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Why Canada Should Join the EU

economist.com

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Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#411

Post by slothtrop »

mmooss wrote: post #166
ziofill wrote: post #15

Canada needs houses, not people.

The number of houses isn't fixed, nor are almost any other resource. The way economics works, each average person produces significantly more than they consume. Someone living alone in a cabin is (economically) poor. Someone in a small town may have customers, but not many, and it's going to be hard to expand. What you need is more people - more people buying, more people to work for you.

Housing supply is inelastic, in part because of zoning (but it's not the only reason). Know what doesn't change very quickly? Policy and law at the municipal level. Know what changes quickly because it's done at the very top level? Immigration rate.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#412

Post by mistermann »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #379
mistermann wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Reddit is completely astroturfed What % of the Reddit userbase is non-legitimate, what is the source of the illegitimate users, and what is the source of your knowledge on this matter?

Astroturfing does not equal botting, although I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many bot farms active on Reddit. The platform is virtually designed to be manipulated now, awards being an egregious example. Here’s an article about one such astroturfing campaign from folks who do not share my political tendencies: https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/29/busted-the-inside-story...

Haha, good article.

Unsatisfied with the natural fantasy world we live in, it seems we are now amplifying it on our own...and imagine how much Reddit/etc content is produced by the FBI, CIA, etc.

Westerners deserve all the pain and suffering we get, hopefully it gets even worse out there.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#413

Post by slothtrop »

threeseed wrote: post #185
ziofill wrote: post #15

Canada needs houses, not people.

Canada needs people and fast. Otherwise good luck affording a social net in future decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_fer...

What will boomers, the richest generation, ever do?

This is overstated. The alarm was sounded on this 2 decades ago for several east Asian countries, but they're not on fire. They're fine. Old people die.

If the fertility rate mattered that much, they'd have scrambled to make any number of policy changes including better work-life balance (see: Japan, SK, China), or plain ol' immigration, but they don't because it simply does not matter. All the efforts have been completely half-assed (like tax benefits, cash).

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#414

Post by [deleted] »

lesuorac wrote: post #381
Dalewyn wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

[deleted]

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#415

Post by xvector »

estreeper wrote: post #384
briHass wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

The House budget committee disagrees: https://budget.house.gov/imo/media/doc/the_cost_of_illegal_i...

$150.7B yearly cost even after accounting for the tax revenue they supposedly bring.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#416

Post by adriand »

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.

That’s not the full context of what is in the article. The full sentence is:

> Europeans could learn from Canada how to allow immigration in a fashion that the population embraces rather than tolerates, though a housing crunch has frayed that consensus of late.

Far from sounding ignorant, the author sounds well-informed.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#417

Post by wvenable »

raydev wrote: post #103
jasoneckert wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite would be better for the US. If the US joined Canada, they could benefit from universal healthcare, schooling, and responsible gun laws within a short period of time, given the available resources that would be added to the Canadian system.

> they could benefit from universal healthcare Having lived on both sides of the border for many years, Canada first needs to improve its version of "universal healthcare" before making a pitch like this.

The enshitification of health care has been happening whether your bill is paid by taxes or by insurance. Both systems were probably better a few decades ago.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#418

Post by wvenable »

richiebful1 wrote: post #187
gwbas1c wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The point" of Canada is that it's a separate country that doesn't have US politics. That being said, the general lockdown of the boarder after 9-11 has driven a lot of people who live close to the boarder nuts. Crossing the boarder used to be like crossing a state/province boarder. If you look at satellite photos of the boarder around Maine, NH, and VT, it's full of little country roads where you could cross unimped…

I'd love to see free movement of people and goods between US and Canada, EU-style. That's unlikely to happen anytime soon though

At that point, Canada would just be a state. NAFTA went a long way to improving the movement and people between US and Canada.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#419

Post by brandur »

transcriptase wrote: post #340
cldellow wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada has begun cracking down on this. There are now caps on the number of visas issued. Foreign students are no longer allowed to work full-time jobs by default while studying. This is especially relevant, because the Comprehensive Ranking System for permanent immigration gives points for years of full-time work experience in Canada, as well as for diplomas earned in Canada. Unwinding it will be a bit messy: lots o…

Yes cracking down. In a typical LPC “we’re going to reduce the number by 10% after tripling it, starting next year” fashion.

Are you my doppelganger? I made almost this exact comment word-for-word to a friend of mine a few weeks ago.

Trudeau's immigration video from December [1] was one of the most dishonest, condescending productions that I've ever seen, basically amounting to, "Yes, we destroyed our previous internationally respected immigration system and imported five million low skilled laborers over a couple years without adding any housing or infrastructure. Yes, that's hurt a lot of you and made you angry. No, we don't think that's a problem. But because you're so angsty, we'll throttle it back a tiny wittle bit over the next year or two before throwing the floodgates wide open again."

Not a shred of anything even resembling self-awareness or humility throughout.

---

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOB7-dbYuCc

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#420

Post by dataflow »

idiotsecant wrote: post #376
nemo44x wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Diversity is wonderful Why? You literally say on your very next sentence that it’s not - that diversity must be destroyed through integration and a melting pot. Diversity and immigration always has a cost and that’s the destruction of your existing culture in part. Sometimes that tradeoff is worth it. But you can’t overdo it. And getting pissed at the people that don’t integrate is barking up the wrong tree. They n…

I get some amusement out of people who are afraid of other cultures. Having a lot of cultures smooshed together is a culture. How do you think you got the culture you have now? Pro tip: the culture that existed when you were 12 years old might seem like it's the most emotionally 'correct' but it represents a blip in time and is no more or less significant than what came before or after it. Have some sense of perspect…

> Having a lot of cultures smooshed together is a culture.

This reads a lot like "everything is a social construct".

A culture is a property that's shared by the population. The absence of such a shared property is not its presence.

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