Workers are being priced out of Toronto. Can we reverse course?
Workers are being priced out of Toronto. Can we reverse course?
TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48790317
Workers are being priced out of Toronto. Can we reverse course?
TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48790317
Yes.
Will we?
No.
I'd prefer encouragement over apathy
I come from a place of realism, I assure you. The Minister in Ottawa already said that he wanted housing more affordable but to not reduce the value of the houses.
Much of our money is in housing, and many of our politicians are landlords and real estate investors...
The only encouragement I got for you is that the CMHC said that the realistic aim with building new housing is to bring it back to 2019 levels of affordability.
So from nightmarishly unattainable to disgustingly out of reach.
No. The people in the game have a vested Interest to keep home values high, and those not in the game don't have any skin in the game to offer a valued opinion to those already in it. It could be fixed, but it won't be because too many people are banking on the ever increasing value. Not to mention all those just getting in would be submarined by a loss of valuation. Their mortgage would probably immediately default as the value does not match the risk.
I don't own, I think the whole thing is rotten. Just a realist. It's never going to get better unless the government intervenes on everyone's behalf, and more than half the voting block would be pissed if they even hinted at doing something. That doesn't offer job security, and it's sad that's that is how decisions get made in this day and age. Good of the people, or good of the party, you can't have both...
The party must die then. This is class war, no time for negotiations.
Yeah, that's the idea. No entrenched government of any side will touch this, we need to force their hands. Many in government are the same folks holding onto multiple properties for investment purposes. We need to make it unprofitable to do so, in any way WE can, because the courts will never back us, and neither will the government.
It's a stupid assumption of capitalism that anything unprofitable isn't worth doing. Where the market fails to provide, government can step in. Government used to build social housing. There is an intense demand for futureproof housing, like resilient passivehouse styled housing, that private won't do because it's not profitable and government won't do because they forgot they could do anything if they really wanted. A world dominated by energy concerns and climate change necessitates this.
We will dither until there is blood in the streets.
A revolution would solve most of these problems not gonna lie.
There already is.
Liberal nations will dither until the blood flows like a river and it costs a billionaire some money.
People who work for the city can't afford to live in the city.
That sounds self-limiting, actually.
Are we going to either ensure people get paid enough to afford houses, or build homes that people can afford to live in?
No?
Then no, it won't get fixed. Right now, the market is making too much money off of exacerbating the problem, and the idea of government providing solutions went out of fashion in 1992.
Can we? Yes. Will we? If the way cities have been turning down federal money for relaxing regulations is a sign, then no we won't.
Is it more than just Toronto? I hadn't heard of other cities turning the cash down or reneging on the deal.
Tecumseth has, and Ottawa hasn't yet but they're making all the right noises, including calling deregulation "really far left" (as a bad thing)
As time goes by, communism is becoming increasingly attractive. Like, real communism. Not the bullshit under Stalin or in China.
Capitalism is working as intended, and it's destroying us.
Capitalism is a funnel -> those with capital extract additional capital from those without. I say this as a small business owner, just barely turning towards "winning" the game if capitalism after decades on the other side. It's a resource snowball, and only a few can win.
Ideally, there is regulation, scaling taxes and redistribution. That part seems more broken the further along you get.
People are so afraid of the word still. A balance of implementing sensible ideas from the political spectrum is the way.
If you lean too hard towards one ideology you almost always get a murderous autocracy.
China has not been a communist state for a long time. It's a hyper capitalist state with socialist values, while still under a dictatorship.
Have you seen China lately? It's getting pretty dang attractive.
I know there's a lot of great things that China is able to do under their regime. Like building mass transit incredibly fast. But this comes at a great price though in terms of rights and freedoms.