BC Lags Behind Other Provinces in Life Satisfaction

[blankall]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

The genesis of south asian drug gangs were older guys out of the Ross Street temple in the 80's who exchanged drugs for guns across the US border to send back to the Punjab to fight the Ghandi government, at that stage the Khalistan movement was straight out civil war, there were a large amount of Sikh long haul truck drivers going across the border so they were ideally placed to exploit the trade, they weren't gangsters, were mostly older well off (owner operators of trucking businesses) they viewed it as a necessary way to get money and guns for the movement, their kids though just saw the money they were making and as the war slowly wound down the older guys dropped out and the younger guy took over the US criminal contacts and started trading BC weed for coke rather than guns, they set up grow ops in Vancouver and drug rings to move the coke they got in exchange

The Hell's Angels and 2000s/early 2010s culture were also major factors. At some point the biker gangs all wised up and realized they could make more money and suffer less drama if they started supplying competing gangs.

Regardless of the history, at some point kids in the Fraser Valley would have been sucked in by the allure and fashion of the drug dealer lifestyle. It's almost a uniform at this point, tattoos, pittbulls, jeans with lots of flare, steroids, ridiculously high fade haircuts, etc..

It's all pretty detached from the initial Khalistan movement. It's also not like Compton, where you have generations of people being initiated into the same gangs. These are just young people choosing to live that lifestyle, and often not out of necessity.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by blankall

The Hell's Angels and 2000s/early 2010s culture were also major factors. At some point the biker gangs all wised up and realized they could make more money and suffer less drama if they started supplying competing gangs.

Regardless of the history, at some point kids in the Fraser Valley would have been sucked in by the allure and fashion of the drug dealer lifestyle. It's almost a uniform at this point, tattoos, pittbulls, jeans with lots of flare, steroids, ridiculously high fade haircuts, etc..

It's all pretty detached from the initial Khalistan movement. It's also not like Compton, where you have generations of people being initiated into the same gangs. These are just young people choosing to live that lifestyle, and often not out of necessity.

oh to be sure, but the fact that lower mainland gangs are non geographic, purely commercial in nature and made up of middle class kids is really odd, its to my knowledge the only place where this culture has developed, in other areas gangs come from poor socially excluded racially segragated groups

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

oh to be sure, but the fact that lower mainland gangs are non geographic, purely commercial in nature and made up of middle class kids is really odd, its to my knowledge the only place where this culture has developed, in other areas gangs come from poor socially excluded racially segragated groups

I've always thought it'd be a fascinating study if a sociologist carried out a multi-year study on the factors that drive so many in the Lower Mainland to that lifestyle because like you said, it's quite unique and pulls the young and not so young in, with people across all ethnicities and cultures, including third/fourth gen Canadians!

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I've always thought it'd be a fascinating study if a sociologist carried out a multi-year study on the factors that drive so many in the Lower Mainland to that lifestyle because like you said, it's quite unique and pulls the young and not so young in, with people across all ethnicities and cultures, including third/fourth gen Canadians!

I don't think it's a coincidence that overdose rates and crimes associated with drug use have climbed almost lockstep with housing prices. It's similar in most major cities, and especially all down the West Coast.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I've always thought it'd be a fascinating study if a sociologist carried out a multi-year study on the factors that drive so many in the Lower Mainland to that lifestyle because like you said, it's quite unique and pulls the young and not so young in, with people across all ethnicities and cultures, including third/fourth gen Canadians!

One thing I've noticed is that kids and young adults (and even just plain old adults) seem to get a lot more money from their parents than I, or people I knew did, growing up. In order to hang out with these "gangster" groups you need a certain level of affluence to even start out. You need the car, tattoos, clothes, jewelry, etc...Unless you start out with a certain level of affluence, you aren't going to fit in.

Once again, I don't think a lot of these kids showing up in the media or getting killed are even the real gangsters, in the sense that they aren't the ones moving large quantities of drugs. The biker and more traditional gangs (ex. Triads) still run that business. They are more than content to use these kids as middle men and let them take the fall, while the real gangsters make the money. These gangsters are more customers than drug dealers themselves.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by blankall

One thing I've noticed is that kids and young adults (and even just plain old adults) seem to get a lot more money from their parents than I, or people I knew did, growing up. In order to hang out with these "gangster" groups you need a certain level of affluence to even start out. You need the car, tattoos, clothes, jewelry, etc...Unless you start out with a certain level of affluence, you aren't going to fit in.

