this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Thankfully I already get raises based on the cost of living increases as a minimum.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Same here. Thanks to my union, I get an annual cost of living increase based on the CPI, as well as an annual raise based on job performance.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yep same here, thanks to union raises according to inflation, raises according to years worked, 21 days of paid summer vacation + couple weeks paid free days to take whenever and paid sick days

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

We're not even unionized, we just have a great boss/company owner.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I get the same from my employer, non-union, though. I feel very fortunate.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Same, but it should be universal. This law also serves as a deterrent to price gouging as well.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (7 children)

B.c is the weirdest place I've been to. It's like walking through a wealthy city, and seeing wealthy people in nice clothes just stepping over homeless, maybe toss em a coin and pat themselves on the back, and acting like it's just normal life. It's obscene. It felt to me like being in a place with deep social issues, but it doesn't actually want to fix the issues, just pretty them up and act like it's not a problem

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They closed down the mental hospital which put a lot of people on the street who shouldn't be on the street and left no place for new people in need.

Then we have other cities and provinces giving homeless people one way bus tickets to here to get rid of their own problem.

(Edit And then it's the best climate in Canada if you are going to be homeless so they make their own way here often enough as well. )

Among a lot of things that can be done, we really need them to reopen the mental hospital. A lot of those people just won't get the support they need via other services.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

The existence of a bad thing doesn't make this any less a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Try growing up super poor there. I've been homeless there, there's loads of great people who just want to help you clean up your life and get off the street...annnnd there's people who see you and throw a few pennies at you and consider it their charitable contribution to society for the year, all while pinching their nose and stepping practically in the street to stay as far away from you while feeling good about themselves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

The wealthy people in b.c were what really disgusted me. The way they went about their wealthy lives, eating in super expensive restaurants while there's hungry homeless just outside that they ignore. Kinda reminded me of India.

I went to Victoria and I was dismayed at the homeless/addiction issue, and was shocked at how nobody in the fancy restaurants seem to give a shit

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Literally just like any other affluent city of similar size in NA right now lol

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

One thing to note is Alberta would give their homeleas a one-way bus ticket to Vancouver (claiming that the weather is safer for the unhoused, which it is) so we get extra people without shelter, on top of not having a cohesive plan

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In Ontario we just ignore the homeless people and then pat ourselves on the back anyway.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I took a trip to Niagara falls this year, hadn't been there since before the pandemic. It's like a homeless carnival over there now, they're on every corner.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Where are you from? This has been the way of it in major cities in Canada or the US for decades.

At some point, people get tired of watching the sandwich you bought for that "hungry person" get tossed in the garbage or the dude who "just needs bus fare home to his family" hitting you up months later with the same spiel

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I agree, I mean I think you can provide infinite money to homeless shelters and services, but I'm most concerned with the mentally ill homeless who refuse help, and just make life uncomfortable for anyone else in the city. There are known homeless guys in my city who are known for harassing and threatening people, but no matter what they do, they get infinite sympathy and no forced intervention.

I'm all for helping those who are in need, all in. But you're never going to fix the homeless issue, unless you accept that some will need to be forcibly removed from their street life, because they don't want help.

People in places like b.c want to appear tolerant so they give the violent ones all the slack in the world and act like they don't exist

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

Excellent. I hope this catches on.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does anyone have a good estimate for what minimum wage would be if this had been implemented in 1970?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Did the math once at from somewhere around that time it'd be about $27

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Thanks. When we saw this, my wife and I just guesstimated that it would have to be close to $30 based on our experiences in the mid-late 1970s compared to now.

I was earning about 1.5 times minimum wage and managed to keep a pretty nice 2-bedroom apartment and food on the table while she stayed home with our son. We didn't think we had a lavish lifestyle, but we still managed a decent used car, her motorcycle, weekly date nights, and fairly regular camping trips.

Sadly, that might actually qualify for a fairly lavish lifestyle today.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

I wish America had this

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like an interesting approach. I don't know much about economics though. Anyone know what the possible repercussions could be by doing this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Pros: Necessary increases don't lag behind by 5 years and we don't spend months arguing the pros and cons every time we need to increase it only to end up eventually increasing it.

Cons: Probably makes it harder to make small adjustments if needed due to factors other than inflation because people will say it will increase anyways and ignore that even if it will get a 5% increase, perhaps it will be necessary to increase it by 6%.