PM Justin Trudeau's Canada

[Admiral Beez]

Actually, so many of the problems we have today is because of their can-kicking. They refused to raise CPP substantially to give us room to cut OAS today. Infrastructure and housing investment tanked on their watch.

I suppose, but in 1991 my first year university tuition was $1,900 and $2,500 when I graduated in 1995 ($3,700 and $4,600 today). My first job in 1996 paid $35,000 ($63.4K today) from which I paid $700 a month ($1,268 today) for a one bedroom basement apartment on the Danforth. I was able afford a used car, travel internationally and contribute to my RSPs so as not to need to rely on CPP or OAS. In 1998, newly married my wife and I, on a combined income of about $85k ($150k today) bought a five bedroom semidetached home in downtown Toronto for $290k ($512k today). In 1998 when I married there were 30 million people in Canada, and the place definitely felt less crowded. Life just seemed more affordable and enjoyable during the Mulroney-Chrétien-Martin years.

I can’t think of many ways that Canada in 2024 is better than it was in 2004, by which we’d gained marriage equality and reproductive freedom, the Employment Equity Act was a decade old, and we had more wealth distribution and affordability. In 2004 I bought a four bedroom house in Fredericton, NB for $192k, equal to about 2x our pretax household income. Today’s young adults don’t get this opportunity because Harper, Trudeau, elites and idiot, self-serving premiers screwed up the country.

 

[picard102]

Today’s young adults don’t get this opportunity because Harper, Trudeau, elites and idiot, self-serving premiers screwed up the country.

And Chretien and Mulroney. They borrowed from the future to make your generation comfortable.

 

[Admiral Beez]

And Chretien and Mulroney. They borrowed from the future to make your generation comfortable.

They’ve all been doing that.

By running record deficits today Trudeau has indebted my future grandchildren to pay for his massive increases in government size and programs.

There is no good politician, they’re all shite with the kitty, never spending within their means.

 

[Dan416]

I am glad that Trudeau's government is cutting immigration. But as you can see in his video, business leaders and politicians like Doug Ford were asking for more workers. It was smart of Trudeau to include Dougie in the video, actually. That was definitely done on purpose.

The US is facing the same issues we are in regards to housing and grocery unaffordability, so this is hardly a Trudeau problem exclusively.

But if anyone thinks that PP lead by Modi/Harper/IDU will be any better, they're deluding themselves. I just hope the NDP/Bloc realize it's in their best interests to not bring down the government until the full scale of the US self-destruction under Trump becomes visible. Of course, it's very apparent with Trump's cabinet picks if you're paying attention. Though I'm not sure how much attention Canadians are paying to Trump's cabinet picks.

 

[picard102]

They’ve all been doing that.

By running record deficits today Trudeau has indebted my future grandchildren to pay for his massive increases in government size and programs.

There is no good politician, they’re all shite with the kitty, never spending within their means.

People's obsession with deficits like it's some sort of household budget is wild.
If anything the cuts from the last two governments is what got us in such a terrible position with crumbling infrastructure and social services.

 

[Admiral Beez]

People's obsession with deficits like it's some sort of household budget is wild.
If anything the cuts from the last two governments is what got us in such a terrible position with crumbling infrastructure and social services.

When you wrote that politicians borrowed from the future this is usually an inference to deficits and pushing debt onto future Canadians. If you instead meant that politicians were borrowing from the future by neglecting spending on infrastructure and social services you could have said this. But unless new revenues or savings can be found the only way to get the second is to do the first, meaning that future Canadians can either have good infrastructure and social services OR lower government debt, not both.

Actually, so many of the problems we have today is because of their can-kicking. They refused to raise CPP substantially to give us room to cut OAS today. Infrastructure and housing investment tanked on their watch. Med school enrollments too. The military rustout also started under Chretien.

Good points. But without new revenues or savings elsewhere, where does the funding come from without burdening future Canadians with deficits and debt? An across the board tax increase and closure of tax dodging loopholes would help, but does it push wealth and innovation out of the country?

 

[AlbertC]

I suppose, but in 1991 my first year university tuition was $1,900 and $2,500 when I graduated in 1995 ($3,700 and $4,600 today). My first job in 1996 paid $35,000 ($63.4K today) from which I paid $700 a month ($1,268 today) for a one bedroom basement apartment on the Danforth. I was able afford a used car, travel internationally and contribute to my RSPs so as not to need to rely on CPP or OAS. In 1998, newly married my wife and I, on a combined income of about $85k ($150k today) bought a five bedroom semidetached home in downtown Toronto for $290k ($512k today). In 1998 when I married there were 30 million people in Canada, and the place definitely felt less crowded. Life just seemed more affordable and enjoyable during the Mulroney-Chrétien-Martin years.

Financial literacy is no longer prioritized or embraced among the majority of young people nowadays. What is instead celebrated is often the FOMO or YOLO spending culture. This is on full display with this Taylor Swift Eras Tour which has swept across the world in the past couple years, and how much it gets propped up by legacy and social media.

 

[Cambry Ardship]

How much does "financial literacy" matter as a determinant of economic outcomes when the rent for a 1 bedroom sits around $2300/month and a year of tuition at UoT is more than $12,000 e: $6,000 while a salary for a new grad will probably sit well under $60k.

