GottaBeKD
FAIL

You must have mixed up what interest rates and inflation do.
Interestingly I am learning about the flexible price model in advanced macroeconomics class now. Interesting to learn about how it all impacts currencies and such.

/I gotta get a passport so I can go on vacation to the US.

jake_lex: Isn't the main excuse that every Canadian team (at least ones that are in leagues with American teams) uses for why they suck that they just can't compete with American teams because they have to come up with more Canadian money to make the equivalent American payout?

Gotta come up with a new excuse for missing the playoffs, hosers.

Particularly hilarious since the Leafs are the most profitable team in the league.

IAmDrGalacawicz

I don't purchase things from Canada often


I guess you don't own a car...

I would like to thank all the American SVU owners for our high dollar

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Jul-07 Jun-07 YTD 2007 Jul-06 Jan - July 2006

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -

CANADA 1,797 1,873 1,839 1,624 1,742
MEXICO 1,469 1,392 1,458 1,561 1,662
SAUDI ARABIA 1,434 1,501 1,421 1,264 1,400


proof (new window)

This: jre: Pretty cavalier and arrogant for a person who's economy has been trashed by its own elected officials.

Well, to be fair, this will probably help the US working-class economy (although it's gonna screw a lot of moneymen). Quality-of-life, not so much, but economy, yes. Less importing means more domestic production. Lower value dollar means more tourism.

Domestic production? From who, exactly? We've already shipped at least 20% of our manufacturing capabilities overseas - where did you think all those lead-covered toys were coming from, Detroit? There isn't going to be less importing, because we can't afford to not import - too much of our everyday lives depends on imported materials, thanks to everyone wanting to grow up to be doctors and lawyers.

As for tourism, yeah, I can see that happening because we've been so tourism-friendly lately. If we're not arresting Canadians outright, we're shipping Canadians to Syria for torture. Dark-skinned and from a country we deem suspect? Good luck trying to visit at all. Hey - don't like having a country that doesn't trust you take your biometric information? Again, good luck getting in.

Of course, the working-class quality of life will also take a nosedive. But the economy - the REAL economy, not just shuffling around numbers - should do nicely.

The REAL economy is already dead in the water, fool. You want a picture of the REAL economy? Drive around the average lower-class neighborhood and look for FOR SALE signs on houses. I live in a cul-de-sac in a lower-class neighborhood, with five houses. Three of them went up for sale in less than a year. When folks had to use their houses as piggy-banks to keep up with the Joneses' consumption levels, and the creditors came a-callin', well, that's the REAL economy for you.

jake_lex: Isn't the main excuse that every Canadian team (at least ones that are in leagues with American teams) uses for why they suck that they just can't compete with American teams because they have to come up with more Canadian money to make the equivalent American payout?

Gotta come up with a new excuse for missing the playoffs, hosers.

Not really anymore. There's a cap now so that brings a bit of league parity. Tee hee... parity.

And lots of Canadian teams make the playoffs every year. The Leafs didn't last year because they had to dump a bunch of salary to make the cap and didn't plan properly for the effects of that. It might seem that the Canadian teams don't do so well, but that's likely just because they're outnumbered by American teams. It doesn't matter anyhow, as Canadian players generally outnumber the Americans on Stanley Cup winning clubs. In a way the joke's on the US because you're paying Canadian athletes to do something for your team that Americans could not.

It's a bit of a pissing contest that doesn't REALLY matter in the end anyhow. Hockey's a great game, and very entertaining to watch. If it gains a bigger and bigger market share anywhere in the world, it just means they'll be more quality hockey for us hosers to watch.

/Besides, as a born and bred Leafs fan, I learned how to take a loss from a very young age :)

Sgian Dubh
From the CIA World factbook:

Canada
National motto: "Pay Tax."

Wake me up when Canadians get to keep more than 30% of their dollars.

OTOH we do not have a fiscal deficit and are actually paying DOWN our debt. In a few years we will be deft free, which will free up a huge amount of federal spending responsibility and taxes will fall.

//Unless the NDP get into power

jake_lex: Isn't the main excuse that every Canadian team (at least ones that are in leagues with American teams) uses for why they suck that they just can't compete with American teams because they have to come up with more Canadian money to make the equivalent American payout?

Gotta come up with a new excuse for missing the playoffs, hosers.

