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Comment by newyankee | Hacker News Reader

I thought Canada is one of the richest countries in the world with a robust system, plenty of natural resources and few people.

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People here are giving you some pretty ignorant ideas. The reasons things like this exist for certain industries in Canada is to maintain healthy markets while protecting the smallest of players in those markets. Things like Maple Syrup and Milk are tightly controlled because it ensures that in both good times and bad that the market does not get too volatile and squeeze the smallest producers out of it.

Usually the strongest opponents of these controls and regulations are the giant players or external interests that either want to be able to dump product to undercut and corner the market or eliminate the ability for any industry to collectively bargain for better deals when it comes to things like shipping infrastructure (take railways as an example).

And then there is Canada's proximity and cultural similarity to the United States, which while being it's greatest strength is probably its greatest weakness. The USA heavily subsidizes its primary industries that it is in Canada's national security interests to keep up high walls, regulations, and "cartels" to keep things like Canada food security in Canadian hands.

> Usually the strongest opponents of these controls and regulations are the giant players

That’s only partly true. The other side of it is that many of these regulations also ensure that the giant players remain firmly entrenched. As an example, it is illegal for me to go directly to a dairy farmer and buy a gallon of milk directly; it has to work its way through the entire supply chain first, even though the producer is running his operation in compliance with all food safety regulations (otherwise his milk wouldn’t be allowed into the supply chain anyway)

Edit: or, before the Wheat Board was torn down, a farmer couldn’t directly sell his wheat to the grain mill down the road (or across the border), it had to go through the CWB. This kept a lot of middlemen very happy.

I don't disagree with what you are saying and you are not wrong, but it is also key to remember that when the Wheat Board was dismantled, CP and CN rail immediately started maximizing their profitability to the extreme by cutting down on available rail cars, leaving a lot of small producers out in the cold, especially if they were in a geographically disadvantaged position. It becomes extra nasty when you realize it is American interests that own large portions of CP and CN, in particular Bill Gates alone owns more than 10% of CN.

Some of those are true. But our governments are all shitshows (and all corrupt), there's oligopolies and cartels that run shit, one province is basically controlled by a single family, and the largest industry is a real estate ponzi scheme. Apart from that we're basically a petro-state pretending to be woke.

Some of the wealthiest US states also are rumored to be essentially run by organized crime. I can't say I'm aware they are especially bad places to live.

I read something about how a certain famous politician who supposedly cleaned out the "X" mob was actually a tool of the "Y" mob taking over.

I assume you're talking about Rudy Giuliani vs. the Sicilian Mafia. But -- what then was "Y"?

Maybe some Ukrainians and/or Russians? Not exactly a reliable source, but:

https://www.thecut.com/2019/10/giuliani-ukrainian-associates...

Also this:

http://trumpfile.org/giuliani-donor-and-trump-associate-oute...

It's starting to look like Democrats vs. Republicans in New York might be as much about Italian vs. Russian mobs? Who knows...

That's generally true.

Canada has a high HDI, high GDP per capita and a low degree of inequality (much lower than the US).

In terms of HDI, Alberta is on par with Iceland and Germany, BC and Ontario on par with Finland and Singapore. [1] Canada scores overall 0.929, above the US (0.924).

In terms of GDP per capita (PPP), Canada ranks #23 in the world, around Finland, France, the UK, Austria and Iceland (albeit below the US) [2]

In terms of inequality, Canada has the 4th lowest GINI coefficient among the OECD (after Australia, Austria and Belgium) - well ahead of the US which is the highest inequality in the OECD. [3]

Banks are well managed and well run. Canada for instance didn't have a "2008." The government actually works pretty well. Housing is nuts right now, but that is a pretty easy if unpalatable fix (just build more houses, asap).

Could things be better? Yeah. Totally. Are they bad? No. Certainly not as bad as the peer comments here are making it out to be. COVID has gotten to everyone but I think it's important we keep our perspectives grounded in fact.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_provinces_and...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...

Go visit outside of the big cities and see for yourself. Canada is in terrible shape.

Yeah that's straight-up false. I've spent a lot of time in the eastern provinces and in the United States over the last few years. I think rather than opinion, this would be a good opportunity to dig up some data.

I've actually lived there, and it's so bad I couldn't believe it.

People quite literally stoking up their houses in bad winters because they don't have money for wood for their woodstove. I've never seen anything like that anywhere in the world and I've spent some time in pretty poor places.

Of course you don't have to believe me, I couldn't care less. But it's depressing how down and out people are there. It's a combination of a weak economy and a rather fragile social security safety net. In theory it's all there, in practice it is quite easy to fall through the cracks, especially when you are older, unable to work or of native descent.

the country 's resources makes it one the richest countries in the world. That doesn't make the people rich. a few very wealthy companies though.

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