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Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

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Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#151

Post by JoeAltmaier »

rayiner wrote: post #150
imposterr wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*if you're straight and white. For many, living in Iowa isn't really a choice. Same for many places that are not major cities.

I won’t claim to know what it’s like to be gay in Iowa, but as a non-white person myself I’d love to live in Iowa. Des Moines has roughly the same percentage of Hispanics and non-whites as Portland or Seattle. The income gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic households is also narrower in Iowa than the national average.

Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, has a large, active, prosperous gay population. Activism is outspoken. Churches have gay ministers. The Gay Pride parade every year is boisterous and hugely attended.

Not that there isn't gay-bashing, like so many places. But I'd guess there's 'safety in numbers' going on?

Anyway even back in the day, I had several gay classmates (but back then they weren't outspoken about it). These days, my son's classes had coming-out parties etc for classmates.

My daughter-in-law's parents are gay and outspoken about it. My cousin's daughter is married to a wonderful lady, and they've adopted 4 kids who are amazing additions to the clan. We have lunch once a month and catch up.

So some parts of Iowa, at any rate, are not wastelands of backwardness.

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#152

Post by err4nt »

codewritinfool wrote: post #98

A Canadian friend of mine lives in B.C. and told me that, "80% of Canadians live within x miles of the U.S. border.... We call it 'huddled up to the stove'".

it's within 200 miles. Also a different but fun fact - 80% of the canadian population lives in one straight line between Quebec City and Windsor Ontario (adjacent to Detroit), we call that l'axe Quebec-Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City–Windsor_Corridor

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#153

Post by fujiters »

vkou wrote: post #149
fujiters wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps grandkids should ask to move in with grandma? She might like the company. :) In seriousness, not all metro areas have seen the same huge rise in rents and property values. I can personally vouch that the Baltimore-DC region offers relatively high paying jobs and housing that is adorable given those incomes. I've heard San Antonio, TX is also good on the jobs to housing costs front.

Neither Baltimore or San Antonio are in Canada.

Montreal and Quebec City seem reasonable, but this is based purely on a few web searches.

I hope you end up in a place where you can start building some financial security.

Also, run the numbers on long term renting in areas where housing prices are high. There's sometimes a high opportunity cost to having a ton of your savings stuck in the down payment for a house when you could otherwise have it invested in low cost index funds or something similar.

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#154

Post by hackbinary »

refurb wrote: post #24
hackbinary wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well spotted. And that is mostly due to Harper and the Conservatives giving huge tax breaks to the very wealthy, and the super ridiculously wealthy.

What do tax breaks have to do with private debt, namely mortgage and HELOC debt?

Because of government cutbacks on public spending and erosion of the 'welfare' state.

Public policy and investment in housing for ordinary people while allowing the mega elite to extract as much wealth for themselves. The non-elite then use debt to maintain their standards of living.

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#155

Post by DubiousPusher »

vinay427 wrote: post #111
DubiousPusher wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this were the case, Switzerland should be tremendously bad off. They have a ton of bureaucracy and are even more federalist than the U.S.

First of all, their point doesn't depend on Switzerland being in bad shape or not. They're not saying a country's situation solely depends on this, but that it's a factor. There are lots of other factors at play in Switzerland and most any other country. Second, there usually is another layer in most of the US (and Canada, for that matter) which doesn't exist in Switzerland: the county. I think that's more likely to…

Metrics? I thought we were all reasoning in sweeping generalizations here.

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#156

Post by appleiigs »

rayiner wrote: post #116
appleiigs wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the US colleges to be "clubs" with lots of alumni support. I haven't watch NFL in a while, but for some reason pros who have been in NFL for 10 years still say which college they went to. I think this motivates people to pay extremely high fees to get into the club. Whereas in Canada, like you said, "if she or he applies to them all, will likely get into one". And in 10 years nobody cares where you went school…

On what dimension is Canada "socialist?"

On a provincial level, the NDP socialist political party has had success getting voted in. Recently they are usually not re-elected in after messing everything up, but socialism in Canada has strong roots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_Canada.

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#157

Post by dang »

lostgame wrote: post #44
homonculus1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sympathize with the frustration of unelaborated downvotes, but you've pretty much run the gamut of political flame-bait here.

[flagged]

Please stop posting political and nationalistic flamebait to HN. It's not what this site is for, we ban accounts that do it, and we've had to ask you before.

Complaints about getting downvoted and flagged are also against the guidelines; please stop doing that as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#158

Post by winter_blue »

err4nt wrote: post #152
codewritinfool wrote: post #98

A Canadian friend of mine lives in B.C. and told me that, "80% of Canadians live within x miles of the U.S. border.... We call it 'huddled up to the stove'".

it's within 200 miles. Also a different but fun fact - 80% of the canadian population lives in one straight line between Quebec City and Windsor Ontario (adjacent to Detroit), we call that l'axe Quebec-Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City–Windsor_Corridor

> 80% of the canadian population

The Wikipedia article you linked to says it's actually closer to 50%.

Quote: "With more than 18 million people, it contains about half of the country's population"

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#159

Post by derefr »

vkou wrote: post #35
refurb wrote: post #4

Canadians have been gorging themselves on debt for the past decade. Far higher than other OCED countries. That's left them in a very precarious situation.[1] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/24/canadas-household-debt-level...

They've been going into debt in order to buy housing, not on other forms of consumer spending or 'living beyond their means'. Who sells them housing? Other Canadians. Why do they go into so much debt? Because the nature of housing is that rising prices will squeeze out every last cent of saved money from the pockets of people trying to buy their first house. It boggles my mind that the average house in Vancouver or T…

> It boggles my mind that the average house in Vancouver or Toronto costs ~20 years of average wages (Assuming you don't eat, sleep under a bridge, and don't pay any taxes.)

If you're sleeping under a bridge, are you renting out the home you've bought? If so, won't that recoup your costs sooner?

Re: Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans

#160

Post by derefr »

vkou wrote: post #118
refurb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The growth of HELOCS has been >7% for the past few years and the Bank of Canada (BOC) is starting to get worried. Canadians are not only taking on debt to buy housing, they are also leveraging housing equity for other expenses as well.[1] BoC staff add that, “Home equity extraction may also be concealing emerging financial distress if borrowers are taking equity out of their homes to manage other debt obligations or…

Those are different Canadians, though. Young people are screwed by having to go into debt to buy overpriced homes from retirees who are selling (or people selling their starter home, to trade up.) Retirees who aren't selling are using the equity in their overpriced homes to live lavishly. Their debt isn't a social problem, because they never intend to pay it down while they remain in their home. Instead, they will di…

> Their debt isn't a social problem, because they never intend to pay it down

It's the bank's problem, then, isn't it? They're predictably going to default. Why is their bank willing to buy equity in their home? It'd be like buying equity in a company that has declared its intent to shut down.

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