carepov

We agree then, 2 million Palestinians live peacefully in Israel. I agree with you and your linked interviewee, Amjad Iraqi, that after decades of progress in this integration there is still not perfect equality. This view is also supported by Lucy Aharish that I saw being interviewed by Bari Weiss. How do you think a Jewish minority would be treated in a Palestinian state?

There are 2 million Palestinians living peacefully with 7 million Jews in Israel.

Wrong: "Nearly half of all Israeli Jews are descended from immigrants from the European Jewish diaspora. Approximately the same number are descended from immigrants from Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelis#:~:text=Nearly half of all Israeli,Iran%2C Turkey and Central Asia. Also wrong: Jews living in the West Bank are settlers. Jews moving to Israel were not settlers, they were/are "making aliyah" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah#:~:text=The vast majority came from,outbreaks of anti-Semitism there.

My take on history: The Jews are the closest thing to an "indigenous peoples" to this land. It is very ironic that they are labeled as "colonizers". 1947: the UN Plan was to create 2 states, the Arabs rejected the plan, started a war and lost. When you lose a war, you lose land and people need to move. This is not fair, but the sad truth for millions of the least fortunate people. ~700,000 Palestinians became refugees, around the same time ~900,000 Jews were forced to move out of other Arab countries. During this time there were literally 10's of millions of refugees around the world (eg: Germany, India, Pakistan...) Between 1949 and 1967, the West Bank was controlled by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt. Why was there no Palestinian state declared sometime in these 18 years? There were no "occupied territories". The PLO was founded in 1964, which part of Palestine did they want to "liberate"? More wars in 1967 and 1973. Again the Arabs tried to drive the Jews into the sea and lost. Peace was offered in the 1993 Oslo accords, rejected by Palestinian leadership. As well as in 2000 at Camp David. Other offers for peace have been refused by Palestinians. In 2005 all settlers were were withdrawn from Gaza, Hamas was elected, there was a war between Hamas and the PLO. Hamas's constitution states that they want to destroy Israel and kill or drive all Jews out. Their actions are in-line with this. This history, like all history is filled with evil people and acts. There is no possible way to completely reconcile the injustices of the past. We could compare Arab atrocities against Jews, and vice versa, but what's the point... *** There are now 14 million people on this land (Israel, West Bank and Gaza) 7 million Jews, 7 million Palestinians. Perhaps with a few exceptions, all have the right to live where they are now. All people should live in peace and security. This is what is stated in the Israeli constitution. 10/7: As I learned about the horrific atrocities and saw Palestinians celebrating, I told myself, "well at least now the western world will realize how evil Hamas is and will support Israel in eliminating them." I was so wrong and I still can't figure it out: Israel, warts and all, are defending their people (note: this includes 2-million non-Jewish Israelis): -As I mentioned, their constitution is one of peace -As a country, they have the power to kill/displace all Palestinians, yet they restrain -Practically every young Israeli goes through military service and walks around with a machine gun, yet they restrain -Build bomb shelters and the Iron Dome to defend their civilians -In Israel, there are 2 million Arab-Israelis with full citizenship and rights living in peace and security -Israel is among the best countries in the world for women's rights -Ditto for other minority rights -Ditto for free speech, religion and other civil rights Hamas, in contrast: -Openly calls for the destruction of Israel in their constitution -Rapes women and celebrates this and violence -Kidnaps babies and seniors -Promises to repeat the attacks of 10/7 -Rewards people and their families for killing Jews -Fires rockets into Israel -Uses civilians as human shields -Kills homosexuals -Women's rights? -Minority rights? -Free speech and democracy? I'm sure glad that it's Israel with the dominant military, not the other way around. For peace its' simple: Hamas must be defeated and the hostages returned. The support of Hamas is prolonging the suffering of innocent Palestinians.

All audio books, and all excellent! The Dutch House - Patchett, Ann (Read by Tom Hanks) The Century Trilogy - Follett, Ken All the Light We Cannot See - Doerr, Anthony

So I wonder how New York got to the top of that list?

The world is getting better, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Enlightenment-Now Also: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59395031-superabundance

1) The chart tells us nothing about growth rates. 2) I see no link to immigration.

My guess is that that Ontario has the highest immigration rate. In the 20 years from 2001-2020 the population grew from 11.7 million to 14.2 million, an increase of 21 %. NY population growth was 4 %. Important to note that your chart is per capita, therefore while the NY economy increased by just over 1.4 % annually, Ontario's economy increased by 1.8% annually (https://www.statista.com/statistics/577539/gdp-of-ontario-canada/). GDP growth and GDP per capita are both important. But to pay off debt (the concern that you raised), more important is GDP growth.

I guess that we should increase immigration to grow the economy and pay off the debt...

