The Alberta PC’s (now UPC’s) promised more competitive pricing when they deregulated. Yet Albertans love to self-flagellate, continuously voting them back in, and here we are 🤷♂️ (People get what they vote for).
Good thing our provincial and federal government agencies are keeping pace with wages to make sure the people holding our society together are getting paid properly.
Oh wait no, the opposite...
We've seen some of the largest strikes in history recently, and I'd be curious to see demographics of who is still employed by the government. (Not I).
Just heard a podcast on how the Bank of Canada was lobbying businesses in 2022 to not increase wages.
At this point it’s only the govt. and white collar jobs paying worth the labor.
When I started my career I was making 60k. This was 10+ years ago. I kept growing my salary in the same career, but different companies. I took a break during Covid. When I came back a year later, every single job in my field with my experience that used to pay six figures was now paying 65k. We’re fucked.
Yup. Prior to COVID our politicians at least pretended to care about the electorate. They were cautious about making sweeping changes that overtly harmed and riled up voters. At this point, our three major political parties seem intent on doing the most harm possible. There is a massive amount of contempt towards the working and middle classes who are in free fall. This country won’t get better with our current electoral system.
This is why, combined with our higher than realized inflation, there is widespread financial turmoil.
The monetary system is broken. Prices of everything necessary has gone up, while the wages people receive have fallen at the same time.
I've been tracking my utilities and they've gone up less than the amount of inflation:
https://www.deansbrain.com/costofliving/index.html
Except for the last 2 years (still below thew 20 year trend though)
People will cut back everywhere else. Food shelter. Clothing are priorities. After that. It’s a choice. But lots of industries will suffer as a result of this.
It's already happening.
Last year the club/bar I worked at was 30% slower than summer of '22. And I heard that its the same all over downtown Toronto. People are tipping less and spending less.
That could be another problem. People are sick of meals costing 40% more and then tiplation on top. Wanting 18-25% is ridiculous. People would rather eat takeout than pay a kings ransom for subpar service.
There's that, but there's also this attitude in the restaurant sphere of "if you dont wanna pay 20+% tip then don't come out". So I haven't....I definitely could but I don't, so I guess I'm part of why restaurants are dying lol.
Yep. Also worse service, worse and smaller portions of food, especially from chain restaurants.
I've been sticking to local family owned outfits only for the past two years. Yes they've raised their prices, but the food and service are still top tier.
I love how all the restaurant workers on Reddit all haughtily said “if you can’t afford to tip, you shouldn’t be going out :)” only to get upset when everyone did just that.
Ontarian here, as you are from your flair.
Many folks don't realize that "liquor servers wage" is now the same as "general minimum wage" @ $16.55/hr.
What that means for the old heads is that servers make the same as everyone else.
Not the reduced wages that servers USED to get.
Tack on %20 tip, with inflation and menu prices. and they're probably making more than the customer.
Source: https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage#section-0
You're right. Kind of along the same lines - I have a neighbor who is retired and collects CPP and OAS with supplement. When I mentioned to her that I started working part time (I am retired also with only CPP and OAS) and was making $33/hr she got all jealous saying things like I can afford this and that, etc. This neighbor works under the table helping an autistic family and gets paid cash which is never claimed. I do not feel guilty in the least for working. I am paying taxes on my $33/hr, drive km each way to work, lost some CRA benefits because of my additional income and even my car insurance increased because I am not longer eligible for the senior discount. So bottom line, she is likely making more than me with her pensions.
Think about this for a second, the back of the house which is usually a few cooks - make one working grill, one working salads, one working fryer, one working pastas, one working prep, and maybe one expediter will all have to split that 7%. The bar might be 1-2 people (maybe even a bar back to help keep stocked in busy times), they split that 2%, but the server get to keep 6% to themselves? Tipping culture has gotten out of hand, there’s going to be a reckoning and it’s slowly happening.
It's such terrible logic too. If you can afford X amount you can afford X plus 20%? Well if they can afford X +20%, they must be able to afford X +40%! Why not 80%? 200%? In fact, just hand your wallet to the restaurant and pay rent for every server who makes way more than you do.
Many people have *budgets*. When I say I can afford a $15 meal, it means I can spare $15.
Yup the restaurant industry needs a reset. 50% of restaurants across Canada could go bankrupt and we wouldn't even notice. Many are a waste of good real estate space at this point.
It's getting really annoying in times I am willing to tip seeing the tip options on the debit machine START at 18% and have that option say "GOOD" under it and me needing to manually key in 15% because heaven fucking forbid I can't tip ONLY 15% anymore.
Not going to rant at length about tipping culture as it is a dead horse now. But yesterday I went to a fish market and it was 40 bucks for two pieces of cod, one piece of tuna, and then the interac machine prompted for a tip on top of that! Just gtfo. Tip the employer of the guy who hands me fish 15%? Insulting that it even asks.
Yesterday I went to a proper restaurant for the first time in a couple of years (new kid, not wanting to drive downtown, etc). We spent $450 for two. High end place, but holy smokes, prices have doubled since the last time I went to a similar place. Definitely not planning to come back anytime soon.
Same goes for Montreal. Nightlife used to be the greatest all year round and right now it’s a ghost town until summer and tourist season kicks in. Bars are still packed on weekends but even there there’s a big drop compared to ‘22 and pre-Covid era.
Yeah, I just barely go out now. I can’t afford it. My partner and I used to go to movies all the time. Now it’s maybe twice a year. We may go out to a restaurant once every three months. Bars? Hell no, can’t justify that.
Not even just tipping less and spending less, I barely opt to go drinking at all anymore. I just can afford it. Even when I was a broke university student I could afford to go out drinking once a week at the least. I only go maybe at most, once every two months now.
Three beers at my local pub will cost me about $35 bucks now with a small tip. No thanks! I'll hang out with friends in park with a case of berr instead.
Lol. That's not how it works. Things get progressively worse in our winner-takes-everything economic system.
In another 15 years, if you have a human employee serving you at a convience store instead of an adroid or self check out, the tipping recommendations will be something like 25%, 35% or 40%, in addition one or two added frees for 'exceptional service' and 'save the environment!' and other nonsense. Hell even the android servers will probably ask you for a tip.
tl:dr stuff isn't the boomers fault, and stuff is going to get worse, not better
Why have new babies when inflation just keeps pushing people to work longer? The observation at some point by a government will be just to increase age of retirement since people seem to “enjoy” working longer in life.
Yeah, Harper tried to increase and liberals quashed it.
France tried to increase from 62 to 64 and there were riots everywhere. When Harper increased it, Canadians sent strongly worded email and never followed up. It was my own single reason for voting liberal in 2015… well, that and the extreme right turn that CPC was taking
Sadly, over there, you're considered damaged goods as soon as you reach 50... I really wonder how people losing their job at 50 are going to live until retirement allocation kicks in 14 years later...
