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I hope the author's technical thinking is a lot more organized than what was represented in this mass of meandering confusion, that this represents the mind of

by yborg 7y ago

I hope the author's technical thinking is a lot more organized than what was represented in this mass of meandering confusion, that this represents the mind of a startup CTO would cause me as a potential investor to run the hell away. The essay falls on its face with its central thesis that 2010's Canada = 1970's Soviet Union, which beyond being absurd on its face the author fails to make any case for other than observing, correctly, that bureaucracy exists in Canada and that individuals that are established in a social hierarchy take advantage of it. The underlying motivation for this screed seems to boil down to 1) rents are too high in Vancouver, and 2) firms don't want to pay techies enough in Vancouver. This is then extrapolated linearly to mean 'Canada'. As for the observation on the housing situation, this is recognized generally as a problem in many markets, but his actual argument here is that these high rents thus smother "wealth creation". This may be true in Vancouver, but doesn't seem to be true in other areas like the Valley or NYC, which remain hotbeds of economic activity. Vancouver's specific problem seems to be that the Soviet leadership in British Columbia has been unable to curb the very capitalist problem of money laundering profits from the People's Republic of China into Canadian real estate.

throwaway87378 7y ago
> Vancouver's specific problem seems to be that the Soviet leadership in British Columbia has been unable to curb the very capitalist problem of money laundering profits from the People's Republic of China into Canadian real estate. It's not just money laundering, but an entire "industry" of investment and tax fraud schemes: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/out-of-the-shadows/article31802994/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/out-of...
Mikeb85 7y ago
A lot of these issues describe Calgary (where I'm from), but we have the advantage of near limitless land to develop (everything north, east and south of the city is basically flat farmland, not even particularly productive farmland at that) and the local oil industry's near collapse has caused rents in the city centre to plummet. 20 years ago this article could have described our city nearly perfectly but even today is pertinent. The biggest obstacles to development are still bureaucracy and cartels, but thankfully at least some of their power is reduced by the relatively poor economy and tons of space.
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  Is this similarly true of Edmonton/rest of AB?
  - Mikeb85 7y ago
    Not sure the exact dynamic in downtown Edmonton WRT landowners and whatnot, in most of my visits there it seems like most businesses are slightly more spread across town than in Calgary (probably because their city is split up by a massive river valley), and like Calgary they do have a lot of space to develop as well (most of Alberta east of the mountains is relatively flat). Their economy is a little more diverse in the sense that they have a lot of government officials. It's a nice city but they have bitterly cold winters (even though as I write this there's snow on the ground in Calgary and a snowfall warning for all of southern Alberta) and less tourism than Calgary. The rest of AB is basically smaller agricultural towns, with a few oil towns that are basically glorified work-camps (Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray) and then a few mountain towns that have their own crazy dynamic due to national park regulations.
deleted 7y ago
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waterlaw 7y ago
I believe what he's referring to is this: > The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach in the United States. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4] He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society.[5] Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

by yborg 7y ago

throwaway87378 7y ago

> Vancouver's specific problem seems to be that the Soviet leadership in British Columbia has been unable to curb the very capitalist problem of money laundering profits from the People's Republic of China into Canadian real estate. It's not just money laundering, but an entire "industry" of investment and tax fraud schemes: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/out-of-the-shadows/article31802994/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/out-of...

Mikeb85 7y ago

A lot of these issues describe Calgary (where I'm from), but we have the advantage of near limitless land to develop (everything north, east and south of the city is basically flat farmland, not even particularly productive farmland at that) and the local oil industry's near collapse has caused rents in the city centre to plummet. 20 years ago this article could have described our city nearly perfectly but even today is pertinent. The biggest obstacles to development are still bureaucracy and cartels, but thankfully at least some of their power is reduced by the relatively poor economy and tons of space.

selimthegrim 7y ago
Is this similarly true of Edmonton/rest of AB?
- Mikeb85 7y ago
  Not sure the exact dynamic in downtown Edmonton WRT landowners and whatnot, in most of my visits there it seems like most businesses are slightly more spread across town than in Calgary (probably because their city is split up by a massive river valley), and like Calgary they do have a lot of space to develop as well (most of Alberta east of the mountains is relatively flat). Their economy is a little more diverse in the sense that they have a lot of government officials. It's a nice city but they have bitterly cold winters (even though as I write this there's snow on the ground in Calgary and a snowfall warning for all of southern Alberta) and less tourism than Calgary. The rest of AB is basically smaller agricultural towns, with a few oil towns that are basically glorified work-camps (Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray) and then a few mountain towns that have their own crazy dynamic due to national park regulations.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

waterlaw 7y ago

I believe what he's referring to is this: > The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach in the United States. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4] He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society.[5] Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation