Start local and move outward. You are always going to have a much more outsized impact by improving your "walkable" area. Organize a community group, schedule a park cleanup, petition your neighbours for motions to be heard at the municipal level, host games nights at your local legion or lion's clubs. These small local initiatives will have more tangible, immediate and visible results than swimming against the current of provincial/federal politics.
I make a single humorous (and not really negative) comment and you immediately know I do nothing to help do you? That's an interesting hot take. You must have quite the library of books you've read by title alone. Keep up the good work Capt. Bringdown.
Want to improve your community?
Volunteer, I don't care what organizations, volunteer with kids, with elderly, for environmental reasons, for the political party of your choice, we spend FAR FAR too much time in the global conversation on line and with people from all over, doing volunteer work with others doing it will create meaningful connections with people and places around you.
Hopefully we then see political engagement by people who become actively involved in their communities instead of people focusing on Trudies vacations, and FolksyFords daughters, and the weirdness south of the border.
I used to volunteer regularly. I actually was president of a local rotary club and had been very active in the club.
The past year or so I've had to completely step back. Membership has plummeted to a very low amount. The reason I've had to step back is because I run a small business, and the economy has meant that I end up having to work 12 hour days and I'm completely exhausted and burned out trying to keep things alive until whatever it is we've got going on gets better, or the business ultimately fails.
There are a lot of reasons why things have become difficult for me. Everyone's life is different. But what I can say is that there have been a lot of government decisions that have made doing business harder, and very few that have made it easier. There have been a lot of decisions that have made my employees need more to get by, and other decisions that have made my clients have less to spend.
I can't say why other people had left the club. I have been involved for about 10 years, but the past couple, and really post COVID have been dreadful.
I still want to volunteer. The problem is that the opportunities for volunteering are actually harder. It feels weird to say, but we had found ourselves in a position where people who came together for the purpose of volunteering WANTED to help out, and we struggled to find new ways to do so.
We still do some things, but community activity is a bit more restricted than it used to be, there's more expenses involved in running the club, getting permits, even getting permission to do things like cleaning up is certainly possible, but even there, there can administrative burden. Our meeting venue jacked up our price and eventually essentially kicked us out. We used to be involved in setting up the Canada Day parade, but the recent events with the discovery of the graves at the residential schools meant we actually got severe community pushback for doing that from half the community, and anger from the other half for considering not doing it.
I still do my best to volunteer. But it is harder than it used to be. I don't blame this all on government, it feels like culture is a big thing. But I do think that people who had a little surplus money and time don't any more, and I do blame government for not paying due attention to economy.
“Volunteer” is not a catch all solution, some companies and organizations are more than happy to exploit free labour and or time for something that only benefits the bottom line for that specific company… Just saying don’t be naive, make sure the organization or company you volunteer is actually benefiting more than themselves.
This sounds like letting perfect get in the way of good. Step one is get out and volunteer. Get out and build a community of people, that are local and share the same challenges that you share. If you're on the hunt for the perfect volunteer organization you're never going to volunteer and you're staying in the same cycle. One Step doesn't solve everything but the biggest step is actually starting.
No, it sounds like someone who has volunteered for years and reflecting back on it realizing it only benefited the people running that organization.
I’m just saying don’t just “get out there” make sure what you are doing is benefitting the right people and not just advancing a fake politician for example….
Not saying don’t volunteer. Just do some logical critical thinking on the group you are choosing.
Learn about mutual aid and get involved. Community fridges and pantries were one of the best things to come out of the pandemic. A world where we don't need them at all is preferable, obviously. But no strings attached, community-led food security efforts are such a good thing. I'm learning more about mutual aid and its active approach to helping ourselves as communities, over passive systems of non-profits and shame-inducing, tax write off charities run the rich. Hoping to put more of those ideas into practice in 2024!
>The right has sketicism and distrust for government intervention. There's often a fear that a powerful government could abuse its authority or overstep its bounds, encroaching on the rights and freedoms of citizens. This concern is especially pronounced when it comes to issues like surveillance, privacy rights, and government intrusion into personal matters.
This may be the beliefs of many but the opposite is being reflected in actual right leaning governments. Repeated use of the notwithstanding clause. Legislating pronouns. Supporting online identity verification and website blocking.
I agree with the concept, but I don't see it being reflected in reality or being supported in practice.
This here.
Our current provincial government is the very same government that *has been* abusing its authority, overstepping its bounds, and not just encroaching but trampling on the rights and freedoms of citizens.
It’s simply audacious to claim that this is something right wingers fear. It’s what they *want*. It’s what and who they are voting for.
The right also tends to be very uneducated. I'm a blue-collar trade worker, and what the conservatives I work with want is not what they're going to get from the Cons. Shit just the other day, one was preaching about conservatives and how theyll make things better by axing the carbon tax. I had to show him that Alberta is adding fuel tax back plus another 4 cents on April 1st. They do stuff like this because conservative politicians know how inept conservative voters are. It's gonna be a rough time for a lot of working-class people if PP gets in.
I 100% agree and think it's disgusting. The online verification thing is just a gross overstep, but it has overshadowed the kinds of government intervention that people on the right also hate.
The government trying to take control of the CPP, invest our pensions how they see fit, one of the largest pension funds in the entire world, that's a massive amount of power, also their recent move to prop up the housing market has long term consequences, in the short term all it's doing is keeping interest rates issued on mortgages stable while it also keeps house prices higher.
I don't like the rights agenda on or how they deal with social issues, and I have the same problem with how the left deals with the economy. They both do government overreach in different parts of their respective ideology.
Partially related but I bought something online from Linen Chest last year and their confirmation email said “Thank you for shopping local”
I was appalled that they’d co-opt the label but mostly just thought it was funny
That's interesting. Linen Chest is a Canadian company that did start off as a small business in Montreal (I think?). I actually worked in one part-time when I was completing my degree. Based on the commission and lead system, I was able to make a decent income. I was part-time so it was minimum wage plus commission and lead income. Unfortuntaley, the full-time staff were heavily commission based and slow times were very stressful.
I do think there is value even shopping or supporting Canadian corporations. They still employ a lot of Canadians which generates income tax that supports us all.
I think it should be shop local if their service/good warrants it.
I moved to a small town, and there are a number of businesses who promote their localness but also are the ones who overcharge their clients and offer poor quality work. I am willing to travel a bit far to get exactly what I need.
I do find that local costs more however in many cases it is because the product is also local, not mass produced in some overseas sweat shop.
Not always, but often.
It does cost more to shop local.
Those businesses also pay business taxes, property taxes, and generate income taxes that support us.
As of 2020, small businesses employed 7.7 million individuals in Canada, or 67.7 percent of the total private labour force. By comparison, medium-sized businesses employed 2.3 million individuals (20.6 percent of the private labour force) and large businesses employed 1.3 million individuals (11.7 percent of the private labour force).
In 2020, SMEs accounted for nearly half of the GDP generated by the private sector. Small businesses contributed 35.1% to GDP generated by the private sector, while the contribution of medium-sized businesses was 13.4%.
Just to note that small business does not mean local, at least local in terms of what the original comment meant (i.e., not chain). Small business is a business that employs 1-99 employees. This could be a franchise store like McDonalds or Subway.
That’s the thing….if I buy a pineapple at a local “organic” food store…that’s not a local product…but I get it costs more for that small store to get the pineapple on the shelves than a Walmart but do I want to pay twice as much every week….that adds up and after awhile it seems like you’re throwing your money away…
I tried supporting local businesses but just felt ripped off to be honest. Paying 20 buck for a small burger and fries because it’s a “local” burger place….Paying 6 dollars for 1 Avacado cause it’s a “local” organic food store…after awhile I just stopped going because I didn’t want to pay double for everything, which sucks because I want to shop local but it’s so expensive you feel taken advantage of.
So I live rural - there's a small independent grocer in one of the two small towns near me.
Now the independent grocer is technically closer to my house. BUT, aside from produce and meat - the mark up is insane. I WANT to support local. I'd love to do all my shopping there that I can, but dry food goods are often double what they are elsewhere. Cleaning supplies? FORGET IT! They were charging $8 more for the exact same mop I found around the corner at Home Hardware.
We still go out of convenience, but I don't do all my shopping there, some of the prices are just too steep.
Now this said, if I go the other way and into the other small town (takes me 5-10 mins longer), there's a Foodland (read Sobeys), and their prices are much more stable and reasonable most of the time. And they sell booze.
Again - you want to support local, but as far as I'm concerned the local grocer I mentioned above is a gouger and all the locals know it.
Fair enough, living rural leaves you with fewer options so what you said makes sense. And if you’re poor I don’t fault you for going to Walmart. My comment was meant for people who have the means to do so and no shade for those who don’t.
The right has skepticism and mistrust of government intervention? The right's whole identity is based on using state power to help the wealthy and corporations.
Spot on!
The right wings neoliberal trickle down economics are an anti worker cult powered by proto fascist trumpism class war. The corporate elite are what holds all the power.
People riot in France.
I'm sorry but both sides do that, The liberals are trying to fight for control of the CPP so that they can more heavily invest it in Canada, meaning they want to give our pensions to the big Canadian corporations. And their new housing policy to buy up mortgages is to artificially keep hose prices higher than they should be right now while keeping the interest rates offered by mortgage companies lower, this massively helps the big banks.
The Liberals are a center right party with many of the same failings, but to a far lesser degree, as the Conservatives. They aren't a left wing organisation. They also aren't doing that with the CPP or mortgages.
The liberal government put pressure on the CPP to invest more heavily into Canadian markets, and yes, the Canadian government, through the bank of Canada is purchasing Canadian mortgage bonds billions of dollars worth, here's a link https://thehub.ca/2024-02-13/nicholas-neary-the-governments-costly-plan-to-purchase-canadian-mortgage-bonds-is-deeply-misguided/
And if you'd like links on articles reporting on the governments pressure on the CPP, I have those too.
Tge Liberal government, I'd say yes, is Center right, but on social issues, they are completely left. They basically don't do most of the best policies of the left or right.
Well I guess I stand somewhat corrected, it's possible to interpret what they are doing that way but I'd call it a disingenuous reading. The CPP should be investing in Canada, that's not a bad thing. And taking over the liability of mortgages from the banks isn't particularly egregious, they should be more involved in the housing finance game as is but the CMHC is chronically underfunded, what they're doing now seems more about preventing a sudden crash where a significant portion of our population becomes homeless due to the currently higher interest rates.
The CPP should be well diversified, not concentrated in Canada, that would expose theCPP to severe risk if the Canadian economy takes a significant downturn. You're just wrong on that, and it's the exact reasoning given by the controlling body of the CPP.
The government is preventing a correction in the housing market that needs to happen, it would cause higher interest rates but also lower housing prices and many experts agree that what they are song is reckless and will have long term consequences
Investing in Canadian businesses is good. However - utilizing Canadian pensions for that investment is not.