Great, now players will be asking to get paid in Canadian dollars!

Last 120 days as per x-rates.com, Sept 19: 1.0147.

Hot dog!

/My $10 canadian I have from Toronto is slowly gaining a tiny monetary value!

LeftCoast_eh: Unless the NDP get into power

Won't happen.

The NDP aren't connected enough to really get their message out, and even if they did I don't think it would play to the majority of Canadians. They do their best work when they can have a say in policy from the perspective of being a coalition government. Tommy Douglas' ability to get socialized medicine pushed through is a great example of some of the work that the NDP would be able to get done. I think what most Canadians would want is the Liberals to get their act together and appoint a proper party leader and for Quebec just to accept that they're part of the nation and quit farking around with all this sovereignty talk. They're not going to leave and it doesn't make any sense to rattle a sabre you could never actually pull from the scabbard.

Mercutio74: It doesn't matter anyhow, as Canadian players generally outnumber the Americans on Stanley Cup winning clubs. In a way the joke's on the US because you're paying Canadian athletes to do something for your team that Americans could not.

Historically yes, but if you look over the last 10-15 years, the ratio of American to Canadian players has been increasing quite a bit. The NCAA is now as viable a developmental league as Canadian juniors. More and more Americans are drafted high every year (including the last two #1 overall picks).

The demographics of the league are changing, and it's not just the influx of European players.

This:

Yep. A solid start, some real early success, a couple of big smash hits, and then a quick nosedive into self-destruction.

America: The World's Lindsay Lohan.

This.

LeftCoast_eh: In a few years we will be deft free,

Fact

which will free up a huge amount of federal spending responsibility

Fact

and taxes will fall.

Science fiction

jake_lex: Isn't the main excuse that every Canadian team (at least ones that are in leagues with American teams) uses for why they suck that they just can't compete with American teams because they have to come up with more Canadian money to make the equivalent American payout?

These days it's taxes. And for the Habs it's taxes and the hockey-crazed media.

jfarkinB

Hah! Now who's being an ass? I pay into my 401k like a good little pleb, I've got an ING account, I contribute to good causes, and I have health insurance. But, and here's the amazing part, health insurance is only a percentage. So darn, I only pay 10-20% of my $5000 MRI bill... that's awesome. Our vision insurance also eats sack. It's not considered medical even though I'm legally blind, so I eat that entire cost.

And hey, forget the fact I'm paying my mom's rent in addition to my own, because that's free; she can't find a job, so she's working two or three temp jobs (the same ones Americans supposedly don't want)... go figure.

Yeah, I was wrong about the taxes. I made the mistake of... I don't know, adding the percentages they print on the farking forms like any straight-thinking person would assume. I guess I should go directly to hell for that, too. And FYI the amount given to a charity is much larger than what the taxed amount would have been-them's some savings there.

I rarely eat out, I cook everything, and I save money like a damn squirrel packing away nuts, I don't own a car, and yet my savings seem to grow at a glacial pace. And I admittedly have an above average income. I can only imagine what the rest of the poor suckers out there have to deal with.

America is expensive. Suck it up and quit making excuses.

in2itive: Mr_Ectomy can probably atest to the Loonie / Toonie toss at the French Maid in Calgary.

Damn, I haven't been there in years.

drunkennewfiemidget: Yea, I can't help but vote NDP in this upcoming provincial election; the Dalton McGuinty is a lying assclown, and John Tory scares the daylights out of me. Fund private schools? Are you farking insane?

Seconded.
I think the NDP have a pretty good shot at it this time around.

FormlessOne: This: jre: Pretty cavalier and arrogant for a person who's economy has been trashed by its own elected officials.

Well, to be fair, this will probably help the US working-class economy (although it's gonna screw a lot of moneymen). Quality-of-life, not so much, but economy, yes. Less importing means more domestic production. Lower value dollar means more tourism.

Domestic production? From who, exactly? We've already shipped at least 20% of our manufacturing capabilities overseas - where did you think all those lead-covered toys were coming from, Detroit? There isn't going to be less importing, because we can't afford to not import - too much of our everyday lives depends on imported materials, thanks to everyone wanting to grow up to be doctors and lawyers.