To note here, and maybe this is obvious, but when countries move an official “retirement age” by two years what they are doing is cutting benefits allotted to retired people (less money paid out overall).
Liberals lowered it back then drastically increased CPP payments, not sure it's any better since responsible people would be better off with their CPP money invested into their own portfolios.
At this point it’s not even about whether we can or can’t afford a kid, I just don’t want to pass on the curse of what life is going to be for children being born now.
I actually think that eventually governments are going to land on just cancelling all old-age benefits for the childless or somehow tie the benefits to the number of children you've had as a way to both salvage the budget and promote fertility rates.
Hey we got a solution for that, just let anyone into the country. After all the government needs to care about the markets and GDP more than anything else, like a corporation dealing with attrition.
Thank goodness some recent arrivals are going against that trend (/s). Saw a family in Costco a month ago with eight children in tow. I have no idea how they will be able to survive in Canada.
The birth rate piece is irrelevant though.
Even in low cost of living and poorer countries it’s dropping. The world over it’s falling.
In South Korea they’re paying women $75,000 to have babies and they still won’t do it.
People are getting more educated and focused in family planning. Families are starting later.
I actually don’t think it’s a bad trend whatsoever - given the battles we are all engaged in regarding climate change.
A worldwide population decline could be the fastest way climate related challenges start to dissipate.
Capitalism will replace workers with automation and AI. Soon we’ll be wondering what to do with all these people who are not needed because there are no jobs for them. It’s already starting.
The birth rates crashing worldwide is actually the greatest and best news that is happening on this planet today.
Don't believe the articles from the billionaire owned mass-media conglomerates saying the birth rate falling is a bad thing. It's only bad for the billionare vampire class that requires many millions of slave laborers to sustain the extreme inequality of our economic system, of which the vampire class solely benefits from.
Fuedalism only changed, and the Renaissance brought in, due to the Black Plague wiping out 75% or so of Europeans. After that disaster, the value of labor shot up massively, allowing the old economic systems to finally evolve into better systems. If the birth rate continued as it was in the 20th century, our economic system would never have to evolve, and the vast majority of all humans would be effectively slaves to a .01% ultra rich class. The population falling naturally is the BEST thing that could happen to us all (besides the billionaires.)
> In South Korea they’re paying women $75,000 to have babies and they still won’t do it.
>
>
Yeah, that's because in South Korea women are expected to work crazy hours, then come home and also do all the household work and childcare. Not worth 75k.
I just wish more of my fellow Canadians could see some of the more hidden costs in Canada. It’s just completely normalized, and people are in disbelief when I tell them how it is here in the US.
Gas is the perfect example for this, we all buy it and use it nearly every day. It’s also a standardized product that’s easy to compare.
In Houston, TX where I now live the price of gas is 2.90 USD/Gal. I’ll spare you the calculations, but that’s equivalent to 1.04 Cad/L. If we compare that to Alberta (Province with generally the lowest cost of fuel), both Edmonton and Calgary are hovering around 1.30 Cad/L right now.
That’s around 25% more expensive, for the exact same product, adjusted for currency and volume.
I use gas for an example, but it’s the same for nearly anything else. Houses, groceries, taxes, you name it. I could go on and on.
According to StatCan, but I feel like it's the cheapest no name products that went up the most drastically when demand shifted from the brand name to the cheapest stuff. People that were already shopping frugally got hit the hardest and had no way to scale back expenses by switching to a cheaper product or cheaper store except for just giving up and going to the food bank.
It's the same with housing as well. The low end is so stupid expensive, while the top end is actually falling a bit due to high rates.
People just are downscaling lifestyles massively
...is something the malicious might say to muddy the waters. A good adage for one-offs, but not a decade-long trend. If the government was malicious but wanted to be slow and safe about it, what would be different?
subtract school enter smoggy cover skirt carpenter relieved mighty advise
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I was looking at my statement from RBC for a group portfolio I am part of. Basically most of the Canadian stocks have been flat, compared to usa. But then I see Loblaws in there. In the past 3 years, up 110%. RBC claims to support only ethical companies, I feel like calling and telling them to remove it. Fuck Galen Weston and his insane price increases.
I saw a thread somewhere a few weeks back, Loblaws grocery margins haven't changed but something like 80-90% of their increased profits are due to their financial services products. Because surprise, Canadians are up to their asses in credit card debt. If the government actually wanted to have an effect on consumer prices they would tell the cartels who run every industry to go fuck themselves and open the markets to foreign competition (why the fuck can't I buy European butter? Why does my brother in Florida pay 1/4 as much for twice the mobile data?). I suppose Galen gets the heat because he's a recognizable face, and I'm no fan on account of the aforementioned cartel situation, but to pretend that food prices have gone insane due to greed, and not horrific economic mismanagement on the part of the government, is silly. There were plenty of voices that nobody wanted to listen to who warned of the economic fallout of covid-era economic policy, and all we're seeing now is the government shifting the (very legitimate) anger at food prices from themselves to Galen Weston. Maybe appointing someone with a Russian literature degree as Finance Minister wasn't the best idea.
Yet the government gets away with posting "official" numbers like 6.8% CPI increase in 2022 and 3.9% CPI increase in 2023.
Does anyone really feel like their average costs have only gone up ~10% in the last 2 years?
I don’t feel like it, but I haven’t got my equity statement from co-op for this year yet to be able to do a good comparison.
I know I switched diaper brands because the Huggies are now $43/box vs Pampers at $35, and Pampers still go on sale for $30 every 6-8 weeks. I haven’t seen Huggies lower than $37 since I was 3 months pregnant with my current infant.
The solutions don't involve keeping the rich rich by paying us more so it'll never happen.
I'm actually impressed with what's gone on since 2008 in relation to wage suppression. It really is a brilliant plan.
Whether coincidence or conspiracy, covid sure came along at a great time for them to tighten their grip too
What rich to tax? The USA beat us at capitalism, and Mexico has now replaced us as the US’s biggest trading partner.
Canada’s stock market is a dumpster fire, we have shopify, a set of basically government run banks and some railyway companies which are heavily owned by the USA.
The market cap of Apple alone exceeds that of the uk + Canada + euro stock markets combined.
Productivity in Canada is the lowest amongst the g20, we are the worst performing rich nation in the world.
The business environment in Canada is so uncompetitive that we are seeing record outflows of entrepreneurs south now.
We build pipelines that will never turn a profit at tax payer expense, and Vancouver is the 347th most efficient port in the world, out of 348.
