An excellent summary of the situation. All of these forces are at work in the UK. I think the different views of young men and women will become increasingly important. This is playing out in the US and Europe where the move to the 'right' (whatever that means now) is being supported by the young, especially men.
A few weeks ago I was standing in line at an airport outside of Canada (dealing with a boarding pass issue) and the couple behind me, likely in their late 60's, noticed via my passport that I am Canadian. Their accent told me they were Australians. They politely asked why it took a year for them to get a visa into Canada. All I could come up with is "Canada is a mess". For the first time in my life (and it is a long life), I felt embarrassed to be a Canadian.
I liked this piece, I have a disagreement though. Your use of the term income inequality is correct but the cause of the inequality needs to be defined. We have experienced a 2 level economy where people sensitive to interest rates have been punished while people not sensitive to interest rates, those with assets have not. This happened in the low interest rate scenario, rising housing prices fueled by low interest rate debt, and high interest rates the last several years. In both situations our equality problems are exacerbated by believing interest rate policies alone would solve problems. They did not. Misguided housing policy in Ontario stopped housing construction in the late teens. Houses were bid up continually as a shortage was compounded by ridiculously cheap credit. We further compounded the gaps generated by policy by bringing in too many people too quickly creating more scarcity. That scarcity has minimal impact on those with assets. It is assuring the creation of a permanent underclass in Canada. Scarcity, housing or health care you name it, is our future and that won't be fixed with talking or spending more money or taxing. We need more investment, more capital being created and deployed to reduce scarcity. Yet our GDP per capita is dropping like a stone based on government policy and corresponding poor fiscal policy. So our solution is not more government. I have invested in Canada in housing development for almost 20 years. There is no level of government who understands how to make it better faster and cheaper. Just get out of our way.
The economic impact cannot be ignored. It's not a couple's current state, but their future outlook. The most disturbing part is Canada has so many tools that we should be on the forefront of economic growth. Massive resource industry that should be hoovering up young men, Solid Universities to drive a R&D. What has happened?
What has happened is that the Universities have hoovered up all the youth, as they have been told that they need a University Education to live a good life. Meanwhile our young are not going into the trades. We no longer make things, but import them from China & Viet Nam.
What we are ending up with is lots of University Educated Graduates working in the service industry, or dreaming up financial instruments to create phantom wealth, but very few people creating real wealth. Even worse, we think houses are wealth. We think our bank accounts are wealth. No, real wealth is found in productive local family farm & food system. It is found in the relationships we have in our communities. It is found in the productive skills that we collectively have to produce things. It is found in a healthy natural environment that makes us all live healthier lives.
Is our social fabric really that dramatically broken down? Or is a broken society a meme that journalists are currently using to get attention for their stories? Canada has new problems but I don’t see the high degree of polarization that’s evident in America. And it’s unlikely to happen here because donations to political parties are severely restricted unlike the U.S. Discovering the depth of racism against indigenous communities such as the conditions in residential schools has rightly dented Canadians’ confidence in who we are as a people but that doesn’t mean our social order is collapsing.
While I have lost every Canadian friend I had (we were backed by a Cdn bank for many years), I think you err greatly in thinking this is just a Canadian problem. It is a problem of the entire Anglo world. You know, the keepers of the flame of Classical Liberalism, Enlightenment Values, Individual Rights, the Scientific Method. As Margaret Thatcher said in a talk I attended in the early 90s, the Anglo world is unique in this respect. She meant the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. All have gone insane with Critical Social Justice Theology.
I would ascribe every problem you touch upon to CSJ Theology (tho you do a very good job of critiquing it.)
Housing: When you let millions of people in, they will be housed. Somewhere. And price is needed to balance supply and demand (as always!). I'm very pro immigration, but #s are #s. The US has let in "migrants" equal to almost 2% of the population. That has effects.
Israel/Hamas. This is so clearly a case of toxic CSJ Theology. Oppressors vs Oppressed. Israelis are white. Pals are POCs. Game over. Israel bad. Layer on that Israelis are wealthier and healthier, and you have outrage, since the "colonists" are only rich because they stole it from the oppressed. And The Oppressed are allowed to fight back "by any means necessary", even if that means killing babies.
