Inflation/Gas Prices/Rising Prices in General

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Azure

What percentage of families are living paycheck to paycheck before interest rates went up?

What percentage of families can't find jobs that pay well?

What percentage of families are not seeing pay increases in line with inflation?

What percentage of families are struggling to buy groceries because of the rising cost of food + shrinkflation?

I mean, I get people aren't supposed to be entitled, but this isn't about whether we pay carbon tax or not.

Imagine how entitled one has to be to think that it is.

Just going to point out that your position comes off as disingenuous to some when you’re claiming to care about all those struggling families and low wage workers but support parties whose policies make it harder for those folks to improve their situation. Even in Alberta an oil and gas boom doesn’t help minimum/low wage earners and in a lot of ways actually makes things harder for them from an affordability perspective, anyone who lived here around 2005 knows that.

[PeteMoss]

Claiming to care about poor people is the new bringing up Hitler in internet arguments. Think of the poor people we all say when we can use them to support our pet causes, while the rest of the day we support issues that actively hurt the poor.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by GGG

The whole goal right now to fix inflation is to cause people and businesses pain to decrease consumption.

Not being able to afford stuff is the point. Cutting Carbon taxes or gas taxes or whatever else without a corresponding tax increase will make the problems worse.

Money needs to come out of the economy.

Absolutely. I agree with this.

And as someone who is in an industry that is overheated & struggling with logistics because of it, I welcome the efforts being made to decrease consumption. All everyone is doing is repeatedly raising prices up and down the chain to try and curb demand.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Just going to point out that your position comes off as disingenuous to some when you’re claiming to care about all those struggling families and low wage workers but support parties whose policies make it harder for those folks to improve their situation. Even in Alberta an oil and gas boom doesn’t help minimum/low wage earners and in a lot of ways actually makes things harder for them from an affordability perspective, anyone who lived here around 2005 knows that.

I never said I support anything.

I just said it is entitled to think that families and people are not actually struggling.

My opinion on the carbon tax is that it works if implemented properly.

See here.

https://imgur.com/a/kMOjpxR

This is Manitoba has of June 2022.
High propane + natural gas prices should discourage investments on that front for space heating, and instead should encourage investments in electric & heat pump methods.

Which hopefully will result in further r&D to be made into making heat pumps more efficient in -40 C weather. There are a few models out there, but they fall to 80% efficiency in -30C.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Claiming to care about poor people is the new bringing up Hitler in internet arguments. Think of the poor people we all say when we can use them to support our pet causes, while the rest of the day we support issues that actively hurt the poor.

Dumb post.

I care about the health of the economy, wage growth, low inflation, job availability, housing availability, etc.

Just like everyone else with a brain.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Azure

What percentage of families are living paycheck to paycheck before interest rates went up?

What percentage of families can't find jobs that pay well?

What percentage of families are not seeing pay increases in line with inflation?

What percentage of families are struggling to buy groceries because of the rising cost of food + shrinkflation?

I mean, I get people aren't supposed to be entitled, but this isn't about whether we pay carbon tax or not.

Imagine how entitled one has to be to think that it is.

I'm talking about the people who are very vocal and a lot of them are not any of those things. The whole point of the post I replied to was that the carbon tax was forcing people to change their lifestyle by making them poor. And people SHOULD change their lifestyle if it comes down to hard choices, but in reality all we do is bitch and moan, but do we sell our F150 for a cheap car? Do we maybe ride the bike to work? Yes some have made changes, but far too many do the very opposite. And lol at calling me entitled for calling out entitled actions.

Originally Posted by Azure

Absolutely. I agree with this.

And as someone who is in an industry that is overheated & struggling with logistics because of it, I welcome the efforts being made to decrease consumption. All everyone is doing is repeatedly raising prices up and down the chain to try and curb demand.

Hold up, you agree with the post saying there needs to be financial pain in order to decrease consumption, but you have a problem with my post? You could have responded with the same "what about the poor people" post to that one, but instead you agree to it. "Not being able to afford stuff is the point." = good..... saying we need some perspective before complaining about a carbon tax = bad. Got it.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Azure

I never said I support anything.

I know, that’s what I’m saying. Based on your posting history that I’ve read.

I just said it is entitled to think that families and people are not actually struggling.

Families have been struggling since long before the carbon tax was implemented which I why I question the sincerity of your concern for them by really only arguing against the carbon tax, a tax that is aimed at negatively impacting an industry you have a long history of being a proponent of on this site.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Azure

Dumb post.

I care about the health of the economy, wage growth, low inflation, job availability, housing availability, etc.

Just like everyone else with a brain.

I have no comment on this post other than to point out the irony in Mr.Coffee deciding to thank it despite going on a rant a few weeks back about his disapproval of posters using name calling and other unnecessary personal attacks in responses to posters that they disagree with.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

I'm talking about the people who are very vocal and a lot of them are not any of those things. The whole point of the post I replied to was that the carbon tax was forcing people to change their lifestyle by making them poor. And people SHOULD change their lifestyle if it comes down to hard choices, but in reality all we do is bitch and moan, but do we sell our F150 for a cheap car? Do we maybe ride the bike to work? Yes some have made changes, but far too many do the very opposite. And lol at calling me entitled for calling out entitled actions.

like all the people who fly somewhere for vacations. They'd rather bitch about airport hassles and flight time than change their habits.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Families have been struggling since long before the carbon tax was implemented which I why I question the sincerity of your concern for them by really only arguing against the carbon tax, a tax that is aimed at negatively impacting an industry you have a long history of being a proponent of on this site.