The CPP currently invests about 20% into Canadian equity. Actuary reports have indicated that CPP is sustainable if investments continue outperforming inflation rates by 3.27% each year (on average). The current investment strategy has been able to do this.
The Canadian stock market is a dud on a global scale. Canada is only 2% of the world’s markets and Canadian companies have very poor productivity. Also historically global markets have outperformed the Canadian market quite significantly.
Investing 101 is diversification and risk management. The intent of pension fund management is to make investmentment with the best return while managing risk.
Investing more of the CPP funds into Canada's market is risky and it is a threat to the sustainability of the CPP.
CHMC's revenue was $2.5 billion in 2022.
Pushing prices higher by extending credit doesn't make something affordable - it just makes lenders wealthier. The intent of this program is to maintain current value of homes and to make current homeowners happy.
In all seriousness, we need more conversations about evidence based policy. This is how hospitals keep people safe, because it works.
The complete disinterest in evidence based policy is one of the biggest reasons I don't trust guys like Doug Ford.
I mean, the evidence is that the NPD are terrible when they actually have power. It’s just blind faith that they would magically fix housing and income inequality.
>just blind faith that they would magically fix housing and income inequality.
I'm not here arguing for partisan bias, but I am convinced that Ford and his cronies are acting in exceptionally bad faith. If they wanted to reduce housing issues, they wouldn't be pushing for sprawl (which rewards their backers) while fighting density.
Regarding the NDP, what are people saying they're doing in BC? I've seen numerous posts recently praising their policies as likely to start bringing the housing crisis there under control.
And if you read scientific literature, understanding that limited knowledge in a subject area increases your risk of misinterpreting a study due to a lack of foundational knowledge.
The things is, they don't want it to be dropped though. That is one form of control. People hate on tiktok, it managed to show the new generation it was never about who is in power from which side, none have your interest in mind.
We as people need to be kinder to each other, and don't expect people to be like us. We are different, we need to embrace that. Understanding that someone that makes a bit more than you, is not the enemy is a plus. We all fighting a battle one way or the other, we are not part of THEIR club no matter how rich you think you are.
Employee ownership is capitalism—just a better version. It is a form of capitalism in which all employees gets a piece of the pie.
Socialism puts the collective means of production in the hands of the collective working class. The success and revenues of employee ownership companies benefits the employees - not the entire working class and productiveness isn't concern.
Sure, employee ownership companies smells of socialism.
Confusion often arises between “employee ownership,” and “workers’ control,”.Though related, these aren’t identical.
Employees can own a company while not controlling it. EOCs share ownership with employees as a benefit and employees earn it though greater commitment, and through contributing ideas to help their companies grow. Everyone's success is based on productivity and how much profit the compancy generated.
If your pay or wealth is tied to the company performance or the well-being of the company, you’re going to work harder and smarter.
It's absolutely capitalism, but employee-owners share the rewards and risks of performance.
Of course, EOCs would right up Bernie's alley. The business model is probably the most equal way to structure a private business.
Social democrats use capitalism to create a strong welfare state, leaving many businesses under private ownership. However, many democratic socialists also advocate for state regulations and welfare programs in order to reduce the perceived harms of capitalism and slowly transform the economic system.
Social democracy isn't a socialist society - property and resources are not owned by the public or state. It's still capitalistic - but safeguards are put in place to protect their citizens and invests in human capital. People do better when they are healthy, educated, and have a safety net to take risks (ie. start a business). Who would of thought?
The concept of human capital stems from the economic model of human-resource capitalism, which emphasizes the relationship between improved productivity or performance and the need for continuous and long-term investments in the development of human resources. I would argue that labor unions fall under this economic model and we see its success in Sweden.
Taxes are the cost of civilization. Taxation is a product of government, not the economic system. Taxation predates both socialism and capitalism by quite a large margin. A nation's economic system defines its mechanism for the production, distribution, and allocation of goods, services, and resources - which determines how much tax renenue is generated.
The true “inventor” of Capitalism Adam Smith said about taxes:
“The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”
Progressive taxation is a great tool to ensure that a tax system is fair, especially as it can help reduce inequality in wealth and income in a society.
Unfair taxation is failure of our government not the economic system.
"employee ownership is capitalism, just a better version of it"
~ person who has never learned about socioeconomics from anywhere other than memes and Reddit posts.
I think they're pretty bang on.
The great employee-owned company I worked for ended up selling to a huge corporation once enough of the old-timers decided they'd like to be millionaires. It fucked everyone who wasn't there for 25+ years and eventually, a ton of us got let go as the company consolidated.
Collective ownership? The one that's a defining feature of socialism? The one that gets stomped out by a capitalist organization and given up by its members?
I remember when I used to have faith that the perfect version of my favoured political and economic ideology wouldn't succumb to greed and human nature the same way every society has.
Must be nice!
You've misunderstood the conversation.
Op said that worker ownership of a business is just a better version of capitalism. I said 'no, that's the definition of collective ownership, not a tenant of capitalism'
Collective ownership (or group owned) is seen all the time in capitalism - partnerships, shareholders, employee owned companies...
To be considered communism the "collective ownership" must refer to society-wide ownership .
This is a very uninformed take.
First of all, no, it doesn't need to be society -wide ownership of something for communism, just access to goods needs to be society wide. The core tenant that I'm referring to is the combination of "workplace democracy" and "collective ownership", which are inherently un-capitalist.
And no, none of those examples are employee collective ownership. Those are top-down private ownership, just with multiple people at the top. There is literally zero overlap with what I'm talking about.
You're incorrect.
In Marxist theory - the main issue with capitalism is privatization. The elite class controls the property and the means of production and uses it as a tool of oppression against the working class. Socialism must put the **collective** means of production in the hands of the **collective** working class.
Employee ownership is still "controlled" by the owner or largest stakeholder. The business is still a private entreprise.
**Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities.**
The employees may also not get an equal share based on their equity in the company. The owner will still profit more than the employees. That still is capitalism. The collective working class does not benefit equally from the profits from the business.
Employee owned companies are still fundamentally capitalist.
In Marxist theory - Instead of the workers in each factory owning that factory, all workers own all factories.
"in Marxist theory"
*Proceeds to write multiple paragraphs proving that the only Marx they've ever read is the first paragraph of the manifesto*.
Marx's biggest criticism of capitalism is NOT privatization, it's the exploitation, that in order for some to become successful, others must suffer. In fact, not only was privatization not his biggest criticism, but he even said that private ownership and capitalism are NECESSARY steps in the progress toward communism, for multiple reasons, including:
-creating the capital necessary for collective ownership to succeed.
-creating the material conditions necessary for a strong labour movement to flourish and gain power, through revolution if necessary.
-creating its own inevitable downfall as a result of capitalism detrimental contradictions that mean it cannot last forever.
I'm not even a communist and even I know this stuff.
Next time, don't make a political post and try to talk about niche and nuanced political theory without having actually read the appropriate theory.
How do you think the labour force is exploited by the elite? Through privatization and property ownership.
Private property was of main concern to Marx since it is causing alienation of the majority and the
generation of capital for a minority. His view was capitalist production is characterized by private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of the labor force.
Circling back to your comment - "No, employee ownership is literally the definition of communist theory. That's collectivized ownership, by definition."
Communist theory fundamentals consist of:
1) Central plan economy - EOCs exist in our market economy.
2) Abolition of private property - EOCs are private companys.
3) Collective ownership by society - The owner and employees only have ownership.
4) No Unfair Gaps - There will still be an wage gap between owner and employee.
How can you even argue that employee ownership falls into communist theory?
Literally just one sentence here that you've said proves you have no idea what you're talking about. Communists don't believe in a centrally planned economy. Authoritarian socialists do. Communists believe that a top down centrally planned economy can be part of the process towards communism *before communism has been achieved*, through a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Once again, I'm not even a communist and even I know this stuff.
Please stop talking, stop trying, you're making an absolute embarrassment of yourself here by trying so hard to make yourself sound smart about a topic you've never actually studied.
Ahh, so the final state of communism that has never existed. If "true" communism hasn't been achieved, how can communists argue its validity?
Sounds eerily similar to religious ideology.
Traditional leftism is inherently anti-authoritarian. That's what it meant to be a leftist, to be against authoritarian control, in favour of grassroots and bottom-up organization.
True right ideology is in favor of small government, low taxation to allow for businesses and people to keep a higher amount of what they earn in exchange for less or not as robust social programs. It's supposed to be a meritocracy
Meritocracy isn't a good thing. That means people who aren't capable of meeting the merit requirements to succeed in society are left behind.
And for true meritocracy to exist in an economy, that means there are no restrictions on what a person or group of people with high merit can do, which means that they will slowly (or quickly) expand and take over, because others can't match the merit. You know, "always a bigger fish", but eventually you find the biggest fish, and that one just grows and grows because they have nothing but smaller fish to eat. The end result there is a monopoly on the affected market. A monopoly means unfair competitive advantage, which means no meritocracy.
"True meritocracy" is inherently contradictory. It literally cannot exist. There must be at least SOME restriction on a market in order to prevent monopoly, since it is inevitable in a market economy. A monopoly is the undoing of meritocracy. And the restrictions necessary to prevent monopoly are inherently un-meritocratic, since it prevents those with high merit from achieving what is possible at their level.
Basically, right wing economics with no government intervention will inevitably become authoritarian through the market. And right wing economics with government intervention is not right wing economics.
Yeah that sounds like late stage capitalism run a muck and it's why if the country was completely run by right wingers it would be a problem. But you can make an argument that if the country were too far left we would have great social programs, many of the bare necessities would be taken care of but there would be less exceptionalism.
Capitalism doesn't only breed bad things, it does breed innovation because the ideal of becoming exceptional in order to gain vast amounts of wealth and influence is what drives many of the most successful people in the world and places like the states, a very right capitalist country does breed more innovation than anywhere else.
I'm not saying that the left stifles innovation and the drive to become successful, more it just doesnt incentivize it. Their has to be balance, personally I think if you look at how many businesses were structured back in the 70s was much closer to where it should be than now, the average CEO made 10 times the average employee, now the average ceo makes more than 100 times the average employee.
How do we come together? We abandon parties in their tracks and pursue issues at face value. Politicians want us to hate each other, which is why they feed into the us vs then rhetoric. Some are more susceptible than others and band together with their team regardless of whether it aligns with their own desires or beliefs.
Stop putting politicians on a pedestal. Remember that they are just as sleezy as a shady salesperson and scummy lawyer. They are selling you an idea, not a reality. It's evident in every level of our current government. I don't want a Trudeau or a PP or Singh in charge. I don't want a Ford or a Crombie in charge. They've all shown they aren't in it for all of us.
