If you don't follow @CharlesLammam, you should! He is churning out tons of thoughtful, data-supported economic policy analysis we are sorely lacking in Canada.
The prospect of an intractable foreign conflict becoming the central organizing issue among young Dems is a depressing signal of the future of American liberalism.
The Ottawa condo buy led me down a rabbit hole. Since 2015 Ottawa has intervened again and again to keep the floor under Canadian housing prices. Not to make homes affordable. To stop them from falling. The record:
What about all the entrepreneurs that risked everything and failed ?
Or the ones that are grinding it out, trying to build a business ? You know, the ones that create more than 60 pct of the new jobs in this country.
The more successful they are, the more you hate them?
Take their money so they can't invest in other founders? Or invest in causes they believe in ?
And the ones that fail and get to deduct 3k a year of their losses ? Or went for it and are broke and might never see enough income to offset those losses ? You don't care if they go broke ?
10 pct of the people in this country are entrepreneurs that have started a business.
You ever try to help them ?
There are plenty of discussions to be had about income inequality. About helping people who are struggling economically.
I've talked about a lot of them in my timeline.
But in reality, saying "Eat the rich" will end up helping no one except maybe politicians trying to raise money. And probably hurt those in need, as more money is spent playing politics then helping
Wealth tax. Unearned income tax. Show me the multi year behavioral analysis, as opposed to simple models, that show more jobs, higher wages and personal wealth will be created for those who need it. I'd love to read them
Ideology is not a strategy. Nor is it a plan that has lasting impact on people who need help
And so you know.
I'm not a believer in trickle down. It's a joke.
I am a believer in trickle up. Where we do all we can get to get appreciable assets and higher wages into the hands of people who have to live paycheck to paycheck. I've said before I think raising the federal minimum wage to $20 is smart. When I heard people who worked for a company I invested in (but didn't run) needed government assistance, I made sure they all got raises. It was embarrassing to me that we didn't pay enough. I've made, or helped make, at least a thousand millionaires. And I'll keep working to increase that number
And that's the point.
The best path to help more people is to work with the people that can help more people.
If you demonize business people , you just make it harder for them to help anyone.
I'm not saying there aren't greedy, blood sucking business people that will do anything for a dollar.
But they are a small minority. Most entrepreneurs realize they are blessed. They want to find ways to help. They think they can use the same skills that built their business to help people.
And they can. They can hire more. They can give raises. They can educate. And they do all these things to help.
I've sat with Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and candidates,and asked them why they aren't meeting with businesses that make and sell the products that have become unaffordable, and asking them what can be done to reduce prices.
I do this continuously regarding healthcare. It's easy to see where the friction and increased pricing is coming from. Why (the politicians ) aren't you meeting with them and asking them to change ? Offering to support those that do raise wages, lower prices , improve benefits. Politicians just won't do it. They prefer the donations.
I did shark tank for 15 years purely to show people they can start small, grow their businesses, and help not only themselves, but their employees and their communities as well. And thats exactly what has happened.
Demonizing those that have success is counterproductive to every benefit you want to help bring to people.
Waterfront scenes, Hong Kong and Vancouver, 1980-2013.
Something about port towns, especially if they’ve got a runway sticking out into the harbour or seaplanes leaving trails on the water’s surface. I started photographing around the waterfront in Vancouver and HK in the 70s and 80s and even today keep returning to it.
1. Kwai Chung container terminal, HK, 1986.
2. Vancouver waterfront, 1982.
3. Ballantine pier, Vancouver, 1980.
4. Cargill grain terminal, North Vancouver, 2013.
Link to books in bio.
https://t.co/fcCHtVXXRf
Is it a bad idea for Canada to bail out failing investor condo developers? Yes. Moral hazard? Big time. Will it make housing cheaper? No.
https://t.co/9kaEcMTsFK
Known as 'The Bag Ladies', a group of elder women from British Columbia, Canada, are using single-use plastic bags that would have otherwise been thrown away to crochet tight, water-proof sleeping mats to aid homeless people #WomensArt#CanadianArtistsWeek 🇨🇦
As a fiscal conservative that puts faith in markets to efficiently allocate capital, I find borrowing money to prop up a bloated condo market grotesque.
BUT if you’re Left Wing, you should be outraged! Instead of letting these speculators rot, the Feds are bailing them out.
This is insane.
This 2006 Coca Cola Ad directed by Nagi Noda, with music by Jack White, aired just once. This is all shot on film in a single take with no CGI, all the snapshots are all real similar actors standing still.
Cuba for 60 years: we love communism, communism is the most important thing in the world to us, we'll be communist forever.
Cuba immediately after meeting Hasan: wow communism is insanely stupid.