Canada going downhill in every major category

[CdnFox]

21 hours ago, eyeball said:

Someone who will unleash people like Black so they can pretty much do whatever they want?

Don't worry, nature will take care of regulations along with regulators soon enough and everyone will have the same opportunities.

Still smarter than "the budget will balance itself".

[CdnFox]

22 hours ago, I am Groot said:

What I suspect we need is someone who will make huge cuts in government programs and spending, not to mention slashing regulations of all kinds along with the regulators.

Well - probably not as much as you think.

The funny thing is - we don't really need to 'slash' all that much. Definitely there will have to be trimming - and things like the cbc will be on the chopping block - but a lot of it is just NOT being stupid about spending.   We spent hundreds of millions on the arrive can app as an example. Just not doing that kind of dumb stuff actually reduces spending significantly.

There's a lot of absolute fat to trim.  Trudeau and his buddies have been making money from a lot of it.  If you just go back to be responsible in your spending then the buddget gets a lot close to balance.

And then you can "outgrow it" by making smart decisions and controlling the growth of gov't while the population and wages grow.  I saw one projection that suggested that with very modest cuts the budget could be balanced in even 4 years.

A lot of regulations will need to be slashed to get businesses to invest and improve our quality of life but that's actually a different problem (tho related).

[eyeball]

44 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

A lot of regulations will need to be slashed to get businesses to invest and improve our quality of life but that's actually a different problem (tho related).

A race to the bottom will not improve our quality of life, especially if we have to cut things like environmental regulations to make ourselves more competitive.

If it's okay for fish farms to pollute it'll be okay for oil refineries too, as well as anyone else who insists on enjoying the same loopholes.

[ExFlyer]

9 minutes ago, eyeball said:

A race to the bottom will not improve our quality of life, especially if we have to cut things like environmental regulations to make ourselves more competitive.

If it's okay for fish farms to pollute it'll be okay for oil refineries too, as well as anyone else who insists on enjoying the same loopholes.

No business is going to cut its' profits to help our (my ) quality of life.

Business is in business to make profit for shareholders and owners...not us simple folk.

Waiting for business to improve quality of life is a laugh.

[herbie]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

In addition to simplified tax systems we also need to make agreements with other countries that put everyone's tax systems on the same playing field so we can choke off the ability of wealth to play countries off against one another.

??? No one's nailed your feet to the ground. If you don't like your country's tax system, you're free to emigrate.
What we need to do is stop worshipping the taxes of the USA without understanding both they have the 3rd largest and wealthiest population on Earth to tax and those taxes deliver less benefits to the public.
What we need is more efficiency in the use of our tax dollars, more oversight and less selfish attitudes around 'some guy might get something and I won't' and 'Why should "I" pay' outlooks.

Our taxes just aren't that hard to figure out. I'm personally annoyed at the sheer number of people I'ver encountered that are in their 60s. worked a single job for someone else and have no investments and have never in their life done there own taxes. Pay someone else every year and have only one single T4.

Edited April 21 by herbie

[I am Groot]

38 minutes ago, herbie said:

??? No one's nailed your feet to the ground. If you don't like your country's tax system, you're free to emigrate.

This is not really a legitimate option for most people. On top of having family and friends and your whole life here you can't just pick up and move - legally - to most countries where you might want to live.

[blackbird]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

A race to the bottom will not improve our quality of life, especially if we have to cut things like environmental regulations to make ourselves more competitive.

We need a government, possibly Conservative, that will examine all regulations and laws carefully and cut everything that is excessive or overbearing.

 

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

If it's okay for fish farms to pollute i

  Depends who you believe.  You being a fisherman, probably don't like fish farms because they can produce salmon far cheaper than wild salmon costs.  I don't think you have to worry because many people can afford wild salmon and buy them.  There will always be a market for that.

 But there are studies that say fish farms are not as harmful as opponents of them claim.   Just depends who you prefer to listen to.

   I can understand why environmentalists oppose them, because they oppose everything man does.  We can understand why Mother Earth worshipers oppose them because they also oppose anything man does.

  Fishermen oppose them because they are competition to conventional fishing.  

The truth is fish farms are around the world in many countries and produce lots of fish that is far less expensive than wild salmon.  In a starving world with millions of people struggling to make ends meet, we need fish farms that can produce lower cost seafood.  

How many people can afford to buy halibut at $20 a kilogram or more?  Or wild salmon at some ridiculous price per pound?  Fishermen themselves probably don't receive that kind of money for them, but the middlemen and food stores seem to really mark the prices up.  It is the same with many things.

If we don't allow fish farms, they will still exist in many other countries and we will import the fish as we do now, but just more of it.  So it won't make any difference to commercial fishermen here.  There will always be competition and there will be less jobs for people here.  Again government intervention destroying jobs and wrecking the economy.

Edited April 21 by blackbird

[blackbird]

53 minutes ago, herbie said:

??? No one's nailed your feet to the ground. If you don't like your country's tax system, you're free to emigrate.

