this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Sorry. I'm just trying not to get evicted due to living in a country with the highest rent, internet, food, and data plan prices.
Sounds like Canada
You'd be correct!
Starting the comment with sorry really gave it away . Plus it sounds alot like my current situation
Seeing that you’re from Canada, why is this so? Why is living in Canada so expensive relative to elsewhere?
Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.
Canada doesn't allow competition. We have 3 main internet providers, 3 main phone plan providers, like 2 grocery store chains, a couple airlines, etc.
When other companies attempt to come in to break up monopolies, they lobby, and get them shut down.
I mean where are we going to go? America isn't really an alternative, as much as Americans think it is. Our healthcare, gun laws, etc are things that make Canada really good. We could move to some European or Scandinavian country, but that's not as easy as it sounds, especially when you need to learn a new language, get accepted, move your entire life, and live in such a different culture.
So people in Canada just accept it. Maybe one day monopolies will be broken up, but there are no parties that are going to do that now. Left or right leaning.
Huh, it's almost as if they don't encompass as much of the political spectrum as they'd like us to believe.
Not just any government, but a government captured by capitalism
Isn't refusing to break up monopolies against the idea of capitalism and competition?
Capitalism and free markets are separate things within the economic "sphere" of society. Capitalism is an economic doctrine that focuses on directing production through private capital; free markets (in theory) ensure "equal access" to markets for products (as compared to monopoly or (economic, not necessarily drug) cartel markets which restrict access).
Over in the "public sphere", governments decide whether to jump in bed with private capital (often resulting in monopolies or cartels in economic marketplacs), or to make & enforce regulations that protect the (so-called) free market.
Or to make and enforce regulations that protect consumers -- i.e. human f-ing beings -- and enrich local economies without protectionism and "zero sum games", but I guess we shouldn't get too carried away here ;)
Thanks for the clarification!
We have a similar thing in Australia with our supermarkets, airlines and media. Our governments have been equally as stagnant in trying to change things. Housing and utility prices are fucked as well.
I haven't even seen a North American have a kind of acceptable political understanding in the 2020s until now.
Plenty of real people are quite aware of our current issues, they just get drowned out online.
The Economist explains it well in their article Australia and Canada are one economy—with one set of flaws. The competition regulators in both Australia and Canada aren’t doing their job, allowing oligopolies to form.
It’s a type of endemic corruption and Transparency International should start calling it out.
https://www.economist.com/business/2023/06/01/australia-and-canada-are-one-economy-with-one-set-of-flaws
It's big and cold. How much food do you think grows there? There's actually plenty of cheap land but people like to live with other people.
If you don't want modern conveniences, I bet it's cheap. I bet you can live off of potatoes and chicken for like $0.
It's not cheap. Buying a crack shack in a shitty province with basically no job opportunities costs more than a nice place in LA.
Actually.
Getting a piece of shit, run down, SHARED town house in Nova Scotia costs more than a decent house in LA.
You can get a rural house with land for no money. You can grown your own potatoes and raise chickens. That life is exceptionally cheap. But like I said:
So the problem is, Canada is big and cold. No one wants to live in the cheap areas.
Yeah I watch a girl on YouTube who bought a run down old house in Nova Scotia + plenty of land for I think $64k? It obviously takes a lot of work to get it modernized but it was technically liveable when she bought it. But it’s kinda out in the middle of nowhere and therefore not as desirable.
(If anyone cares, she’s a booktuber but she has a whole video series on refurbing the house. Her name is Ariel Bissett.)
Speak for yourself.
At least you don’t live in the city with the highest rent prices. Our countries treated housing like and investment scheme which drives up local tax revenue resulting in reduction year in year of new developments (assuming Canada has the same supply Constraints as here) . The reduction is fueled by the tax revenue however also by the increasing amount of investors and owners who vote. They don’t want their asset values to decrease so it’s artificially kept high the value component of the assets left long ago, we are in fictional valuations now.
Regarding food, their is no other way around monopoly or duopoly other than supporting farmers markets. By supporting them they can grow their base and bring down prices. Not sure what else can be done here. It’s a real problem for us here.
Electricity prices are skyrocketing here and that’s squarely landed at the feet of poor renewables planning. Mandatory coal plant shutdowns without having replacement capacity in place is killing people when the elderly & vulnerable can’t afford AC during the heat waves.
Sounds like Singapore.