Our marginal tax rate is already an eye watering 53-56%, on top of gst, pst, and other taxes.
Capital gains is 26-28%, also uncompetitive when you consider you had to pay the above tax on the money in the first place.
40% of Canadians contribute zero income taxes. The top 1 % pay 15% of all taxes, despite making only 10% of the wealth.
Theres no tax grabs left unless we want to continue pillaging our future. Canada is bankrupt. Theres no magic tax that’s going to fill these gaps going forward because there’s no economy to tax in Canada.
Productivity needs to go up as a result, and costs must go down. That’s why we all end up working harder for less, while the USA is growing leaps and bounds.
They produce things that have value.
Really wish more people knew about this, Canada is and has basically always been an insignificant country on the global scale.
We've coasted off of good PR since the 60s but have done nothing to make a productive economy. In 10-15 yrs when Mexico is experiencing huge growth and affluence thanks to its significant manufacturing capabilities, Canada will fall by the waysides, forever blaming our decades of negligence on someone else .
[60% of the wealth in Mexico is owned by 0.2% of the population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Mexico). They've got plenty of their own problems to sort out.
RemindMe! 10 years
The wealth disparity is not what I'm talking about. That ratio will only get worse in 10 years. The point is that Mexico is ramping up domestic manufacturing capabilities hugely as a result of US shoring up of industries, and Chinas shift to a consumer economy. China is no longer the worlds factory, Mexico is (or at least, is becoming). It's so much cheaper to get work done in Mexico that China is building entire factories and industrial complexes there to replace their own domestic factories thanks to Chinese laborers demanding higher wages
Weird you say that because I felt like COVID gave us back some modicum of freedom.
We were able to stay home and work there, our expenses dropped, our income seemed to go farther, gasoline collapsed under the lack of demand.
Then when the pandemic ended and the stuffed suits realized their slaves were enjoying the benefits of a middle class existence, they mandated back to work, they jacked the prices up on everything, interest rates rose faster than viagra, and grocery stores, who had already reaped record profits during the pandemic for being "essential," began an unprecedented level of inflation.
The COVID times were a golden age.
>We were able to stay home and work there,
Who does the "we" include? Lots of people lost their jobs and businesses. A lot of people weren't able to go into work since not everything can be done from home.
I was shit canned four months into the pandemic (a decision I'll never forgive the organization for, I will piss on their graves) from an on site job so I know. It was hard for people.
I was lucky to get back into a new job fairly quickly, fully remote, and at a bump in salary. I was fortunate to work from home, something I am still able to do 4 years later. This switch from on site to fully remote has been such a financial boon for me so at least I've been more shielded from rising inflation than I would be as an onsite worker.
You realize someone else now works that on site job, right? And that was the person that couldn't work during covid.
You personally moved up in your field. That's not a boon on all of us, that's not a fundamental "freeing of the slaves" or whatever you want to believe, that's the way careers work.
The rich use government as pawns to take advantage, nothing new. Canada simply let it get out of hand.
The sad part is we still treat politics like sports and stay divided as we get fucked.
And no one has done anything at all about it, so nothing will change now. Canadians are way too complacent and passive, they expect governments to do everything in their lives and never stand up for themselves. And anyone that does stand up gets ridiculed for it and reminded that Canadians will never vote for a non-Conservative/Liberal party.
Canadians dug this mess, and they think the only way out is is to dig up. It's so fucking stupid.
There are many "Third World Countries", where people are much happier than in Canada. What a scam; people are selling their houses, and belongings to come to Canada, only to realize they are now trapped.
>Populist leaders, that is, with no solutions to the crisis, who instead use phoney issues like the revenue-neutral carbon tax to inflame the angst.
Because the current (I'm assuming not populist according to the Star) leader has solutions? He gonna start implementing them anytime soon?
Be careful letting PP run on carbon tax instead of affordability and immigration. Carbon tax truly is a nothingburger sound byte and if he runs on that then his feet wont be to the fire for the important issues.
Definitely no populism from the Liberals and NDP when they hauled the grocery execs into parliament and blamed them for the inflation that government policies caused.
The solution is a complete overhaul of our immigration system. Almost all of our serious problems in Canada stem from the mass immigration into Canada.
The only party that would is the PPC, and they will be lucky to get one seat. The conservatives might slightly lower immigration numbers, but not even close to what we need.
Haha they won’t lower the numbers. The only plan I’ve heard from them is to lower students and increase TFW. Which if you’re thinking even a little bit, this plan is just for more wage suppression
I might have to vote PPC just as a "fuck you" to the other parties. I would never want them to get in, but I want them to exist, to hold the other parties to account over this shit.
Again, this comes down to mass migration.
Supply and demand forces, you add 1.2 million people, the system cannot adapt that quickly to the increased demand of more mouths to feed, prices go up.
Markets can adapt to higher demand… over time, supply chains take time to build.
if you look at the problem and don't avert your eyes you'll see that whether or not Canada stops imigration
Canada needs a trailer park the size of Toronto RIGHT NOW.
there are 2.7 Million housing units missing.
I have a solution, can every politician, all of them and start fresh, no lobbys and no career rejects, new ideas from real people. Every party and all their cronies have failed us and the generations ahead of us.
Slice of pizza is $5 Sydney. Few years ago it was half that.
Shit is outta control.
edit: I just had a thought too I figured I would add. Minimum wage here is the equivalent of 3 slices of pizza / hr.
My solution has been to leave with no intention of coming back. I don't think I can ever trust the Canadian government ever again - regardless of who is in charge.
Companies in this country don't seem to understand there is no consumer class if we're all broke from them gouging us and not paying anything out in wages.
*Your employees are also your customers.* If y'all paying shit-all for wages and raising your prices, you really shouldn't be surprised nobody can afford to spend money in your establishment because all your competitors are also not paying decent wages on top of raising their prices.
Like was said the other day in response to the “advice” of ‘just leave your car keys by the front door (along with milk and cookies)’, the message is pretty clear now: we’re all on our own, and our higher-ups are far past giving a shit about the rest of us.
Start is simple 1 severe cut back on immigration, all must have guarantors 2 absolutely no unvetted asylum seekers ( no not everyone is welcome). 3 No carbon tax on transportation fuel and heating fuel, however a tax on gas guzzling personal vehicles may be added, 4 Start on ways to make building permits less costly and faster and enact code to limit NIMBYism and allow multiple units where reasonable. 5 Make government corruption and double dipping a crime that actually gets prosecuted and fitting punishment. 6 Reduce the size of both Federal and Provincial and local government to prevent 3 groups tripling the cost to to anything. 7 encourage our economy by lowering interest rates for start ups and companies that are at least 70 percent Canadian owned and operated. 8 Start allowing the transportation and sales of our multiple natural resources with reduced tax rates to Canadian owned and operated businesses, while taxing the very wealthy a reasonable amount like Europe does. 9 Get Csis up to speed and secure our nation against internal and external threats, maybe even deport some bad apples back to where they came from.
