BC Lags Behind Other Provinces in Life Satisfaction

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Yep. It's a hot mess culturally. Take away the mountains and the ocean and you're left with a pretty lame city.



My wife's work is mostly dealing with UHNWIs here in Vancouver. I'm also pretty familiar with being around that kind of wealth from my own career/education too. One of my friends from Shanghai actually attended UBC as a child in a billionaire family and could easily have been a driver of one of those cars you saw depending on when you attended. I have nothing against people with mad money like that, but it must be said that it's undeniably not great for a place when that money is largely being parked here after being made elsewhere or just dropped into the city with kids who don't really care about doing much productive or have anything motivating them to contribute or build anything. A lot of the money that is here isn't really productive. It's just passively accumulating here while the productive investments and businesses are all overseas. The result is you get a lot of wealth disparity locally without anything really taking place to stimulate the local environment, and you get a culture of bored entitlement with little ambition to do the kinds of things that make a place dynamic and exciting. Culturally, it's awful

Also, it's fairly well understood that there are many ways to get around taxes and to benefit from the social support systems without true need because the enforcement environment is very slack/dopey. That's all just part of Vancouver’s value proposition to the world, and it's part of why real estate will keep going up here and why the most money to be made here will largely go to middlemen roles charging service fees as percentages of transactions for those with huge piles of mostly passive cash.

The large majority of working people here seem to be on hamster wheels trying to keep up while doing their best to enjoy the mountains and beach on weekends, but not having great opportunities to get ahead or benefiting much from the wealth that surrounds them.

There is a lady who has a kid in the same daycare as my kid who is part of this racket. She was pretty open about how her uncle bought her a house when she was a student. They were actually in the process of moving out of their current house where they lived upstairs and rented out the bottom. They were going to rent out the top level, then move into their new house, payed for by a relative, then rinse and repeat. Their whole purpose for being here is real estate. The only catch this time is that they are getting a teenager to board with them who is some cousin they don't know, who is eventually going to take over that house. The lady's husband was pretty candid about the whole thing because although I am sure he loves being in a family with wealth, he was really irritated about having to suddenly be the ward of another kid. He was born and raised in Canada, so it was weird for him to find out it was part of the bargain. Apparently, when his wife came to Canada, it was the same thing. She was sent here to live with relatives she didn't know and then got into the real estate thing.

We were actually talking to the daycare provider before and she mentioned that they were late again to pick up their kid. I mentioned that I was surprised they even need daycare because they don't actually work. The daycare provider said that they were late because they had to go to the car dealership to get their "his and hers" matching Land Rovers. The kicker was that the daycare provider also said that somehow, they also qualified for a daycare subsidy so didn't actually pay the full price.

I know it is kind of ####ty to be gossiping like that, especially for the daycare provider to reveal that.

[GirlySports]

well, the Premier just resigned...

[Galakanokis]

There are stories galore about parked money in real estate out here. For three years in a row an unemployed mother and UBC student son lived in one of the most expensive pieces of property in vancouver. With no income they some how owned a house valued at $60M.

There was a neighborhood in North Van that two Chinese Billionaires (read monsters) owned every house. It was a small area with only 16 homes but the cheapest house was worth $3.8M. Not a single one was lived in.

Or Shaw Towers ( I think that is the name) where entire floors are owed by one or two people. They actually hire people to around and collect mail and make them appear lived in to avoid the empty home tax.

Scams galore out here. Easy to do when you don't need an actual name on the company that owns the property. Only province in Canada like that.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

well, the Premier just resigned...

BC life satisfaction increasing....

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

BC life satisfaction increasing....

until the next election

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

There are stories galore about parked money in real estate out here. For three years in a row an unemployed mother and UBC student son lived in one of the most expensive pieces of property in vancouver. With no income they some how owned a house valued at $60M.

There was a neighborhood in North Van that two Chinese Billionaires (read monsters) owned every house. It was a small area with only 16 homes but the cheapest house was worth $3.8M. Not a single one was lived in.

Or Shaw Towers ( I think that is the name) where entire floors are owed by one or two people. They actually hire people to around and collect mail and make them appear lived in to avoid the empty home tax.

Scams galore out here. Easy to do when you don't need an actual name on the company that owns the property. Only province in Canada like that.

Do you consider them monsters because they're Chinese billionaires, or just because they're billionaires?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

There are stories galore about parked money in real estate out here. For three years in a row an unemployed mother and UBC student son lived in one of the most expensive pieces of property in vancouver. With no income they some how owned a house valued at $60M.

