I’m Gen X. I’ve lived in poverty for a few decades of my life but also used student loans to go to university, get a degree, and now own a house and live securely. I started saving for retirement late and I worry about that - but I am saving for retirement.
I feel like this article misses that when people make plans and are motivated there can be ways to improve personal situations even in the face of challenging circumstances. If Carney’s government manages to last its full 4 years Trump will be out of office already. Overall, I just think there is an unwarranted level of pessimism in this article. We don’t improve our living conditions by enduring.
I would argue that endurance may get you through the short term but if you don’t take action, you’ll be stuck in survival without ever having the opportunity to thrive. It may not be easy to change your circumstances. It does happen on a 5-10 year scale and not in the near future. But it can be done. We need to improve our economic functioning but we won’t do that through endurance. Thriving would go a long way and each of us has the power to contribute to that if we refuse to allow the doom and gloom messages to be the ones that become the dominant narrative.
Trump will be dead. 50/50 that the GOP will remain in power until there's a revolution. Frankly, the governments of the Western world need to take their power back from the billionaires they've sold it to. For those trying to get started now, the hill is incredibly steep...and ice-covered.
I started in 2022. Yes it was steep. But this is my entire point - it’s doable still. Not easy. But doable.
Also I find your certainty about Trump being dead by then interesting. I actually believe the same thing, but haven’t heard anyone beside me say it out loud.
I think his health is terrible. He's Mr Burns from The Simpsons.
It's doable if you can find an employer who will give you full-time hours and some certainty about the future. From my family's experience, that's something of a needle in a haystack.
I find your approach encouraging. I know a few genx-ers who have similar stories. We (all of us) get bombarded daily with how impossible it is to make it, and it is bloody hard, but it's good to know that some just get on with it. Endurance is a good quality, but a person also has to take control. Good on you.
Personal taxation. Corporate taxation, subsidies. Ability to borrow against assets that aren't taxed as income. Ability to write off interest payments on loans for investment. Start there. There's a reason why executives are paid in stock options instead of cash. If we want a balanced budget, just reinstate the 1950's tax code.
On a more pressing note, should the Leafs completely blow it up? Is there anyone we shouldn't trade?
Personal and corporate taxation, subsidies, and tax policies that incentivize productive people and behaviour are not powers that have been lost to billionaires. Those are powers that remain the purview of the Western powers, whether or not you care for the outcome.
Executives are incentivized with stock options for their bonus in addition to the cash they are paid as a salary. The board aligns the growth in stock price with the executives' respective compensation levels.
The reason the 1950s tax code was abandoned is because it was replaced by a better tax code. Enhanced productivity, properly aligned incentives, and the paydown of the WWII debt loads.
The Leafs should strip it to the studs. Flush the entire regime and start again.
Then why can't this new, wonderful tax code pay down our current debts?
Voters are idiots who ignore the finer details. Deficit financing is a lie. So is trickle-down economics. You can't get elected by telling people they have to give things up. We have to give things up. We've sold our kids' futures so we could have everything. We're running basic programs with borrowed money. Revenue must equal expenses, yet all politicians talk about is tax cuts. The costs of climate change haven't even started.
Shareholders pay executives excessive amounts to raise the share price and make them richer. It's a circle of wealth. Look at the railroads whose service is atrocious as an example. Don't get me started on the absolute graft that is stock buybacks.
As with all things, there is common ground. I agree with your thoughts on the Leafs wholeheartedly.
Just wait until the impending sovereign debt crisis happens. Last time they got away with it by slashing provincial transfer payments and letting the provinces deal with the fallout of public services that suddenly started falling apart. I don't think you can do that twice. Let in another 10 million people to dilute the debt per capita and see how much social unrest we can endure.
Yeah,hanging on and just getting by. I’m glad I planned for my retirement,but,things are so expensive. Counting my change,to buy a McCafe and wash the truck. Then go back home. I get why my brother moved to South America,way to expensive to live in Canada
"Canada’s Indigenous communities may be the most enduring of all, demonstrating survival through systemic harm in the form of residential schools, forced displacement, and the resulting decades of intergenerational trauma. For them, endurance was not a choice but a matter of physical and cultural survival."
Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. I wonder what will happen in Canada as people lose sole title to the land their homes and businesses sit on, as their property value plummets and their equity disappears, and as confidence in Canada's real estate market implodes (which has already begun here in BC)?
In the words of my parents, "Two wrongs don't make a right". The land claim lawfare has to be brought to a halt, or I see some serious civil unrest in our country's future.
Folks are going to have to live within their means. Heck, they might even have to pick up some overtime or a side job instead of watching Netflix at home. About time, IMHO.
Who knows, we might actually stop demanding that government protect us from the consequences of our own poor life choices. Dare to dream.
The resiliency of Canadians comes from experience, their own and that of their predecessors. Knowing the history of your country helps but without personal history, one that addresses context not just skin colour, Canadians both new and multigenerational will remain bogged down in grievance politics. A politics that is raging down south of the border and is sparking within Canada. Listening more and lecturing less will help us all get through this challenging time.
The great Canadian political custom of choosing the promised perfect over the actual good, as always resulted in a steaming pile of 💩 💩. As a sage said, insanity is repeating the same thing over again and expecting different results.
To quote from a 60s Pete Seeger song (Where have all the flowers gone). “ When will they ever learn…”
Great insights and reminders about resilience displayed in the past. Canadians being hopeful in spite of everything. Not great news for the negative Nellie’s whose doom scenarios speak to those who prefer to look out for them and theirs but not the ‘rest of us’. Hopefully you’ve inspired ‘the rest of us’ with your column.
Our current economic situation has its beginnings in 2008?
Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party delivered a balanced budget in 2015.
Canadians dumped steady, prudent, predictable management for a Baffled Prince who turned the Country into a giant sociology experiment.
Canadians brought the uncertainty unto themselves; we are our own worst enemy.
We tried it your way; your way doesn't work.
Dear goodness; what have you done to The Line?
I’m Gen X. I’ve lived in poverty for a few decades of my life but also used student loans to go to university, get a degree, and now own a house and live securely. I started saving for retirement late and I worry about that - but I am saving for retirement.
I feel like this article misses that when people make plans and are motivated there can be ways to improve personal situations even in the face of challenging circumstances. If Carney’s government manages to last its full 4 years Trump will be out of office already. Overall, I just think there is an unwarranted level of pessimism in this article. We don’t improve our living conditions by enduring.
I would argue that endurance may get you through the short term but if you don’t take action, you’ll be stuck in survival without ever having the opportunity to thrive. It may not be easy to change your circumstances. It does happen on a 5-10 year scale and not in the near future. But it can be done. We need to improve our economic functioning but we won’t do that through endurance. Thriving would go a long way and each of us has the power to contribute to that if we refuse to allow the doom and gloom messages to be the ones that become the dominant narrative.
Trump will be dead. 50/50 that the GOP will remain in power until there's a revolution. Frankly, the governments of the Western world need to take their power back from the billionaires they've sold it to. For those trying to get started now, the hill is incredibly steep...and ice-covered.
I started in 2022. Yes it was steep. But this is my entire point - it’s doable still. Not easy. But doable.
Also I find your certainty about Trump being dead by then interesting. I actually believe the same thing, but haven’t heard anyone beside me say it out loud.
I think his health is terrible. He's Mr Burns from The Simpsons.
It's doable if you can find an employer who will give you full-time hours and some certainty about the future. From my family's experience, that's something of a needle in a haystack.
I find your approach encouraging. I know a few genx-ers who have similar stories. We (all of us) get bombarded daily with how impossible it is to make it, and it is bloody hard, but it's good to know that some just get on with it. Endurance is a good quality, but a person also has to take control. Good on you.
Specifically, what powers have the governments of the Western world sold to "the billionaires"?
Personal taxation. Corporate taxation, subsidies. Ability to borrow against assets that aren't taxed as income. Ability to write off interest payments on loans for investment. Start there. There's a reason why executives are paid in stock options instead of cash. If we want a balanced budget, just reinstate the 1950's tax code.
