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Why Canada Should Join the EU

economist.com

611–620 of 823 posts

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I forgot you are the only one in this thread capable of real human thought. My apologies for bothering you with my "faux-thinking."

You're quite capable of seeing that a serious of ludicrously generalised ideological statements, entirely abstracted from reality, are as close to meaningless as human statements get (which is exactly why social media affords them). You are just blinkered by acculturation, and prefer it that why. Drama is so much more fun than reality.

All of the statements are fact, they are not meaningless.

> the EU is stagnating

True. Verifiable. Compare the value of the EU vs the US's or China's tech industry over time. The US's is now worth 20x the EU's.

A region's technological prowess lagging behind or even declining vs its peers is the very definition of stagnation.

> and definitely losing on the global stage.

The EU has a declining share of global GDP is increasingly becoming a less valuable market as companies opt to simply not deploy new products to the region.

> It has totally suffocated itself with regulation

Also correct. You can talk to essentially any EU small businessman - or even any of the (very few) AI companies in the EU. Mistral - the EU's most promising AI company - has been practically killed by the EU AI Act.

This isn't a hot take, nor is it overly general; the EU's regulatory industrial complex is a well-recognized problem.

> and is fading into irrelevancy with every passing day; soon, it won't be much more than a tourist spot for everyone else.

With the EU economy declining, and its share of global economic activity declining, and the EU preemptively locking itself out of a AI market worth trillions - one of the only major areas the EU remains strong is tourism.

> And they've gaslit themselves into thinking everything is fine, but no sane country would look at it as a model worth emulating.

References the common discourse from EU regulators where they pat themselves on the back for passing terrible regulation - e.g. passing the AI act and severely disadvantaging one of their best companies. Indeed, no one would want to emulate this.

These are just examples. Generalized statements are used because tens of examples can be provided for each example. It is more succinct to communicate the generalized example, with an understanding that anyone keeping up to date with events in this space (EU regulation, progress, technology) will understand what is being referred to.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we have that much of demographic crisis. First of all, the aging population is the one with all the wealth. And secondly, as Boomers, they are a very large generation but will soon be dying off. But more to point, this is nothing new. We have always had immigration to offset low birth rate. I'm more inclined to believe that the recent importing people en masse has benefited a few large employers of low…

>First of all, the aging population is the one with all the wealth. The working age population is the wealth. For example, you can have a country with 90 retired people and 10 working people. The 90 retired people can have $1M or $1B or $1T in their accounts, but it isn't going to matter if they have insufficient products/services to buy. The money just provides a relative ranking of what proportion of product/servic…

This is a fantasy. Those 90 returned people can spend their money anywhere in the world and do. Their relative ranking is multiple larger homes and those 10 working people paying them rent.

Land value is not a product of labour -- in Canada it's an investment and a way to move/launder money from other countries. Many many properties being build that are not designed to be realistically lived in.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#613
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rejection was expected. The EU and its associated organizations are only open to countries on the European continent by their current rules. Canada would have to broker a hell of a deal to get even partially in. EFTA membership might be a possible goal.

Canada is still under the British Monarch, Charles as King of Canada. Not saying that would work but it might be one avenue. It’s also good reason that Canada joining the US would be very hard as things stand.

In Canada, the titles he has in his other realms are irrelevant, though - the only Crown in Canada is that of Canada (well, and the provincial crowns in each of the provinces).

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#614
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Turkey is formally in (suspended) membership negotiations and a major discussion point was that most of its land area is not on the European continent. Would the that be a discussion point if Turkey had a well functioning democracy? Solid economics? Didn't have the death penalty? Found some sort of resolution to conflicts on its borders?

> Turkey had a well functioning democracy Turkey has a functioning democracy it's just that most of the population loves populist rhetoric. Erdogan's party lost mayoral elections in all the major cities. > Solid economics Turkey had a GDP PPP of $3.45 trillion in 2024 (12th in the world) > Didn't have the death penalty Turkey doesn't have the death penalty. > Found some sort of resolution to conflicts on its borders…

> The conflict in Syria is resolved in Turkey's favor.

Is it? The SDF is still there, and was always one of the biggest reasons why Turkey got involved.

Now, that one, Turkey might still resolve yet... but if it does, that will likely come in form of another genocide. Which would hardly improve its chances of getting acceptance.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#615
post #401
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even my immigrant friends in Canada think there are too many immigrants.

Quote from a Chinese friend of mine form over the holidays (currently in Canada on a work visa, applying for a PR shortly, started as an exchange student in highschool): “I really like coming back to [jmb99’s hometown], it’s all white people. Nice change from Toronto.” Definitely a common sentiment.

"Chinese person: Racist against Indians" is hardly a newsworthy headline.

Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

I live in Vancouver and I'm apalled to hear some of the things my Chinese friends sometimes say about Sikhs in Surrey.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#616
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.

[flagged]

Who is a Canadian?

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#617
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but I'd love to see something happen to force Canadian provinces's hands to improve this. To dream the impossible dream...

Why? Until its recent immigration debacle, Canada was one of the most efficiently governed countries in the world. 15-20 years ago, Canada had lower non-defense government spending per capita than the U.S., despite having a universal healthcare system. Canadian federalism has been incredibly effective, with the majority of all spending happening at the provincial level and meaningful differences between provincial po…

[citation needed]

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#618
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but I'd love to see something happen to force Canadian provinces's hands to improve this. To dream the impossible dream...

Why? Until its recent immigration debacle, Canada was one of the most efficiently governed countries in the world. 15-20 years ago, Canada had lower non-defense government spending per capita than the U.S., despite having a universal healthcare system. Canadian federalism has been incredibly effective, with the majority of all spending happening at the provincial level and meaningful differences between provincial po…

An editorial from Dec 19 (gift link):

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/eca53705d5e7568f5ed88c7...

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#619
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. In my experience, local policy and law changes much faster than federal, especially with GOP opposing everything on the federal level. The GOP shot down the immigration deal they negotiated last summer. Locally is where I see solutions happen (and then st…

We're talking about Canada, not US.

But also, for all practical purposes, the migration rate to all rich Western countries is limited only by their respective laws and regulations governing immigration. For all of them, there are more people who want to get in than the quota allows (whether explicit or implicit via point systems etc). Any country that would fully open its borders would see millions coming in from Asia and Africa. People generally want to move where the life is better when they can.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#620
post #388
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…

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.

Oh, so, tell me...

What's the difference against between people from Eastern Europe and those "other parts of the world" ?

You're implying a big difference, but I can't put my finger on what it might be.

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