Post: #1

I need to get a good rant in today, and this didn't really fit into the Canadian Election thread.

12 Fundamental “truths” I've learned from the Canadian left:

1. I am “greedy” and “hate the poor” for wanting to keep a bit more than 50% of what I earn in a year for myself and my family and the state is compassionate for arranging a transfer from my bank account to those in need (less the state’s usual modest commission of around half to two-thirds of course);

2. Although we haven’t actually had a true free market economy in my lifetime, it is the “free market” that is the root of all evil and poverty in Western society and only more and more “mixed” economic practices (i.e. more socialism, more central planning, more regulation, more corporate welfare), need to be adopted to save us all (you know, just like the kinds of policies that have been demonstrably failing and failing utterly for the last 50 years);

3. It is my “civic duty” to pay my taxes, and all of them, each and every year down to the last dollar and cent or the state will imprison me, however, fraud against the welfare state is the product of only a “few bad apples” is “only natural” and is nearly “impossible to prevent”;

4. It is the duty of every private sector worker to save for their own retirements (and according to the Bank of Canada, barely anyone has saved enough), even though the private sector is forcibly compelled to first save for everyone else’s retirement by paying CPP (which is insolvent) and then through taxation for the public sector’s various gold-plated pensions (most of which are underfunded);

5. “Free” healthcare is an absolutely sacred right, even though we have a demographic disaster coming down the pipes where the much fewer in number young will be expected to somehow pay for all the ails of the older generation;

6. Environmentalism is next to godhood, and only by allowing the state enough political and economic power to force the masses back into a 9th Century agrarian based society will our planet be saved (albeit elites, celebrities and politicians will be exempt from the new order because they need to keep jetting around the globe telling the rest of us how “selfish” and “destructive” we all are for wanting a mere fraction of what they have);

7. The destruction of the middle class is all the fault of the inequities of capitalism and it has nothing to do with the fact that:
a. The average Canadian household’s tax bill has increased from 33 cents per dollar earned in the 1960s to 44 cents on the dollar today;
b. Centrally planned economies (i.e. central banks) have created rampant and unprecedented inflation for basic necessaries such as groceries and shelter all as a side effect of attempting to “normalize” the economic cycle and create “incentives” for those less well off; and
c. The Federal government has grown out of proportion to the private sector in all but 2 years during my lifetime.

8. To cut $1, yes a single solitary dollar, out of any municipal, provincial or federal budget would lead to an unparalleled DISASTER for the Canadian economy, despite the fact that the state doesn’t actually create any wealth, or anything at all for that matter;

9. The state can amortize debt over thousands and indeed millions of years, unlike a household or a business, which means that the state is therefore entirely exempt from general financial rules applicable to households and businesses such as “spend only what you take in” – albeit that the state is apparently NOT exempt from spending ever increasing amounts of its yearly intake on interest payments to service the infinitely amortized debt it never intends to pay back;

10. It is immoral for a business to be successful and generate significant wealth for itself, its owners and employees, however it IS entirely moral and appropriate for the state to pick and choose which businesses and which industries it will favour with other people’s tax dollars (again less the state’s usual modest commission);

11. We need to legalize all drugs, not because it is unfair to punish addicts, but because the masses are becoming so cynical and depressed about their own future (for all the reasons above) that the only thing they have to look forward to every day is getting high;

12. The state is not subservient to the public, that is archaic and “dangerous” 19th Century based thinking; the state is the right and just ruler of all and the public ought to rightly be subservient to it, and in particular to the “great men” who operate it.

Perhaps not the best way to start a discussion, but it is somewhat cathartic to write this all down...

End of rant.

Post: #2

I'm looking forward to the financial disaster all of these under funded health care, welfare, and pension programs will go through.

Nothing will make me happier than hearing that the parasitic class (read pensioners and thuglings) being hung out to dry by the powers that be. They will be the first thing to go. The military will be the last.

Post: #3

Beast there is an excellent Canadian book on the pending disaster of under-funded public sector pensions called Pension Ponzi:

http://www.amazon.ca/Pension-Ponzi-Bankr...1118098730

A lot of good stuff in there. Problem is that it is already 4 years old and things have gotten worse, not better.

Post: #4

Glad someone gave you a rep for this. Gave you a tweet: https://twitter.com/Sam_seau/status/628717724668137472

Post: #5

^ Thanks.

Post: #6

Pretty good rant overall Danny but I don't think that any of it is uniquely Canadian and as you've observed in the election thread, its only going to get worse! Lets face it, Canada just isn't really a right wing country and the people tend to favour a bigger more paternalistic government, this is probably due to the fact that we never told our British colonial rulers to fuck off like our cousins to the south did. Canada's conservative movement had its moment under Harper, in his final term he has ruled with a majority government which in Canada gives him more power to do what he wants than the president of the US has and what has Harper done with that power? I know the Canadian left did a lot of fear mongering and raved about Harper's hidden agenda and that hasn't been seen but can you or someone on here please tell me of the positive things that Harper has done as a right wing Canadian PM? In my opinion, Canada achieved better things under our "natural governing party" AKA the Liberals than under the Conservatives but they became arrogant at the end of their rule (Sponsorship scandal, etc), much like how the Harper government is repeating history (Duffy Scandal, etc).

Post: #7

(08-04-2015 01:10 PM)DannyAlberta Wrote:  6. Environmentalism is next to godhood, and only by allowing the state enough political and economic power to force the masses back into a 9th Century agrarian based society will our planet be saved (albeit elites, celebrities and politicians will be exempt from the new order because they need to keep jetting around the globe telling the rest of us how “selfish” and “destructive” we all are for wanting a mere fraction of what they have);

I had a pretty big argument with one of my best friends recently. It was exactly as this goes, him and his wife have a superiority complex because they live in the countryside and grow some of their own food and live in a community of left wing holier-than-thou people doing the exact same thing.

The craziest part is they all agree that saving the environment, etc, etc should be legislated. The left is becoming everything they hate, and if legislation came into play to protect the environment then they would have their asses legislated right back to the city where they are less a burden on the planet.

Smart people, but hypocrisy is the one thing that makes my extremely cynical of other people.

Post: #8

You summed it all up, Danny m'man. Take heart though, when I was in high school and just catching an inkling of all this bullshit, the only place one could read any rational pushback like you have written was if you sent away for a newsletter (which I did not know existed, and if I did would have been denounced by everyone around me as "fringe kook thinking"). There is some balm in having this venue to discuss it with like minded people. The next step is... what the hell are we going to do about it?

Post: #9

Can I add #13

#13. America is evil and backwards. It is a police state full of fat ignorant rednecks that drink terrible beer. They lynch blacks in the street every day, there are no hospitals and in order to get a band aid you have to declare bankruptcy. Its like a "don't look behind the curtain" type of thing because if Canadians realized that Americans actually have more personal freedoms, cheap booze and a more open government our countrymen's heads might explode.

Post: #10

(08-04-2015 11:02 PM)scotian Wrote:  Pretty good rant overall Danny but I don't think that any of it is uniquely Canadian and as you've observed in the election thread, its only going to get worse! Lets face it, Canada just isn't really a right wing country and the people tend to favour a bigger more paternalistic government, this is probably due to the fact that we never told our British colonial rulers to fuck off like our cousins to the south did. Canada's conservative movement had its moment under Harper, in his final term he has ruled with a majority government which in Canada gives him more power to do what he wants than the president of the US has and what has Harper done with that power? I know the Canadian left did a lot of fear mongering and raved about Harper's hidden agenda and that hasn't been seen but can you or someone on here please tell me of the positive things that Harper has done as a right wing Canadian PM? In my opinion, Canada achieved better things under our "natural governing party" AKA the Liberals than under the Conservatives but they became arrogant at the end of their rule (Sponsorship scandal, etc), much like how the Harper government is repeating history (Duffy Scandal, etc).

