[thettctransitfanatic]

Foreign Affairs Specialist Janice Stein endorsed Liberal Leader Mark Carney as well this morning and praised him and called him the "world's leading economist".

 

[afransen]

Foreign Affairs Specialist Janice Stein endorsed Liberal Leader Mark Carney as well this morning and praised him and called him the "world's leading economist".

That seems like an overstatement.

 

[vic]

BIG endorsement out tonight. Singer Neil Young has come out, penning a letter in support of Liberal Leader Mark Carney

Neil Young Archives

NYA contains the complete archives of Neil Young. The site is designed for a chronological exploration of artist output including music, books, films, & videos. Music is streamed in high-res with Xstream by NYA. A living document, NYA is always being updated with new information, content and news.

m.neilyoungarchives.com

Probably inspired by the Nardwuar interview, to keep on rockin in the free world.

 

[lenaitch]

I met former Premier Christy Clark yesterday. She is out stumping with Liberal candidates in tight ridings. Very friendly and personable.

From what little I follow western politics, I was always been impressed with her.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The difficult thing for young men is that with catastrophically expensive housing, to have a hope of being able to buy a home.....

Most adults in the developed world outside of the USA/Canada rent. My friend is a surgeon in Germany and says he'll never own a home, but that no one does except for the wealthy landowner class. Not being able to buy a home is no excuse for failure to launch. When I got my first job in 1996 I immediately moved out into a basement apartment on the Danforth that took more than 50% of my monthly income - but dammit, I was out.

 

[Richard White]

Most adults in the developed world outside of the USA/Canada rent. My friend is a surgeon in Germany and says he'll never own a home, but that no one does except for the wealthy landowner class. Not being able to buy a home is no excuse for failure to launch. When I got my first job in 1996 I immediately moved out into a basement apartment on the Danforth that took more than 50% of my monthly income - but dammit, I was out.

Honestly, I make 80000 a year managing Condos in Toronto. Safely, I bring home around 4200 a month after taxes.

If I was to get a 1 bedroom place on my own it would be stupidly tight. I would need to choose between eating or having utilities. It is doable but razor thin margins in this economy are a bad idea.

 

[evandyk]

Most adults in the developed world outside of the USA/Canada rent. My friend is a surgeon in Germany and says he'll never own a home, but that no one does except for the wealthy landowner class. Not being able to buy a home is no excuse for failure to launch. When I got my first job in 1996 I immediately moved out into a basement apartment on the Danforth that took more than 50% of my monthly income - but dammit, I was out.

An assortment of developed or high developing countries with home ownership rates higher than the US and Canada:

• Romania
• Hungary
• Croatia
• Lithuania
• Singapore
• Poland
• Taiwan
• Estonia
• Malta
• Norway
• Mexico
• Czech Republic
• Portgual
• Spain
• Italy
• Greece
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Ireland
• Finland

Germany is actually a relative outlier. The UK and France are both pretty close to the US and Canada (mid 60%s). The EU as a whole has a higher home ownership rate than either the US or Canada.

 

[Richard White]

An assortment of developed or high developing countries with home ownership rates higher than the US and Canada:

• Romania
• Hungary
• Croatia
• Lithuania
• Singapore
• Poland
• Taiwan
• Estonia
• Malta
• Norway
• Mexico
• Czech Republic
• Portgual
• Spain
• Italy
• Greece
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Ireland
• Finland

Germany is actually a relative outlier. The UK and France are both pretty close to the US and Canada (mid 60%s). The EU as a whole has a higher home ownership rate than either the US or Canada.

My 23 year old Cousin in Hungary just bought her first house, albeit in a mainly rural area 30 minutes outside of Budapest.

It is very common there for people in their 20s to afford homes because while their currency is worth almost nothing the cost of living is more balanced. Home prices have gone up since joining the EU but everything else has been kept in check.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Taking out the outliers, I am curious as to how many of the countries actually have growing populations and the urban (particularly primary cities) and rural split.