Millennial and Gen Zs: My kids and KIL's are in there. 10+ years ago they were poor-mouthing the same things. (They were taught this in HS and College). But, they worked hard and voila, they are homeowners. The problem with too many Ms/GZs is they were also taught that "work-life balance" is paramount. Well, guess what? If that's your attitude, then yeah, you're not going to work real hard, and you're going to end up in mommy's basement. I know people hate comparisons (even I somewhat do), but here I go: I graduated college in 1980. I went to Grad school because there were no jobs. A fraternity brother of mine, at MIT, Civil Engineering degree, had 83 rejection letters. Interest rates were like 15%. We Boomers were flooding the labor market, so even if you found a job, it didn't pay well. So, we double and tripled up in apartments while single and had a great time anyway, enjoying our youth. (And you only get one shot at enjoying your youth, says this 65 yr old!! )
The Media took decades to kill itself. Every year it got more one-sided. More biased. More and more readers/viewers bled off. I harangued the Chicago Tribune for 30 yrs, with letters, invites to Editorial Board meetings (they like my financial/economic insights). The Editorial Page Editor and I had very different views; but, he listened. About an email a day on something in the Paper. He was ultimately made Publisher and Editor In Chief, and then ignominiously sacked when the paper veered hard left and went to the subscriber model, so cranked out drivel that Chicago lefties wanted. If the media had actually held itself to true standards of objectivity, it likely wouldn't have shed readers/viewers over the decades and been in a position to withstand the internet. Now, every single one of them is just a purveyor of Confirmation Bias. So, all my subs are gone. I sub to people to my left, to avoid conf bias, and only subscribe to those who I believe are good-faith actors, even if I disagree with them. You are one such person.
After my engineering degrees I spent decades reading the Great Books and studying history, and now human nature. (Kahneman is a must-read.) What is happening now has happened repeatedly throughout history. We in the Anglo West have just had it so good for so long that we forgot we're irrational humans too; and that the only thing between us and chaos were our values and institutions. Well, the CSJ Theologians control 99% of the institutions in the West. They will not go willingly. They will have to be ejected. The first step is realizing that every ill we have is downstream from CSJ Theology; and that every year the schools churn out more uneducated ignorant but indignant people.
We have an immense amount of work before us. Debanking the truckers will look like child's play if this thing keeps going.
I could go on, but it's a nice day to go sailing. I took the time to critique your work because I think you're worth it. Keep up the good work.
An excellent summary of the situation. All of these forces are at work in the UK. I think the different views of young men and women will become increasingly important. This is playing out in the US and Europe where the move to the 'right' (whatever that means now) is being supported by the young, especially men.
I agree, an excellent summary.
A few weeks ago I was standing in line at an airport outside of Canada (dealing with a boarding pass issue) and the couple behind me, likely in their late 60's, noticed via my passport that I am Canadian. Their accent told me they were Australians. They politely asked why it took a year for them to get a visa into Canada. All I could come up with is "Canada is a mess". For the first time in my life (and it is a long life), I felt embarrassed to be a Canadian.
Reminds me of the late stage of the Soviet Union.
The average citizen thinks the whole thing is insane and can't last forever. And the authorities are lying and making excuses at every turn.
This along with the CBC staring into the video void every night swearing to you that shit doesn't stink.
Oh, how about Tommy Robinson being a threat to National Security?
Canada has fallen.
Agreed. Facts no longer matter
Media on both sides only report the narrative that supports their stories and ignore everything else.
What is moral and right doesn't even get airtime.
I liked this piece, I have a disagreement though. Your use of the term income inequality is correct but the cause of the inequality needs to be defined. We have experienced a 2 level economy where people sensitive to interest rates have been punished while people not sensitive to interest rates, those with assets have not. This happened in the low interest rate scenario, rising housing prices fueled by low interest rate debt, and high interest rates the last several years. In both situations our equality problems are exacerbated by believing interest rate policies alone would solve problems. They did not. Misguided housing policy in Ontario stopped housing construction in the late teens. Houses were bid up continually as a shortage was compounded by ridiculously cheap credit. We further compounded the gaps generated by policy by bringing in too many people too quickly creating more scarcity. That scarcity has minimal impact on those with assets. It is assuring the creation of a permanent underclass in Canada. Scarcity, housing or health care you name it, is our future and that won't be fixed with talking or spending more money or taxing. We need more investment, more capital being created and deployed to reduce scarcity. Yet our GDP per capita is dropping like a stone based on government policy and corresponding poor fiscal policy. So our solution is not more government. I have invested in Canada in housing development for almost 20 years. There is no level of government who understands how to make it better faster and cheaper. Just get out of our way.
The economic impact cannot be ignored. It's not a couple's current state, but their future outlook. The most disturbing part is Canada has so many tools that we should be on the forefront of economic growth. Massive resource industry that should be hoovering up young men, Solid Universities to drive a R&D. What has happened?