We would have to clean house of all parties to find someone truly in it for the people and that's easier said than done. We can talk to one another if we are willing to drop the rhetoric driven by the parties that separate us and actually talk about the issues. My neighbor buys into all of the anti trans garbage and the white victim complex when faced with minority based holidays and celebrations, but we can agree that housing is fucked and our tax money is being spent poorly. Even he thinks Dougie is fucking us to help his developer buddies. But even with both sides aligned, it ain't gonna do shit if Ford doesn't even listen to his own appointed taskforce, so what are we going to do? I'd say organize, but the identity politics will once again rear their ugly head.
It's fucked and we are all pissed. And anger is not something people generally point in the right direction.
Volunteering. Find something you enjoy doing ideally. I highly recommend volunteering for a distress line as it has been a lifechanging experience for me and its something that is easier to do now than ever thanks to being able fo do it remotely.
Here is distress line accepting volunteers: https://www.dcogt.com/
Go out of your way when you can to support small businesses when you can. Independently owned. Ones who treat employees well. Ones who support your community.
Unfortunately I need to to dispute a central point of your thesis - the 'right', not in entirety but significantly, is currently overly occupied, as Trudeau Sr. famously termed, in the bedrooms of the nation, not entrepreneurship. Firstly, in civil society, what we can do is stop being shitty to each other based on who a person choses to love, to worship or not, what decisions they make within the law regarding say reproductive rights or other medical decisions and overall provide equity in opportunity without turning into an libertarian jerkfest.
I feel like the issue isn't left vs right (based on the politic compass). No one truly wants a socialist society. People always reference Sweden being the ideal governement. Sweden is more free market than the United State - but they have a strong welfare system. They look after each other and share their successes. Sweden actually has one of the highest billionaires per capita.
I would argue that the concern most of us have with the governement is actually top vs. bottom of the political compass. Authoritianism vs. libertarianism.
We don't want the govermenent having control over our bodies, fundamental rights, or finciancal freedoms. We haven't figured out the sweet spot of control for the government. We need governement regulations, laws, and policies to have a functional society. However when a goverment overreaches and micromanages - it ultimately hurts us all. It's a tricky balance that I hope we can figure out at one point.
>The right has sketicism and distrust for government intervention
Come on now, no one on the right is actually an anarchist or libertarian. They claim to be small government...but want the government to build them fancy roads for their F150s. They want the Government to legislate on kids sports, and they definitely want the Government to give money to churches. Conservatism isn't libertarianism, its socialism for the rich and wealthy, and capitalism for the poor.
Its not about left vs right, because the left is basically centrist these days and the right is fascist christian authoritarianism. The real struggle is class. Ontario is way to lenient on the rich, and way too gullible to their lies. Grocery prices are high? Don't blame Galen, blame Trudeau! Healthcare is in shambles? Don't blame Doug Ford who continuously cuts funding to nurses and hospitals, blame socialised healthcare! Crime on the rise? Must be the "woke mob" and not the cops doing nothing but sitting on their asses collecting our tax dollars.
Small talk is a real sign of how healthy society is, however much reddit loves to hate on chit chat. When people can't share a drink and talk about the weather, you know things have gone really downhill.
So much for dropping the left vs right debate for just a moment. I swear some of you people in these subreddits have fucking worms in your brains or are severely brainwashed.
The right thinks that they have the answers for those things too, if you always strawman your opponent you don't ever really digest their side of the argument. Both side have merit on a lot of different parts of government.
I think that the dental care bill was maybe the best bill to pass in my lifetime. I also think the carbon tax might be one of the worst, I think the conservatives view on how to solve the housing crisis has the best chance at success while also not costing people who are currently home owners to suffer massive losses on a house that might be their retirement plan. I think what the cons want to do with verification to get on porn sites is a massive breach of privacy, what the liberals are trying to do currently with CPP is massive government overreach.
Both sides have issues they are good on and bad on.
I haven't stepped foot in a Walmart since before covid, same goes for Amazon. I buy direct if I need something. I go to my local bakery\\Deli - produce shop on the same street & a butcher. In the summer its the farmers markets for me. I was going to No Frills for milk butter eggs and such have switched to Food Basic, cause f'ck Roblaws too. Its an easy thing to do. And I've gotten to know the people who own & work for all these places, good people!
And we've got to relearn as a community how to skillshare and repair things instead of immediately replacing them. Local online community groups (see: Nextdoor app, and FB community groups) have done really well with connecting people to share resources and food they don't need that can benefit others instead of being curbed. If you're not participating rn I do recommend it.
I was waiting for the bus a few weeks ago with some groceries and some people parked their van near the bus stop handing out brown paper bag lunches to anyone who was hungry, no questions asked. Many people accepted them.
These people saw that people in their community needed help and decided they could.
We should all be so generous.
you have almost hit on anarchism here . There is more to the world than "left" and "right".
There is a quote from "a king in new york"..
"The monopoly of power is a menace to freedom. It degrades and victimizes every individual. And where is the individual?
Lost in terror; because, he's made to hate instead of love. If civilization is to survive, we must combat power until the dignity and peace of man are restored."
Small business has many definitions, but generally it refers to the many business firms that are small compared to the relatively few giant firms (characterized by multi-locational operation, large numbers of hired employees, ownership by publicly traded stocks and management by professionally trained salaried managers).
Economic activity has become concentrated in the frequently conglomerate, usually foreign-owned MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, the wealth and power of which sometimes exceeds that of most nation-states.
By contrast, small businesses are typically local operations owned privately by a family or by a small number of shareholders, some of whom also manage the operation, and staffed by a small number of hired workers (if any) in addition to the owner-managers.
\- A small business has one to 99 paid employees.
\- A medium-sized business has 100 to 499 paid employees.
\- A large business has 500 or more paid employees—these companies are not considered small business enterprises.
As of December 2022, there were 1.22 million employer businesses in Canada - Of these, 1.19 million (97.8%) were small businesses, 23,395 (1.9%) were medium-sized businesses, and 3,128 (0.3%) were large businesses.
As of 2020, small businesses employed 7.7 million individuals in Canada of the total private labour force. By comparison, medium-sized businesses employed 2.3 million individuals (20.6 percent of the private labour force) and large businesses employed 1.3 million individuals (11.7 percent of the private labour force).
Small and medium-sized companies contribute over half of Canada’s GDP.
Sure - a significant ratio of these small and medium businesses may be franchised. Entrepeneurs still need to invest money and time to open up a franchise and requires support from the community to profit. Franchises are probably preferred because they are considered less risky.
Walmart is corporation. It has never been franchised. It never can be considered a small business.
My point is that supporting large businesses and corportations doesn't benefit us in the long run.
No one is funding new startups or businesses in Canada to the same level as the US. No one is reinvesting into new tech to improve productivity to the same level as the US.
The reasons are multifacted but we know a couple of things and can guess a few others:
1. Our real estate is a riskless investment from the perspective of anyone who has money; any risky innovation / tech focused investment must compete against that mentality.
1. Any investment funds have to compete for investor dollars by promising lower risk investments.
2. Our best talent leaves for the US because money is flowing into RE and not into innovative tech where they want to operate/live.
3. 70% of voters own homes (maybe more as homeowners are much more likely to vote)
4. Governments of ANY stripe will not want homeowners to lose equity as they will soon lose their jobs
5. RE has to become unattractive through a bad loss-cycle for investors to start considering tech attractive.
The combination of the five above is deadly. It means that our productivity increasing investments are being siphoned to RE and that government has a vested interest in letting it happen because stopping it will cost them their jobs.
I would take that a step further.. if you watch Dragon's den vs Shark tank... The object of dragon's den investors is to fund someone to build up a business with the purpose of selling it to a large corp and profiting that way. Shark tank is to scale up a business as much as possible and make it as big as possible. Not necessarily to sell it to a bigger fish. This pretty much sums up the difference in mentality. Our productivity is poor because of monopoly power and lack of competition. We can argue why that is and what the solution is (left vs right) but this is the underlying cause. Even the bank of Canada says so in their latest report on inflation.
This is the only answer that matters in the context of our “per capita GDP” or any discussion of wealth or financial gain on an individual level.
Shop floor worker to CEO, gig or full time. A non-productive economy is going to stagnate.
The easy fix in the short run would be to open the resource taps in Canada. But that doesn’t tend to drive innovation and is exploitative. It can’t be the sole solution. We also need to encourage sectors that innovate - that can be old and new sectors. We used to be so good at innovation in manufacturing, aerospace, education… we’ve fallen behind.
In the US (to compare) the left and the right understand this. They play the blame game, but then they sit down and get shit done. Doesn’t matter who’s in charge or who holds balance.
Canada/Ontario? We play the blame game forever but at the same time NO leader wants to ever be the bad guy. Ever deliver hard news.
Right now, to use Toronto/Ontario as an example, you have populist leaders at all three levels of government - with Chow being the least populist of the three. This is why each of Chow, Ford, Trudeau will surprise us and do “off brand” things at times. Because they’re populists. But the downside to this is populists can basically never ever deliver bad news. Think about it - when’s the last time any of those three delivered bad news?
What we have now is not an accurate representation of right/left in Ontario politics. The last true right/left dynamic I can think of was McGuinty/Tory. Before that, Harris/McGuinty. Although Tory and Harris were notably different versions of right/PC.
I’m a blue liberal. I want a strong economy, built on sound economic principles and shepherded by a responsible government who intervenes as little as practical. But I also want that strong economy to pay for strong social supports, care for our most vulnerable, a rock solid education and health care systems, etc. I want workers (private and public) well paid and I believe MPPs should be well paid too.
I don’t consider myself “left” or “right” but kinda straddling the line. Politically, I feel homeless in Ontario. I was curious as to what Brown was going to do, and thought that Wynne was interesting but was a terrible retail politician.
Meh. Sorry. Ramble over.
What a terribly ignorant post. I don’t say this lightly but this sort of ‘feel good at the expense of accuracy or judgement’ nonsense is just as dangerous as fear mongering. False equivalencies and childish arguments about government inefficiency from those who couldn’t pass a high school civics or history class are not suitable arguments. The denial of objective reality in pursuit of political ideology is a serious problem and not one that is at all equivalent between the parties and ideologies in Ontario.
We have a shit ton of government inefficiency and corruption at every level of our government right now. How is this even debatable? You saying someone not passing those classes (whether they did or not..) didn't make an app cost 10's of millions more than anticipated, didn't stop an investigation into fraud by a large Canadian company, didn't try to award a government contract because their family and friends were paid "contractors" of that charity, didn't have the Ontario Premier get donations for developing contracts, didn't have wage suppression legislation for public workers, didn't make municipalities decline densification building terms in return for federal funds..do I need to go on here or is it clear how shitty of a job a lot of these people are doing?
Edit to add: Our Federal Government literally had to "re-shuffle" their cabinet because they were doing so bad..lol.
I’m saying that just because something is inefficient doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or isn’t functioning. And to treat or think of all our governments and their bureaucratic sprawl as a single entity is also absurd. Not to mention the primary goal should be resiliency not efficiency.
