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Frank Stronach: Soaring national debt will hold back youth for years to come
Opinion PieceAdvice for how to make sure children are successful from the man who was sued by his own daughter…I mean maybe? 🤷
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1mo
Don't forget the NDP
Yeah with Jagmeet at the helm that’s a Texas-sized 10-4 buddy. The NDP lost their way once they brought on a corporate lawyer as their leader who cares more about his fashion and affluence rather than the common struggles of everyday Canadians like housing and reckless immigration.
Rolex too
Do you have any evidence he’s hiring international students? Seems ublikely given the nature of Magna’s work. It’s not a Tim Hortons or McDonalds
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1mo
Do you have any evidence they are? Most factories do not hire temporary students as workers. Those tend to be union jobs and even if they aren’t they are usually full time shift work which isn’t compatible with being a student.
I’m just so happy that MP’s and MPP’s are able to buy second and third houses so they can graciously rent to me at 4k per month. I can’t get a loan large enough to buy my own home but I can pay 48, 000 per year on renting a house I will never own. Plus utilities, I am lucky I get to pay 52k per year to rent. Yayyyy
The people who make those decisions won't be affected by it or live to see the worst repercussions so why would they care.
We need more international RE investors for money laundering here, LOL.
Historic lows Glen…
Conservative austerity comin in hot.
We are paying more each year to service existing debt than we are spending on health care. That's my tax dollars and yours, going to service debt from a government that can't control their spending habits. Who have proven with scandal after scandal their either incompetence or corruption. You don't think that will have a negative impact on Canadians going forward?
This.
Ill never understand why our governments are not capable of treating the country like our own personal finances. I would never recklessly spend money every year if I was starting to owe more money in interest than I had to afford basic necessities.
It should be mandatory that all budgets keep the debt status quo or reduce it.
We spent 344 billion on healthcare in 2023 and 54 billion on servicing the debt. You can be for lowering the deficit/debt without making stuff up. The healthcare comparison people keep throwing around is for Federal healthcare transfers to the provinces. Yes, this is still a concerning comparison, but to suggest we are paying more to service the debt than we are paying on healthcare is straight up bs.
If you’re going. To include provincial expenditure on healthcare, you have to include their debt service costs as well to make this a fair comparison
That’s a fair point. According to the Fraser Institute, that total spent by the provinces and federal government on interest payments in 2023/2024 is just shy of 82 billion. It’s obviously a lot, but still nowhere near what we spend on healthcare. Again, not saying this isn’t an issue. I’d just prefer we try to avoid inflammatory misrepresentation of information when trying to confront important political issues.
Fair. Hence my correction. Apples:apples comparisons and all.
All that said I do think it’s a problem that debt service charges are >10% of our total federal budget and significantly more than big ticket items like defence and healthcare transfers
The federal government is spending more on debt than health care transfers.
That’s pretty awful.
what i think has a bigger negative impact is the 20-30 billion in tax revenues that leaves canada every single year courtesy of our friends like stronach and their propaganda artists like the national post that justify it.
what is there left to "austere" in this country? almost all public services are already in shambles and underfunded. unless we are going to approach the zenith of austerity ie. privatization. which is likely what PP is going to do.
Cut bureaucracy and administrators at the top. Reinvest in the doers - eh nurses teachers doctors etc
Cuts to OAS, either raising the retirement age or decreasing the clawback threshold which is currently something wild like 130k. Combined with hiking GST back up to 7%. That would make a sizeable dent in the deficit without reducing services.
cant agree on retirement age or GST hike. once again, why does the working class need to be punished with austerity but the wealthy for some reason dont need to.
either were all in this together or austerity is just a code word for waging war on the working class again during times of historic wealth inequality.
GST used to be 7%, a mild tax hike is hardly austerity. The money to pay for childcare, dental care, pharmacare, an aging population, a healthcare crisis etc. has to come from somewhere. Currently we are just borrowing from future generations which doesn't seem fair to me. Alternatively we cut a lot of those programs or just keep throwing them on the generational credit card. The wealthy also pay GST (although as a smaller percentage of their budget. However with the GST rebate and groceries/children's clothes being GST exempt the impact on low income Canadians is somewhat mitigated).
