How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#11

Post by bawolff » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 10:36 AM UTC

I didn't find this particularly convincing. The examples seem to be that government intervention in (consumer) healthcare and agriculture causes stagnation, with the implication that this extends to other industries.

But healthcare & agriculture are unique industries that are regulated very differently than other industries in canada. I don't expect these industries to be cut throat. I'd rather have stability in those sectors and leave the innovation to other sectors. Regardless of your view on that point though, i fail to see how the example generalizes.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#12

Post by bawolff » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 10:38 AM UTC

killtimeatwork wrote: post #10

mola wrote: post #7

Qualify of life is pretty high there, right? Are there many poor people? Do median people have access to good education and healthcare? They don't produce new billionaires via cutthroat competition, so? Please let me live in that sort of "late soviet pessimism", safety, stability, work, leisure. Oh the horrors.

The gist of the article is that things are not bad, but have been in slow but steady decline for some time now. This brings a lot of discontentment, because people psychologically can care more about first derivative that the actual value of their quality of life - i.e. a poor guy who just got a job which pays median wage can be happier than a billionaire who just lost $100m.

With the implication it wouldn't be that way if canada was more like the usa. But aren't americans constantly complaining about stagnant wages (for low and middle class) and generally shrinking middle class?

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#13

Post by hntrader » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 10:43 AM UTC

killtimeatwork wrote: post #10

mola wrote: post #7

Qualify of life is pretty high there, right? Are there many poor people? Do median people have access to good education and healthcare? They don't produce new billionaires via cutthroat competition, so? Please let me live in that sort of "late soviet pessimism", safety, stability, work, leisure. Oh the horrors.

The gist of the article is that things are not bad, but have been in slow but steady decline for some time now. This brings a lot of discontentment, because people psychologically can care more about first derivative that the actual value of their quality of life - i.e. a poor guy who just got a job which pays median wage can be happier than a billionaire who just lost $100m.

> first derivative

At the risk of being pedantic; people care about both the first and second derivative. After a while, people get dissatisfied if the second derivative is <= 0, because that implies that the rate is decreasing. People also care about relative differences with their peers.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#14

Post by info781 » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 11:23 AM UTC

Resource extraction industries in Canada will always take a bulk of the engineering talent, that is where the money is. Venture capital for mining is well established in Canada. As for real estate, everyone uses floating mortgages, so prices will stay high until interest rates go up. Salaries in Canada are structured differently. Because taxes on income over $80,000 a year are very high, deferred compensation such as pensions and real estate gains are more important. Barter or cash jobs are another important source of income. Americans would never tolerate the rationing that Canadians go through for health care.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#15

Post by curation » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 11:49 AM UTC

mola wrote: post #7

Qualify of life is pretty high there, right? Are there many poor people? Do median people have access to good education and healthcare? They don't produce new billionaires via cutthroat competition, so? Please let me live in that sort of "late soviet pessimism", safety, stability, work, leisure. Oh the horrors.

It is. The cultural difference between Canadians and Americans is we worry about that difference, are taught to in school. The economic difference is we have healthcare, so don't fear getting sick in the same register of horror.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#16

Post by killtimeatwork » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 11:50 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #12

killtimeatwork wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gist of the article is that things are not bad, but have been in slow but steady decline for some time now. This brings a lot of discontentment, because people psychologically can care more about first derivative that the actual value of their quality of life - i.e. a poor guy who just got a job which pays median wage can be happier than a billionaire who just lost $100m.

With the implication it wouldn't be that way if canada was more like the usa. But aren't americans constantly complaining about stagnant wages (for low and middle class) and generally shrinking middle class?

There are some people in the middle class who do very well, e.g. software engineers - while, according to the article, the only class of people which does well in Canada is the real estate owners.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#17

Post by sand_castles » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

redis_mlc wrote: post #2

I don't understand the Brezhnev analogies (first I've seen that metaphor applied to Canada), but this matches my experience: "Many startups and tech companies I know are having a hard time hiring developers, especially with Amazon moving in. Their salaries are way too low. On a few occasions, I’ve gotten to ask if they’d consider raising compensation, but I get the same reply every time: “This is how much a developer…

> Luckily, Canada will be one of the biggest winners of global warming. Most of their land mass is not arable today, but it will be tomorrow.

Do you think a lot of plants grow in Saudi Arabia ?

Do you think, just because you do software, you understand agricultural sciences ?

All the warming is actually going to make it harder to farm in already existing areas.Frozen land that has thawed, would lack the soil type to grow anything of value.

Re: How Not to Build a Country: Canada’s Late Soviet Pessimism(2019)

#18

Post by bawolff » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

killtimeatwork wrote: post #16

bawolff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the implication it wouldn't be that way if canada was more like the usa. But aren't americans constantly complaining about stagnant wages (for low and middle class) and generally shrinking middle class?

There are some people in the middle class who do very well, e.g. software engineers - while, according to the article, the only class of people which does well in Canada is the real estate owners.

As a canadian software engineer who owns no real estate, i beg to differ. (Before anyone says ancedote != data, this article has no data only ancedotes)