Once again, I don't think a lot of these kids showing up in the media or getting killed are even the real gangsters, in the sense that they aren't the ones moving large quantities of drugs. The biker and more traditional gangs (ex. Triads) still run that business. They are more than content to use these kids as middle men and let them take the fall, while the real gangsters make the money. These gangsters are more customers than drug dealers themselves.

I disagree, it's actually the other way round, it's the more affluent middle class suburban kids using the traditional bikers and street level gangsters, native system kids as their muscle, the money is with the middle class kids though, they have showed more flexibility with it as well, they heavily invested in legal weed shops and most of the bodegas in East Van are owned by various older dealers, the gangsters tend to be limited in both their planning and thinking and are limited in their travel due to juvi records the middle class kids arent held back by

[chemgear]

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/0...-reveal-party/

At a time when B.C.’s forests are tinder dry, it may not be such a good idea to hold a gender reveal party in the woods.

“Some idiot decided to use tannerite for a gender reveal party in the woods,” wrote Rob Iezzi, who posted the video.

“We were just down the road at Jolly lake (sic) when someone came along and told us about the fire and we all teamed up and got it out before it got too big.”

[Ironhorse]

And this type of continued behaviour is why we can’t have nice stuff… JFC.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Didn't that happen last year too? Feels like deja vu

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Didn't that happen last year too? Feels like deja vu

I am pretty sure one of those devastating wildfires in California a couple of years ago was cause by a gender reveal party.

[Winsor_Pilates]

That could be what I'm thinking of

[chemgear]

nm

[Delthefunky]

Was going to post in the fire thread but it started turning into a rant more suited for this thread. There's lots of issues in B.C., i used to feel slightly left leaning in AB but I dont think i'm woke enough by BC standards. One thing I've noticed since moving here is that there is a severe disorder in what the government spends money on. For example, police presence is garbage, because all they do all day is deal with drug addicts, who if not babysat 24/7 just rob and steal from local businesses, and leave their #### strewn everywhere in public parks. I imagine proper fire management is also unfunded. For a province where taxes are so high you wonder where it goes. Health care is also #### here, a friend of ours went to the ER in Vernon with severe stomach pain and they told her to go home and take some aspirin. She works at a vet clinic, and the doctors there told her to go back and get a ultrasound. Sure enough she has a monster tumor on her ovaries. There's so much government spending on redundant things because the government is a job program. Then getting things like a business licence, or even a building permit to do basic things like build a garden shed is like your building an Amazon warehouse in your back yard. It's a beautiful province 9 months out of the year though, when its not on fire. I will say that. Expensive as ####.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Delthefunky

Was going to post in the fire thread but it started turning into a rant more suited for this thread. There's lots of issues in B.C., i used to feel slightly left leaning in AB but I dont think i'm woke enough by BC standards. One thing I've noticed since moving here is that there is a severe disorder in what the government spends money on. For example, police presence is garbage, because all they do all day is deal with drug addicts, who if not babysat 24/7 just rob and steal from local businesses, and leave their #### strewn everywhere in public parks. I imagine proper fire management is also unfunded. For a province where taxes are so high you wonder where it goes. Health care is also #### here, a friend of ours went to the ER in Vernon with severe stomach pain and they told her to go home and take some aspirin. She works at a vet clinic, and the doctors there told her to go back and get a ultrasound. Sure enough she has a monster tumor on her ovaries. There's so much government spending on redundant things because the government is a job program. Then getting things like a business licence, or even a building permit to do basic things like build a garden shed is like your building an Amazon warehouse in your back yard. It's a beautiful province 9 months out of the year though, when its not on fire. I will say that. Expensive as ####.

With a primary economy driver of real estate speculation.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Delthefunky

Was going to post in the fire thread but it started turning into a rant more suited for this thread. There's lots of issues in B.C., i used to feel slightly left leaning in AB but I dont think i'm woke enough by BC standards. One thing I've noticed since moving here is that there is a severe disorder in what the government spends money on. For example, police presence is garbage, because all they do all day is deal with drug addicts, who if not babysat 24/7 just rob and steal from local businesses, and leave their #### strewn everywhere in public parks. I imagine proper fire management is also unfunded. For a province where taxes are so high you wonder where it goes. Health care is also #### here, a friend of ours went to the ER in Vernon with severe stomach pain and they told her to go home and take some aspirin. She works at a vet clinic, and the doctors there told her to go back and get a ultrasound. Sure enough she has a monster tumor on her ovaries. There's so much government spending on redundant things because the government is a job program. Then getting things like a business licence, or even a building permit to do basic things like build a garden shed is like your building an Amazon warehouse in your back yard. It's a beautiful province 9 months out of the year though, when its not on fire. I will say that. Expensive as ####.