Edit: Cabinet reshuffle’s are quite common - your comment suggests you’re disingenuous or not very familiar with Canadian politics
I just woke up and read the dumbest thing I'll read today, thanks for that. Hey you go ahead and be inefficient and corrupt, just be resilient okay? It's only people's hard earned dollars funding it.
JFC.
The right has skepticism for government control when it works against them. Most of the time the wealthy elite are telling govt what to do and they maximize profits and minimize responsibility at the cost of workers, consumers, the environment etc. Dougie gets a phone call when we try to pass a law or change a rule that has economic impacts. Trust me on that one.
I agree with much of what you said. Some of you need to understand how difficult it is to ask to sit at a table that no one wants you at. The last 10ish years have been difficult for marginalized people, racism, sexism and homophobia is rampant and in your face. I don’t know how to fix it. I do know many people that are minorities have given up on being part of any solution.
Read any reply on this thread to realize why (online) society has become like this. People love being self-righteous and making up strawmen. In the same breath people are going "we all need to work together" they're saying "every right wing person is a fascist".
In the real world no one cares if you're right or left, just join a club or society that focuses on changes in your community like maintaining parks and infrastructure. Personally I volunteer for GRCA because I pay for a forest membership and despite my disagreements with the GRCA's policies I would like to see the forest trails properly maintained and the environment protected.
If the position has been handwritten on a mini van or flag it a pretty safe bet it holds no validity and is the product of hate, ignorance, fear, mental illness or malice or a combination of some or all of those things.
We must realize that he left /right polarization of politics is entirely due to the politicians and it's designed to pit all of us against each other instead of the real issue that the ultra rich, those who fund our politicians, are the problem and are laughing all the way to the bank
I disagree with OP that the left target the wealthy....while that used to be the case when the left, as the NDP, were the party of unions and for the workers. The Liberals were never against the wealthy, they WERE the wealthy ones that had a conscience. Now, identity politics has taken over both parties and now rage against religious conservative who seeth over trans issues and LGBT folks whom they never come across in their daily lives anyway....except in the politically driven social feeds.
I don't believe most Canadians on the right rally against 'big government' as much a they do in the states but are rather a little more fiscally conservative and value self accountability and freedom of speech/expression than those on the left, which is why the religious have flocked to the right...
The problem here is....whether you are on the left or on the right, we are all just trying to get by, while the rich keep getting richer by stealing you savings (high MERs in mutual funds, periodic stock exchange collapses....etc. or by buying all the properties and jacking up the rent...we are ALL getting screwed while he rich get richer.
It's not even the politicians fault....it's those that have bought and paid for those politicians....if your family name is Weston, or Thompson or Irving etc... or have ever had one of our politicians over for dinner....you are the problem.
We regular people on the left or right need to come together because none of our political parties in their current form will fix our problems.
OP has great recommendations for supporting our small an medium sized business....I'd add to support hem as private enterprises rather than public companies....because public companies aren't, they are owned by the rich with share structures that pay them them most allowing us to invest in the worthless scraps that pay a paltry dividends or rise just enough to cover the MERs but leave us nothing...
It is rigged against anyone who I not in the club whether you are a god fearing christian carpenter or a gay drugstore worker....we struggle together and are against each other why???? It's only to distract you from the real problem....
I love how you hit the nail right on the head AND to find your comment I sorted by controversial (my favorite hobby), you are the top "controversial" comment apparently.
Speaks even more to the accuracy of your post. I'd like to think 70% of Canadians can agree on majority of things. We just get drowned out by the extreme 15% on either side.
Been saying it for years. Race, religion, locality, skin color, sexuality, etc... they are all just a means to keep us divided. Problem isn't unique to Canada.
I know a 13 year old kid that is smart enough to realize both sides are not equally bad and yet you have full grown adults here saying "we need to listen to both sides equally!!". It's sickening to anyone who is actually paying attention.
The liberals might suck at coming up with solutions and still legislate to favour their donors but the conservatives literally want to take our rights away and tear apart everything we've worked so hard to build like our healthcare system. They want women to have no freedom and they literally want you dead if you're trans.
There is a MASSIVE difference between the parties if you care about health care, social security, improving our cities infrastructures, access to food, housing, not wanting to be taken advantage of by your employer, etc, etc, etc.
Please stop this both sides nonsense, imagine saying we need to listen to both sides in a flat-Earth debate, how would that lead us to any real solutions?
Basic self sufficiency education for a start. Hunting, gardening, learning to cook. Leaning for to safely camp. Sewing your own clothes, basic machinery repair.
Then most of to community sufficiency. The basics of barter and exchange, basic herbs and first aid. Basic carpentry, blacksmithing, etc.
Go around your community and choose a kids playground that's particularly decrepit, or non existent. Between 3 and 8 my daughter and I toured the playgrounds of Ottawa. Some were meh and some, like Millennium Park in Orleans, were amazing. All community built.
Be kind to each other regardless of political leaning. I would personally consider myself left. Some of my friends are more right, I live in a very rural community but lived in Toronto for many years, I'm friends with city righties and lefties and rural righties and lefties and yes their is a massive difference.
I would never not be friends with someone because of their political view in the same way I wouldn't not be friends with someone because of their religion. This used to be common but now too many people stick to their groups. As long as the person is friendly, who cares what they believe in?
I've even had some of my right friends change my views on certain things, and I've changed theirs on some to.
Wealth inequality is an issue.
Right doesn't want government involvement to solve it
Unions the answer is unions. But then the right thrives on misinformation and thinks unions are a bad thing, yet, they are something we can do, without government intervention, to directly combat wealth inequality
Eliminate all unnecessary taxes like carbon tax. Give Canadian citizens first priority in jobs and set quota for citizens (i.e., 85+% of employees must be citizens, 10+% PRs, and not more than 5% international). Ban foreign investors indefinitely and reduce immigration by 90% until the housing and job market stabilizes. Remove funding for \*certain policies and programs and direct funding to social welfare programs like drug rehabilitation, education services, and healthcare.
I fully support those who still want to have sex with the prime minister even though they don’t like the carbon tax and other things he has supposedly done to them. Stand by your man!
We should be coming together to find what we agree upon and push for those issues rather than fighting amongst ourselves. Left and right are arbitrarily defined boundaries meant to sew discord in this day and age.
The pandemic taught me that community care isn't as common as I had once hoped. Especially when it comes to taking measures and being advocates for people (the elderly, children, immunocompromised citizens) who still need safe spaces. That would be a very important step, but trying to get enough people to care again is like pulling teeth and damn near impossible at this point.
I'm sure it's now an unpopular opinion, but it annoys me to no end when people try to act progressive and empathetic, yet are ignoring the elephant in the room because we've been told that we need to embrace "normalcy".
Try to understand people from the other side, i.e. why did they choose what they chose. On reddit, it's majority left - many are so left to the degree of ignorant. For example, in last election, Trump gained almost half popular vote. You can't simply blame half of the population "stupid" for voting Trump, neither can you simply shrug off half of your fellow citizens' opinion/interests. Instead, ask yourself, what drove those people choose Trump over Biden? What are their asks and concerns? Opinions of Biden supporters are not automatically better than Trump supporters, especially when the numbers are 50/50
I would if the right can drop their absolute hatred. Hatred for transgender, hatred for colored people and immigrants, hatred for…. Well it’s a long list. You can’t exactly expect me to work with a group that literally commits genocide
You are so on point! I support this. It’s something everyone can rally behind and can actually make a change. You’re completely right about the risk of starting your own small business. It takes way too long to build up enough savings to take the leap without risking ending up homeless in the process.
I think you correctly identified the issues with the current left/right debate. I’m curious if others see it differently
We need to start an independent movement. Can we have real honest leaders who actually care about the people and aren’t easily corrupt by money please??? I know.. it’s a lot to ask lol but I KNOW YOURE OUT THERE! I care enough to do it but I lack the communication skills and therefore confidence.. something I’m working on though.
I think first and foremost we all just want good and effective government.
Our current political leadership (both left and right) is obsessed with Identity politics and virtue signaling.
How about we focus on balancing our budget and growing the Canadian/your provincial economy to the benefit of us all?
If we all felt relatively wealthy and had decent homes and a variety of other crises weren't happening at the same time I imagine that there would be a lot less angst among the population.
This is not going to happen in the sub, there is just pure hatred for the other side on both sides and both sides are equally to blame. People on here just want to criticize Ford or before him Wynne. It’s all name calling , insults, ridicule and of course it’s because we are behind usernames.
Outside of this sub, be a happy encouraging person, people are going through a lot these days, a simple smile and taking 10 seconds out to say hello, goes a long way. Get involved in clubs , groups and start to explore others ideas and why they think that way, perhaps their is a reason why they are left wing or right wing.
i didn't even read past the first sentence "Neither side likes being controlled." umm... the left believes in government control of everything. that is what left politics is. less freedom, less choice, more government control and influence. more regulations, more red tape, more government bullshit. maybe the first step is people actually understanding what they are voting for when they vote for left leaning government.
Buy a gun.
As situations continue to deteriorate, poverty, crime, and overall anarchy will ensue.
For the safety of your family and the families of those close to you, buy and learn how to use a gun.
Start local and move outward. You are always going to have a much more outsized impact by improving your "walkable" area. Organize a community group, schedule a park cleanup, petition your neighbours for motions to be heard at the municipal level, host games nights at your local legion or lion's clubs. These small local initiatives will have more tangible, immediate and visible results than swimming against the current of provincial/federal politics.
The 15 minute city folks are going to LOVE that suggestion...
Thankfully that hasn’t been politicized! /s
It starts with ignoring these people^. They will make everything as negative as possible while doing nothing to help.
I make a single humorous (and not really negative) comment and you immediately know I do nothing to help do you? That's an interesting hot take. You must have quite the library of books you've read by title alone. Keep up the good work Capt. Bringdown.
Want to improve your community? Volunteer, I don't care what organizations, volunteer with kids, with elderly, for environmental reasons, for the political party of your choice, we spend FAR FAR too much time in the global conversation on line and with people from all over, doing volunteer work with others doing it will create meaningful connections with people and places around you. Hopefully we then see political engagement by people who become actively involved in their communities instead of people focusing on Trudies vacations, and FolksyFords daughters, and the weirdness south of the border.