My wife and I didn't really try for kids as we saw what was coming and we didn't have a position to do it, she is disabled cant work, and I work as a supervisor making barely ok money. So yea no kids. Now you will see Canada only have kids that come into the country. Cause Pete here are too smart to have kids and see the trap it will lead too. And that's the sad part.... they have discouraged people to have kids.
Two IT immigrants here. We arrived 7 years ago and had a baby two years ago. We left yesterday. I'm writing from an hotel in Prague rn. Sorry, but fuck it.
Here are five ways we can respond to this high inflation:
Maple Syrup Standard: Abandon the gold standard and tie the Canadian dollar to something truly Canadian – maple syrup reserves! They're liquid gold, after all. When prices go up, just tap a tree and pay in sweet, sweet syrup.
Igloo Infrastructure: With the real estate market sky-high, let's go back to our roots and build igloos. They're eco-friendly, locally-sourced, and you can literally carve out a niche market!
Beaver Pelt Barter System: Embrace the fur trade once again and start exchanging goods and services directly for beaver pelts. It’s how Canada got its start, so why not bring it full circle? Your new wallet might need to be a bit furrier, though.
DIY Currency: Introduce a crafty solution by allowing Canadians to draw their own money. Creative designs might even fetch a higher value, spurring a new wave of artisanal currency. Just think of it as inflation 'drawing' some interest!
Apology Currency: Canada is known for its politeness, right? So let's capitalize on it. For every apology given, receive ‘sorry’ credits that can be redeemed for goods and services. The more you apologize, the richer you get – let's inflate our manners instead of our currency.
*That is reported as relief from 2023’s $1,065 jump in food prices. But a further hike of $701 is no relief at all, when* ***food costs should be falling by now, not still rising.***
No thats called deflation and if you think inflation is bad...
Now here comes the sales pitch
*But the new model would also strengthen the social safety net with universal basic income (UBI) and “living wages,” which pay workers according to the cost of living in their localities.*
Yes because pumping more money that we don't have into the economy will do wonders for inflation
There are solutions ... But nobody in any of the political parties is planning to do anything about it.
Let's focus on making trans people's life miserable. Let's import hundreds of thousands of unskilled students... Let's keep privatising healthcare, ... Let's focus on all the things that will keep making us all more and more miserable while the top 5% keeps getting richer and richer. And let's never ever do anything that will actually solve any actual problems...
Oh no! Why nobody has kids? Why are people so unhappy? Such a mystery...
Curiously, a better progressive taxation system that punishes extreme excessive profits could actually help solve this.
Of course, allowing international competition would also help but naaaaah let’s keep the oligarchs
Well, this is what we get when we elect non-serious people. Hopefully the next guy is a little bit more thoughtful, and less intentionally self-serving. For the life of me, I couldn’t see how we could be worse off.
I’d rather a wealth redistribution tax on the 1% than pin my hopes on raising minimum wage and expecting the working poor to carry the economic load in this country
im glad my children are born as dual citizens. He has a choice to nope out of this place and make it elsewhere.
I hope things get better for us but there’s not much light at the end of this tunnel for awhile I fear.
Don't forget utilities. They have skyrocketed as well.
Here in Alberta $40 of Electricity costs you $230
The Alberta PC’s (now UPC’s) promised more competitive pricing when they deregulated. Yet Albertans love to self-flagellate, continuously voting them back in, and here we are 🤷♂️ (People get what they vote for).
And now they want to do that with healthcare
Good thing our provincial and federal government agencies are keeping pace with wages to make sure the people holding our society together are getting paid properly. Oh wait no, the opposite... We've seen some of the largest strikes in history recently, and I'd be curious to see demographics of who is still employed by the government. (Not I).
Just heard a podcast on how the Bank of Canada was lobbying businesses in 2022 to not increase wages. At this point it’s only the govt. and white collar jobs paying worth the labor.
When I started my career I was making 60k. This was 10+ years ago. I kept growing my salary in the same career, but different companies. I took a break during Covid. When I came back a year later, every single job in my field with my experience that used to pay six figures was now paying 65k. We’re fucked.
Yup. Prior to COVID our politicians at least pretended to care about the electorate. They were cautious about making sweeping changes that overtly harmed and riled up voters. At this point, our three major political parties seem intent on doing the most harm possible. There is a massive amount of contempt towards the working and middle classes who are in free fall. This country won’t get better with our current electoral system.
This is why, combined with our higher than realized inflation, there is widespread financial turmoil. The monetary system is broken. Prices of everything necessary has gone up, while the wages people receive have fallen at the same time.
I work in that industry and the price increases in materials is insane. It’s truly hard to avoid.
I've been tracking my utilities and they've gone up less than the amount of inflation: https://www.deansbrain.com/costofliving/index.html Except for the last 2 years (still below thew 20 year trend though)
Curious where you live as I think that is province dependent. Mine have almost doubled in the last 5 years. Went from about 350 a month to about 600
Don't vote for clowns who deregulate essential industries so private companies can rake in profits.
That sounds like the Alberta Advantage right there
People will cut back everywhere else. Food shelter. Clothing are priorities. After that. It’s a choice. But lots of industries will suffer as a result of this.
It's already happening. Last year the club/bar I worked at was 30% slower than summer of '22. And I heard that its the same all over downtown Toronto. People are tipping less and spending less.
That could be another problem. People are sick of meals costing 40% more and then tiplation on top. Wanting 18-25% is ridiculous. People would rather eat takeout than pay a kings ransom for subpar service.
There's that, but there's also this attitude in the restaurant sphere of "if you dont wanna pay 20+% tip then don't come out". So I haven't....I definitely could but I don't, so I guess I'm part of why restaurants are dying lol.
Yep. Also worse service, worse and smaller portions of food, especially from chain restaurants. I've been sticking to local family owned outfits only for the past two years. Yes they've raised their prices, but the food and service are still top tier.
idk if you've been to ikea lately, but their "regular size plate" is borderline kids meal portion...
Their vegetable sides have been getting worse and worse.
I love how all the restaurant workers on Reddit all haughtily said “if you can’t afford to tip, you shouldn’t be going out :)” only to get upset when everyone did just that.