AoD

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

An assortment of developed or high developing countries with home ownership rates higher than the US and Canada:

It is slightly misleading though that most of the post-socialist countries on that list had privatized homes to families upon the transition to free market. Naturally home ownership is quite high, but it is not a straightforward parallel to Canada.

 

[Richard White]

Taking out the outliers, I am curious as to how many of the countries actually have growing populations and the urban (particularly primary cities) and rural split.

AoD

While I cannot speak to the others, Hungary is working on growing their population via tax breaks for persons having children. The more kids you have, the less taxes you pay with a maximum of 0% income tax being paid. They also give payouts to mothers for their kids among other benefits as seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_policy_in_Hungary

More often that not, these new families move outside the capital to currently rural areas like Erd, Tarnok, Ercsi, etc that are cheaper but rapidly being brought up to Urban standards.

They are springing up dandelions over there with almost every woman of child bearing age having kids.

 

[Northern Light]

Most adults in the developed world outside of the USA/Canada rent. My friend is a surgeon in Germany and says he'll never own a home, but that no one does except for the wealthy landowner class. Not being able to buy a home is no excuse for failure to launch. When I got my first job in 1996 I immediately moved out into a basement apartment on the Danforth that took more than 50% of my monthly income - but dammit, I was out.

As @Richard White points out above.... the cost of rent in Toronto vs even median income, never mind low/entry-level income is a real challenge.

I'm in a decent middle-income type apartment complex; not luxury. No ensuite laundry, no dishwashers, no central A/C. Want a unit in my building.....?

A 1 bedroom will set you back $2,500 per month, + electricity ($70 off-season, $150 in summer for window/portable a/c), + parking

So allow for $2,700 a month.

Even if you said spending up to 50% of your income was reasonable, that would be $5,400 a month or $64,800 in required income, assuming you meant from pre-tax earnings.

If you meant from post-tax earnings your gross would have to be over 80k.

Remember, full-time, minimum wage is $35,776 before taxes.

Yes, a lot of starting jobs pay better, but go look online and you'll see a lot of jobs at below $24 per hour including security, office cleaner, line cook, factory worker (food processing especially) and lots of retail.

The above earnings suggest an hourly pay rate of $33 per hour, or greater is required, IF you're willing to take the 50% on housing.

 

[evandyk]

It is slightly misleading though that most of the post-socialist countries on that list had privatized homes to families upon the transition to free market. Naturally home ownership is quite high, but it is not a straightforward parallel to Canada.

My dad actually worked in all of the Baltic states on this process. That's certainly why those countries are clustered at the top, but there are plenty of western Europe states where home ownership is higher than or basically the same as US/Canada.

 

[T3G]

There's lots of other pieces to the puzzle, too. I studied journalism 10 years ago but have never been able to find work in the industry, I've only ever been hired at crummy retail jobs that absolutely do not pay enough gh to survive. Now I'm going to go back to university in September for another 4 years in the hopes that a different degree will be able to turn my fortunes around. If my parents were spiteful, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps people, they'd be able to upend my life pretty completely.

And it's not just a young person thing. My mom studied psychology in Czechoslovakia but Canada doesn't recognize her degree, so so the options open to her, who also had to raise 3 kids, are retail jobs and nothing else. If my dad didn't have a good job, there's a good chance we would've made up part of the population of those homeless encampments this forum wants to see levelled all the time.

But yes, let's hear all about how we just don't have enough drive and ambition.

 

[Richard White]

And it's not just a young person thing. My mom studied psychology in Czechoslovakia but Canada doesn't recognize her degree, so so the options open to her, who also had to raise 3 kids, are retail jobs and nothing else. If my dad didn't have a good job, there's a good chance we would've made up part of the population of those homeless encampments this forum wants to see levelled all the time.

My ex was like that.

She went to university in Mexico for Business and HR but Canada did not recognize the credentials she had. She ended up working as an office building cleaner to make ends meet.