The Drumpfs and Clintons in our lives

• whytehot
  
  Posts: 1259
  
  
  Mar 23, 2016 4:49 AM GMT

  Drumpf mania taps into our nastiest fears, and apparently even some Canadians are on board!
  
  The other day I was having drinks with a friend and his friend who is visiting from Vancouver. Of course, all he talked about was real estate and how the Chinese are buying up all the condos and houses there. He even went to a neighborhood protest against the demolition of a multi-million dollar house that was 20 years old because it was going to be replaced with an even bigger house by its Asian owner. He went on and on about how one suburb has turned into an ethnic ghetto - by ghetto he meant instead of mostly white and middle class it became mostly Chinese and wealthy. He suggested that we stop allowing immigration from Asia - he actually said "shut them down" lol. Resentment? Jealousy? If I lived in a place like that where the migrants are bringing in buckets of cash instead of poverty or jihad, I'd have no complaints

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• badbug
  
  Posts: 866
  
  
  Mar 23, 2016 7:02 AM GMT

  
  The problem is they are inflating the cost of real estate so average citizens can't afford a home. Many of them don't even live here for all but a few days a year and are just looking for places to dump their money where their government can't get it.
  
  It sounds great that there are a bunch of millionaires moving here but they aren't really living here and are not working here. They're just raising the already ridiculous costs for everyone else. This type of immigration is expediting the growing wealth gap.
  
  
  I am sure there is a level of resentment and jealousy but the issue is that housing prices are too high. A bunch of millionaires hiding assets here is not good for the average person.
  
  There are more chinese people per capita in Vancouver than any place in the world outside of China. It's simply not practical to let another country buy one of our cities one block at a time. There are 1.4 billion chinese and perhaps 3 million people in Vancouver and the surrounding areas. Even if 1 percent of them could afford to buy homes here and sought to, that's 14 million people. Think about that. So if O.1 percent decided to, that's 1.4 million people. Those numbers aren't sustainable.
  
  
  I wouldn't suggest stopping immigration, i would suggest taxing the fuck out of it. Of course, corrupt politicians are just going to waste the largest portion of that money.

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  Mar 23, 2016 7:21 AM GMT

  interest rates are too low

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  Mar 23, 2016 7:57 AM GMT

  Could Vancouver become the next Monte Carlo?

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• badbug
  
  Posts: 866
  
  
  Mar 23, 2016 7:34 PM GMT

  
  "Monte Carlo" hmmm, sounds mexican. I wonder what hard working american city's job Monte Carlo is stealing!
  
  

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  Mar 24, 2016 3:58 PM GMT

  badbug said
  "Monte Carlo" hmmm, sounds mexican. I wonder what hard working american city's job Monte Carlo is stealing!
  
  

  
  
  LOL. Monte Carlo is in Europe, in Monaco. That's where a lot of rich and famous live in order to avoid taxes.

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• Apparition
  
  Posts: 4029
  
  
  Mar 24, 2016 9:21 PM GMT

  As to the jealousy, pretend you were super advantaged to own a home (say grandma bought it for 20k in the sixties and it is now worth 500k for tax purposes and you pay X$ in taxes (okay say this was a shed since it is in vancouver...lol). Then a bunch of foreigners money launder their profits by buying the surrounding homes also "worth 500k" but they buy and sell them back in forth for a year amongst themselves and top out at 2million$ for the surrounding sheds. Now your taxes are 4X, but you kinda like the neighbourhood, and grew up there, and work there, and you like the businesses but you changed NOTHING and now you cant afford your home that you could afford last year, although you did nothing wrong. Now you have to change your whole life because some idiots were hiding money from the taxman, you you were unlucky enough to live next to them. Also, you used to have nice neighbours, and friends etc on the street, and now you just have empty houses, and a few maintenance men, and your neighbourhood that was once vibrant is now just YOU. All alone on corporate st. The local businesses that were bohemian are now all closed due to rent increases, the schools empty out, and nobody is ever around. Sad.

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• christastic
  
  Posts: 406
  
  
  Mar 25, 2016 12:06 AM GMT

  Property tax rates decrease from year to year to account for rising home values so that the overall revenue only increases at the rate of inflation, so if you live in an average house, you'll be taxed around the same whether it was worth $500K in 2000, or $1.5M today. Vancouver actually has some of the lowest property taxes in Canada, which already has lower property taxes than the US. If you live in a average $1.5 million home in Vancouver, you pay about $3500 in property taxes.
  
  The main downside is that many of the houses bought for cash are sitting empty like a mutual fund with a 20% annual return, and neighbourhoods lose their liveliness. The biggest problem isn't for existing homeowners, but for those wanting to get into the market.

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