How to Pay of Canada's Debt

[westwoody]

Can Canada print more money like we do in the States?

Increasing the money supply leads to inflation. The latest US budget just pushed their debt problem down the road a few years.

Increasing the population is a bad idea. There are too many people on the planet already. Vast amounts of high quality agriculural land has been diverted to residential and commercial in the lower mainland of BC. As a result, food has to be imported. Not very environmentally friendly is it?

 

[rlock]

Increasing the population is a bad idea. There are too many people on the planet already. Vast amounts of high quality agriculural land has been diverted to residential and commercial in the lower mainland of BC. As a result, food has to be imported. Not very environmentally friendly is it?

Unfortunately the old economic thinking is still being repeated, the one that says "more population = better", even though it's ecologically unsustainable, not to mention going against the trend of AI & automation replacing most workers in the next few decades.

GDP & population are not as linked as they once were, and getting less so each day. (GDP per capita even less.)

By the way: love that picture - the rocks on that Zimbabwe bill are probably worth more than the bill is.

 

[Lo-ki]

 

[yvrvisitor]

Another good way to pay the debt is to increase the number of immigrants. With more people you have a larger tax base and you also have the benefits of cultural diversification. California has been a perfect example of this, Latin Americans have enriched the state culturally and they spend money and start small businesses that employ people and contribute to the economy.

California Joe, Social Justice Warrior

Maybe you don't understand that most of new immigrants to Canada don't pay any taxes (they being ton of money with them which stimulate economy, however they don't show any earned income and pays no taxes - some even end up costing Canada Govt more $ because they get to collect benefits)

 

[g eazy]

Immigration is an interesting topic. IMO integration is a big part of successful immigration, and the government doesn't do enough to push that agenda. Some of it may have to do with the underlying culture of the respective minorities, but governments at the provincial/state and federal levels do little to encourage integration. They assume that the "American Dream" is enough to invigorate them, but when 'ghettos' end up forming you can see the result of failed immigration.

Talking about "cultural diversification" as part of "paying off debt" isn't a huge correlation from what I can see. Small businesses have a immensely difficult in today's 'big corp' era.

 

[Mrmotorscooter]

Immigration is an interesting topic. IMO integration is a big part of successful immigration, and the government doesn't do enough to push that agenda. Some of it may have to do with the underlying culture of the respective minorities, but governments at the provincial/state and federal levels do little to encourage integration. They assume that the "American Dream" is enough to invigorate them, but when 'ghettos' end up forming you can see the result of failed immigration.

Talking about "cultural diversification" as part of "paying off debt" isn't a huge correlation from what I can see. Small businesses have a immensely difficult in today's 'big corp' era.

A looming issue is when immigrating cultures have no interest whatsoever in integration, that has even been a mantra at some of the big protests. The SJW's support the no integration which I find baffling as most people that have come here in the past have wanted to become Canadians while retaining their cultural heritage. Canada works best when everyone and their descendants sees themselves as Canadians regardless their origins.

 

[CanineCowboy]

A looming issue is when immigrating cultures have no interest whatsoever in integration, that has even been a mantra at some of the big protests. The SJW's support the no integration which I find baffling as most people that have come here in the past have wanted to become Canadians while retaining their cultural heritage. Canada works best when everyone and their descendants sees themselves as Canadians regardless their origins.

Sjws, like myself, have never opposed integration, we just prefer the mosiac as opposed to the melting pot.

Also people of colour/visible minorities and, ironically, even First Nations people have never really been identified by the hegemonic majority as 'Canadians' regardless of how many generations they have resided in Canada and are asked the ubiquitous question 'where are you from?'

I am only second generation, but because I am caucasian and speak with a Vancouver accent, I am granted membership, while my fourth generation Vancouver accented friend will always be described as Chinese.