What has happened is that the Universities have hoovered up all the youth, as they have been told that they need a University Education to live a good life. Meanwhile our young are not going into the trades. We no longer make things, but import them from China & Viet Nam.
What we are ending up with is lots of University Educated Graduates working in the service industry, or dreaming up financial instruments to create phantom wealth, but very few people creating real wealth. Even worse, we think houses are wealth. We think our bank accounts are wealth. No, real wealth is found in productive local family farm & food system. It is found in the relationships we have in our communities. It is found in the productive skills that we collectively have to produce things. It is found in a healthy natural environment that makes us all live healthier lives.
Is our social fabric really that dramatically broken down? Or is a broken society a meme that journalists are currently using to get attention for their stories? Canada has new problems but I don’t see the high degree of polarization that’s evident in America. And it’s unlikely to happen here because donations to political parties are severely restricted unlike the U.S. Discovering the depth of racism against indigenous communities such as the conditions in residential schools has rightly dented Canadians’ confidence in who we are as a people but that doesn’t mean our social order is collapsing.
Tara,
While I have lost every Canadian friend I had (we were backed by a Cdn bank for many years), I think you err greatly in thinking this is just a Canadian problem. It is a problem of the entire Anglo world. You know, the keepers of the flame of Classical Liberalism, Enlightenment Values, Individual Rights, the Scientific Method. As Margaret Thatcher said in a talk I attended in the early 90s, the Anglo world is unique in this respect. She meant the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. All have gone insane with Critical Social Justice Theology.
I would ascribe every problem you touch upon to CSJ Theology (tho you do a very good job of critiquing it.)
Housing: When you let millions of people in, they will be housed. Somewhere. And price is needed to balance supply and demand (as always!). I'm very pro immigration, but #s are #s. The US has let in "migrants" equal to almost 2% of the population. That has effects.
Israel/Hamas. This is so clearly a case of toxic CSJ Theology. Oppressors vs Oppressed. Israelis are white. Pals are POCs. Game over. Israel bad. Layer on that Israelis are wealthier and healthier, and you have outrage, since the "colonists" are only rich because they stole it from the oppressed. And The Oppressed are allowed to fight back "by any means necessary", even if that means killing babies.
Millennial and Gen Zs: My kids and KIL's are in there. 10+ years ago they were poor-mouthing the same things. (They were taught this in HS and College). But, they worked hard and voila, they are homeowners. The problem with too many Ms/GZs is they were also taught that "work-life balance" is paramount. Well, guess what? If that's your attitude, then yeah, you're not going to work real hard, and you're going to end up in mommy's basement. I know people hate comparisons (even I somewhat do), but here I go: I graduated college in 1980. I went to Grad school because there were no jobs. A fraternity brother of mine, at MIT, Civil Engineering degree, had 83 rejection letters. Interest rates were like 15%. We Boomers were flooding the labor market, so even if you found a job, it didn't pay well. So, we double and tripled up in apartments while single and had a great time anyway, enjoying our youth. (And you only get one shot at enjoying your youth, says this 65 yr old!! )
The Media took decades to kill itself. Every year it got more one-sided. More biased. More and more readers/viewers bled off. I harangued the Chicago Tribune for 30 yrs, with letters, invites to Editorial Board meetings (they like my financial/economic insights). The Editorial Page Editor and I had very different views; but, he listened. About an email a day on something in the Paper. He was ultimately made Publisher and Editor In Chief, and then ignominiously sacked when the paper veered hard left and went to the subscriber model, so cranked out drivel that Chicago lefties wanted. If the media had actually held itself to true standards of objectivity, it likely wouldn't have shed readers/viewers over the decades and been in a position to withstand the internet. Now, every single one of them is just a purveyor of Confirmation Bias. So, all my subs are gone. I sub to people to my left, to avoid conf bias, and only subscribe to those who I believe are good-faith actors, even if I disagree with them. You are one such person.
After my engineering degrees I spent decades reading the Great Books and studying history, and now human nature. (Kahneman is a must-read.) What is happening now has happened repeatedly throughout history. We in the Anglo West have just had it so good for so long that we forgot we're irrational humans too; and that the only thing between us and chaos were our values and institutions. Well, the CSJ Theologians control 99% of the institutions in the West. They will not go willingly. They will have to be ejected. The first step is realizing that every ill we have is downstream from CSJ Theology; and that every year the schools churn out more uneducated ignorant but indignant people.
We have an immense amount of work before us. Debanking the truckers will look like child's play if this thing keeps going.
I could go on, but it's a nice day to go sailing. I took the time to critique your work because I think you're worth it. Keep up the good work.