The Liberal government has to take some blame for the fact that families have been struggling before the carbon tax. I mean the first election JT won he said he was going to;

Make it easier for all Canadians to find an affordable place to call home. He failed.

Put more money in he pockets of the middle class. He failed.

Make post secondary education more affordable. He failed. Students are really struggling.

Promised to lift more Canadians out of poverty. I would suggest more are heading into poverty. I could be wrong.

Can they still blame Harper? Green text.


Edit: sorry, maybe should be in politics thread.

[chemgear]

Maybe it was the nice weather or horrific inflation pains but Costco was the most empty that I've ever seen it. Especially for a Saturday.

Literally no line up for the checkouts. Just wander up and nobody to wait behind.

Still a ####ton of morons blocking the isles for the free sample food though.

[photon]

East Hills was full when I went today, kinda glad they didn't have what I was looking for so I didn't have to wait.

I even stopped by in the middle of the week in the middle of the day to get gas and there was STILL a lineup up out of the Costco and onto the street for gas.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Maybe it was the nice weather or horrific inflation pains but Costco was the most empty that I've ever seen it. Especially for a Saturday.

Literally no line up for the checkouts. Just wander up and nobody to wait behind.

Still a ####ton of morons blocking the isles for the free sample food though.

Weekend mornings are always dead at the SW Costco.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

The Liberal government has to take some blame for the fact that families have been struggling before the carbon tax. I mean the first election JT won he said he was going to;

Make it easier for all Canadians to find an affordable place to call home. He failed.

Put more money in he pockets of the middle class. He failed.

Make post secondary education more affordable. He failed. Students are really struggling.

Promised to lift more Canadians out of poverty. I would suggest more are heading into poverty. I could be wrong.

Can they still blame Harper? Green text.


Edit: sorry, maybe should be in politics thread.

I think this is fair game for this thread.

Trudeau is 100% to blame for housing right now. You can't increase immigration and keep the housing supply the same without housing prices going up. I'm all for immigration, but you have to have a plan to accommodate growing populations.

Shelter takes up more income than any other expense, so the discussion on shelter cost increases should be a main focus of any inflation discussion.

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by blankall

I think this is fair game for this thread.

Trudeau is 100% to blame for housing right now. You can't increase immigration and keep the housing supply the same without housing prices going up. I'm all for immigration, but you have to have a plan to accommodate growing populations.

Shelter takes up more income than any other expense, so the discussion on shelter cost increases should be a main focus of any inflation discussion.

We going to pretend that real estate speculators and anonymous buyers (often foreign) aren't playing a big role in this?

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

We going to pretend that real estate speculators and anonymous buyers (often foreign) aren't playing a big role in this?

That plays a role, but 400K yearly immigration plus all of the other modes of entry (permanent residency, international students ect) plays a bigger role. Housing starts crashed, and then people kicked out renters to take advantage of the resulting market.

Trump got slammed for stopping immigration to the States during the pandemic, but in hindsight it was the right move. That's the first time I've ever given credit to Trump.

That immigration is a static number and not attached to any metric is so mindnumbingly stupid.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

That plays a role, but 400K yearly immigration plus all of the other modes of entry (permanent residency, international students ect) plays a bigger role. Housing starts crashed, and then people kicked out renters to take advantage of the resulting market.

Trump got slammed for stopping immigration to the States during the pandemic, but in hindsight it was the right move. That's the first time I've ever given credit to Trump.

That immigration is a static number and not attached to any metric is so mindnumbingly stupid.

A few years ago, there was a report that something like 11,000 millionaires immigrated to Canada in one year. You can't have that kind of immigration policy and not expect to have it affect the buying power of Canadians born here.

There was also a report of many new Canadians declaring no income yet buying multi-million dollar homes and luxury cars, some of whom were getting government stipends.

Yeah, the way we do things here isn't sustainable.

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

A few years ago, there was a report that something like 11,000 millionaires immigrated to Canada in one year. You can't have that kind of immigration policy and not expect to have it affect the buying power of Canadians born here.

There was also a report of many new Canadians declaring no income yet buying multi-million dollar homes and luxury cars, some of whom were getting government stipends.

Yeah, the way we do things here isn't sustainable.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8158351/c...oreign-buyers/

Frustrating.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

https://globalnews.ca/news/8158351/c...oreign-buyers/

Frustrating.

But not surprising.

We know exactly what the bulk of these people were doing, it is in fact nothing more than money laundering.

They are taking wealth from a nation (probably China, but probably not exclusively China) where their Government could seize their money and assets at a moments notice without any backstop or oversight and moving it to a safe and stable nation.

Growing that money through the appreciation of home values at the same time as educating their kids in that same nation.

They dont need to earn any money. They have it already. And the best part is what is Canada going to do about it? Say that they dont believe them? Cool. Check with the Chinese Revenue Agency about their Foreign Income. Good luck with that.

I mean, look no further than England at the moment. This exact same thing happened in parts of London in the early 90s to early 2000s with the fall of the Soviet Union and the Russian Oligarchs. Once they consolidated their wealth a huge chunk of them parked it in the UK where they'd be protected from a corrupt Government or unhinged Business Rivals.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

We going to pretend that real estate speculators and anonymous buyers (often foreign) aren't playing a big role in this?

The two issues are linked. A lot of the same people are both migrants and speculators. In Vancouver, for example, there's a surprising number of students who can afford multi million dollar priorities. The only reason speculators are involved in the first place is because there's a shortage. They know that prices will rise as people fight for homes, so it's always a good investment.