 

[licks2nite]

Bringing back export manufacturing jobs as the most efficient way to pay down debt still stands, regardless of who or what in Canada and British Columbia does the work. Nearly every finished product around you comes from outside Canada and certainly from outside British Columbia. You shouldn't have much trouble thinking of something to make and with a few smarts make the products well enough in a timely manner to sell for export rather than the current regime of hypocritically stripping Canada's natural resources to trade for the use of virtual slave labour in south Asia. Canadians and British Columbians can't get away with calling themselves a caring people concerned about environmental and social issues while selling off the environment. Be that by scaring the land for raw materials to export for products or selling real estate to oligarchs of the defunct culture that has continually, centuries now grown rich off the backs of the majority in south Asia and destroyed south Asian living environment beyond anything that Canadians can imagine to the point of making a "cesspit" of south Asia long before Canadians and British Columbians ever decided to take the dishonourable way out of supporting themselves and indulge in using the marginalized majority in south Asia. Canadians and British Columbians may likely reap what Canadians and British Columbians have sown and curse they're descendants with a similar environmental and social rot that has dominated south Asia.

If you're still puzzled about what to make, how about all the products that go into building the condominiums that are sold to the south Asian oligarchs. Plumbing fixtures, toilets, sinks, washers, dryers, window frames and glass, electrical panels, wiring in the walls, refrigerators, and stoves, furnaces and boilers. And tools and equipment to do all the jobs--work clothes and safely gear for employees, everything from excavation and hoists to lift building products to the top floors, trucks to bring everything on site, welders, wrenches, nuts and bolts to hold everything together. Virtually everything that you could touch or see, and all the furnishings that go in when the job is done. Electronics, bedding, dinnerware, household products, cleaning aids, children's toys and the garments on everybody's back.

 

[storm rider]

So many responses to this and so many angles and a lot of stupid conjecture and yet.....not a single tax paying Canadian even chimed in to what I had to say.I HATE paying taxes and the main reason WHY I hate paying taxes is that ALL Governments are BLOATED with Bureaucracy.Federal/Provincial/Civic.

In Alberta we have pencil pushing school superintendants that make more money than the Premiere who is the head of Government and so on down the line.At City Hall we have pencil pushing Bureaucrats that make 1 MILLION a year and in some cases a lot more.

In Ottawa we have a HIVE of overpaid Federal Bureaucrats who literally just PISS tax payer money down the toilet.

At the same time the Public Sector is also over paid for what they do(exceptions for police/fire and EMS workers) ALL of their wages/defined benefit pension plans are paid for by the TAX PAYER.

I am sick to death of being over TAXED so that those in the position reward themselves as they feel they have a position of priviledge.

SR

 

[luvsdaty]

This was about 11 years ago that i heard this. The feds pay out 204 billion annually to run the beurocracy. The peeons on the tools make around $5/ hr less than the private sector. The trade off is a steady cheque. Too much upper management in the civil service, really top heavy.

 

[g eazy]

Bringing back manufacturing is a good idea in theory but first world economies are not immediately ready for the shock. More would stand to suffer in the short run than gain in the long run IMO.

 

[80watts]

Why do you think the Harper Government was voted out? People were scared that he would start eliminating waste in the Federal government. The Feds consolidated contracts for cellular phones, pay system (Phoenix) etc. Any government agency now had to use the .gc for email. Don't talk to Federal employees about the Phoenix system, apparently its not working well.
This was to save on money. But if a cell phone breaks, it now takes 4 to 6 weeks to replace that phone, so a government worker can't properly do their job if they need a cell phone.

Government Bureaucracy: The bureaucracy works like this. You know the supply guy that buys the 25 cent pencil, that will break in 2 weeks, instead of buying the 100 cent pencil that will last 6 months. the low guys on the totem pole get the 25 cent pencil. The higher on the totem pole the better pencil you get. The lowest bidder wins the bid, and you get f&&&en crap for material assets.
Your budget for the year is 100.00 (April to April), so by march you spent 40.00 of your budget, now the budget manager goes out and buys 50.00 worth of crap, in order to maintain his budget for the next fiscal year. Biggest waste for Federal budgets.