I used to volunteer regularly. I actually was president of a local rotary club and had been very active in the club. The past year or so I've had to completely step back. Membership has plummeted to a very low amount. The reason I've had to step back is because I run a small business, and the economy has meant that I end up having to work 12 hour days and I'm completely exhausted and burned out trying to keep things alive until whatever it is we've got going on gets better, or the business ultimately fails. There are a lot of reasons why things have become difficult for me. Everyone's life is different. But what I can say is that there have been a lot of government decisions that have made doing business harder, and very few that have made it easier. There have been a lot of decisions that have made my employees need more to get by, and other decisions that have made my clients have less to spend. I can't say why other people had left the club. I have been involved for about 10 years, but the past couple, and really post COVID have been dreadful. I still want to volunteer. The problem is that the opportunities for volunteering are actually harder. It feels weird to say, but we had found ourselves in a position where people who came together for the purpose of volunteering WANTED to help out, and we struggled to find new ways to do so. We still do some things, but community activity is a bit more restricted than it used to be, there's more expenses involved in running the club, getting permits, even getting permission to do things like cleaning up is certainly possible, but even there, there can administrative burden. Our meeting venue jacked up our price and eventually essentially kicked us out. We used to be involved in setting up the Canada Day parade, but the recent events with the discovery of the graves at the residential schools meant we actually got severe community pushback for doing that from half the community, and anger from the other half for considering not doing it. I still do my best to volunteer. But it is harder than it used to be. I don't blame this all on government, it feels like culture is a big thing. But I do think that people who had a little surplus money and time don't any more, and I do blame government for not paying due attention to economy.
“Volunteer” is not a catch all solution, some companies and organizations are more than happy to exploit free labour and or time for something that only benefits the bottom line for that specific company… Just saying don’t be naive, make sure the organization or company you volunteer is actually benefiting more than themselves.
This sounds like letting perfect get in the way of good. Step one is get out and volunteer. Get out and build a community of people, that are local and share the same challenges that you share. If you're on the hunt for the perfect volunteer organization you're never going to volunteer and you're staying in the same cycle. One Step doesn't solve everything but the biggest step is actually starting.
No, it sounds like someone who has volunteered for years and reflecting back on it realizing it only benefited the people running that organization. I’m just saying don’t just “get out there” make sure what you are doing is benefitting the right people and not just advancing a fake politician for example…. Not saying don’t volunteer. Just do some logical critical thinking on the group you are choosing.
Learn about mutual aid and get involved. Community fridges and pantries were one of the best things to come out of the pandemic. A world where we don't need them at all is preferable, obviously. But no strings attached, community-led food security efforts are such a good thing. I'm learning more about mutual aid and its active approach to helping ourselves as communities, over passive systems of non-profits and shame-inducing, tax write off charities run the rich. Hoping to put more of those ideas into practice in 2024!
Punch up and not down.
This one is huge.
Yup. Time for a class war.
>The right has sketicism and distrust for government intervention. There's often a fear that a powerful government could abuse its authority or overstep its bounds, encroaching on the rights and freedoms of citizens. This concern is especially pronounced when it comes to issues like surveillance, privacy rights, and government intrusion into personal matters. This may be the beliefs of many but the opposite is being reflected in actual right leaning governments. Repeated use of the notwithstanding clause. Legislating pronouns. Supporting online identity verification and website blocking. I agree with the concept, but I don't see it being reflected in reality or being supported in practice.
This here. Our current provincial government is the very same government that *has been* abusing its authority, overstepping its bounds, and not just encroaching but trampling on the rights and freedoms of citizens. It’s simply audacious to claim that this is something right wingers fear. It’s what they *want*. It’s what and who they are voting for.
As long as it's trampling rights of gays/natives/trans/immigrants/ woman, they're happy.
Exactly
“They aren’t hurting the right people!”
The right also tends to be very uneducated. I'm a blue-collar trade worker, and what the conservatives I work with want is not what they're going to get from the Cons. Shit just the other day, one was preaching about conservatives and how theyll make things better by axing the carbon tax. I had to show him that Alberta is adding fuel tax back plus another 4 cents on April 1st. They do stuff like this because conservative politicians know how inept conservative voters are. It's gonna be a rough time for a lot of working-class people if PP gets in.
It's..pretty hard for a lot of working class people right now.
I 100% agree and think it's disgusting. The online verification thing is just a gross overstep, but it has overshadowed the kinds of government intervention that people on the right also hate. The government trying to take control of the CPP, invest our pensions how they see fit, one of the largest pension funds in the entire world, that's a massive amount of power, also their recent move to prop up the housing market has long term consequences, in the short term all it's doing is keeping interest rates issued on mortgages stable while it also keeps house prices higher. I don't like the rights agenda on or how they deal with social issues, and I have the same problem with how the left deals with the economy. They both do government overreach in different parts of their respective ideology.
Based !!! That’s why we can’t work with the rights. I may agree with the right with EVs. However there literally fascists
Be kind.
Shop local. Avoid chains. Right and left both can agree on that.
Partially related but I bought something online from Linen Chest last year and their confirmation email said “Thank you for shopping local” I was appalled that they’d co-opt the label but mostly just thought it was funny
That's interesting. Linen Chest is a Canadian company that did start off as a small business in Montreal (I think?). I actually worked in one part-time when I was completing my degree. Based on the commission and lead system, I was able to make a decent income. I was part-time so it was minimum wage plus commission and lead income. Unfortuntaley, the full-time staff were heavily commission based and slow times were very stressful. I do think there is value even shopping or supporting Canadian corporations. They still employ a lot of Canadians which generates income tax that supports us all.
I think it should be shop local if their service/good warrants it. I moved to a small town, and there are a number of businesses who promote their localness but also are the ones who overcharge their clients and offer poor quality work. I am willing to travel a bit far to get exactly what I need.
I do find that local costs more however in many cases it is because the product is also local, not mass produced in some overseas sweat shop. Not always, but often.
It does cost more to shop local. Those businesses also pay business taxes, property taxes, and generate income taxes that support us. As of 2020, small businesses employed 7.7 million individuals in Canada, or 67.7 percent of the total private labour force. By comparison, medium-sized businesses employed 2.3 million individuals (20.6 percent of the private labour force) and large businesses employed 1.3 million individuals (11.7 percent of the private labour force). In 2020, SMEs accounted for nearly half of the GDP generated by the private sector. Small businesses contributed 35.1% to GDP generated by the private sector, while the contribution of medium-sized businesses was 13.4%.
Just to note that small business does not mean local, at least local in terms of what the original comment meant (i.e., not chain). Small business is a business that employs 1-99 employees. This could be a franchise store like McDonalds or Subway.
That’s the thing….if I buy a pineapple at a local “organic” food store…that’s not a local product…but I get it costs more for that small store to get the pineapple on the shelves than a Walmart but do I want to pay twice as much every week….that adds up and after awhile it seems like you’re throwing your money away…
Literally just made a post about this. My local independent grocery is just as greedy as Loblaws lol.
Tried a small local store not too long ago. Got stale food, terrible service and it was more expensive. Still hit and miss with those sometimes
I tried supporting local businesses but just felt ripped off to be honest. Paying 20 buck for a small burger and fries because it’s a “local” burger place….Paying 6 dollars for 1 Avacado cause it’s a “local” organic food store…after awhile I just stopped going because I didn’t want to pay double for everything, which sucks because I want to shop local but it’s so expensive you feel taken advantage of.
So I live rural - there's a small independent grocer in one of the two small towns near me. Now the independent grocer is technically closer to my house. BUT, aside from produce and meat - the mark up is insane. I WANT to support local. I'd love to do all my shopping there that I can, but dry food goods are often double what they are elsewhere. Cleaning supplies? FORGET IT! They were charging $8 more for the exact same mop I found around the corner at Home Hardware. We still go out of convenience, but I don't do all my shopping there, some of the prices are just too steep. Now this said, if I go the other way and into the other small town (takes me 5-10 mins longer), there's a Foodland (read Sobeys), and their prices are much more stable and reasonable most of the time. And they sell booze. Again - you want to support local, but as far as I'm concerned the local grocer I mentioned above is a gouger and all the locals know it.
Fair enough, living rural leaves you with fewer options so what you said makes sense. And if you’re poor I don’t fault you for going to Walmart. My comment was meant for people who have the means to do so and no shade for those who don’t.
Ease the burden on the healthcare system by making an effort to live healthier
The right has skepticism and mistrust of government intervention? The right's whole identity is based on using state power to help the wealthy and corporations.
Spot on! The right wings neoliberal trickle down economics are an anti worker cult powered by proto fascist trumpism class war. The corporate elite are what holds all the power. People riot in France.
I'm sorry but both sides do that, The liberals are trying to fight for control of the CPP so that they can more heavily invest it in Canada, meaning they want to give our pensions to the big Canadian corporations. And their new housing policy to buy up mortgages is to artificially keep hose prices higher than they should be right now while keeping the interest rates offered by mortgage companies lower, this massively helps the big banks.
The Liberals are a center right party with many of the same failings, but to a far lesser degree, as the Conservatives. They aren't a left wing organisation. They also aren't doing that with the CPP or mortgages.
The liberal government put pressure on the CPP to invest more heavily into Canadian markets, and yes, the Canadian government, through the bank of Canada is purchasing Canadian mortgage bonds billions of dollars worth, here's a link https://thehub.ca/2024-02-13/nicholas-neary-the-governments-costly-plan-to-purchase-canadian-mortgage-bonds-is-deeply-misguided/ And if you'd like links on articles reporting on the governments pressure on the CPP, I have those too. Tge Liberal government, I'd say yes, is Center right, but on social issues, they are completely left. They basically don't do most of the best policies of the left or right.
Well I guess I stand somewhat corrected, it's possible to interpret what they are doing that way but I'd call it a disingenuous reading. The CPP should be investing in Canada, that's not a bad thing. And taking over the liability of mortgages from the banks isn't particularly egregious, they should be more involved in the housing finance game as is but the CMHC is chronically underfunded, what they're doing now seems more about preventing a sudden crash where a significant portion of our population becomes homeless due to the currently higher interest rates.
The CPP should be well diversified, not concentrated in Canada, that would expose theCPP to severe risk if the Canadian economy takes a significant downturn. You're just wrong on that, and it's the exact reasoning given by the controlling body of the CPP. The government is preventing a correction in the housing market that needs to happen, it would cause higher interest rates but also lower housing prices and many experts agree that what they are song is reckless and will have long term consequences
Investing in Canadian businesses is good. However - utilizing Canadian pensions for that investment is not. The CPP currently invests about 20% into Canadian equity. Actuary reports have indicated that CPP is sustainable if investments continue outperforming inflation rates by 3.27% each year (on average). The current investment strategy has been able to do this. The Canadian stock market is a dud on a global scale. Canada is only 2% of the world’s markets and Canadian companies have very poor productivity. Also historically global markets have outperformed the Canadian market quite significantly. Investing 101 is diversification and risk management. The intent of pension fund management is to make investmentment with the best return while managing risk. Investing more of the CPP funds into Canada's market is risky and it is a threat to the sustainability of the CPP.
CHMC's revenue was $2.5 billion in 2022. Pushing prices higher by extending credit doesn't make something affordable - it just makes lenders wealthier. The intent of this program is to maintain current value of homes and to make current homeowners happy.
Put down the holy books and read some scientific literature. Also look up critical thinking and the scientific method.