What?  If you don't like something, you should emigrate.  Everyone is free to oppose the Communist, Socialists that want to tax as much as possible and make life unaffordable.  They should move to a Socialist country and stop gouging Canadians.  What gives these Socialists pretending to be liberals the right to extort Canadian's hard-earned money to give to every cause under the sun and send 7 billion dollars a year to all their foreign pet projects?

[CdnFox]

3 hours ago, eyeball said:

A race to the bottom will not improve our quality of life, especially if we have to cut things like environmental regulations to make ourselves more competitive.

 

There's no 'race to the bottom'.  You seem to think the beurocracy for the sake of  beurocracy is somehow a good thing.

You can cut a HELL of a lot of red tape and proceedure and not 'race to the bottom'.

Hey - we tried it your way and the country is sinking fast.  We're going to try it a different way.

Quote

If it's okay for fish farms to pollute it'll be okay for oil refineries too, as well as anyone else who insists on enjoying the same loopholes.

They're not enforcing the rules we DO have.  when you have thousands of rules with no teeth they get ignored daily.

Cut it back to the essential rules, demand gov'ts have fast timelines for doing their investigation into proposals, and then enforce the crap out of the rules you DO have.  I guarantee there'd be a hell of a lot less pollution and damage.

[herbie]

What? You can't consider emigrating. Your grandparents did that! There's no more steerage and you have to pay double GST on airplane tickets... it's,, it's unthinkable....

[CdnFox]

12 minutes ago, herbie said:

What? You can't consider emigrating. Your grandparents did that! There's no more steerage and you have to pay double GST on airplane tickets... it's,, it's unthinkable....

Your brain melted i see.  That can happen when there's a short circuit

[Moonbox]

6 hours ago, eyeball said:

In addition to simplified tax systems we also need to make agreements with other countries that put everyone's tax systems on the same playing field so we can choke off the ability of wealth to play countries off against one another.

Yes, this goes for most taxes.  Tax "arbitrage" for the wealthy, and for people in various different circumstances, is a dumb paradigm, but it's the one we live in. 

6 hours ago, eyeball said:

In addition to taxes on the rich we need sanctions against countries that refuse to get with the program and try to cater to tax avoidance and who embrace being chased to the bottom. 

One of the reasons I don't like Canada's carbon pricing, and much of the green energy shifts and subsidies, is because of this.  In many cases it's a fool's game where our feel-good policies end up being an exportation of pollution to countries with different rules.  

[Moonlight Graham]

12 hours ago, Aristides said:

If building homes as investments (rentals) is made unprofitable, why build them?

I’ve never heard of a tax on something that encouraged anyone to produce it.

So people can buy them to live in them.  Homes don't need to sell for a million dollars to be profitable for developers.

[Moonlight Graham]

7 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

So you think it’s more efficient and cost effective, and better for the wealth creation of citizens, to let governments run and own all rental housing?  Ah!!!!!  That’s why we left the Soviet Union.  

No, I think it's better for citizens when housing and rental prices are low.  On the demand side lower foreign students, immigration back to sane levels.

[Moonlight Graham]

7 hours ago, blackbird said:

Why?  Investing in homes or real estate is no different than investing in any other businesses if the purpose is to earn a return on investment.  It won't solve the housing crisis by taxing people more.  More taxes is the wrong approach to help the economy.  We need investment and more economic growth and less government intervention and taxation.

Incorrect in this case in regards to housing.  We have far too much demand for housing and it's making life unaffordable and destroying the rest of the economy because if a lot more of people's paychecks are going to towards housing their standard of living is decreasing and they're unable to afford other goods/services, which hurts every other form of business.

[herbie]

You're dreaming if you think regular people build new homes to rent them out. Capital Gains only affects them if the sell a non-principal residence or summer cottages that earn them over $250,000.

[Moonbox]

6 hours ago, eyeball said:

In addition to simplified tax systems we also need to make agreements with other countries that put everyone's tax systems on the same playing field so we can choke off the ability of wealth to play countries off against one another.

Yes, this goes for most taxes.  Tax "arbitrage" for the wealthy, and for people in various different circumstances, is a dumb paradigm, but it's the one we live in. 

6 hours ago, eyeball said:

In addition to taxes on the rich we need sanctions against countries that refuse to get with the program and try to cater to tax avoidance and who embrace being chased to the bottom. 

One of the reasons I don't like Canada's carbon pricing, and much of the green energy subsidies/requirements etc, is the same idea.  In many cases, we fool ourselves into feeling good about what we're seemingly doing, but what's actually happening is companies are just moving to other countries where things are looser.  In effect, we just export our pollution and bad business practices. 

[blackbird]

46 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

Incorrect in this case in regards to housing.  We have far too much demand for housing and it's making life unaffordable and destroying the rest of the economy because if a lot more of people's paychecks are going to towards housing their standard of living is decreasing and they're unable to afford other goods/services, which hurts every other form of business.