On a more pressing note, should the Leafs completely blow it up? Is there anyone we shouldn't trade?
Personal and corporate taxation, subsidies, and tax policies that incentivize productive people and behaviour are not powers that have been lost to billionaires. Those are powers that remain the purview of the Western powers, whether or not you care for the outcome.
Executives are incentivized with stock options for their bonus in addition to the cash they are paid as a salary. The board aligns the growth in stock price with the executives' respective compensation levels.
The reason the 1950s tax code was abandoned is because it was replaced by a better tax code. Enhanced productivity, properly aligned incentives, and the paydown of the WWII debt loads.
The Leafs should strip it to the studs. Flush the entire regime and start again.
Then why can't this new, wonderful tax code pay down our current debts?
Voters are idiots who ignore the finer details. Deficit financing is a lie. So is trickle-down economics. You can't get elected by telling people they have to give things up. We have to give things up. We've sold our kids' futures so we could have everything. We're running basic programs with borrowed money. Revenue must equal expenses, yet all politicians talk about is tax cuts. The costs of climate change haven't even started.
Shareholders pay executives excessive amounts to raise the share price and make them richer. It's a circle of wealth. Look at the railroads whose service is atrocious as an example. Don't get me started on the absolute graft that is stock buybacks.
As with all things, there is common ground. I agree with your thoughts on the Leafs wholeheartedly.
“We are running basic programs with borrowed money.”
Okay; good place to start. That is not a function of the tax code itself, but of the spending it is expected to support.
From year 1, to
the mid 1700s , individual incomes increased very little.
Continued, tomorrow.
Just wait until the impending sovereign debt crisis happens. Last time they got away with it by slashing provincial transfer payments and letting the provinces deal with the fallout of public services that suddenly started falling apart. I don't think you can do that twice. Let in another 10 million people to dilute the debt per capita and see how much social unrest we can endure.
You make several good points.
Yeah,hanging on and just getting by. I’m glad I planned for my retirement,but,things are so expensive. Counting my change,to buy a McCafe and wash the truck. Then go back home. I get why my brother moved to South America,way to expensive to live in Canada
We ELECTED all of it.
And, very stupidly, kept re-electing all of it.
"Canada’s Indigenous communities may be the most enduring of all, demonstrating survival through systemic harm in the form of residential schools, forced displacement, and the resulting decades of intergenerational trauma. For them, endurance was not a choice but a matter of physical and cultural survival."
Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. I wonder what will happen in Canada as people lose sole title to the land their homes and businesses sit on, as their property value plummets and their equity disappears, and as confidence in Canada's real estate market implodes (which has already begun here in BC)?
In the words of my parents, "Two wrongs don't make a right". The land claim lawfare has to be brought to a halt, or I see some serious civil unrest in our country's future.
Folks are going to have to live within their means. Heck, they might even have to pick up some overtime or a side job instead of watching Netflix at home. About time, IMHO.
Who knows, we might actually stop demanding that government protect us from the consequences of our own poor life choices. Dare to dream.
The resiliency of Canadians comes from experience, their own and that of their predecessors. Knowing the history of your country helps but without personal history, one that addresses context not just skin colour, Canadians both new and multigenerational will remain bogged down in grievance politics. A politics that is raging down south of the border and is sparking within Canada. Listening more and lecturing less will help us all get through this challenging time.
The great Canadian political custom of choosing the promised perfect over the actual good, as always resulted in a steaming pile of 💩 💩. As a sage said, insanity is repeating the same thing over again and expecting different results.
To quote from a 60s Pete Seeger song (Where have all the flowers gone). “ When will they ever learn…”
Great insights and reminders about resilience displayed in the past. Canadians being hopeful in spite of everything. Not great news for the negative Nellie’s whose doom scenarios speak to those who prefer to look out for them and theirs but not the ‘rest of us’. Hopefully you’ve inspired ‘the rest of us’ with your column.