Another big waste is government contracts for service and materials. Contractors love government contracts because they make so much money off of them... They love these contracts..... Its like printing money to them. but of course they hide the big amounts in subcontractors, material price increasing, training individuals, etc. If the job can take 1.5 hours, they charge 2 to 3 hours for the job, because of job interruptions (have to wait for the electrician to show up, etc). Oh and they don't bitch about it... I wonder why.....

You'll never see the upper management in the civil service downsized. Mainly if you take out the politicians in our government, they are the government. They are the ones who run the government, control the big budgets for their departments etc. He who has the money makes the rules.... Many people think that the politicians run our governments, on paper that is so. But who supplies the expertise, reminds ministers they have to follow the laws, like the fisheries act, environmental act, etc; when politicians want to do stuff politically, it is the senior civil servants who are advising him, doing what he/she needs done. Also pretty much impossible to get rid of them due to rules and legislation passed by the government. Gees I wonder how that got in there......

Another big cost for governments are travel and lodging costs. Meals (set prices for breakfast, lunch, dinner) and hotel, and flight and car rental. All under the cost of doing business. In recent years some of this cost has been reduced by video conferencing.

Yup there are taxes. And if everyone was honest......

As for manufacturing, why pay someone 40.00/hr when you can pay less than 5.00/hr , the difference being the profit you make for your shareholders/company. This is why Trump won't make America great again, too many companies want to make that profit. Makes perfect sense now that there might be a trade war ....

 

[Mrmotorscooter]

Sjws, like myself, have never opposed integration, we just prefer the mosiac as opposed to the melting pot.

Also people of colour/visible minorities and, ironically, even First Nations people have never really been identified by the hegemonic majority as 'Canadians' regardless of how many generations they have resided in Canada and are asked the ubiquitous question 'where are you from?'

I am only second generation, but because I am caucasian and speak with a Vancouver accent, I am granted membership, while my fourth generation Vancouver accented friend will always be described as Chinese.

That’s pretty sad man if you are born in this country and have citizenship and a passport you are a Canadian. There are Canadians from all cultures who feel they are Canadian first and their Heritage second, have you never been to a Canada Day parade? The Chinese Culture here is huge and very strong I could see all the newcomers not identifying as Canadian but once the second third etc. Generations are living here how could they not feel Canadian. The only roadblock I can see is there are Chinese communities like Richmond and parts of Vancouver where people identify as Chinese and when one goes to Chinatown etc you feel you are in a Chinese community, and the primary language spoken there is still Chinese, that still makes you Canadian by birth. The Chinese community has paid their way in the past and contributed immensely to the growth of this country. They were exploited building the railways and basically treated like shit but now they are very strong and at the forefront of the economy.
The majority of people now living in Canada as a whole are mostly from somewhere else and they have taken the oath of citizenship, if they don’t feel Canadian that is totally on them what else could they possibly be? The country has to be careful with immigration and should bring in people that want to be Canadians. To not do that will mean their loyalty lies elsewhere and they could care less about Canada and are only here for selfish reasons and to exploit Canada for their own personal gain, that’s just wrong. That is happening with the Birthing tourism right now there are homes all around the lower mainland charging fees for visitors who come here solely for the purpose of having a child who will qualify as Canadian.
Once someone has a home here and is living and working here they must contribute to the debt and not milk the system to increase the debt. If you take the example of our politicians well they really do set a very substandard in this regard, I doubt our leader could run a profitable sausage cart on Granville street, can’t believe he said the budget will balance itself.
I don’t know where you come up with this hegemonic majority not accepting minorities, that’s ridiculous and sounds like SJW speak. All I can see coming from that camp is victimhood, poor me we are all victims of inequality and injustice what a crock, there is some major brainwashing going on in our education systems for people to fall for that one. Few countries on this planet provide the supports and opportunities for success that Canada does, just take a good look at the majority of the immigrants who have come here.
Most of their kids are now very well educated and have very successful carreers because they know from their backgrounds that hard work is required to achieve success, the families are very well off. The unfortunate thing is we’ve been sold out the rampant growth since Expo and the Olympics have priced local young people out of the market and made things very unaffordable that is so unfair.
I can see the Natives have really had a raw deal going back many years, the residential school system was a crime against humanity. The Indian act is broken as the Chiefs in charge control all the money and only those in that inner circle benefit from it, conservatives tried to correct this but the Liberals reversed that decision it’s a mess. Thankfully the Natives are getting educated and involved and are standing up for their rights, things should get better for them.
As a whole we should all be thanking our lucky stars we live in this great country, if we don’t work it out together responsibly there could be huge problems on the horizon.

 

[CanineCowboy]

Actually only roughly 20% of Canadians are foreign born - so your perspective that most Canadians come from somewhere else, is not only wrong, but kind of proves my point.

Is it just coincidence that we have never elected a non caucasian prime minister (or a woman)? How many elected provincial premiers have been non caucasian in Canada? Isn't that a real indication of how inclusive we are?

 

[Mrmotorscooter]

Actually only roughly 20% of Canadians are foreign born - so your perspective that most Canadians come from somewhere else, is not only wrong, but kind of proves my point.

Is it just coincidence that we have never elected a non caucasian prime minister (or a woman)? How many elected provincial premiers have been non caucasian in Canada? Isn't that a real indication of how inclusive we are?

What are you talking about this whole country was built from immigration, pretty well every family can trace its roots to foreign born. To become prime minister you have to run in politics, look at Surrey pretty well every politician there is indocanadian. Ujjal Dosanjh was premier of BC back in 2001, Kim Campbell was a woman Prime Minister, look at the Cabinett of the current government you must be blind if you think it's not inclusive. Quebec and Eastern Canada still hold sway on who wins federally, if you can't speak French that is a major handicap to winning office. You seem lost in your own
Vision of inequality, wake up you have all the opportunities at your doorstep, no one will hand them to you they must be earned.

 

[overdone]

Actually only roughly 20% of Canadians are foreign born - so your perspective that most Canadians come from somewhere else, is not only wrong, but kind of proves my point.

Is it just coincidence that we have never elected a non caucasian prime minister (or a woman)? How many elected provincial premiers have been non caucasian in Canada? Isn't that a real indication of how inclusive we are?

actually it's now over 20% due to our moronic immigration policy, by both parties

if it was up to Sniffles, we'd be closer to 50%

and your inference on lack of inclusiveness is laughable

or can you point to a place in Canada where we bar certain ethnic groups or genders from running?

cause we have no women, natives, gays, jews, catholics, christian, black, east indian, asian, ect... politicans in this country, right?

just cause they didn't rise to the top of the dung heap isn't a sign of a lack of inclusiveness

they all have the chance, unlike most places in the world

that is the only sign of inclusiveness I need

 

[licks2nite]

If you need a discussion about taxes as a way to bring down debt, I want to caution that if you are a "fed-up taxpayer", you'll be really fed-up if you read what I have to say about taxes. Simply, taxes have a whole different meaning and purpose in a society that isn't actually supporting itself by manufacturing the products that are in use on a day-to-day basis. In British Columbia that includes just about everything. In British Columbia the employer receives an income stream to pay the employee, all without ever producing a product to give in exchange for what the employee will purchase. Both the employer and the employee live on welfare. In British Columbia regardless of how much time and effort is put into a job, or how many hours each week you spend behind the steering wheel of a vehicle to get to and from a job, or how many hours each week you spend standing in a crowded public transit vehicle to get to and from a job, you are simply attending "occupational therapy" for your welfare. Taxes are only an adjustment in your welfare rate. Certainly as long as you are on welfare you will have somebody looking out for your best interests. On your own volition and instinct, you are expected to live close to your place of work, therefore you may see greater taxes on gasoline or have to spend more time standing in public transit. Really a "sin tax" like that on alcohol and tobacco. Whoever is looking out for you isn't terribly competent either having overseen the demise of the British Columbia economy for such along time that has put everybody on welfare. The more intelligent individual shouldn't be too surprised when a new strategy such as "speculation tax" in real estate comes into effect and a few fall through the cracks such as the folks with a summer cabin in the family for years who end up in that speculation category. Ironically punished perhaps since anybody that wealthy still owning summer vacation that close to an urban centre are likely amongst the ilk that oversaw the demise of the British Columbia economy.