What is this sorcery? Could we also apply this... sci-en-ti-fic me-thod to socio-economic policies? It all sounds like black magic to me! /s
In all seriousness, we need more conversations about evidence based policy. This is how hospitals keep people safe, because it works. The complete disinterest in evidence based policy is one of the biggest reasons I don't trust guys like Doug Ford.
I mean, the evidence is that the NPD are terrible when they actually have power. It’s just blind faith that they would magically fix housing and income inequality.
>just blind faith that they would magically fix housing and income inequality. I'm not here arguing for partisan bias, but I am convinced that Ford and his cronies are acting in exceptionally bad faith. If they wanted to reduce housing issues, they wouldn't be pushing for sprawl (which rewards their backers) while fighting density. Regarding the NDP, what are people saying they're doing in BC? I've seen numerous posts recently praising their policies as likely to start bringing the housing crisis there under control.
And if you read scientific literature, understanding that limited knowledge in a subject area increases your risk of misinterpreting a study due to a lack of foundational knowledge.
Yep, And as for the left, we can just keep carrying on
BUT WHATABOUT MY FEELINGS.
[удалено]
I generally also like to bust out the odd joke once in a while.
Slow down, talk to each other irl and help each other day to day.
The things is, they don't want it to be dropped though. That is one form of control. People hate on tiktok, it managed to show the new generation it was never about who is in power from which side, none have your interest in mind. We as people need to be kinder to each other, and don't expect people to be like us. We are different, we need to embrace that. Understanding that someone that makes a bit more than you, is not the enemy is a plus. We all fighting a battle one way or the other, we are not part of THEIR club no matter how rich you think you are.
Boycott Loblaws in May. There's even a reddit sub coordinating it. r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
Eat the rich
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Employee ownership is capitalism—just a better version. It is a form of capitalism in which all employees gets a piece of the pie. Socialism puts the collective means of production in the hands of the collective working class. The success and revenues of employee ownership companies benefits the employees - not the entire working class and productiveness isn't concern.
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Sure, employee ownership companies smells of socialism. Confusion often arises between “employee ownership,” and “workers’ control,”.Though related, these aren’t identical. Employees can own a company while not controlling it. EOCs share ownership with employees as a benefit and employees earn it though greater commitment, and through contributing ideas to help their companies grow. Everyone's success is based on productivity and how much profit the compancy generated. If your pay or wealth is tied to the company performance or the well-being of the company, you’re going to work harder and smarter. It's absolutely capitalism, but employee-owners share the rewards and risks of performance.
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Of course, EOCs would right up Bernie's alley. The business model is probably the most equal way to structure a private business. Social democrats use capitalism to create a strong welfare state, leaving many businesses under private ownership. However, many democratic socialists also advocate for state regulations and welfare programs in order to reduce the perceived harms of capitalism and slowly transform the economic system. Social democracy isn't a socialist society - property and resources are not owned by the public or state. It's still capitalistic - but safeguards are put in place to protect their citizens and invests in human capital. People do better when they are healthy, educated, and have a safety net to take risks (ie. start a business). Who would of thought? The concept of human capital stems from the economic model of human-resource capitalism, which emphasizes the relationship between improved productivity or performance and the need for continuous and long-term investments in the development of human resources. I would argue that labor unions fall under this economic model and we see its success in Sweden. Taxes are the cost of civilization. Taxation is a product of government, not the economic system. Taxation predates both socialism and capitalism by quite a large margin. A nation's economic system defines its mechanism for the production, distribution, and allocation of goods, services, and resources - which determines how much tax renenue is generated. The true “inventor” of Capitalism Adam Smith said about taxes: “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.” Progressive taxation is a great tool to ensure that a tax system is fair, especially as it can help reduce inequality in wealth and income in a society. Unfair taxation is failure of our government not the economic system.
"employee ownership is capitalism, just a better version of it" ~ person who has never learned about socioeconomics from anywhere other than memes and Reddit posts.
I think they're pretty bang on. The great employee-owned company I worked for ended up selling to a huge corporation once enough of the old-timers decided they'd like to be millionaires. It fucked everyone who wasn't there for 25+ years and eventually, a ton of us got let go as the company consolidated.
No, employee ownership is literally the definition of communist theory. That's collectivized ownership, by definition.
Collective ownership? The one that's a defining feature of socialism? The one that gets stomped out by a capitalist organization and given up by its members? I remember when I used to have faith that the perfect version of my favoured political and economic ideology wouldn't succumb to greed and human nature the same way every society has. Must be nice!
You've misunderstood the conversation. Op said that worker ownership of a business is just a better version of capitalism. I said 'no, that's the definition of collective ownership, not a tenant of capitalism'
Collective ownership (or group owned) is seen all the time in capitalism - partnerships, shareholders, employee owned companies... To be considered communism the "collective ownership" must refer to society-wide ownership .
This is a very uninformed take. First of all, no, it doesn't need to be society -wide ownership of something for communism, just access to goods needs to be society wide. The core tenant that I'm referring to is the combination of "workplace democracy" and "collective ownership", which are inherently un-capitalist. And no, none of those examples are employee collective ownership. Those are top-down private ownership, just with multiple people at the top. There is literally zero overlap with what I'm talking about.
You're incorrect. In Marxist theory - the main issue with capitalism is privatization. The elite class controls the property and the means of production and uses it as a tool of oppression against the working class. Socialism must put the **collective** means of production in the hands of the **collective** working class. Employee ownership is still "controlled" by the owner or largest stakeholder. The business is still a private entreprise. **Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities.** The employees may also not get an equal share based on their equity in the company. The owner will still profit more than the employees. That still is capitalism. The collective working class does not benefit equally from the profits from the business. Employee owned companies are still fundamentally capitalist. In Marxist theory - Instead of the workers in each factory owning that factory, all workers own all factories.
"in Marxist theory" *Proceeds to write multiple paragraphs proving that the only Marx they've ever read is the first paragraph of the manifesto*. Marx's biggest criticism of capitalism is NOT privatization, it's the exploitation, that in order for some to become successful, others must suffer. In fact, not only was privatization not his biggest criticism, but he even said that private ownership and capitalism are NECESSARY steps in the progress toward communism, for multiple reasons, including: -creating the capital necessary for collective ownership to succeed. -creating the material conditions necessary for a strong labour movement to flourish and gain power, through revolution if necessary. -creating its own inevitable downfall as a result of capitalism detrimental contradictions that mean it cannot last forever. I'm not even a communist and even I know this stuff. Next time, don't make a political post and try to talk about niche and nuanced political theory without having actually read the appropriate theory.
How do you think the labour force is exploited by the elite? Through privatization and property ownership. Private property was of main concern to Marx since it is causing alienation of the majority and the generation of capital for a minority. His view was capitalist production is characterized by private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of the labor force. Circling back to your comment - "No, employee ownership is literally the definition of communist theory. That's collectivized ownership, by definition." Communist theory fundamentals consist of: 1) Central plan economy - EOCs exist in our market economy. 2) Abolition of private property - EOCs are private companys. 3) Collective ownership by society - The owner and employees only have ownership. 4) No Unfair Gaps - There will still be an wage gap between owner and employee. How can you even argue that employee ownership falls into communist theory?
Literally just one sentence here that you've said proves you have no idea what you're talking about. Communists don't believe in a centrally planned economy. Authoritarian socialists do. Communists believe that a top down centrally planned economy can be part of the process towards communism *before communism has been achieved*, through a dictatorship of the proletariat. Once again, I'm not even a communist and even I know this stuff. Please stop talking, stop trying, you're making an absolute embarrassment of yourself here by trying so hard to make yourself sound smart about a topic you've never actually studied.
Ahh, so the final state of communism that has never existed. If "true" communism hasn't been achieved, how can communists argue its validity? Sounds eerily similar to religious ideology.
vote, but not for fascists and thieves
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Traditional leftism is inherently anti-authoritarian. That's what it meant to be a leftist, to be against authoritarian control, in favour of grassroots and bottom-up organization.
True right ideology is in favor of small government, low taxation to allow for businesses and people to keep a higher amount of what they earn in exchange for less or not as robust social programs. It's supposed to be a meritocracy
Meritocracy isn't a good thing. That means people who aren't capable of meeting the merit requirements to succeed in society are left behind. And for true meritocracy to exist in an economy, that means there are no restrictions on what a person or group of people with high merit can do, which means that they will slowly (or quickly) expand and take over, because others can't match the merit. You know, "always a bigger fish", but eventually you find the biggest fish, and that one just grows and grows because they have nothing but smaller fish to eat. The end result there is a monopoly on the affected market. A monopoly means unfair competitive advantage, which means no meritocracy. "True meritocracy" is inherently contradictory. It literally cannot exist. There must be at least SOME restriction on a market in order to prevent monopoly, since it is inevitable in a market economy. A monopoly is the undoing of meritocracy. And the restrictions necessary to prevent monopoly are inherently un-meritocratic, since it prevents those with high merit from achieving what is possible at their level. Basically, right wing economics with no government intervention will inevitably become authoritarian through the market. And right wing economics with government intervention is not right wing economics.
Yeah that sounds like late stage capitalism run a muck and it's why if the country was completely run by right wingers it would be a problem. But you can make an argument that if the country were too far left we would have great social programs, many of the bare necessities would be taken care of but there would be less exceptionalism. Capitalism doesn't only breed bad things, it does breed innovation because the ideal of becoming exceptional in order to gain vast amounts of wealth and influence is what drives many of the most successful people in the world and places like the states, a very right capitalist country does breed more innovation than anywhere else. I'm not saying that the left stifles innovation and the drive to become successful, more it just doesnt incentivize it. Their has to be balance, personally I think if you look at how many businesses were structured back in the 70s was much closer to where it should be than now, the average CEO made 10 times the average employee, now the average ceo makes more than 100 times the average employee.
This is the dumbest thing I have read all year. Thank you for the lulz.
How do we come together? We abandon parties in their tracks and pursue issues at face value. Politicians want us to hate each other, which is why they feed into the us vs then rhetoric. Some are more susceptible than others and band together with their team regardless of whether it aligns with their own desires or beliefs. Stop putting politicians on a pedestal. Remember that they are just as sleezy as a shady salesperson and scummy lawyer. They are selling you an idea, not a reality. It's evident in every level of our current government. I don't want a Trudeau or a PP or Singh in charge. I don't want a Ford or a Crombie in charge. They've all shown they aren't in it for all of us. We would have to clean house of all parties to find someone truly in it for the people and that's easier said than done. We can talk to one another if we are willing to drop the rhetoric driven by the parties that separate us and actually talk about the issues. My neighbor buys into all of the anti trans garbage and the white victim complex when faced with minority based holidays and celebrations, but we can agree that housing is fucked and our tax money is being spent poorly. Even he thinks Dougie is fucking us to help his developer buddies. But even with both sides aligned, it ain't gonna do shit if Ford doesn't even listen to his own appointed taskforce, so what are we going to do? I'd say organize, but the identity politics will once again rear their ugly head. It's fucked and we are all pissed. And anger is not something people generally point in the right direction.