As for tourism, yeah, I can see that happening because we've been so tourism-friendly lately. If we're not arresting Canadians outright, we're shipping Canadians to Syria for torture. Dark-skinned and from a country we deem suspect? Good luck trying to visit at all. Hey - don't like having a country that doesn't trust you take your biometric information? Again, good luck getting in.

Of course, the working-class quality of life will also take a nosedive. But the economy - the REAL economy, not just shuffling around numbers - should do nicely.

The REAL economy is already dead in the water, fool. You want a picture of the REAL economy? Drive around the average lower-class neighborhood and look for FOR SALE signs on houses. I live in a cul-de-sac in a lower-class neighborhood, with five houses. Three of them went up for sale in less than a year. When folks had to use their houses as piggy-banks to keep up with the Joneses' consumption levels, and the creditors came a-callin', well, that's the REAL economy for you.

Oh, I realize that things, right now, pretty much suck for the working class. My point is that a cheap dollar and high gas prices means that it is more effective to work locally, and the economy will shift towards domestic production. Yeah, most of that will have to be done from-scratch, since the industries are pretty dead... but if ever there was a way to stop buying cheap Chinese crap and start buying American again, then this is it.

Doc Daneeka: Historically yes, but if you look over the last 10-15 years, the ratio of American to Canadian players has been increasing quite a bit. The NCAA is now as viable a developmental league as Canadian juniors. More and more Americans are drafted high every year (including the last two #1 overall picks).

The demographics of the league are changing, and it's not juhttp://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3080853#b
Link (new window)st the influx of European players.

Fair enough. I'm interested in seeing hockey grow. You Yanks have always raised good athletes and it's great to see the NCAA become a viable and productive development league. Hell, if you have any talented prospects that well work for cheap, send them up here, they can play for the Leafs.

Sadly, that just means no more trips to River City Sports in Winnipeg for me :(

Yes, of course, the US economy has been thriving over the past 5 years..... eh, NOSEDIVE!

The economy has turned the corner, turned the corner and ran the fark away!

If this continent were prison, you'd be our biatch - we're bigger and on top.

/look it up, it's true. We're bigger.
/remember the War of 1812, my fellow Canucks! Muahaha!

Leonard_Cohen 2007-09-20 11:54:26 AM

IAmDrGalacawicz

I don't purchase things from Canada often


I guess you don't own a car...

I would like to thank all the American SVU owners for our high dollar

I know that I, personally, own a Special Victims Unit, but I can't speak for other Americans.

If you think the weakening dollar has anything [significant] to do with Canadian oil, you should have paid more attention in school. I see those Canadian propaganda meetings are working wonders for Candians, too....

Canada has been the largest exporter of crude oil to the US for a long, long time, and your looney is only JUST NOW approaching parity with the dollar for the first time since 1976? Jesus, you're farking dense.

Apropos, the companies from which I purchase gas...yeah, they don't import much of your Canadian crap oil relative to their other sources. But go ahead and have your parade.

/Canadian bitumen ("sand" oil) is crap oil, and is usually mixed with "good" oil during refining
//that's why it's so cheap
///and why our automobiles generally get poor gas mileage

I think I'm gonna vote Liberals although I really dislike McGuinty...

NDP -> $10/hr minimum wage.. are you insane? you want to wack up the whole economic like last time? If you rely on a minimum wage job to support your family, you need a new job... Even McDonalds pay better than minimum after only a few months working there.
Conversatives -> funding private schools.. They're private for a reason. I wish we could stop funding the Catholic school board as well but that's too much a legacy to remove now...
Green -> nice ideas, but can't seriously run a government
Liberals -> McGuinty is an @$$, but at least we are not running a deficit now. Seems like the lesser of all evils (as it always is)

I can has ekonumy?

/I couldn't resist.

still cant buy a two-four for 12$ up here though....

holeinmybucket: still cant buy a two-four for 12$ up here though....

True, but at least you can buy a 2-4 with beer in the bottles as opposed to fizzy urine.

mks113:I still would have prefered to call it "dubloon" -- or even better "The queen with the bear behind".

"It should have been called a 'Moony' because it features a portrait of the Queen with a bear behind" - Patrick Duffy

/Not the exact quote, but close

jre:
If you guys don't cut the bullshiat with your politicians in 2008 it'll be more of the same decline.

Seriously, it's the 21st century. We have thousands of years of failed empires behind us and you're MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES AS THEM? *READ* *A* *BOOK*. Large government and endless wars have never been good for a populace. Ever.