They have accomplished very, very little with their majority. In fact, the most fiscally right wing thing they ever did, cutting the GST (national goods and services tax for the non-Canadians) from 7% to 5%, was accomplished during the time of their minority governments between 2006 and 2011.

About the only things I can think of that they did with their majority that are at all "conservative" as we understand the term are these two things:

1. Reforming immigration so that it is no longer even slightly humanitarian based, and so that it emphasizes skills the Canadian labour market is short on and pretty much demands the person immigrating will speak English or French (this is a 180 from where the Liberals had us, who looked upon immigration more like the Democrats in the US, minus the huge influx of illegals);

2. Income splitting for families, which only came into effect last year. This has been really unpopular with the Keynesian economists and the left in general because it significantly reduced government revenues, but to me it was obvious since in just about every other Western democracy, including the US and Australia, you can effectively split your income by filing a tax return a family. Not sure why the Canadian government should have the divine right to overcharge families for taxes compared to others.

Unfortunately, these accomplishments are modest and will be reversed immediately by the NDP once they get into power.

The problem with the Conservative Party of Canada, as I have observed elsewhere, is that is actually isn't really a "conservative" party. It's mostly left wing, because Canadians are mostly left wing.

The underlying theme of Canadian life right now seems to be the endless lust for "free" stuff from the government. This is why even a remotely "conservative" party cannot last.

Economic collapse is our only possible future, unhappily.

Post: #11

You've pretty much summed up how things are in the UK too.

We've got your old boy running our central bank too...and are oft told we should emulate Canada's amazing economic success...

Post: #12

(08-05-2015 09:54 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  You've pretty much summed up how things are in the UK too.

We've got your old boy running our central bank too...and are oft told we should emulate Canada's amazing economic success...

And the U.S.

I'll never see a dime of my social security probably.

Post: #13

^ Yes, I remember him. The advocate of keeping interest rates at effectively 0% for, well, FOREVER and damn the damage it will do to the economy long term (looked at the Canadian $ recently, it's getting destroyed when for years it was at par with the US $).

The UK doesn't need to emulate that.

But he's a Keynesian, and only a Keynesian may run a central bank in a Western democracy.

Post: #14

(08-05-2015 09:57 AM)samsamsam Wrote:  

(08-05-2015 09:54 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  You've pretty much summed up how things are in the UK too.

We've got your old boy running our central bank too...and are oft told we should emulate Canada's amazing economic success...

And the U.S.

I'll never see a dime of my social security probably.

minor derail: I'm pretty certain we won't see any US social security either. I just call it another payroll tax at this point vs a pension fund.

Post: #15

^ Not a derail at all. Social Security in the US and CPP (the Canada Pension Plan) in Canada are virtually identical. Both are deducted at source from people's pay and both are intended to provide retirement benefits to all. Both are also effectively insolvent in that neither can bear the unfunded liabilities engendered from an upcoming demographic crisis that results from:

1. The fact that the baby boom outnumbers both the Xers and the Millennials and will all be retired and collecting Social Security and CPP faster than those funds can be replenished; and

2. A retirement age set in the 1960s for people who live longer now in the 2010s and 2020s will result in payments made to people who arguably shouldn't be retiring yet.

Post: #16

Ayn Rand had a name for these folks: looters.

Post: #17

State pensions are just one big Ponzi scheme.

We all know what happens to them eventually...

Post: #18

^ I agree Crash and the fix would be so bloody easy. Convert defined benefit plans (which are destined to become insolvent) to defined contribution plans. And while they are at it, stop the madness of the government sector negotiating with the government regarding how to divide up other people's money! Governments all across the West have utterly failed with their carriage of the public trust in this regard. They don't give a goddamn that they are signing away people's future to placate the public sector in the present.

Case in point, look at this article from Macleans from a couple years ago: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/...per-class/

Quote:Windsor recorded a single homicide in 2011, after famously going more than two years without one. But the border city is making headlines for another reason, and it’s hardly a source of civic pride. The number of Windsor police and staff who took home six-figure incomes came close to doubling in 2012. In January, an arbitrator awarded the police a hefty 12 per cent pay hike over four years, retroactive to 2011. As a result, 40 per cent of the force took home more than $100,000 last year. Crime may not pay. But in Windsor, fighting it sure does.

Across the river, Detroit’s highest-paid police officer—aside from the chief—took home US$53,000 last year, and probably had a much tougher job. With a violent crime rate five times the national average, Detroit in 2012 retained—for a fourth year running—its dubious title as America’s most dangerous city. Detroit’s chief of police earned $97,697, or less than half the $205,000 pocketed by Windsor chief Albert Frederick (which was about the same as Raymond Kelly earned as the police commissioner of New York City, one of the largest and busiest police forces in the world).

The fastest growing incomes in Canada are all public sector. They generally all have benefits galore, too, including gold-plated defined benefit pensions that do not (and cannot) exist in the private sector.

This, in addition to being unsustainable, is such an abuse of the public trust that it literally disgusts me.

Freedom of contract in the private sector is one thing. Freedom to negotiate for and sign over an unlimited amount of the public's money (including future tax money through borrowings) is something else entirely.

Post: #19

^^^ sounds like NYC, but worse as it's generally on a nation-wide level up there.

This is all going to end very badly, just not sure how slow a burn it will be, and also when we'll have the inevitable intermittent crises that sort of clean house for a bit, then it's back to our death spiral.

Post: #20

People are not dumb, and when a good portion of second generation Canadians are 100% focused on getting government jobs the writing is on the wall.

Parents of my immigrant friends are all wealthy, educated and have at least one of their children working for the government. This is no accident. Part of it is the high wages, low stress + holidays and pension so there is no fear of not having someone to look out for them in old age. The other part is that it offsets the other kids who are usually entrepreneurs of some sorts. Balance where the government siblings make $140,000 a year with benefits and are set for life. The family is solid no matter what happens. Up economy like now? Small business is booming. Down economy like early 2000's? Government jobs still get raises and can foot the bills of other family members. Build legacy, family net worth, etc.

Genius when you think about it, but Anglo Canadians have never been too good at working the system other than EI or Welfare.

Post: #21

This thread depresses me.

It could be worse though, we could live in France...you think the Anglosphere is fucked??

Post: #22

Laner: All of those government workers are dead when the bankruptcy comes, they just don't know it yet.

Post: #23

Can someone explain this bankruptcy talk I keep hearing on the forum? Not a troll job, I just can't seem to understand a country like Canada or USA going bankrupt when there is mountains of money pouring into them by the minute.

Is bankruptcy the only way to shrink the government back to sustainable levels?

Harper seems to have a problem with the Senate and he is not alone.

I like his play on energy over the past 7 years as well. I keep seeing the chart of spending on science, R&D and such is being cut at the same time energy is rising. Seems a smart play to me, go where the money is and keep Canada solvent and the economy firing.

I like his TFSA and next year I can take advantage of his income splitting and family benefits. He likes his Canadian families and I would bet he is more of a patriot for Canadian values than people give him credit for.

He is socially retarded, but like most money men this is par for course. So what.

On paper Canada seems strange to the RVF but on the ground Canada to me still seems to be a live and let live place. No one cares if gays get married and trannies have the same rights as lumberjacks. So what, people in Canada respond best to having happy neighborhoods. Its a simple way of living for the most part, and two generations of stability and wealth have created these discouraging little pockets of rebelliousness but they are largely ignored even though they make good headlines and RVF fodder.