It's pretty rich to blame young people's situations on a "FOMO or YOLO spending culture" when the macroeconomic situation has changed that much from when you were young. It's not young people's fault. How many concerts did you and your peers see, back when you were young 30 years ago? Why shouldn't a 20 year old have some fun nights out now?

 

[Northern Light]

Financial literacy is no longer prioritized or embraced among the majority of young people nowadays. What is instead celebrated is often the FOMO or YOLO spending culture. This is on full display with this Taylor Swift Eras Tour which has swept across the world in the past couple years, and how much it gets propped up by legacy and social media.

I'm with @Cambry Ardship here............. 'huh'? I don't get the connection your drawing here. Housing, in particular, is far more expensive relative to income than was the case 3 decades ago. That was the point being drawn; while we could get mired in the details as to all that's involved in that from a public policy and business culture perspective, I have to tell you I don't see the Financial Literacy of the under 40 set having anything to do with it.

****

How much does "financial literacy" matter as a determinant of economic outcomes when the rent for a 1 bedroom sits around $2300/month and a year of tuition at UoT is more than $12,000, while a salary for a new grad will probably sit well under $60k.

To be fair, that number and higher for a select number of STEM and graduate/professional programs.

U of T's undergrad tuition is $6,100 per year:

Now, lets add there are ancillary fees from Libraries to Recreation to Student Union dues on top of that, which can add upwards of $1,500 per year.

Residence, is, of course, a significant extra.

 

[evandyk]

Concert tickets are much more expensive relative to income too. And you can be like "young people should never go to concerts or eat avocado toast" but young people should be able to have fun (and eat!) too. Doing those things doesn't make you financially illiterate.

 

[Cambry Ardship]

U of T's undergrad tuition is $6,100 per year:

Good catch, I thought that was per semester.

 

[kEiThZ]

Today’s young adults don’t get this opportunity because Harper, Trudeau, elites and idiot, self-serving premiers screwed up the country.

Funny how your list of culprits don't include the voters of your golden era. Do you think this just materialized out of thin air without pushing off the bill to future generations:

I suppose, but in 1991 my first year university tuition was $1,900 and $2,500 when I graduated in 1995 ($3,700 and $4,600 today). My first job in 1996 paid $35,000 ($63.4K today) from which I paid $700 a month ($1,268 today) for a one bedroom basement apartment on the Danforth. I was able afford a used car, travel internationally and contribute to my RSPs so as not to need to rely on CPP or OAS. In 1998, newly married my wife and I, on a combined income of about $85k ($150k today) bought a five bedroom semidetached home in downtown Toronto for $290k ($512k today). In 1998 when I married there were 30 million people in Canada, and the place definitely felt less crowded. Life just seemed more affordable and enjoyable during the Mulroney-Chrétien-Martin years.

Everything you describe as a benefit to you has a cost that your kids (and late X'ers like me) are paying today. And unlike your era where governments could live off decades of investment in the infrastructure, military, housing stock, etc this generation has nothing in the bank. Any choice today to put off investment will basically have immediate consequences they are almost assuredly disastrous for your grandkids.

I used to think Chretien and Martin were great too. In hindsight, I see their policies as abusive and exploitive. I'm sure, I'm not the only one who has changed his mind on this.

 

[kEiThZ]

But without new revenues or savings elsewhere, where does the funding come from without burdening future Canadians with deficits and debt?

Who said they needed to run deficits? They could have kept taxes slightly higher to fund infrastructure. We're literally in a situation today where for every dollar taxpayers of that era pocketed in tax cuts we're paying $10 to fix what they put off.

If you want an example of this, look at Development charges. Most large municipalities literally (not figuratively) charge over ten times what they did two decades ago. That's not Harper or Trudeau or Ford. Those are conscious choices by municipal ratepayers to make younger generations getting into the housing market pay more in Development Charges than Boomers and older X'ers paid for a house.

 

[kEiThZ]

Financial literacy is no longer prioritized or embraced among the majority of young people nowadays. What is instead celebrated is often the FOMO or YOLO spending culture. This is on full display with this Taylor Swift Eras Tour which has swept across the world in the past couple years, and how much it gets propped up by legacy and social media.

I guess nobody attended concerts in the 80s or 90s? Stop with the bullshit. Some well off folks going to concerts doesn't offset the mountain of socio-economic data that young people have it worse today than most generations since arguably the 30s/40s.

 

[kEiThZ]

Concert tickets are much more expensive relative to income too. And you can be like "young people should never go to concerts or eat avocado toast" but young people should be able to have fun (and eat!) too. Doing those things doesn't make you financially illiterate.

It's also rational behaviour in an environment where you will never be able to save enough anyway. If you live in a city where it takes two decades to save a downpayment and gets worse every year, you might as well save up and go a concert as a treat. Putting off concerts for 20 years isn't going to make your life materially better or knock even months off that savings goal.

But also, the only person I know who went to that concert? A 30 yr old dentist. Her sister accompanied her. A 32 yr old lawyer. And both of them live 3-4 hrs outside of Toronto. The crowd you're seeing at this concert mostly aren't the ones really struggling with cost of living. This is like assuming there's no cost of living problems for young people in Paris because a whole lot of rich tourists showed up to go to the Olympics.