Why Canada Should Join the EU • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#381

Post by lesuorac » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:08 AM UTC

Dalewyn wrote: post #374

jt2190 wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada is in a demographic crisis: The birthrate is too low, the population is aging and the country can’t afford to provide people with all of the social benefits AND have no laborers paying in to the benefit system. Importing lots of young labor rebalances the demographics and bolsters funding of benefits, at the expense of a housing crisis and social tensions. The alternative is to deeply cut benefits, which is po…

>Importing lots of young labor Everything old is new again, in this case slavery. What century is this, the 17th? I thought we graduated from hauling tons of slaves across oceans.

Who else is going to do menial jobs for low pay when the current citizenry have access to higher paying jobs?

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#382

Post by brailsafe » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:09 AM UTC

calf wrote: post #207

paxys wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada has a population of 40 million in a land area larger than the USA. That's hardly "too many people". Too many people in a handful of dense urban centers maybe, but overall the country is basically empty.

Our land sucks. I live in Vancouver and can't grow decent: tomatoes, raspberries.

Raspberries and tomatoes seem to grow fine on the boulevards despite rainforest soil being less than ideal. Otherwise Canada has extremely fertile land.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#383

Post by zaptheimpaler » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:09 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #259

dr_dshiv wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk the Amish are pretty chill for not integrating. And if immigrants come and integrate into existing gang culture, would you actually be happy? I think it is ok to just say “we don’t want poor immigrants. We want immigrants with something to offer.”

We don't really let "poor" immigrants into Canada. The system here attempts to cherry-pick in people based on a whole points system, with "I have money to buy a house" and "I have a $$ profession" being being points contributors. We actually have the opposite problem, to some degree. Acquiring more skilled talent from abroad has depressed skilled labour compensation here. And acquiring people from abroad with $$ to i…

This is totally wrong. The majority of immigrants that people have a problem with are poor immigrants from rural areas of India. They spend their life savings to get a college degree which used to guarantee a work visa and path to residence.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#384

Post by estreeper » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:10 AM UTC

briHass wrote: post #355

jt2190 wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada is in a demographic crisis: The birthrate is too low, the population is aging and the country can’t afford to provide people with all of the social benefits AND have no laborers paying in to the benefit system. Importing lots of young labor rebalances the demographics and bolsters funding of benefits, at the expense of a housing crisis and social tensions. The alternative is to deeply cut benefits, which is po…

How is this largely under-educated, low-skill workforce working menial/minimum wage jobs going to rescue the entitlements system? Canada's Southern neighbor has a similar issue: despite what may be morally correct, it's been a net negative for taxpayers, and the US doesn't have near the number of expensive social programs.

> it’s been a net negative for taxpayers

This analysis[1] from the Cato Institute found the opposite: “immigrants pay more in taxes than they consume in benefits”.

[1] https://www.cato.org/blog/fiscal-impact-immigration-united-s...

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#385

Post by rayiner » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:10 AM UTC

Does the economist know what time it is? Nationalism is resurgent: nationalist parties now control the U.S. and Italy. Canada seems poised to Poilievre, who has made impassioned appeals to Canadian nationalism. And in Germany, France, and the U.K., nationalist parties have effectively rendered the governing coalitions impotent, even if they cannot yet command a majority. What a time to suggest that Canadians cede their sovereignty to bureaucrats in far-away Brussels!

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#386

Post by foxglacier » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:11 AM UTC

highcountess wrote: post #197

BJones12 wrote: post #8

> Europeans could learn from Canada how to allow immigration in a fashion that the population embraces rather than tolerates Clearly the author is ignorant. Canadians are sick of immigration. Young Canadians doubly so. Racism is becoming more acceptable by the day.

Can I ask you to explain how and why it is acceptable to you that people in Canada would be opposed to having foreigners imposed upon them against their will and then you just dismiss their wishes and justified anger about such abuses by using a preprinted trigger command that justifies abusing them further by uttering the letters/sound of “racism”? Is it racism if all Canadians en masse, just up and moved to, e.g.,…

Counterexample is Israel. Also Singapore I suppose but you don't hear many opinions about their founding. It's not a choice between immigrants and locals but between powerful and weak ethnic groups. Leftists side with the weak by default.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#387

Post by Tainnor » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #155

isodev wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is it really immigration or “immigration” like the kind that populist parties vilify for engagement? Here in Europe, it’s mostly “immigration”.

We can't read your mind with whatever your quotes are supposed to mean.

Some right-wingers will use the term "immigrant" for people that have been in the country for three generations.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#388

Post by FpUser » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

jt2190 wrote: post #333

wvenable wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Canada, one cannot lump all immigrants together even those from the same part of the world. Canada used to be pretty strict on immigration only allowing highly skilled individuals from all over the world. But in the last decade this has changed to just importing as many bodies as possible. I won't go into the reasons for this change but it has dramatically altered the character of the country in this time. We have…

Canada is in a demographic crisis: The birthrate is too low, the population is aging and the country can’t afford to provide people with all of the social benefits AND have no laborers paying in to the benefit system. Importing lots of young labor rebalances the demographics and bolsters funding of benefits, at the expense of a housing crisis and social tensions. The alternative is to deeply cut benefits, which is po…

Canada could have imported as many young educated people as it wanted from Eastern European countries, Russia, former USSR members etc. What happens in reality is they can't get enough points due to some truly moronic rules. Yet somehow we mostly have people from other parts of the world whose main specialty is food delivery.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#389

Post by mistermann » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:13 AM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #196

skissane wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a real difference between immigration to Canada and immigration to Europe. Canada's immigration policy is on the whole highly selective, focused on skilled immigrants. The largest category of immigrants is professionals. Immigration laws are enforced and illegal immigration is relatively low. Refugees are admitted, but the government retains control over the numbers, the source countries, which indiv…

And yet racism is on the steep raise in Canada. I guess there's no way of doing migration that doesn't spark racism even if you are super careful about who you let in.

>racism

What does "racism" mean?

Is it even possible to be opposed to immigration from certain cultures or at all without it "being" "racist"?

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#390

Post by lesuorac » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 1:13 AM UTC

potato3732842 wrote: post #241

jimbob45 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expired: Northern California should become its own state I miss the wired/tired/expired lists greatly. Wired from 2000-2010 was a high-quality publication.

A bunch of states ought to get split into multiple because it would result in a better mapping of state governments to economic and cultural lines and result in better representation for all parties on the state level. Of course it will never happen for a multitude of reasons

IMO, remove the cap on the house of representatives and go back to the original method in the constitution (1/30k).

And then if you and ~30k other citizens all agree to sign for a specific representative then they're in the house but you can't vote for a different guy in the normal election.