People live much much longer than they do when OAS was introduced, and it's a large budget item that is only growing much larger every year. A moderate raise to 67 from 65, and a reduction in the claw back max income threshold combined with an increase at the bottom end would effectively target senior poverty while saving money and not transferring money from the working class to well off seniors.
sales taxes are inherently regressive and impact middle/working class the most. and yes it used to be 7%. it never should have been lowered. but good luck selling a tax hike on middle class/working people during times of outrageous wealth inequality.
"claw back max income threshold combined with an increase at the bottom end" agreed with this.
"The money to pay for childcare, dental care, pharmacare, an aging population, a healthcare crisis etc. has to come from somewhere"
agreed, lets chase those 20-30 billion in lost tax revenues annually and tax the money where it is concentrating. and it is not concentrating in the middle/working class
Unfortunately it's easier and more efficient to tax the middle/working class since they consume in Canada, have regular T4 income, and can't shift assets or income offshore. They also make up the bulk of the population. I know a GST hike would be political suicide, but it's a simple way to raise revenue thats basically impossible to dodge, for high and low income earners. You could pair it with an increase in the GST rebate to limit the impact on the poorest of society.
Sooner the better
Canada has been destroyed in front of our eyes by the Liberals and all you can do is yap about Conservatives ? Seriously ?
I’m not yapping lol. It’s just what’s coming.
Oh good, a billionaire who wants for nothing is going to tell us plebs what's good for us.
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1mo
Yeah best not think or talk about it and keep cheering while we spend more on interest then health care
Can't wait for the Stronach column about the debt when the Conservatives take power and start cutting rich people's taxes.
Fuck off Frank . Youve influenced it to be this way .
Sunny days ahead people, sunny fuckn days…
It would be OK with me if people like Frank Stronach, who five alarm the national debt of countries equivalent to Canada, would provide examples to support their concerns. Notice they never do. So, I wonder why there no examples of sovereign debt among countries like Canada that have ever held youth back.
Conversely, increased debt, when used effectively, can improve the well-being and financial wherewithal of youth. For example, increase the national debt to make post-secondary education tuition-free would be enormously helpful. For an example, see Germany.
Combined federal and provincial net debt is projected to come in around $2.18 trillion in 2023-24. Meanwhile, total debt in Canada — household, corporate and government debt at all levels — is now around 341 per cent of total GDP, according to the Globe and Mail. In other words, our total debt is more than three times what we produce each year.
This is fine
Earlier this year, University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe said, “We should be thinking about the longer-term future of federal finances and start making difficult choices, because the longer we wait, the harder it will be.”
Also this, to the people saying but we can't have austerity, guess what at some point you are forced to do it and its going to look a lot worse if it is forced on you
Another bullshit opinion piece. Give me peer reviewed evidence or gtfo.
It’s easier to swallow if you think of it as “our money” not yours. Plus if you choke, the emergency room has no doctors.
This message brought to you by the Liberal Party of Canada
Hello? That's a small price to pay to keep the Grits in power.
I’d rather track public sector worker per person than the total in the public sector. I assume even with the liberal hiring spree, it’s still under the 90 levels.
It’s fine. According some on here debt isn’t real and governments can’t run out of money. Governments aren’t like households so we can run ever increasing deficits forever with no consequences. Sure spending like crazy hasn’t improved the average Canadians life over the last decade, but if we spend even harder that might change.
Also austerity doesn’t work because reasons. Someone said it once I think so I’m inclined to believe that spending less money doesn’t decrease the amount of money being spent.
Anyway, don’t vote conservative!
Who needs social cohesion anyways? Let’s bring back feudalism.
Maybe Belinda can talk some sense into Justin.
Fairness for every generation at the expense of future generations!