Canada will change how it counts non-permanent residents, the main statistics agency said on Thursday, after an economist said the current methodology may have overlooked about a million foreign students, workers and others.

  • rockstarmode@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I love reading comments like these.

    Yes, let’s turn an entire country’s housing stock into the projects.

    There’s got to be a better way to provide housing than whatever we’re doing now, but putting an inept government, run by corrupt or otherwise incompetent career bureaucrats, in charge of the roof over my head would be a hilarious joke if people weren’t being completely earnest about it.

    • irmoz@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Yes, let’s turn an entire country’s housing stock into the projects.

      No fucker wants that, and you’re disingenuous for suggesting they do, or that nationalisation of housing means that.

      There’s got to be a better way to provide housing than whatever we’re doing now, but putting an inept government, run by corrupt or otherwise incompetent career bureaucrats, in charge of the roof over my head would be a hilarious joke if people weren’t being completely earnest about it.

      Another strawman. You think nationalisation of housing happens without a government competent enough to do it?

      You might as well complain about buses because they don’t work without wheels.

      • rockstarmode@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No fucker wants that, and you’re disingenuous for suggesting they do, or that nationalisation of housing means that

        I’m not saying anyone wants to turn all housing into the projects. I’m saying it’s inevitable given how national and local governments have managed housing in my experience.

        You think nationalisation of housing happens without a government competent enough to do it?

        Maybe? IMO all lifelong government bureaucrats are corrupt and/or incompetent, and the result of putting them in charge of housing everyone would be horrific.

        You might as well complain about buses because they don’t work without wheels.

        I’m not sure I understand what you’re attempting to get at with this statement. I will say as a lifelong user of public transportation in my metropolitan area the buses and trains post-COVID have been nightmarish.

        • irmoz@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          Actual nationalisation would be handled by a government that gives a shit about it. So far we have seen this happen in the early Soviet union and in China.

          The projects you saw were not nationalised housing. They were a minority of state owned housing, geared towards a neoliberal privatised housing sector.

          The fact you call them shit is exactly what what they want. So they can pivot to fully private with no pushback, since their intentional bungling of a tiny stock of state housing went so badly.

          • rockstarmode@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not sure what argument you’re trying to make, but I’m pretty happy with my fully “private” housing situation. There’s no way in hell I’d want anyone, government or otherwise, controlling where I sleep.

            So I guess we agree?

              • rockstarmode@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                This entire thread is in response to you posting

                Nationalise housing

                Maybe I misunderstood what you meant, but I’m pretty sure that means you want a strong central government to take control of the entire housing stock, thus controlling where everyone calls home?

                • irmoz@reddthat.com
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                  1 year ago

                  You’ve rolled quite a few extras into what I said there, seemingly out of nowhere

                  Why a “strong central government”?

                  Why are they choosing where people live?

                  I’m not advocating for either of those, and only a paranoid mind assumes nationalisation would lead to either.

                  Whether you know it or not, you are defending landlords. Why? They don’t benefit you.

                  • rockstarmode@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    You posted:

                    Actual nationalisation would be handled by a government that gives a shit about it. So far we have seen this happen in the early Soviet union and in China.

                    Those are examples of strong central governments. “Nationalise” means taking control on a national scale, necessarily requiring a central government.

                    Why are they choosing where people live?

                    If the government has a monopoly on the housing stock, then individuals cannot choose what to build or how to permanently modify it since they cannot own their domicile. I was talking less about the geography of where people would live under a nationalized scheme, and more about what the effect on individual choice non-ownership would have.

                    only a paranoid mind assumes nationalisation would lead to either.

                    This might be true, but my experience with government run housing bears it out.

                    you are defending landlords. Why? They don’t benefit you.

                    I will not attempt to defend large corporations and hedge funds owning housing stock. I’m an individual homeowner, so I’m looking out for those who, through some mix of hard work and/or luck, have chosen to own their homes.

                    I benefit from choosing how I live, where I live, what my home is like, and from accumulating equity. I want to preserve that opportunity for other hard working free people.

                    As I stated in my first comment, we can certainly improve how we manage housing stock and make it available. Foreign corporations and shadowy hedge funds driving up pricing, and governments manipulating values through tampering with interest rates are places I think we should start looking.

                    Nationalizing the whole of our housing stock? Nah, I’ll pass.