So stop it.

YEAH! AND REMEMBER, IT'S ALL OF AMERICA VOTING IN THOSE POLITICIANS, NOT JUST THE BIBLE BELT!

Duh. Ask new yorkers who they voted for. Gore AND Kerry.

2:42pm EDT

BOOYAH!

Sgian Dubh: I'm in a rather high tax bracket, and after sales tax, I keep ~50% of my income.

That being said, my wife needed all sorts of surgery the beginning of this year, and due to what turned out to be endomitriosis, we now have to have IVF performed to have a child.

Know how much all of that cost me? About $30 for hospital parking when I visited her.

Do you know how much I pay in tolls to drive across my country? $0.

I own my house on a fixed rate 5 year mortgage with a 25 year amortisation which I've paid down to 20 years in 1 year of owning.

I have watched my country stand up for itself, and refuse to get involved in the shiat slinging stupidity in Iraq.

I've watched your dollar fall from ~1.6:1 to 1:1 in the last 4 years.

I'll take the taxation; I'm damn happy and proud to be a Canadian.

Similar experience here: my wife had an endometriosis scare a couple of years ago. With all the other s**t you have to worry about when that happens, isn't it nice to not even have to think about the existence of hospital bills ?

We were able to pay-off a 20-year mortgage in 14 years. Fixed rate and weekly payments ftw.

I would add that we have a daughter in university right now and another who will be next year. It's nice to have tuition that is so low (at least in Quebec) that there was never any question as to whether we could afford to send them.

Sometimes we Canadians biatch about our health and education systems. They're not perfect, but the reality is that they are damn fine and available to all.

The dollar hit an all time low against the Euro today too. One of them will cost you a buck forty.

Hey what happened to the parity thread?

trifthen: jfarkinB

Hah! Now who's being an ass?

That would be me, but bear with me here.

I pay into my 401k like a good little pleb, I've got an ING account, I contribute to good causes, and I have health insurance. But, and here's the amazing part, health insurance is only a percentage. So darn, I only pay 10-20% of my $5000 MRI bill... that's awesome. Our vision insurance also eats sack. It's not considered medical even though I'm legally blind, so I eat that entire cost.

Believe me, I feel your pain, although for us it's the dental "coverage" that's the big farce. Our current medical-billing/insurance system gives us the worst of both worlds, muting or silencing the price signals that could help keep system-wide expenses under control, while still sucking consumers dry. How many extra people does your doctor employ just to deal with insurance documentation, billing, submissions, resubmissions, and so on? But if your doctor offers a discount to patients paying in cash, why, that's INSURANCE FRAUD!!1!!, because it's "charging the insurance companies more than you charge other customers". Never mind that you're saving the doctor hundreds of dollars in overhead.

But none of this can be laid at the foot of taxes.

And hey, forget the fact I'm paying my mom's rent in addition to my own, because that's free; she can't find a job, so she's working two or three temp jobs (the same ones Americans supposedly don't want)... go figure.

That's tough. It's no wonder both of you are having a hard time. Again, though, you're suffering because you're paying double rent, not because you're paying the same taxes as other Americans.

Yeah, I was wrong about the taxes. I made the mistake of... I don't know, adding the percentages they print on the farking forms like any straight-thinking person would assume. I guess I should go directly to hell for that, too.

No, but you should go back and check your math. It's like compound interest, which also traps a lot of heavy credit-card users.

If you earn $100, and the government takes 50% of it for taxes, you're left with $50 to spend. Now, if your state, local and sales taxes take 50% of what's left, how much stuff can you buy? $25 worth, or $0 worth?

I don't expect everybody to do compound-interest calculations in their heads, but it makes me farking nuts when people add proportional rates instead of multiplying. It doesn't work that way, and when a legislator or a talk-radio host uses tricks like this to get people riled up about tax rates, it's not carelessness, it's dishonesty.

And FYI the amount given to a charity is much larger than what the taxed amount would have been-them's some savings there.

You're right. Arguing that you should give to a charity to save money on taxes, or that you should take out a longer mortgage with higher interest payments because they're deductible, is possibly even sillier than adding tax rates. You should give to a charity because you want to support their cause, and you should buy a house because it works out for your geographic stability, income, lifestyle, etc. But you should certainly claim all the deductions that either act affords you, and you should figure that in when you're calculating your total tax burden.

I rarely eat out, I cook everything, and I save money like a damn squirrel packing away nuts, I don't own a car, and yet my savings seem to grow at a glacial pace. And I admittedly have an above average income. I can only imagine what the rest of the poor suckers out there have to deal with.

America is expensive. Suck it up and quit making excuses.

It's true. It's just not solely because of taxes.

It isn't just that value of $US is falling - $CDN is rising against many currencies. Japan and many in Europe are now choosing to invest more in Canada and buy Canadian oil and other commodities, which is driving the demand for $CDN. The combination of a falling $US and rising $CDN have risen to exact parity: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6DO-M306r3uR6wYuld4DI8fUeXw

Cataclaw

I dunno.. but I was enjoying it!

strathcona: in2itive: Mr_Ectomy can probably atest to the Loonie / Toonie toss at the French Maid in Calgary.

Damn, I haven't been there in years.

I've only been there once...it's alright. The best peeler bar is Whiskey-A-Go-Go, just north of Toronto in Vaughan, ON.

IAmDrGalacawicz: /Canadian bitumen ("sand" oil) is crap oil, and is usually mixed with "good" oil during refining
//that's why it's so cheap
///and why our automobiles generally get poor gas mileage

I don't have to call you stupid you just showed it in your post.

PsyJam: Cataclaw

I dunno.. but I was enjoying it!

Yeah it's gone into the depths of Total Fark.

Oh well... you can see what Bernanke has to say for himself and the Fed a few hours ago before Congress. Bullshiat, that is:



2% annual inflation doesn't create a 100% price increase over a 7 year period. Someone's lying, and considering gas and food prices, I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion: the Economist or the Fed?

I went to the store bought a mountain dew.....The change was 2 pennies......The guy gave me 1 CDN penny and reached into another pocket of the register to specifically give me a US penny. Thats how I knew the CDN $ was equal.

IAmDrGalacawicz: Canadian bitumen ("sand" oil) is crap oil, and is usually mixed with "good" oil during refining

Wow, you can't get much stupider than this.

IAmDrGalacawicz:

I know that I, personally, own a Special Victims Unit, but I can't speak for other Americans.

If you think the weakening dollar has anything [significant] to do with Canadian oil, you should have paid more attention in school. I see those Canadian propaganda meetings are working wonders for Candians, too....

Canada has been the largest exporter of crude oil to the US for a long, long time, and your looney is only JUST NOW approaching parity with the dollar for the first time since 1976? Jesus, you're farking dense.

Apropos, the companies from which I purchase gas...yeah, they don't import much of your Canadian crap oil relative to their other sources. But go ahead and have your parade.

/Canadian bitumen ("sand" oil) is crap oil, and is usually mixed with "good" oil during refining
//that's why it's so cheap
///and why our automobiles generally get poor gas mileage

Wow, where to start with this one....

First of all, oilsands (what I believe you're referring to) are mined and oil is extracted at a high cost. Before, the technology and world prices didn't make extracting this oil profitable - but now things have changed and Canada CAN make a big profit from it, so it does. The end product is... you guessed it: oil. Not 'dirty' oil or whatever you just called it. There is no way this 'dirty' oil farks with your milage - get your facts straight. Plus, I wouldn't call it "cheap", either.


Secondly, it's NOT JUST OIL that's making the CDN dollar higher. Manufacturing can now buy cheaper inputs for production, driving their costs down and making exports more attractive. Also, several metal and nonmetal mines have opened up across the country.

So i should have just invested in canadian money about 4 years ago?

Damn...

Evil Twin Skippy: PC LOAD LETTER: Just remember, we saved your ass in World War 2!


Actually dude, the Canadians fought too. Landed on Normandy and the whole nine yards.

Don't forget WW I. The Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel, the Somme July 1, 1916. 733 out of 801 killed or wounded basically in less than half an hour.

Also, Charlotte Wood. She lost 5 sons in WW I.

capt.hollister: Sometimes we Canadians biatch about our health and education systems. They're not perfect, but the reality is that they are damn fine and available to all

It's true... no country has a perfect system for health care or education but I'm pretty happy with ours. Anyone who really wants a post secondary education can get one and you won't generally lose your house over a period of hospitalization.