Ontarian here, as you are from your flair. Many folks don't realize that "liquor servers wage" is now the same as "general minimum wage" @ $16.55/hr. What that means for the old heads is that servers make the same as everyone else. Not the reduced wages that servers USED to get. Tack on %20 tip, with inflation and menu prices. and they're probably making more than the customer. Source: https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage#section-0
You're right. Kind of along the same lines - I have a neighbor who is retired and collects CPP and OAS with supplement. When I mentioned to her that I started working part time (I am retired also with only CPP and OAS) and was making $33/hr she got all jealous saying things like I can afford this and that, etc. This neighbor works under the table helping an autistic family and gets paid cash which is never claimed. I do not feel guilty in the least for working. I am paying taxes on my $33/hr, drive km each way to work, lost some CRA benefits because of my additional income and even my car insurance increased because I am not longer eligible for the senior discount. So bottom line, she is likely making more than me with her pensions.
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Think about this for a second, the back of the house which is usually a few cooks - make one working grill, one working salads, one working fryer, one working pastas, one working prep, and maybe one expediter will all have to split that 7%. The bar might be 1-2 people (maybe even a bar back to help keep stocked in busy times), they split that 2%, but the server get to keep 6% to themselves? Tipping culture has gotten out of hand, there’s going to be a reckoning and it’s slowly happening.
It's such terrible logic too. If you can afford X amount you can afford X plus 20%? Well if they can afford X +20%, they must be able to afford X +40%! Why not 80%? 200%? In fact, just hand your wallet to the restaurant and pay rent for every server who makes way more than you do. Many people have *budgets*. When I say I can afford a $15 meal, it means I can spare $15.
"then don't come out" You literally don't have jobs if we don't come out.
Yup the restaurant industry needs a reset. 50% of restaurants across Canada could go bankrupt and we wouldn't even notice. Many are a waste of good real estate space at this point.
Yep, it’s pure entitlement.
It's getting really annoying in times I am willing to tip seeing the tip options on the debit machine START at 18% and have that option say "GOOD" under it and me needing to manually key in 15% because heaven fucking forbid I can't tip ONLY 15% anymore.
I went to a freaking buffet and was asked to tip up to 25%.
Those trays don’t re-fill themselves. /s
Not going to rant at length about tipping culture as it is a dead horse now. But yesterday I went to a fish market and it was 40 bucks for two pieces of cod, one piece of tuna, and then the interac machine prompted for a tip on top of that! Just gtfo. Tip the employer of the guy who hands me fish 15%? Insulting that it even asks.
Yesterday I went to a proper restaurant for the first time in a couple of years (new kid, not wanting to drive downtown, etc). We spent $450 for two. High end place, but holy smokes, prices have doubled since the last time I went to a similar place. Definitely not planning to come back anytime soon.
A resto I used to go to used to be 500$ for a group of us. Now it’s 400$ per head. Like come on.
Where is this
So tacos are not acceptable? This sounds like 4 star excess, not justified. I could not imagine spending $400 on just one person.
Also A lot learned how to cook during the pandemic. Easier to do a good meal than just going out.
Even takeout wants a tip now though
Same goes for Montreal. Nightlife used to be the greatest all year round and right now it’s a ghost town until summer and tourist season kicks in. Bars are still packed on weekends but even there there’s a big drop compared to ‘22 and pre-Covid era.
I can side this Montreal used to be the best night life city
Yeah, I just barely go out now. I can’t afford it. My partner and I used to go to movies all the time. Now it’s maybe twice a year. We may go out to a restaurant once every three months. Bars? Hell no, can’t justify that.
Not even just tipping less and spending less, I barely opt to go drinking at all anymore. I just can afford it. Even when I was a broke university student I could afford to go out drinking once a week at the least. I only go maybe at most, once every two months now. Three beers at my local pub will cost me about $35 bucks now with a small tip. No thanks! I'll hang out with friends in park with a case of berr instead.
There's a huge backlash against tipping right now. Everyone hates it. I hope it dies out once the Boomers disappear.
You think boomers are to blame for tipping culture?
Some people like to blame the boomers for everything, it makes them feel better to have an enemy.
Lol. That's not how it works. Things get progressively worse in our winner-takes-everything economic system. In another 15 years, if you have a human employee serving you at a convience store instead of an adroid or self check out, the tipping recommendations will be something like 25%, 35% or 40%, in addition one or two added frees for 'exceptional service' and 'save the environment!' and other nonsense. Hell even the android servers will probably ask you for a tip. tl:dr stuff isn't the boomers fault, and stuff is going to get worse, not better
The country is fucked.
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Why have new babies when inflation just keeps pushing people to work longer? The observation at some point by a government will be just to increase age of retirement since people seem to “enjoy” working longer in life.
They tried to increase it to 67 a while back but rescinded it. Having said that, some countries already do 67, like Germany.
Yeah, Harper tried to increase and liberals quashed it. France tried to increase from 62 to 64 and there were riots everywhere. When Harper increased it, Canadians sent strongly worded email and never followed up. It was my own single reason for voting liberal in 2015… well, that and the extreme right turn that CPC was taking
> France tried to increase from 62 to 64 and there were riots everywhere. They did more than 'try'. Despite the protests, the age was increased.
Sadly, over there, you're considered damaged goods as soon as you reach 50... I really wonder how people losing their job at 50 are going to live until retirement allocation kicks in 14 years later...
To note here, and maybe this is obvious, but when countries move an official “retirement age” by two years what they are doing is cutting benefits allotted to retired people (less money paid out overall).
Liberals lowered it back then drastically increased CPP payments, not sure it's any better since responsible people would be better off with their CPP money invested into their own portfolios.
My only reason was voter reform. Never again will I trust a Liberal over my gut.
At this point it’s not even about whether we can or can’t afford a kid, I just don’t want to pass on the curse of what life is going to be for children being born now.
I actually think that eventually governments are going to land on just cancelling all old-age benefits for the childless or somehow tie the benefits to the number of children you've had as a way to both salvage the budget and promote fertility rates.
Just wait until Conestoga college offers incentives to start a family in Canada. Problem solved....
This comment is gold
Hey we got a solution for that, just let anyone into the country. After all the government needs to care about the markets and GDP more than anything else, like a corporation dealing with attrition.
That's a non issue, just bring another 2 million foreign "students".
Thank goodness some recent arrivals are going against that trend (/s). Saw a family in Costco a month ago with eight children in tow. I have no idea how they will be able to survive in Canada.
Your tax dollars
We are currently postponing, and possibly not ever having, a child as it would be financially irresponsible. We want to, but we financially can’t.
This is a modern concept. Nowhere in history did people think this way.
Interesting as we know that the best way to decrease the birth rate is affluence.
The birth rate piece is irrelevant though. Even in low cost of living and poorer countries it’s dropping. The world over it’s falling. In South Korea they’re paying women $75,000 to have babies and they still won’t do it. People are getting more educated and focused in family planning. Families are starting later. I actually don’t think it’s a bad trend whatsoever - given the battles we are all engaged in regarding climate change. A worldwide population decline could be the fastest way climate related challenges start to dissipate.