The tax discussion doesn't go anywhere or improve anything for anybody if you don't use a lack of taxes to build infrastructure that folks can use to support themselves. New subway lines out to all the universities and colleges in British Columbia to carry record numbers to class isn't going to improve anything without an infrastructure after graduation. Without productive jobs, graduates can only demand better welfare. That means stripping the Canadian environment a bid harder for natural resources to sell overseas and selling more land to any immigrant with enough cash that doesn't need a loan. You'll notice that I didn't say "selling more real estate" because most of the components are made of imported products and condominium construction only provides employment for a limited number of young men putting the components in place. What British Columbia really needs are whole corporations to settle in Canada including their research, development and manufacturing sectors. Just finding a job in Canada these days isn't good enough. British Columbia has to produce products that are finished, cost competitive, reliable, done in a timely manner and ultimately used anywhere in the world.

 

[CanineCowboy]

What are you talking about this whole country was built from immigration, pretty well every family can trace its roots to foreign born. To become prime minister you have to run in politics, look at Surrey pretty well every politician there is indocanadian. Ujjal Dosanjh was premier of BC back in 2001, Kim Campbell was a woman Prime Minister, look at the Cabinett of the current government you must be blind if you think it's not inclusive. Quebec and Eastern Canada still hold sway on who wins federally, if you can't speak French that is a major handicap to winning office. You seem lost in your own
Vision of inequality, wake up you have all the opportunities at your doorstep, no one will hand them to you they must be earned.

Neither Kim nor Ujjal were elected, they gained their positions through winning leadership races, that is a huge distinction. Surrey elects Indo Canadian mlas and mps exactly because politics are racialised/ethnocentrised, visible minority candidates are ghettoized to run in ethnic enclaves. Why aren't visible minority candidates winnable in West Van, Point Grey or the Okanagan?

 

[CanineCowboy]

actually it's now over 20% due to our moronic immigration policy, by both parties

if it was up to Sniffles, we'd be closer to 50%

and your inference on lack of inclusiveness is laughable

or can you point to a place in Canada where we bar certain ethnic groups or genders from running?

cause we have no women, natives, gays, jews, catholics, christian, black, east indian, asian, ect... politicans in this country, right?

just cause they didn't rise to the top of the dung heap isn't a sign of a lack of inclusiveness

they all have the chance, unlike most places in the world

that is the only sign of inclusiveness I need

To have Canadians be 50% foreign born about 28,000,000+ immigrants and refugees would need to enter Canada. Trudeau's increase in immigration/refugee policy, for what - three years, has hardly made a statistical difference to the total population.

Inclusion isn't about laws or freedoms, it isn't something theoretical, it is measured by existing realities. Cite a single sociological study that finds that there is equal inclusion in Canada or Canadian politics of visible ethnic minorities?

 

[Mrmotorscooter]

Neither Kim nor Ujjal were elected, they gained their positions through winning leadership races, that is a huge distinction. Surrey elects Indo Canadian mlas and mps exactly because politics are racialised/ethnocentrised, visible minority candidates are ghettoized to run in ethnic enclaves. Why aren't visible minority candidates winnable in West Van, Point Grey or the Okanagan?

I would hardly call Surrey a Ghetto the IndoCanadians have chosen to live here just as Asians have Chosen Richmond and Vancouver although their presence is also growing in Surrey. Koreans especially like to have their own communities as well, it seems people like to stick with their own. The majority population here now does not have English as their first language and this will continue. People like to vote for the Candidate that seems to represent their views and as the demographic changes so will those view points. Name one Country on the Planet that is as inclusive as Canada is and gives people the same opportunity to better themselves. Recently saw an arctical in how minoritities have lower wages, that's not hard to understand it's because they are willing to take lower paying jobs. Opportunities are there to upgrade to higher paying jobs but the time has to be put in to do that. Don't understand why you like to throw out the race card that's the first thing SJW's always seem to do when someone doesn't agree with them!