To improve quality of life you need a growing economy. Immigrants contribute to Canada's economy. Combine a growing economy with social programs/progressive taxation and you get: "Canada’s overall poverty rate was estimated at 7.4% in 2021, up from 6.4% in 2020 and down from 14.5% in 2015." https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2023/05/canadas-poverty-rate-remains-below-pre-pandemic-levels.html Canada is indisputably one of the best countries in the world. By many measures, including a more than halving poverty rate, life is getting better.

Overall, the country is much better off with immigrants. Immigrants account for 36% of physicians, 33% business owners with paid staff, and 41% of engineers. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2022/12/canada-welcomes-historic-number-of-newcomers-in-2022.html

I don't understand what you mean by "that". Most people have no thoughts/beliefs about such issues. According to woke, the point of laws (made by the powerful) is to maintain and even increase their power.

Yes, hyperbolic is a prefect adjective for wokeism. According to woke, rights gained are illusory, and/or never enough. Also hyperbolic are claims by anti-woke crowds. Claims such as wokeism bringing an end to free-speech, "family values", and ushering in neo-marxism. This article nails it: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/tech-happy-life/202006/the-promise-and-problems-being-woke

No, that definition doesn't cut it. Don't you agree with Neiman that "the Left" is not "Woke"? "Wokeness rightly “emphasizes the ways in which particular groups have been denied justice,” but then grows so outraged by the fraudulence of our nation’s claims to “liberty and equality for all” that it forfeits all faith in the possibility of a society ordered by any force beyond raw power. The woke wisely demand “that nations and peoples face up to their criminal histories,” but dwell on historical crimes until they conclude “that all history is criminal.”" https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/do-the-woke-betray-the-lefts-true-principles.html

The ideology of woke is fascinating! Here are three very interesting approaches to defining Woke: https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-true-left-is-not-woke/ https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/of-course-you-know-what-woke-means https://understandwoke.com/ I took the quiz and am 7/100 - anti-woke. However, I am not "anti woke-people". There are many good ideas and intentions in the woke movement. I also, do not think that there is a significant danger coming from the woke ideology.

Why not make the world a better place? It seems like the right thing to do. Do you have any better ideas?

Good questions. Sometimes, yes, I want to live for my own happiness and pleasure. But you are right, this is not enough. I want to live so that I can contribute, to the best of my abilities, to making the world a better place.

Non-business people are usually 100 % invested in themselves... I agree with income splitting for all Canadian families, and yes it does save real money for the middle class. Of couse any business can split income with family members that work in the business (incorporated or not). RRSPs do reduce taxes if you deffer to later years when you are going to be in a lower tax bracket. The "problem" is that some people accumulate so much wealth that they make more money in retirement than what they did while working.....

Closing these loopholes will not take any significant money out of the pockets of people making less than $150,000 per year. Under this amount it is not feasible even under the current rules to incorporate to avoid taxes because of the benefits of RRSPs and TFSAs. I can't think of a reason why incorporated small businesses should use these loopholes to pay less taxes than salaried people that have the same net income.

I am certain that immigration has reduced crime rates in Canada over the years. If it were not for immigration there would be a greater proportion of natives in Canada...

FDK is at best wasteful and possibly regressive. It's no secret that the best practices in education are in Finland, we should be copying them: "In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the age of 7. Until then, many are in day care and learn through play, songs, games and conversation. Most children walk or bike to school, even the youngest. School hours are short and homework is generally light." http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0318-doyle-finnish-schools-20160318-story.html Kindergarten starts at age 6 - where a typical school day is just four hours long. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/

"new immigrants do not have a significant impact on the property crime rate, but with time spent in Canada, a 10% increase in the recent-immigrant share or established-immigrant share decreases the property crime rate by 2% to 3%. Neither underreporting to police nor the dilution of the criminal pool by the addition of law-abiding immigrants can fully explain the size of the estimates. This suggests that immigration has a spillover effect, such as changing neighbourhood characteristics, which reduces crime rates in the long run." https://a4039938-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/haiminzh/research/Immigrant Crime - 20140109.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cpIQyQSG4gjh06WqjIqsVnCUehokZNidKtUdK4oTisSwATNfKEHX_6I_hWNbPy2-No5LOqGhEcMhElrajJLD8MKsAcqs6H5zKh-SOXPL1q4BnyvyG5s-ihR4sxnLWH1aDOykDlUYtv1GZNdi_dkDa9zAaUPEzyMl687ekZGMUnu9aQaPFJ-TN4jlKsjCdAWc0_DAGtTPihzPzwfa6ZlZwDZCwLRocZCP2rnvO-2blrPiLvp8OZAk3Ivxsqki7TzNwqk9-nQ&attredirects=0&revision=1

This is a good point. Job interviews are certainly important but is hiring an employee analogous to accepting an immigrant? I'm not so sure, the main difference I see is that when hiring you are typically filling an immediate or near term need whereas immigration is a much more long-term investment - even multi-generational. What would be the "job description" of a good Canadian citizen?

The studies in my previously linked sources show that today we are at around the break-even point. This includes refugees and family re-unification. Simply increase economic/skilled immigrants and we will be clearly in the black.