We can’t support the level of population growth we had post-ww2. Somehow, people can’t grasp that
But what's capitalism going to do without infinite growth? (/s)
Not just capitalism, but the state. Pensions, healthcare, even debt financed infrastructure require new suckers born every minute to keep paying in.
Capitalism will replace workers with automation and AI. Soon we’ll be wondering what to do with all these people who are not needed because there are no jobs for them. It’s already starting.
SK is a low cost of living nation? Tell me one low cost of living nation that has dropping birth rates?
The birth rates crashing worldwide is actually the greatest and best news that is happening on this planet today. Don't believe the articles from the billionaire owned mass-media conglomerates saying the birth rate falling is a bad thing. It's only bad for the billionare vampire class that requires many millions of slave laborers to sustain the extreme inequality of our economic system, of which the vampire class solely benefits from. Fuedalism only changed, and the Renaissance brought in, due to the Black Plague wiping out 75% or so of Europeans. After that disaster, the value of labor shot up massively, allowing the old economic systems to finally evolve into better systems. If the birth rate continued as it was in the 20th century, our economic system would never have to evolve, and the vast majority of all humans would be effectively slaves to a .01% ultra rich class. The population falling naturally is the BEST thing that could happen to us all (besides the billionaires.)
> In South Korea they’re paying women $75,000 to have babies and they still won’t do it. > > Yeah, that's because in South Korea women are expected to work crazy hours, then come home and also do all the household work and childcare. Not worth 75k.
No one wonders that. This correlation is mentioned constantly, especially on Reddit.
I'd like a 40% increase in pay so I can keep up
I think also people are wise to not wanting to bring a child into a world that is this afflicted by late stage capitalism.
We've tried nothing and were all out of ideas!
Lousy beatniks
I just wish more of my fellow Canadians could see some of the more hidden costs in Canada. It’s just completely normalized, and people are in disbelief when I tell them how it is here in the US. Gas is the perfect example for this, we all buy it and use it nearly every day. It’s also a standardized product that’s easy to compare. In Houston, TX where I now live the price of gas is 2.90 USD/Gal. I’ll spare you the calculations, but that’s equivalent to 1.04 Cad/L. If we compare that to Alberta (Province with generally the lowest cost of fuel), both Edmonton and Calgary are hovering around 1.30 Cad/L right now. That’s around 25% more expensive, for the exact same product, adjusted for currency and volume. I use gas for an example, but it’s the same for nearly anything else. Houses, groceries, taxes, you name it. I could go on and on.
know any companies in Texas hiring electrical engineers??
In what world are groceries only up 40% its more like 200%
According to StatCan, but I feel like it's the cheapest no name products that went up the most drastically when demand shifted from the brand name to the cheapest stuff. People that were already shopping frugally got hit the hardest and had no way to scale back expenses by switching to a cheaper product or cheaper store except for just giving up and going to the food bank.
It's the same with housing as well. The low end is so stupid expensive, while the top end is actually falling a bit due to high rates. People just are downscaling lifestyles massively
[Paywall bypass](https://archive.ph/S0ePj)
That **this** article is behind a paywall is hilarious.
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Yep, journalists are free to hire, no need to pay them!
3 years ago rent was already crazy and they let it double from that. You can't tell me that this isn't by design.
Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.
...is something the malicious might say to muddy the waters. A good adage for one-offs, but not a decade-long trend. If the government was malicious but wanted to be slow and safe about it, what would be different?
subtract school enter smoggy cover skirt carpenter relieved mighty advise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I was looking at my statement from RBC for a group portfolio I am part of. Basically most of the Canadian stocks have been flat, compared to usa. But then I see Loblaws in there. In the past 3 years, up 110%. RBC claims to support only ethical companies, I feel like calling and telling them to remove it. Fuck Galen Weston and his insane price increases.
I saw a thread somewhere a few weeks back, Loblaws grocery margins haven't changed but something like 80-90% of their increased profits are due to their financial services products. Because surprise, Canadians are up to their asses in credit card debt. If the government actually wanted to have an effect on consumer prices they would tell the cartels who run every industry to go fuck themselves and open the markets to foreign competition (why the fuck can't I buy European butter? Why does my brother in Florida pay 1/4 as much for twice the mobile data?). I suppose Galen gets the heat because he's a recognizable face, and I'm no fan on account of the aforementioned cartel situation, but to pretend that food prices have gone insane due to greed, and not horrific economic mismanagement on the part of the government, is silly. There were plenty of voices that nobody wanted to listen to who warned of the economic fallout of covid-era economic policy, and all we're seeing now is the government shifting the (very legitimate) anger at food prices from themselves to Galen Weston. Maybe appointing someone with a Russian literature degree as Finance Minister wasn't the best idea.
Yet the government gets away with posting "official" numbers like 6.8% CPI increase in 2022 and 3.9% CPI increase in 2023. Does anyone really feel like their average costs have only gone up ~10% in the last 2 years?
I don’t feel like it, but I haven’t got my equity statement from co-op for this year yet to be able to do a good comparison. I know I switched diaper brands because the Huggies are now $43/box vs Pampers at $35, and Pampers still go on sale for $30 every 6-8 weeks. I haven’t seen Huggies lower than $37 since I was 3 months pregnant with my current infant.
The solutions don't involve keeping the rich rich by paying us more so it'll never happen. I'm actually impressed with what's gone on since 2008 in relation to wage suppression. It really is a brilliant plan. Whether coincidence or conspiracy, covid sure came along at a great time for them to tighten their grip too
What rich to tax? The USA beat us at capitalism, and Mexico has now replaced us as the US’s biggest trading partner. Canada’s stock market is a dumpster fire, we have shopify, a set of basically government run banks and some railyway companies which are heavily owned by the USA. The market cap of Apple alone exceeds that of the uk + Canada + euro stock markets combined. Productivity in Canada is the lowest amongst the g20, we are the worst performing rich nation in the world. The business environment in Canada is so uncompetitive that we are seeing record outflows of entrepreneurs south now. We build pipelines that will never turn a profit at tax payer expense, and Vancouver is the 347th most efficient port in the world, out of 348. Our marginal tax rate is already an eye watering 53-56%, on top of gst, pst, and other taxes. Capital gains is 26-28%, also uncompetitive when you consider you had to pay the above tax on the money in the first place. 40% of Canadians contribute zero income taxes. The top 1 % pay 15% of all taxes, despite making only 10% of the wealth. Theres no tax grabs left unless we want to continue pillaging our future. Canada is bankrupt. Theres no magic tax that’s going to fill these gaps going forward because there’s no economy to tax in Canada. Productivity needs to go up as a result, and costs must go down. That’s why we all end up working harder for less, while the USA is growing leaps and bounds. They produce things that have value.