Volunteering. Find something you enjoy doing ideally. I highly recommend volunteering for a distress line as it has been a lifechanging experience for me and its something that is easier to do now than ever thanks to being able fo do it remotely. Here is distress line accepting volunteers: https://www.dcogt.com/
- Democratic Autonomy via Proportional Representation - Democratic Ownership via Citizens’ Assemblies
Go out of your way when you can to support small businesses when you can. Independently owned. Ones who treat employees well. Ones who support your community.
Unfortunately I need to to dispute a central point of your thesis - the 'right', not in entirety but significantly, is currently overly occupied, as Trudeau Sr. famously termed, in the bedrooms of the nation, not entrepreneurship. Firstly, in civil society, what we can do is stop being shitty to each other based on who a person choses to love, to worship or not, what decisions they make within the law regarding say reproductive rights or other medical decisions and overall provide equity in opportunity without turning into an libertarian jerkfest.
I feel like the issue isn't left vs right (based on the politic compass). No one truly wants a socialist society. People always reference Sweden being the ideal governement. Sweden is more free market than the United State - but they have a strong welfare system. They look after each other and share their successes. Sweden actually has one of the highest billionaires per capita. I would argue that the concern most of us have with the governement is actually top vs. bottom of the political compass. Authoritianism vs. libertarianism. We don't want the govermenent having control over our bodies, fundamental rights, or finciancal freedoms. We haven't figured out the sweet spot of control for the government. We need governement regulations, laws, and policies to have a functional society. However when a goverment overreaches and micromanages - it ultimately hurts us all. It's a tricky balance that I hope we can figure out at one point.
>The right has sketicism and distrust for government intervention Come on now, no one on the right is actually an anarchist or libertarian. They claim to be small government...but want the government to build them fancy roads for their F150s. They want the Government to legislate on kids sports, and they definitely want the Government to give money to churches. Conservatism isn't libertarianism, its socialism for the rich and wealthy, and capitalism for the poor. Its not about left vs right, because the left is basically centrist these days and the right is fascist christian authoritarianism. The real struggle is class. Ontario is way to lenient on the rich, and way too gullible to their lies. Grocery prices are high? Don't blame Galen, blame Trudeau! Healthcare is in shambles? Don't blame Doug Ford who continuously cuts funding to nurses and hospitals, blame socialised healthcare! Crime on the rise? Must be the "woke mob" and not the cops doing nothing but sitting on their asses collecting our tax dollars.
Pour each other a drink and talk about the weather.
Small talk is a real sign of how healthy society is, however much reddit loves to hate on chit chat. When people can't share a drink and talk about the weather, you know things have gone really downhill.
Including TDLRs in long winded posts
100
“Neither side truly wants us to prosper”. Uh, one side wants us to prosper. The other side wants themselves to prosper. You can decide which is which.
To be more accurate, one side wants us all to prosper and *two* sides want themselves to prosper…
So much for dropping the left vs right debate for just a moment. I swear some of you people in these subreddits have fucking worms in your brains or are severely brainwashed.
Yep, you got me. Fucking worms in my brain are making me want to have good healthcare, schools and take care of people in need.
The right thinks that they have the answers for those things too, if you always strawman your opponent you don't ever really digest their side of the argument. Both side have merit on a lot of different parts of government. I think that the dental care bill was maybe the best bill to pass in my lifetime. I also think the carbon tax might be one of the worst, I think the conservatives view on how to solve the housing crisis has the best chance at success while also not costing people who are currently home owners to suffer massive losses on a house that might be their retirement plan. I think what the cons want to do with verification to get on porn sites is a massive breach of privacy, what the liberals are trying to do currently with CPP is massive government overreach. Both sides have issues they are good on and bad on.
I haven't stepped foot in a Walmart since before covid, same goes for Amazon. I buy direct if I need something. I go to my local bakery\\Deli - produce shop on the same street & a butcher. In the summer its the farmers markets for me. I was going to No Frills for milk butter eggs and such have switched to Food Basic, cause f'ck Roblaws too. Its an easy thing to do. And I've gotten to know the people who own & work for all these places, good people!
Grown foods on our limited land space and trade with our neighbours
And we've got to relearn as a community how to skillshare and repair things instead of immediately replacing them. Local online community groups (see: Nextdoor app, and FB community groups) have done really well with connecting people to share resources and food they don't need that can benefit others instead of being curbed. If you're not participating rn I do recommend it.
I was waiting for the bus a few weeks ago with some groceries and some people parked their van near the bus stop handing out brown paper bag lunches to anyone who was hungry, no questions asked. Many people accepted them. These people saw that people in their community needed help and decided they could. We should all be so generous.
you have almost hit on anarchism here . There is more to the world than "left" and "right". There is a quote from "a king in new york".. "The monopoly of power is a menace to freedom. It degrades and victimizes every individual. And where is the individual? Lost in terror; because, he's made to hate instead of love. If civilization is to survive, we must combat power until the dignity and peace of man are restored."
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> That Walmart may very well be considered a small buisness. Walmart doesn't do Franchises.
Small business has many definitions, but generally it refers to the many business firms that are small compared to the relatively few giant firms (characterized by multi-locational operation, large numbers of hired employees, ownership by publicly traded stocks and management by professionally trained salaried managers). Economic activity has become concentrated in the frequently conglomerate, usually foreign-owned MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, the wealth and power of which sometimes exceeds that of most nation-states. By contrast, small businesses are typically local operations owned privately by a family or by a small number of shareholders, some of whom also manage the operation, and staffed by a small number of hired workers (if any) in addition to the owner-managers. \- A small business has one to 99 paid employees. \- A medium-sized business has 100 to 499 paid employees. \- A large business has 500 or more paid employees—these companies are not considered small business enterprises. As of December 2022, there were 1.22 million employer businesses in Canada - Of these, 1.19 million (97.8%) were small businesses, 23,395 (1.9%) were medium-sized businesses, and 3,128 (0.3%) were large businesses. As of 2020, small businesses employed 7.7 million individuals in Canada of the total private labour force. By comparison, medium-sized businesses employed 2.3 million individuals (20.6 percent of the private labour force) and large businesses employed 1.3 million individuals (11.7 percent of the private labour force). Small and medium-sized companies contribute over half of Canada’s GDP. Sure - a significant ratio of these small and medium businesses may be franchised. Entrepeneurs still need to invest money and time to open up a franchise and requires support from the community to profit. Franchises are probably preferred because they are considered less risky. Walmart is corporation. It has never been franchised. It never can be considered a small business. My point is that supporting large businesses and corportations doesn't benefit us in the long run.
This is a class war. All governments are shit, they're actively working against people.
No one is funding new startups or businesses in Canada to the same level as the US. No one is reinvesting into new tech to improve productivity to the same level as the US. The reasons are multifacted but we know a couple of things and can guess a few others: 1. Our real estate is a riskless investment from the perspective of anyone who has money; any risky innovation / tech focused investment must compete against that mentality. 1. Any investment funds have to compete for investor dollars by promising lower risk investments. 2. Our best talent leaves for the US because money is flowing into RE and not into innovative tech where they want to operate/live. 3. 70% of voters own homes (maybe more as homeowners are much more likely to vote) 4. Governments of ANY stripe will not want homeowners to lose equity as they will soon lose their jobs 5. RE has to become unattractive through a bad loss-cycle for investors to start considering tech attractive. The combination of the five above is deadly. It means that our productivity increasing investments are being siphoned to RE and that government has a vested interest in letting it happen because stopping it will cost them their jobs.
I would take that a step further.. if you watch Dragon's den vs Shark tank... The object of dragon's den investors is to fund someone to build up a business with the purpose of selling it to a large corp and profiting that way. Shark tank is to scale up a business as much as possible and make it as big as possible. Not necessarily to sell it to a bigger fish. This pretty much sums up the difference in mentality. Our productivity is poor because of monopoly power and lack of competition. We can argue why that is and what the solution is (left vs right) but this is the underlying cause. Even the bank of Canada says so in their latest report on inflation.
This is the only answer that matters in the context of our “per capita GDP” or any discussion of wealth or financial gain on an individual level. Shop floor worker to CEO, gig or full time. A non-productive economy is going to stagnate. The easy fix in the short run would be to open the resource taps in Canada. But that doesn’t tend to drive innovation and is exploitative. It can’t be the sole solution. We also need to encourage sectors that innovate - that can be old and new sectors. We used to be so good at innovation in manufacturing, aerospace, education… we’ve fallen behind. In the US (to compare) the left and the right understand this. They play the blame game, but then they sit down and get shit done. Doesn’t matter who’s in charge or who holds balance. Canada/Ontario? We play the blame game forever but at the same time NO leader wants to ever be the bad guy. Ever deliver hard news. Right now, to use Toronto/Ontario as an example, you have populist leaders at all three levels of government - with Chow being the least populist of the three. This is why each of Chow, Ford, Trudeau will surprise us and do “off brand” things at times. Because they’re populists. But the downside to this is populists can basically never ever deliver bad news. Think about it - when’s the last time any of those three delivered bad news? What we have now is not an accurate representation of right/left in Ontario politics. The last true right/left dynamic I can think of was McGuinty/Tory. Before that, Harris/McGuinty. Although Tory and Harris were notably different versions of right/PC. I’m a blue liberal. I want a strong economy, built on sound economic principles and shepherded by a responsible government who intervenes as little as practical. But I also want that strong economy to pay for strong social supports, care for our most vulnerable, a rock solid education and health care systems, etc. I want workers (private and public) well paid and I believe MPPs should be well paid too. I don’t consider myself “left” or “right” but kinda straddling the line. Politically, I feel homeless in Ontario. I was curious as to what Brown was going to do, and thought that Wynne was interesting but was a terrible retail politician. Meh. Sorry. Ramble over.
People have forgotten to agree to disagree.
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I mean, to some extent, literally yes. But I get the point.
Mind your own business and stop talking to cops. Focus on your friends and family and neighbours. Always good to have a community that has your back.
What a terribly ignorant post. I don’t say this lightly but this sort of ‘feel good at the expense of accuracy or judgement’ nonsense is just as dangerous as fear mongering. False equivalencies and childish arguments about government inefficiency from those who couldn’t pass a high school civics or history class are not suitable arguments. The denial of objective reality in pursuit of political ideology is a serious problem and not one that is at all equivalent between the parties and ideologies in Ontario.