Post: #24

(08-05-2015 09:47 AM)DannyAlberta Wrote:  

(08-04-2015 11:02 PM)scotian Wrote:  Pretty good rant overall Danny but I don't think that any of it is uniquely Canadian and as you've observed in the election thread, its only going to get worse! Lets face it, Canada just isn't really a right wing country and the people tend to favour a bigger more paternalistic government, this is probably due to the fact that we never told our British colonial rulers to fuck off like our cousins to the south did. Canada's conservative movement had its moment under Harper, in his final term he has ruled with a majority government which in Canada gives him more power to do what he wants than the president of the US has and what has Harper done with that power? I know the Canadian left did a lot of fear mongering and raved about Harper's hidden agenda and that hasn't been seen but can you or someone on here please tell me of the positive things that Harper has done as a right wing Canadian PM? In my opinion, Canada achieved better things under our "natural governing party" AKA the Liberals than under the Conservatives but they became arrogant at the end of their rule (Sponsorship scandal, etc), much like how the Harper government is repeating history (Duffy Scandal, etc).

They have accomplished very, very little with their majority. In fact, the most fiscally right wing thing they ever did, cutting the GST (national goods and services tax for the non-Canadians) from 7% to 5%, was accomplished during the time of their minority governments between 2006 and 2011.

About the only things I can think of that they did with their majority that are at all "conservative" as we understand the term are these two things:

1. Reforming immigration so that it is no longer even slightly humanitarian based, and so that it emphasizes skills the Canadian labour market is short on and pretty much demands the person immigrating will speak English or French (this is a 180 from where the Liberals had us, who looked upon immigration more like the Democrats in the US, minus the huge influx of illegals);

Jason Kennedy made a decent immigration minister and I agree that one of his best achievments has been to cap the flood of refugees from places like Somalia and Sudan, I don't believe that Canada has any moral obligation to take them in. However, the entire Temporary Foreign Worker program was a real mess and I saw first hand how employers abused it and hired cheap foreign labour over Canadian workers. Most blue collar workers such as myself were happy with the money that we were making but in recent years we saw our working conditions deteriorate as the amount of TFWs working on the job sites rose. There's no absolutely no reason for me to walk into a Tim Horton's in Halifax or Nanaimo and be served by Filipino TFWs when the local unemployment rate is through the roof.

(08-05-2015 12:47 PM)Laner Wrote:  Genius when you think about it, but Anglo Canadians have never been too good at working the system other than EI or Welfare.

I worked for the federal government for three years and as a heterosexual, white anglo my career advancement was limited. I was glad to leave that brain dead job where I had to walk on egg shells but you're correct, I would be doing alright now, ten years later sitting at a desk in Ottawa banging my head against the wall. My plan is to eventually shack up with a chick who has a government job.

Post: #25

(08-05-2015 01:01 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  This thread depresses me.

It could be worse though, we could live in France...you think the Anglosphere is fucked??

Not really. Contrary to what ZH states, there will no hyperinflation. Hyperinflation means the end of the state (ie revolution). Instead, pensioners will most likely be kicked under the bus to save the country. At best, they'll most likely receive 50-75 cents on the dollar for their retirement.

Especially in the US, if the dollar loses reserve status the FED can simply suck up the excess liquidity by forcing the TBTF banks to purchase the toxic assets the fed has on its liability sheets. This will bring massive deflation, killing the stock market and housing market.

Retirees that were smart and managed their own funds will be ok. It's the ones assuming that the all knowing government will protect them are the ones who will be screwed. I'm expecting welfare benefits to drop heavily as well. Poor neighborhoods and townships will go police state riot gear mode on those who riot at the loss of their state freebies.

Personally, i'm really looking forward to the implosion of the student loan bubble. Good riddance to those diploma mills and the ilk that staff and eat up the trash professed there. Nothing would make me happier than watching my overpriced alma mater struggle to pay its obligations.

I'm not worried in the slightest. It'll be an excellent time to short stocks and pick up cheap properties that were foreclosed on by idiot landlords who over leveraged themselves.