There was a neighborhood in North Van that two Chinese Billionaires (read monsters) owned every house. It was a small area with only 16 homes but the cheapest house was worth $3.8M. Not a single one was lived in.

Or Shaw Towers ( I think that is the name) where entire floors are owed by one or two people. They actually hire people to around and collect mail and make them appear lived in to avoid the empty home tax.

Scams galore out here. Easy to do when you don't need an actual name on the company that owns the property. Only province in Canada like that.

The really sad part is that they dont even really have to try and hide it. Its an open secret.

Nobody has the Political Will to do anything about it.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Do you consider them monsters because they're Chinese billionaires, or just because they're billionaires?

D'oh! Mobsters. They are known mobsters in China. I don't care where they come from or how they made their money.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

D'oh! Mobsters. They are known mobsters in China. I don't care where they come from or how they made their money.

Ah, yeah. Canada has unfortunately allowed a tonne of that kind of money in.

[rubecube]

Crazy armed robbery happening right now in Victoria.

https://www.cheknews.ca/2-suspects-a...jured-1055268/

[Locke]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Ah, yeah. Canada has unfortunately allowed a tonne of that kind of money in.

I said it in another thread, but this is very reminiscent of the UK in the mid-90s early 2000s with the Russian Oligarchs.

Once they had consolidated their wealth and power after the fall of the Soviet Union they had to stash money and assets somewhere where a tumultuous and corrupt Government couldnt nab it and where it could be legitimized for later use.

The Chinese are doing the same thing in Canada. Theres a very standard Playbook for this kind of thing.

They're playing our system like a Casino game. Amounting and storing huge amounts of wealth and assets while collecting low-income benefits and availing themselves of subsidized Education and acquiring citizenship for later use.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Locke

They're playing our system like a Casino game. Amounting and storing huge amounts of wealth and assets while collecting low-income benefits and availing themselves of subsidized Education and acquiring citizenship for later use.

Nevermind that BC governments have been letting hilarious and obvious money laundering happen for decades.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/scathing-repor...-b-c-1.5947725

[Locke]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Nevermind that BC governments have been letting hilarious and obvious money laundering happen for decades.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/scathing-repor...-b-c-1.5947725

Like I said. Open Secret.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Crazy armed robbery happening right now in Victoria.

https://www.cheknews.ca/2-suspects-a...jured-1055268/

Came to post this, start stuff.
Reports are at least 3 people shot, potentially 2 officers.

Hope everyone is ok.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Nevermind that BC governments have been letting hilarious and obvious money laundering happen for decades.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/scathing-repor...-b-c-1.5947725

Without even opening I assume that is related to the casino scams? BC has been corrupt for decades.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Crazy armed robbery happening right now in Victoria.

https://www.cheknews.ca/2-suspects-a...jured-1055268/

As things become more dire, people become more desperate and crime goes up.

Desperate? They robbed a Brick and Mortar Bank?? What year is this?

How much cash does an actual retail Bank even have that a 'smash & grab' robbery could realistically hope to steal anyways?

[activeStick]

Um. To the comments about Horgan stepping down, I'm assuming it's because of his cancer treatment.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

Without even opening I assume that is related to the casino scams? BC has been corrupt for decades.

LOL, "but it's not corruption!"

From the news article.

“It often consisted predominantly of $20 bills, oriented in a non-uniform fashion, bundled in 'bricks' of specific values (as opposed to number of notes), bound with elastic bands, and carried in shopping bags, knapsacks, suitcases, gym bags, cardboard boxes, and all manner of other receptacles," the report said.

The report also said the cash was frequently delivered to casino patrons at or near casinos very late at night or early in the morning by unmarked luxury vehicles.

While Cullen was critical of how former Liberal politicians handled the money laundering problem, he made it clear he did not think it amounted to corruption.

[Locke]

Everyone carries their loose cash in shopping bags. Is there any other way?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Locke

I said it in another thread, but this is very reminiscent of the UK in the mid-90s early 2000s with the Russian Oligarchs.

Once they had consolidated their wealth and power after the fall of the Soviet Union they had to stash money and assets somewhere where a tumultuous and corrupt Government couldnt nab it and where it could be legitimized for later use.

The Chinese are doing the same thing in Canada. Theres a very standard Playbook for this kind of thing.

They're playing our system like a Casino game. Amounting and storing huge amounts of wealth and assets while collecting low-income benefits and availing themselves of subsidized Education and acquiring citizenship for later use.

Iran has also become an increasing source of foreign property ownership on the west coast.