Traum | 04-05-2017 10:31 AM | Quote:
Originally Posted by originalhypa
(Post 8833035)
Having just got back from the US, I was shocked as to how expensive food is there too. My average lunch cost for a family of 5 was at least $50, and the two nights we ate "fancy dinners" were over $150. This is in USD too, so add $1.35 to those numbers. It hurts when you think about it. | I seem to remember that for certain food (poultry, eggs, milk, etc.?), Canadian safety standards are higher. Something to do with usage of hormones, arsenic, source and/or processing of the meat. In particular, USDA has allowed China-processed chicken to be sold to US for consumption. Let's just say I am not particularly fond of China's food processing, eh? Quote:
Originally Posted by originalhypa
(Post 8833375)
I don't want to ride a scooter like some uneducated villager in Pakistan. I want the white picket fence, I want land, and I want to drive a big truck. I didn't choose to open the immigrant floodgates. I didn't choose to export our oil and grain to the US and Asia. Someone else did, and they're reaping the benefits. Is it fair that the billionaires are getting richer, while many of us are getting poorer and being forced to change our lifestyles? Not at all.
Yet so many folks such as yourself are willing to accept that. And that my friend, is sad. The erosion of North America is our generations greatest loss. | While I may have a slightly different take than you do on some of the issues you mentioned, I get where you are coming from, and I mostly agree with you on how the wealth gap is widening and forcing us to alter our lifestyle for the worse. In particular, I totally agree on the point where the N.American dream and lifestyle are getting replaced with the Asia-like packed sardines living, and people are just rolling over without a fight to accept it. To me, that does not make sense at all. Had I wanted to stay living in a tiny suite in a highrise instead of living in a single detached house, had I wanted to ride a bus or take a train instead of driving to work, I would have move to some major city in Asia.
Maybe I am talking through a pair of rose tinted glasses, but I honestly think life in the 70's up to around the turn of the millennium was a far better time to life in Vancouver, regardless of the economic ups and downs. There was an awesome race track right there in Coquitlam. Single income families can still afford a mortgage on a single detached home with a 2 car garage, a car payment, and still have $$$ leftover to raise a family. The sky was bigger, closer, and wider with far fewer highrises (just look at Burnaby Metrotown and Brentwood area now?). You can still choose to live in close quarters if you want, but the key difference is choice. Now we barely even have that choice to live in tiny tight spaces while keeping ourselves fed.
Gosh... I'm turning into a grumpy old man like MG1... :lawl: |