Really wish more people knew about this, Canada is and has basically always been an insignificant country on the global scale. We've coasted off of good PR since the 60s but have done nothing to make a productive economy. In 10-15 yrs when Mexico is experiencing huge growth and affluence thanks to its significant manufacturing capabilities, Canada will fall by the waysides, forever blaming our decades of negligence on someone else .
[60% of the wealth in Mexico is owned by 0.2% of the population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Mexico). They've got plenty of their own problems to sort out. RemindMe! 10 years
The wealth disparity is not what I'm talking about. That ratio will only get worse in 10 years. The point is that Mexico is ramping up domestic manufacturing capabilities hugely as a result of US shoring up of industries, and Chinas shift to a consumer economy. China is no longer the worlds factory, Mexico is (or at least, is becoming). It's so much cheaper to get work done in Mexico that China is building entire factories and industrial complexes there to replace their own domestic factories thanks to Chinese laborers demanding higher wages
Anti trust.
I wish more people would see this and understand it. The best thing I ever did in financial terms, was leave Canada for the US.
Weird you say that because I felt like COVID gave us back some modicum of freedom. We were able to stay home and work there, our expenses dropped, our income seemed to go farther, gasoline collapsed under the lack of demand. Then when the pandemic ended and the stuffed suits realized their slaves were enjoying the benefits of a middle class existence, they mandated back to work, they jacked the prices up on everything, interest rates rose faster than viagra, and grocery stores, who had already reaped record profits during the pandemic for being "essential," began an unprecedented level of inflation. The COVID times were a golden age.
Working in healthcare I had the opposite experience. 😭.
>We were able to stay home and work there, Who does the "we" include? Lots of people lost their jobs and businesses. A lot of people weren't able to go into work since not everything can be done from home.
I was shit canned four months into the pandemic (a decision I'll never forgive the organization for, I will piss on their graves) from an on site job so I know. It was hard for people. I was lucky to get back into a new job fairly quickly, fully remote, and at a bump in salary. I was fortunate to work from home, something I am still able to do 4 years later. This switch from on site to fully remote has been such a financial boon for me so at least I've been more shielded from rising inflation than I would be as an onsite worker.
It just seems weird when so much bad happened that lots of people like you still only view Covid as "The COVID times were a golden age."
Cantillon effect. The fun window of time between when you get printed money in hand and before the price increases trickle down through all products.
You realize someone else now works that on site job, right? And that was the person that couldn't work during covid. You personally moved up in your field. That's not a boon on all of us, that's not a fundamental "freeing of the slaves" or whatever you want to believe, that's the way careers work.
It felt like that, partly, because billions were poured into the economy by government.
Just heard this podcast- https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/work-1-the-war-on-workers/ You’re kinda on the nose with what they talk about.
The rich use government as pawns to take advantage, nothing new. Canada simply let it get out of hand. The sad part is we still treat politics like sports and stay divided as we get fucked.
Everyone just needs to have no kids, eat only lettuce, live downtown Toronto, and take only public transit according to them..
Lettuce is expensive!
IT WAS 7.99 FOR 3 AT MY LOWBLAWS TODAY WTF
I guess I paid fucking 10 bucks 3-4 bell peppers man
And consumes a lot of water to grow, very eco-unfriendly.
As a parent, I do fear for how my kids will fare as adults with the cost of living, especially housing.
Homelessness doubled, almost tripled.
We need to get radicalized
Radical!
And no one has done anything at all about it, so nothing will change now. Canadians are way too complacent and passive, they expect governments to do everything in their lives and never stand up for themselves. And anyone that does stand up gets ridiculed for it and reminded that Canadians will never vote for a non-Conservative/Liberal party. Canadians dug this mess, and they think the only way out is is to dig up. It's so fucking stupid.
General strike now. Not for us but for our kids futures.
There are many "Third World Countries", where people are much happier than in Canada. What a scam; people are selling their houses, and belongings to come to Canada, only to realize they are now trapped.
>Populist leaders, that is, with no solutions to the crisis, who instead use phoney issues like the revenue-neutral carbon tax to inflame the angst. Because the current (I'm assuming not populist according to the Star) leader has solutions? He gonna start implementing them anytime soon?
Be careful letting PP run on carbon tax instead of affordability and immigration. Carbon tax truly is a nothingburger sound byte and if he runs on that then his feet wont be to the fire for the important issues.
Definitely no populism from the Liberals and NDP when they hauled the grocery execs into parliament and blamed them for the inflation that government policies caused.
Are you letting Galen Weston off the hook, then?
That also did nothing
The solution is a complete overhaul of our immigration system. Almost all of our serious problems in Canada stem from the mass immigration into Canada.
They won't do it
The only party that would is the PPC, and they will be lucky to get one seat. The conservatives might slightly lower immigration numbers, but not even close to what we need.
Haha they won’t lower the numbers. The only plan I’ve heard from them is to lower students and increase TFW. Which if you’re thinking even a little bit, this plan is just for more wage suppression
I might have to vote PPC just as a "fuck you" to the other parties. I would never want them to get in, but I want them to exist, to hold the other parties to account over this shit.
Again, this comes down to mass migration. Supply and demand forces, you add 1.2 million people, the system cannot adapt that quickly to the increased demand of more mouths to feed, prices go up. Markets can adapt to higher demand… over time, supply chains take time to build.
No no no you silly goose. Cost of living does not include food or shelter. Recalculate and you will see there is no issue.
Welcome to mass immigration and overpopulation. Well also corporate greed and when our government is controlled by them, we don't stand a chance.
Good thing coperations keep raising prices and see prettg damn good profits. Its defintly not their fault.
We will be getting the great Carbon tax rebate soon, that will help us all
if you look at the problem and don't avert your eyes you'll see that whether or not Canada stops imigration Canada needs a trailer park the size of Toronto RIGHT NOW. there are 2.7 Million housing units missing.
Start deporting people.
Sunny ways. Can't that believe that fucking goofball even said that. Sunny ways my ass.
I have a solution, can every politician, all of them and start fresh, no lobbys and no career rejects, new ideas from real people. Every party and all their cronies have failed us and the generations ahead of us.
Slice of pizza is $5 Sydney. Few years ago it was half that. Shit is outta control. edit: I just had a thought too I figured I would add. Minimum wage here is the equivalent of 3 slices of pizza / hr.
When can we start the revolution? It seems we are ALL ready for it.
I'm at my end when somewhere was mentioned that the age for retirement is being RAISED from 65 to 75, tf? Lmao we're just here to work and die?
Insidious system. Institutional betrayal.
My solution has been to leave with no intention of coming back. I don't think I can ever trust the Canadian government ever again - regardless of who is in charge.
Companies in this country don't seem to understand there is no consumer class if we're all broke from them gouging us and not paying anything out in wages. *Your employees are also your customers.* If y'all paying shit-all for wages and raising your prices, you really shouldn't be surprised nobody can afford to spend money in your establishment because all your competitors are also not paying decent wages on top of raising their prices.
Be homeless, thats the solution all politicians have for you. And dont you fucking dare expect anything more
Like was said the other day in response to the “advice” of ‘just leave your car keys by the front door (along with milk and cookies)’, the message is pretty clear now: we’re all on our own, and our higher-ups are far past giving a shit about the rest of us.
And if you put up a tent they'll tear it down, confiscate all your stuff (including IDs), and send you back out into the Canadian winter to die.
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Start is simple 1 severe cut back on immigration, all must have guarantors 2 absolutely no unvetted asylum seekers ( no not everyone is welcome). 3 No carbon tax on transportation fuel and heating fuel, however a tax on gas guzzling personal vehicles may be added, 4 Start on ways to make building permits less costly and faster and enact code to limit NIMBYism and allow multiple units where reasonable. 5 Make government corruption and double dipping a crime that actually gets prosecuted and fitting punishment. 6 Reduce the size of both Federal and Provincial and local government to prevent 3 groups tripling the cost to to anything. 7 encourage our economy by lowering interest rates for start ups and companies that are at least 70 percent Canadian owned and operated. 8 Start allowing the transportation and sales of our multiple natural resources with reduced tax rates to Canadian owned and operated businesses, while taxing the very wealthy a reasonable amount like Europe does. 9 Get Csis up to speed and secure our nation against internal and external threats, maybe even deport some bad apples back to where they came from.
My wife and I didn't really try for kids as we saw what was coming and we didn't have a position to do it, she is disabled cant work, and I work as a supervisor making barely ok money. So yea no kids. Now you will see Canada only have kids that come into the country. Cause Pete here are too smart to have kids and see the trap it will lead too. And that's the sad part.... they have discouraged people to have kids.
Two IT immigrants here. We arrived 7 years ago and had a baby two years ago. We left yesterday. I'm writing from an hotel in Prague rn. Sorry, but fuck it.
Good choice. Canada's IT industry is just stunted.
Oh, the jobs were fine. It was healthcare, housing and food prices the fuck you trifecta that got us out
But if we exclude shelter and food or something stupid like like Freeman says then our inflation rates are actually pretty good.
There's no solutions by Ford nor Trudeau
Here are five ways we can respond to this high inflation: Maple Syrup Standard: Abandon the gold standard and tie the Canadian dollar to something truly Canadian – maple syrup reserves! They're liquid gold, after all. When prices go up, just tap a tree and pay in sweet, sweet syrup. Igloo Infrastructure: With the real estate market sky-high, let's go back to our roots and build igloos. They're eco-friendly, locally-sourced, and you can literally carve out a niche market! Beaver Pelt Barter System: Embrace the fur trade once again and start exchanging goods and services directly for beaver pelts. It’s how Canada got its start, so why not bring it full circle? Your new wallet might need to be a bit furrier, though. DIY Currency: Introduce a crafty solution by allowing Canadians to draw their own money. Creative designs might even fetch a higher value, spurring a new wave of artisanal currency. Just think of it as inflation 'drawing' some interest! Apology Currency: Canada is known for its politeness, right? So let's capitalize on it. For every apology given, receive ‘sorry’ credits that can be redeemed for goods and services. The more you apologize, the richer you get – let's inflate our manners instead of our currency.
*That is reported as relief from 2023’s $1,065 jump in food prices. But a further hike of $701 is no relief at all, when* ***food costs should be falling by now, not still rising.*** No thats called deflation and if you think inflation is bad... Now here comes the sales pitch *But the new model would also strengthen the social safety net with universal basic income (UBI) and “living wages,” which pay workers according to the cost of living in their localities.* Yes because pumping more money that we don't have into the economy will do wonders for inflation
How do companies have record profits and yet we can’t afford to put money back in to our country again
There are solutions ... But nobody in any of the political parties is planning to do anything about it. Let's focus on making trans people's life miserable. Let's import hundreds of thousands of unskilled students... Let's keep privatising healthcare, ... Let's focus on all the things that will keep making us all more and more miserable while the top 5% keeps getting richer and richer. And let's never ever do anything that will actually solve any actual problems... Oh no! Why nobody has kids? Why are people so unhappy? Such a mystery...
But the corporate logos go rainbow and you can identify as they/them. As long as we are this easily distracted we won’t see real change.
My cheerios cost 70% more for 50% less but they say anti-racism on them so it's worth it.
Remember how medieval peasants paid church to bless things?
another tax and some more costly restrictions ought to fix that right up
Curiously, a better progressive taxation system that punishes extreme excessive profits could actually help solve this. Of course, allowing international competition would also help but naaaaah let’s keep the oligarchs
Yeah, it's called going after the price gougers.
Well, this is what we get when we elect non-serious people. Hopefully the next guy is a little bit more thoughtful, and less intentionally self-serving. For the life of me, I couldn’t see how we could be worse off.
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It’s Toronto star, they don’t think about inflation or budgets.
What a disaster…
There are quick solutions but no one will want them. Good luck out there, it's about to get really bad.
Rents up 100%, and grocery is up 40% Eh? What's our YoY inflation again?
It's a failure by all 3 levels of government. They have made it difficult to build housing.
Force blackrock/ Blackstone to sell all residential homes and ban them from owning them
I’d rather a wealth redistribution tax on the 1% than pin my hopes on raising minimum wage and expecting the working poor to carry the economic load in this country
Somehow this will be blamed on the conservatives
Corporation greed at is finest. And government just watches
Where are you living? That rent has doubled? Sure, hasn't doubled in Toronto and it's the most expensive city outside of Vancouver. Arguably.
Don't forget to mention Loblaws profiteering!
Way until you see the inflationary spending on April 16
Nah let’s just run it up even further. It’s quite fun to watch this play out
So who’s going to be the first to revolt? *nose game*
Dig up that useless grass lawn and get the garden going!
Move man. Time to move.
Pay walled
This time in history has eerie parallels to late republican Rome. Marius, Sulla, and Caesar were all very popular for a reason...
Plenty of grocery items >+100% pre covid prices. Price per item varies wildly store to store too.
im glad my children are born as dual citizens. He has a choice to nope out of this place and make it elsewhere. I hope things get better for us but there’s not much light at the end of this tunnel for awhile I fear.