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Useless Thread

herman said:
Who are you rooting for this year?
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My favourites are always the ones with titles or with wacky first names but regular last names so:

Rev. Hobbit Forrest
Dr. Taekwondo Byrd
Chardonnay Beaver
 
You know, for all the crowing Canadians do about how we'd never have a Health Care system like the USA, where what's seen as a basic human necessity has been turned into a for-profit industry that has a hugely negative effect on the most vulnerable members of society, there's really no getting around the fact that we've effectively done just that with Housing.

 
Nik the Trik said:
You know, for all the crowing Canadians do about how we'd never have a Health Care system like the USA, where what's seen as a basic human necessity has been turned into a for-profit industry that has a hugely negative effect on the most vulnerable members of society, there's really no getting around the fact that we've effectively done just that with Housing.
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You know what I never knew about the USA?  They actually spend a higher portion of their GDP on social programs.  The problem there is the money gets wasted big time.  So the last thing I want is for us to do anything even remotely how they do things there.

As for housing here, I don't know what the solution is.  They keep housing people in expensive cities like Toronto when Canada has so much land.  Perhaps the government should hook up with charities like Habitat for Humanity and help people actually build their own homes in communities that need more population and where the cost of living is low.  If you house people in cities like Toronto or Vancouver they're going to be faced with an extremely high cost of living.
 
Bullfrog said:
So.......the solution is to send the poor people out to smaller communities?
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Not necessarily smaller.  Cheaper.  Instead of places like Toronto and Vancouver, maybe places like Ottawa or Hamilton where life is much more affordable.  It will be win-win for the people involved and also the government and taxpayers.
 
I don't think it's all that complicated. In places where there's a housing shortage, have publicly funded non-profit housing developments for low and middle income people.

Again, it's like healthcare. We've successfully excised the profit-motive from that industry, do the same with housing.
 
Also, re: GDP spending it seems like the implication there, and forgive me if I'm wrong, is that the reason the US has lousy social programs is because of it's higher % expenditure. If so, I'd point out that while it's true that Canada is nominally lower than the US in that sense(by about 2 percentage points) the US is lower than the UK and significantly lower than most European countries. In some cases by 10% or more.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I don't think it's all that complicated. In places where there's a housing shortage, have publicly funded non-profit housing developments for low and middle income people.

Again, it's like healthcare. We've successfully excised the profit-motive from that industry, do the same with housing.
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That won't work.  The land is too expensive in Toronto.  I know with my own house in particular, the value of the land makes up over 80% of the value of my house.  And I'm not even in an expensive neighbourhood.

Your idea works, but only in places where the land is cheap enough.  If these people can't afford a house they should not expect to live on prime land in Toronto.  Plus then everything else will be more expensive for them.

I guess highrise non-profit housing might work in Toronto but it's complicated.  And really where is the money going to come from?  The Liberals are already running an $8 billion deficit.  We're paying over $10 billion per year just on the interest alone on our debt.  They can't just pull the money from the sky.
 
sickbeast said:
And really where is the money going to come from?  The Liberals are already running an $8 billion deficit.  We're paying over $10 billion per year just on the interest alone on our debt.  They can't just pull the money from the sky.
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It wouldn't need to cost anything. I'm talking about non-profit development, not free housing.
 
Nik the Trik said:
sickbeast said:
And really where is the money going to come from?  The Liberals are already running an $8 billion deficit.  We're paying over $10 billion per year just on the interest alone on our debt.  They can't just pull the money from the sky.
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It wouldn't need to cost anything. I'm talking about non-profit development, not free housing.
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It's an interesting notion.  However with the current shortage of skilled trade workers, I don't think it's possible.  Perhaps you should share your thoughts with your MP and see what they say.
 
https://twitter.com/max_read/status/997473333301137410

I've got family that thinks this guy is a genius and I'll absolutely never understand why.
 
There is, and always has been, a great deal of money in telling unhappy people that their problems are not their fault.
 
I have a family member who is more conservative leaning (and very much not an idiot) and is really amenable to Peterson and Shapiro and the like, and I too, do not know why.

I guess it's because they are articulate? and really into maintaining the status quo?

We had a good row about that Google doofus' manifesto too.
 
On the other hand, I saw this video and it made me smile. Aforementioned family member thinks I'm a leftist extremist.

https://twitter.com/feministabulous/status/982287097003368449
 
herman said:
I guess it's because they are articulate? and really into maintaining the status quo?
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I think, at least in Peterson's case, that people are always going to gravitate towards things that reinforce whatever world views they already hold(even if they're unarticulated). Especially if they can cloak it in a vague sheen of academia.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I think, at least in Peterson's case, that people are always going to gravitate towards things that reinforce whatever world views they already hold(even if they're unarticulated). Especially if they can cloak it in a vague sheen of academia.
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I think that's correct. I also would've gone with vague veneer.

I was sent a podcast interview of Shapiro with Peterson, and Peterson brought up that same fact of life: people cling to their 'axiomatic' beliefs and will defend it irrespective of facts to the contrary (see the Backfire Effect).
 
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