Yeah, I really do love BC, lived there for a few years growing up and also had a house in Kelowna until a few years ago. But as much as I love it, it also frickin sucks.

We have a guy at work that came to us from BC Wildfire Services, and calling them a ####show would be an understatement. Same applies to Alberta really, but BC deals with it much more so you'd think they'd actually be decent at it by now.

[activeStick]

One of the differences I've noticed since moving away from Vancouver to Toronto is the substantial team of workers that the City of Toronto deploys in the wee hours of the morning on weekends to clean up the city downtown. It's actually quite impressive when they roll down all the streets of downtown with a couple vehicles to soap and scrub the roads and sidewalks, followed by another couple of smaller vacuum vehicles to suck up the various debris with a few workers on feet grabbing anything that for whatever reason wasn't caught. Then you also see workers with different gear dispatched to public areas like Nathan Phillips Square, parks, etc. to clean the trash left behind by people.

People are going to litter, especially on the weekends, but it can be managed if done properly. I didn't notice this level of organization when I lived in downtown Vancouver.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Delthefunky

Was going to post in the fire thread but it started turning into a rant more suited for this thread. There's lots of issues in B.C., i used to feel slightly left leaning in AB but I dont think i'm woke enough by BC standards. One thing I've noticed since moving here is that there is a severe disorder in what the government spends money on. For example, police presence is garbage, because all they do all day is deal with drug addicts, who if not babysat 24/7 just rob and steal from local businesses, and leave their #### strewn everywhere in public parks. I imagine proper fire management is also unfunded. For a province where taxes are so high you wonder where it goes. Health care is also #### here, a friend of ours went to the ER in Vernon with severe stomach pain and they told her to go home and take some aspirin. She works at a vet clinic, and the doctors there told her to go back and get a ultrasound. Sure enough she has a monster tumor on her ovaries. There's so much government spending on redundant things because the government is a job program. Then getting things like a business licence, or even a building permit to do basic things like build a garden shed is like your building an Amazon warehouse in your back yard. It's a beautiful province 9 months out of the year though, when its not on fire. I will say that. Expensive as ####.

You're spot on and there's a long list of things I could add that functioned better in Alberta. Health care and even seeing a family doctor being my biggest complaint.

Mind you, I left Calgary 16 years ago so don't know if those are all still the case in Alberta too.

[bigrangy]

Yeah, I moved to BC a couple months ago and I have absolutely 0 idea what the BC gov is actually spending its money on. I mean of course infrastructure is harder to build when you need to knock down a mountain to do it each time but like come on.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Delthefunky

Was going to post in the fire thread but it started turning into a rant more suited for this thread. There's lots of issues in B.C., i used to feel slightly left leaning in AB but I dont think i'm woke enough by BC standards. One thing I've noticed since moving here is that there is a severe disorder in what the government spends money on. For example, police presence is garbage, because all they do all day is deal with drug addicts, who if not babysat 24/7 just rob and steal from local businesses, and leave their #### strewn everywhere in public parks. I imagine proper fire management is also unfunded. For a province where taxes are so high you wonder where it goes. Health care is also #### here, a friend of ours went to the ER in Vernon with severe stomach pain and they told her to go home and take some aspirin. She works at a vet clinic, and the doctors there told her to go back and get a ultrasound. Sure enough she has a monster tumor on her ovaries. There's so much government spending on redundant things because the government is a job program. Then getting things like a business licence, or even a building permit to do basic things like build a garden shed is like your building an Amazon warehouse in your back yard. It's a beautiful province 9 months out of the year though, when its not on fire. I will say that. Expensive as ####.

It seems like things are falling apart everywhere in Canada. The process is happening faster in BC as things were so insanely expensive to begin with.

Services across the board are lagging. The cost of living chases away even doctors. On top of that Canada has, for decades, refused to increase it's medical school and residency enrollment. Canada has also been very slow to adopt the nurse practitioner system. It's all a huge mess.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Who’s gonna pay for everything? Our governments are corrupt and incompetent. We can’t increase corporate taxes or they’ll just leave for jurisdictions with lower tax rates.

Alberta will get as bad as BC when we start to have the population and cost of living issues that the LML has.

Basically everything is one big bubble. Just enjoy the ride until it pops. Then watch the #### out.