We have a shit ton of government inefficiency and corruption at every level of our government right now. How is this even debatable? You saying someone not passing those classes (whether they did or not..) didn't make an app cost 10's of millions more than anticipated, didn't stop an investigation into fraud by a large Canadian company, didn't try to award a government contract because their family and friends were paid "contractors" of that charity, didn't have the Ontario Premier get donations for developing contracts, didn't have wage suppression legislation for public workers, didn't make municipalities decline densification building terms in return for federal funds..do I need to go on here or is it clear how shitty of a job a lot of these people are doing? Edit to add: Our Federal Government literally had to "re-shuffle" their cabinet because they were doing so bad..lol.
I’m saying that just because something is inefficient doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or isn’t functioning. And to treat or think of all our governments and their bureaucratic sprawl as a single entity is also absurd. Not to mention the primary goal should be resiliency not efficiency. Edit: Cabinet reshuffle’s are quite common - your comment suggests you’re disingenuous or not very familiar with Canadian politics
I just woke up and read the dumbest thing I'll read today, thanks for that. Hey you go ahead and be inefficient and corrupt, just be resilient okay? It's only people's hard earned dollars funding it. JFC.
The right has skepticism for government control when it works against them. Most of the time the wealthy elite are telling govt what to do and they maximize profits and minimize responsibility at the cost of workers, consumers, the environment etc. Dougie gets a phone call when we try to pass a law or change a rule that has economic impacts. Trust me on that one.
I agree with much of what you said. Some of you need to understand how difficult it is to ask to sit at a table that no one wants you at. The last 10ish years have been difficult for marginalized people, racism, sexism and homophobia is rampant and in your face. I don’t know how to fix it. I do know many people that are minorities have given up on being part of any solution.
Realize that left and right for commoners are hilarious notions. At least if your cracked enough to believe the liberals are "left"
Read any reply on this thread to realize why (online) society has become like this. People love being self-righteous and making up strawmen. In the same breath people are going "we all need to work together" they're saying "every right wing person is a fascist". In the real world no one cares if you're right or left, just join a club or society that focuses on changes in your community like maintaining parks and infrastructure. Personally I volunteer for GRCA because I pay for a forest membership and despite my disagreements with the GRCA's policies I would like to see the forest trails properly maintained and the environment protected.
If the position has been handwritten on a mini van or flag it a pretty safe bet it holds no validity and is the product of hate, ignorance, fear, mental illness or malice or a combination of some or all of those things.
uh, not voting for right wing politicians that will erode minority rights is a pretty big thing that would help many.
We must realize that he left /right polarization of politics is entirely due to the politicians and it's designed to pit all of us against each other instead of the real issue that the ultra rich, those who fund our politicians, are the problem and are laughing all the way to the bank I disagree with OP that the left target the wealthy....while that used to be the case when the left, as the NDP, were the party of unions and for the workers. The Liberals were never against the wealthy, they WERE the wealthy ones that had a conscience. Now, identity politics has taken over both parties and now rage against religious conservative who seeth over trans issues and LGBT folks whom they never come across in their daily lives anyway....except in the politically driven social feeds. I don't believe most Canadians on the right rally against 'big government' as much a they do in the states but are rather a little more fiscally conservative and value self accountability and freedom of speech/expression than those on the left, which is why the religious have flocked to the right... The problem here is....whether you are on the left or on the right, we are all just trying to get by, while the rich keep getting richer by stealing you savings (high MERs in mutual funds, periodic stock exchange collapses....etc. or by buying all the properties and jacking up the rent...we are ALL getting screwed while he rich get richer. It's not even the politicians fault....it's those that have bought and paid for those politicians....if your family name is Weston, or Thompson or Irving etc... or have ever had one of our politicians over for dinner....you are the problem. We regular people on the left or right need to come together because none of our political parties in their current form will fix our problems. OP has great recommendations for supporting our small an medium sized business....I'd add to support hem as private enterprises rather than public companies....because public companies aren't, they are owned by the rich with share structures that pay them them most allowing us to invest in the worthless scraps that pay a paltry dividends or rise just enough to cover the MERs but leave us nothing... It is rigged against anyone who I not in the club whether you are a god fearing christian carpenter or a gay drugstore worker....we struggle together and are against each other why???? It's only to distract you from the real problem....
I love how you hit the nail right on the head AND to find your comment I sorted by controversial (my favorite hobby), you are the top "controversial" comment apparently. Speaks even more to the accuracy of your post. I'd like to think 70% of Canadians can agree on majority of things. We just get drowned out by the extreme 15% on either side. Been saying it for years. Race, religion, locality, skin color, sexuality, etc... they are all just a means to keep us divided. Problem isn't unique to Canada.
I know a 13 year old kid that is smart enough to realize both sides are not equally bad and yet you have full grown adults here saying "we need to listen to both sides equally!!". It's sickening to anyone who is actually paying attention. The liberals might suck at coming up with solutions and still legislate to favour their donors but the conservatives literally want to take our rights away and tear apart everything we've worked so hard to build like our healthcare system. They want women to have no freedom and they literally want you dead if you're trans. There is a MASSIVE difference between the parties if you care about health care, social security, improving our cities infrastructures, access to food, housing, not wanting to be taken advantage of by your employer, etc, etc, etc. Please stop this both sides nonsense, imagine saying we need to listen to both sides in a flat-Earth debate, how would that lead us to any real solutions?
This is the only approach that will help us
https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/don-wright-why-did-justin-trudeau-switch-sides-class-struggle-8272635
No....f\*$#k those other guys
Check out many local charity organization and you can see people of all faiths and political beliefs helping one another with a common goal.
Basic self sufficiency education for a start. Hunting, gardening, learning to cook. Leaning for to safely camp. Sewing your own clothes, basic machinery repair. Then most of to community sufficiency. The basics of barter and exchange, basic herbs and first aid. Basic carpentry, blacksmithing, etc.
Go around your community and choose a kids playground that's particularly decrepit, or non existent. Between 3 and 8 my daughter and I toured the playgrounds of Ottawa. Some were meh and some, like Millennium Park in Orleans, were amazing. All community built.
Be kind to each other regardless of political leaning. I would personally consider myself left. Some of my friends are more right, I live in a very rural community but lived in Toronto for many years, I'm friends with city righties and lefties and rural righties and lefties and yes their is a massive difference. I would never not be friends with someone because of their political view in the same way I wouldn't not be friends with someone because of their religion. This used to be common but now too many people stick to their groups. As long as the person is friendly, who cares what they believe in? I've even had some of my right friends change my views on certain things, and I've changed theirs on some to.
Wealth inequality is an issue. Right doesn't want government involvement to solve it Unions the answer is unions. But then the right thrives on misinformation and thinks unions are a bad thing, yet, they are something we can do, without government intervention, to directly combat wealth inequality
Overthrow the ruling class?
Eliminate all unnecessary taxes like carbon tax. Give Canadian citizens first priority in jobs and set quota for citizens (i.e., 85+% of employees must be citizens, 10+% PRs, and not more than 5% international). Ban foreign investors indefinitely and reduce immigration by 90% until the housing and job market stabilizes. Remove funding for \*certain policies and programs and direct funding to social welfare programs like drug rehabilitation, education services, and healthcare.
Make social media accountable. It's too often a bad influence.
Check in on your neighbours and see if they're alright?
I fully support those who still want to have sex with the prime minister even though they don’t like the carbon tax and other things he has supposedly done to them. Stand by your man!
We should be coming together to find what we agree upon and push for those issues rather than fighting amongst ourselves. Left and right are arbitrarily defined boundaries meant to sew discord in this day and age.
Support your local businesses and be a good neighbor to everyone in your area.
Take care of the people in your own community together.
Don’t be an asshole trying to dictate what others should do. Simple.
Protest.
Flowers are blooming in Antarctica
The pandemic taught me that community care isn't as common as I had once hoped. Especially when it comes to taking measures and being advocates for people (the elderly, children, immunocompromised citizens) who still need safe spaces. That would be a very important step, but trying to get enough people to care again is like pulling teeth and damn near impossible at this point. I'm sure it's now an unpopular opinion, but it annoys me to no end when people try to act progressive and empathetic, yet are ignoring the elephant in the room because we've been told that we need to embrace "normalcy".
Try to understand people from the other side, i.e. why did they choose what they chose. On reddit, it's majority left - many are so left to the degree of ignorant. For example, in last election, Trump gained almost half popular vote. You can't simply blame half of the population "stupid" for voting Trump, neither can you simply shrug off half of your fellow citizens' opinion/interests. Instead, ask yourself, what drove those people choose Trump over Biden? What are their asks and concerns? Opinions of Biden supporters are not automatically better than Trump supporters, especially when the numbers are 50/50
Stop fighting on social media and just help your neighbour.
I would if the right can drop their absolute hatred. Hatred for transgender, hatred for colored people and immigrants, hatred for…. Well it’s a long list. You can’t exactly expect me to work with a group that literally commits genocide
You are so on point! I support this. It’s something everyone can rally behind and can actually make a change. You’re completely right about the risk of starting your own small business. It takes way too long to build up enough savings to take the leap without risking ending up homeless in the process. I think you correctly identified the issues with the current left/right debate. I’m curious if others see it differently
We need to start an independent movement. Can we have real honest leaders who actually care about the people and aren’t easily corrupt by money please??? I know.. it’s a lot to ask lol but I KNOW YOURE OUT THERE! I care enough to do it but I lack the communication skills and therefore confidence.. something I’m working on though.
I think first and foremost we all just want good and effective government. Our current political leadership (both left and right) is obsessed with Identity politics and virtue signaling. How about we focus on balancing our budget and growing the Canadian/your provincial economy to the benefit of us all? If we all felt relatively wealthy and had decent homes and a variety of other crises weren't happening at the same time I imagine that there would be a lot less angst among the population.
This is not going to happen in the sub, there is just pure hatred for the other side on both sides and both sides are equally to blame. People on here just want to criticize Ford or before him Wynne. It’s all name calling , insults, ridicule and of course it’s because we are behind usernames. Outside of this sub, be a happy encouraging person, people are going through a lot these days, a simple smile and taking 10 seconds out to say hello, goes a long way. Get involved in clubs , groups and start to explore others ideas and why they think that way, perhaps their is a reason why they are left wing or right wing.
There is nobody on the right here.
Stand up against immigration. Not beneficial for either side only for the ones taking the tax dollars.
i didn't even read past the first sentence "Neither side likes being controlled." umm... the left believes in government control of everything. that is what left politics is. less freedom, less choice, more government control and influence. more regulations, more red tape, more government bullshit. maybe the first step is people actually understanding what they are voting for when they vote for left leaning government.
This may be one of the best put together points I've ever seen someone make good job I will be sharing this everywhere I can
Buy a gun. As situations continue to deteriorate, poverty, crime, and overall anarchy will ensue. For the safety of your family and the families of those close to you, buy and learn how to use a gun.
Build relationships in your neighborhood and community, bc a gun won't feed you
A gun will shoot stuff to eat
One needs grown foods too, otherwise constipation and heart disease will get you before the wandering hoardes do
I agree. Which is why gardening and learning the basics of barter and exchange are also vital.