think you can say his "friends" think he's conservative. You havent' made that connection at all. At best you can say that one former classmate thought he was conservative in high school, but his knowledge is questionable given that his other statements are at odds with other observers.

They should be arrested! People across the nation have lost jobs after posts about Trump shooting These people are saying things like "you had one job" and "next time aim better". What they are doing is a Clear and unambiguous endorsement of killing am American president. Their rhetoric is nothing less than a death threat. Imagine a troubled person, desperate to be relevant and seen as powerful. How encouraging is it to know that hundreds, if not thousands, of people will rejoice in their actions? They think they'll be heroes. The people that lament that Trump didn't die are encouraging another assassination attempt. That is worth investigating, charging and convicting them for their words. There is no first amendment right to incite violence against anyone, much less a president.

Financial and moral profligacy, overbearing laws and regulations, higher taxes, anti-democratic policies, and divisive rhetoric. Woke lunacy and the green scam.

Then Tucker realized he had the house key on him the whole time

Younger people probably do not remember the WWF days in the 80s, when there were major wrestling cards at Trump Plaza. Hulk Hogan and Legally Elected President Trump go back a long way. The DemoNazis are wrong on all the issues. They don't have anything to campaign on except "Orange Man Bad" and "abortion." And they are going to LOSE big time in November. And they lost their chance when Legally Elected President Trump turned his head slightly and their minion on the roof missed that head shot.

But when people got fired for offensive posts and behaviour, it was the end of culture remember? Snowflake culture? Looks like we're back to agreeing about civility.

Of course he's a threat to democracy. He literally attempted a coup to have himself illegally declared the winner during the vote certification of an election that he lost. How can you possibly believe that he's not a threat to democracy when he's literally tried to overturn democracy to seize power? And we have seen clearly the many, many ways that he tried to abuse his power as President. You can't deny that they happened. You can only say that you don't mind corrupt, authoritarian government.

I said that because you are so brainwashed by your media that you actually believe the nonsense you wrote. Trump is not a threat to democracy or you, he’s a threat to the Democrats. Most of the media support the Dems and the left in general, hence your badly misinformed views. The next 5 months are going to be crazy. The less media you consume, the better off you will be. BTW, the US has never been a democracy, it’s even better than that.

The left normalized violence and calls for violence some time ago. "Punch a nazi" was a big thing and everybody who was right of bernie sanders was defined as a nazi. They absolutely believed they were 100 percent justified and called for others to do it. only right wing thinkers believe that rights should belong to all people. The left believes that human rights should be subject to their approval before being exercised

And people like you are how we *know* that Trump and the MAGA turds are a threat to democracy. You're not even trying to hide it anymore. The party that used to complain primarily about "big government" is half full of people openly lusting for fascism. That's simply the government you want.

While he was speaking to Jews in that particular conversation, the meaning of the term Pharisee in a Christian context today is someone who follows the impulse to be seen as righteous by obeying certain laws, while ignoring more important matters of the heart. Therefore the term Pharisee could apply to anyone in today's world of any race, nationality or ethic group.

The best speech was last night's with that 96 year old WWII vet who was willing to go and kick some ass if he had to. Trump's granddaughters was good too. That Don Jr really screwed up when he let that Vanessa get away in exchange for that Kim Guilfoyle tho. Yikes

Am I the only one that wanted to see Melania stage dive and crowd surf?

Me justify it? You get a big old go fu ck yourself for trying to play that game with me.

Eyeball...you're in way over your head here. @Goddess go at it. I learn so much about the jabs from you. I never felt comfortable with genetic material being shot into people. It just smells like the story line for a horror movie.

Two things can be true.

You need to be cautious with your words. You are getting into territory which can come back to bite you hard. I am not a judge and only God is the final or ultimate judge. We are commanded in Scripture to bless Israel and the Jews. As for the interpretation of John 8:44 you need to be cautious because it could be a sensitive subject that could could bite you if you are trying to play games with it or use it to try to justify anti-Semitism.

Well, I have mostly posted peer reviewed scientific studies because I know "peer review" is important to some here. When I have posted studies not yet peer reviewed, I have said so right at the beginning of the post.... And if it's an opinion piece, I point out that it is an opinion piece. How are scientific studies "NOT SCIENCE"? First you want peer reviewed studies, then when they are provided, you claim that is "not science." You're not making sense. As usual.

It isn't deceptive at all, it's more accurate than just gdp by far. No one financial stat gives the whole picture but gdp per capita is a VERY important figure. It addresses quality of life, tax to service ratios, a bunch of things.

The IMF has already weighed in on this: "The IMF projects 2024 GDP per capita growth of 1.4 per cent for Canada compared to 2.1 per cent for the United States. Canada is set to lag behind the U.S., yet again, by more than 30 per cent. Alarm bells should be sounding — Canada’s productivity crisis is set to get worse not better over the next year." https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/canada-has-a-productivity-crisis-heres-how-we-can-get-back-on-track-jon-hartley-in-the-toronto-star/#:~:text=The IMF projects 2024 GDP,better over the next year. The Bank of Canada has also raised the issue: "Senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers gave a speech in Halifax on Tuesday in which she sounded the alarm on Canada’s lagging productivity rates." Who's "they"? Not the IMF, as far as I can tell.

Trump's new and fresh administration is going to crush a select number of Libbie liars and cheaters. He'll also have the opportunity to pack on more judges...maybe even a new SCOTUS judge or two. Enjoy the election sweetie...

They have nothing to worry about if they are innocent...