Technically it's not borrowing because they just fire up the money printer. The national debt = government spending - taxation. It's only really borrowing in the sense that people expect their Canadian Dollars they are paid in to hold up in value well over time. Which isn't going to happen if you fire up the money printer too much.
The left is using Modern Monetary Theory to justify UBI and money printing. But that isn't what MMT advocates. I bought two books from MMT's founder 5 years ago. I am very well informed about MMT. The MMT founder said you have to be mindful of inflation when running deficits.
The main problem causing poverty in our country right now is the housing bubble. The rental vacancy rate in Mississauga is like 0.8% and the percentages are similarly anemic across the GTA. For rents to go down, we need to get that rental vacancy rate up to 3%. We need more housing supply. Getting rid of rent control would increase the supply a bit but we probably do need more residential and mixed-use zoning.
There's also a shockingly high percentage of Canadians who are unemployable and that's another factor behind poverty. The "not in labour force" segment of the population is not counted as unemployed in the statistics. The economy needs to be deregulated so that formerly chronically unemployed Canadians can get work. If you've been chronically unemployed, have mental illness, have a criminal record, etc. employers don't want to take a chance on you because of all the regulatory red tape and legalese bullshit.
I'd also like to see lower immigration numbers, because most of the hundreds of thousands of people arriving every year are going to a handful of the larger cities only.
This subject is taboo in Canadian politics unfortunately. Any sort of suggestion to reduce immigration gets you labelled a racist in Canadian political discourse. The wealthy want mass immigration because the wealthy want cheap labour and they want the housing bubble to continue to grow. And the left are useful idiots for the wealthy elites who don't even realize that mass immigration is a suicidal policy. Or maybe they are just suicidal doomers who don't care that it's a suicidal policy.
I have seen people on /leftypol/ argue that trying to push back against mass immigration in a modern global economy is a futile pointless exercise because capital is freely mobile. If the Canadian wealthy are unable to import cheap foreign labour, they can divest from Canadian businesses and invest in foreign businesses that employ cheap foreign labour. And to be fair I understand their point that there is going to be pushback from Canada's wealthy if we try to limit their access to cheap foreign labour. If we won't import cheap foreigners into Canada for the benefit of the wealthy investor class, they can just divest from Canadian enterprise and invest in foreign enterprise directly. The end-game for true far left types is for the material conditions to get so uncomfortable for the working class that the working class will do violent revolution and overthrow the bourgeoisie. And then you have the naive AOC far-left types who think that you can have first world prosperity for the western working class and mass immigration.
Also, foreign ownership of property and condos should be outright banned.
Foreign investment in real estate is a major problem. Unfortunately there are drawbacks to limiting foreign investment in real estate as well.
Look at this way: Let's say you did a favor for someone. They owe you one. And then you try calling in that favor later and then the person tells you, "no I don't want to do what you ask of me." What's the end result? You're not going to do any more favors for this person.
So if China is sending us all their cheap crap (it requires natural resources, labour, expertise, etc. to make these things. Even if much of it is cheap crap) and we don't give the Chinese what they want in return for that cheap crap (ie. Canadian real estate), the Chinese are going to stop sending us their cheap crap and our Canadian Dollar is going to lose value because foreign entities are going to lose faith in its value if they can't buy what they want with it. Canada doesn't really have anything else that China want buy. And we don't have the manufacturing to make our own stuff.
Technically it's not borrowing because they just fire up the money printer. The national debt = government spending - taxation. It's only really borrowing in the sense that people expect their Canadian Dollars they are paid in to hold up in value well over time. Which isn't going to happen if you fire up the money printer too much.
The left is using Modern Monetary Theory to justify UBI and money printing. But that isn't what MMT advocates. I bought two books from MMT's founder 5 years ago. I am very well informed about MMT. The MMT founder said you have to be mindful of inflation when running deficits.
The main problem causing poverty in our country right now is the housing bubble. The rental vacancy rate in Mississauga is like 0.8% and the percentages are similarly anemic across the GTA. For rents to go down, we need to get that rental vacancy rate up to 3%. We need more housing supply. Getting rid of rent control would increase the supply a bit but we probably do need more residential and mixed-use zoning.
There's also a shockingly high percentage of Canadians who are unemployable and that's another factor behind poverty. The "not in labour force" segment of the population is not counted as unemployed in the statistics. The economy needs to be deregulated so that formerly chronically unemployed Canadians can get work. If you've been chronically unemployed, have mental illness, have a criminal record, etc. employers don't want to take a chance on you because of all the regulatory red tape and legalese bullshit.
This subject is taboo in Canadian politics unfortunately. Any sort of suggestion to reduce immigration gets you labelled a racist in Canadian political discourse. The wealthy want mass immigration because the wealthy want cheap labour and they want the housing bubble to continue to grow. And the left are useful idiots for the wealthy elites who don't even realize that mass immigration is a suicidal policy. Or maybe they are just suicidal doomers who don't care that it's a suicidal policy.
I have seen people on /leftypol/ argue that trying to push back against mass immigration in a modern global economy is a futile pointless exercise because capital is freely mobile. If the Canadian wealthy are unable to import cheap foreign labour, they can divest from Canadian businesses and invest in foreign businesses that employ cheap foreign labour. And to be fair I understand their point that there is going to be pushback from Canada's wealthy if we try to limit their access to cheap foreign labour. If we won't import cheap foreigners into Canada for the benefit of the wealthy investor class, they can just divest from Canadian enterprise and invest in foreign enterprise directly. The end-game for true far left types is for the material conditions to get so uncomfortable for the working class that the working class will do violent revolution and overthrow the bourgeoisie. And then you have the naive AOC far-left types who think that you can have first world prosperity for the western working class and mass immigration.
Foreign investment in real estate is a major problem. Unfortunately there are drawbacks to limiting foreign investment in real estate as well.
Look at this way: Let's say you did a favor for someone. They owe you one. And then you try calling in that favor later and then the person tells you, "no I don't want to do what you ask of me." What's the end result? You're not going to do any more favors for this person.
So if China is sending us all their cheap crap (it requires natural resources, labour, expertise, etc. to make these things. Even if much of it is cheap crap) and we don't give the Chinese what they want in return for that cheap crap (ie. Canadian real estate), the Chinese are going to stop sending us their cheap crap and our Canadian Dollar is going to lose value because foreign entities are going to lose faith in its value if they can't buy what they want with it. Canada doesn't really have anything else that China want buy. And we don't have the manufacturing to make our own stuff.