You don't understand how the system works.  It's not people investing in a home to rent it out and then re-sell it that is driving the price of homes up.  

It's all levels of government that drives the prices of homes up.  The costs of building homes is high and the cost of real estate is high.  There are excessive regulations, taxes on everything that push up the price of materials and everything.

When you put more taxes on people such as the capital gains tax, you reduce the amount of investment which creates jobs.  Capital gains taxes reduce the amount of investment in corporations, businesses and that reduces the number of jobs available for people.  That harms the economy.  Taxation is the worst possible thing the government could do now.

[blackbird]

53 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

We have far too much demand for housing and it's making life unaffordable and destroying the rest of the economy because if a lot more of people's paychecks are going to towards housing their standard of living is decreasing and they're unable to afford other goods/services, which hurts every other form of business.

The reason for that is all the government taxes, government control and regulations, etc. that have messed up the free enterprise system.  You forget it is the people with lots of money that invest it to create jobs and build companies that creates the wealth in the first place.

Governments do not create wealth.  It is fatal mistake to think government will fix anything by taxing people.  That is what is wrecking this country and chasing investment away to other countries along with the jobs that go with investment.

I don't think you have any idea how the capitalist or free enterprise system works.  To put it very basically, in a free enterprise system, it is the people with money who invest it that creates jobs and prosperity.  If you destroy that, you have nothing but a population of people dependent on government handouts.

[blackbird]

20 minutes ago, herbie said:

You're dreaming if you think regular people build new homes to rent them out. Capital Gains only affects them if the sell a non-principal residence or summer cottages that earn them over $250,000.

Do you really think government taking people's money will be better than letting people invest it themselves?  Governments don't create prosperity.  Only the people do by investing their money in business and corporations.

[blackbird]

1 hour ago, Moonlight Graham said:

No, I think it's better for citizens when housing and rental prices are low.  On the demand side lower foreign students, immigration back to sane levels.

Government can't solve the problem by legislating lower prices or taxing people.  That is totalitarianism which would be a disaster. Government should get out of the way and let companies and businesses build the economy.  The only way to have lower house prices is to get more home builders working and build far more homes.  Government has screwed that up for years now. 

[blackbird]

7 hours ago, eyeball said:

A race to the bottom will not improve our quality of life, especially if we have to cut things like environmental regulations to make ourselves more competitive.

What regulations?  Do you mean the green regulations that are trying to kill the energy industry?  Such as banning tankers and pipelines and Trudeau refusing to let Canada sell natural gas to Europe for example?

[blackbird]

7 hours ago, ExFlyer said:

Waiting for business to improve quality of life is a laugh.

???  Investment is what creates jobs and makes the west prosperous.  It is government at all levels that has been taking a wrecking ball to free enterprise with all its taxation and regulations.  

[Moonlight Graham]

20 minutes ago, blackbird said:

You don't understand how the system works.  It's not people investing in a home to rent it out and then re-sell it that is driving the price of homes up.  

It's all levels of government that drives the prices of homes up.  The costs of building homes is high and the cost of real estate is high.  There are excessive regulations, taxes on everything that push up the price of materials and everything.

When you put more taxes on people such as the capital gains tax, you reduce the amount of investment which creates jobs.  Capital gains taxes reduce the amount of investment in corporations, businesses and that reduces the number of jobs available for people.  That harms the economy.  Taxation is the worst possible thing the government could do now.

Price of homes is determined by supply and demand.  You don't have to build older homes since they already exist, and yet they are also higher in cost.  Sorry but more people bidding on homes because there's a lot of people wanting to buy them as investment properties is part of driving up the price because that increases the demand.  There are other factors involved in supply and demand for housing, but if you lower demand you will lower the price of homes.  IMO they should also lower the annual immigration intake that has spiked under the Liberals to lower demand.  The number of new builds is near historic highs, I see it as more of a demand issue than supply issue since demand has vastly increased while supply also has risen, just not enough to match the larger increase in demand.

Also, I am aware that capital gains hikes as proposed by the Liberals will very likely inhibit investment and economic growth, which is why I only agree with raising capital gains for 2nd properties besides cottages.  It will also make more people invest in the Canadian stock market rather than investment properties since they'll still want to invest their money somewhere.

[Zeitgeist]

1 hour ago, Moonlight Graham said:

No, I think it's better for citizens when housing and rental prices are low.  On the demand side lower foreign students, immigration back to sane levels.

I agree with you about immigration.  I think that going after people’s cottages and investment properties or investments in general is ultimately lowering our living standards and productivity.  People and free markets and opportunity create wealth for all.  Increasing taxes in order to create more government programs for some people but not others is redistribution of income from those who made that money to those who didn’t.  Well, some of that is necessary, but our rapid growth in government workers and government programs at the expense of those best equipped to leave Canada and invest elsewhere isn’t a sustainable plan.