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  #261  
Old Posted May 9, 2018, 7:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Interesting you should mention community and public infrastructure. I find this is one area where Canada often doesn't look too good. We have shiny new stuff here and there, but for every new piece we cut the ribbon for, there seem to be at least 10 pieces in serious disrepair. This applies to schools, transit systems, roads, sidewalks, public buildings... basically everything "public".
I don't know - aside from some rough roads, I find the infrastructure in Canada to be fine. The roads are just a product of the climate, unfortunately.

We're a big, spread out country, not some small, dense European one.

Germany might have flawless autobahns, but they're 80 million people in an area 1/3rd of Ontario.
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  #262  
Old Posted May 9, 2018, 7:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Interesting you should mention community and public infrastructure. I find this is one area where Canada often doesn't look too good. We have shiny new stuff here and there, but for every new piece we cut the ribbon for, there seem to be at least 10 pieces in serious disrepair. This applies to schools, transit systems, roads, sidewalks, public buildings... basically everything "public".
No question, Canada's public infrastructure is very utilitarian and sparse relative to other established high density countries, at least the ones not plundered by colonialism. Such is the lot of many new world countries like Australia and Canada (particularly Canada) that haven't had time to replace the utilitarian stuff with prettier upgrades. Things are improving in the cores of our big 3, fortunately.

Anyway, that's the sacrifice we make for living in a country that is nowhere near maxing out its potential, it's still very much a work in progress on many levels. The benefit though is that there are many opportunities for enterprising, and even some not so enterprising individuals, to make a mark and make some cash compared to other developed countries. The UK is the example I like to use as it's a country that is still chugging along from the fumes of its colonial legacy, the only way to go is down for them, or at best stagnation.
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  #263  
Old Posted May 10, 2018, 1:48 AM
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^^ I fully expect Canada to pass Italy, France, and the UK in my life time.

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Originally Posted by esquire View Post
^ Surprising. It doesn't feel that way, although living in a city where one tends to always hear the reasons why seemingly normal things like providing basic infrastructure (recreational, transportation, etc.) can't be done obviously shapes my feelings on the matter.
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Same here. I've travelled quite a bit all over the world, and Canada definitely feels "middling" among the world's wealthier countries, as opposed to a front-runner.

I'll quote the introductory paragraphs of the study. It sheds light on why they chose to tabulate this data and how. I put in bold the part that sums it up best.

Quote:
Is gross domestic product a sufficient measure of an economy’s health? Many argue that GDP, which counts the sum of the goods and services produced by a nation, fails to reflect a population’s wellbeing, because it accounts for neither distribution of income nor extractive effects such as pollution.

This week, the World Bank published an ambitious project to measure economies by wealth, to get a more complete picture of a nation’s health, both in the present and the future. The Changing Wealth of Nations analyzes the wealth of 141 countries, from 1995 to 2014. The report argues that wealth is a better judge of economic success because it measures the flow of income that a country’s assets generate over time—although it is significantly more challenging to measure. “A country’s level of economic development is strongly related to the composition of its national wealth,” the report states.

Wealth includes all assets, which means human capital (the value of earnings over a person’s lifetime), natural capital (energy, minerals, agricultural land), produced capital (machinery, buildings, urban land), and net foreign assets.

Assessing an economy by GDP instead of wealth is like looking exclusively at a company’s income statements without considering the assets on its balance sheet. A company can make its income look good for a short time by liquidating assets, but over the long run this will reduce the firm’s productive capacity and other means of generating income in the future.


The same applies to a country. GDP “does not reflect depreciation and depletion of assets, whether investment and accumulation of wealth are keeping pace with population growth, or whether the mix of assets is consistent with a country’s development goals,” the report states. That said, for most countries GDP is strongly correlated to wealth.

https://qz.com/1194051/a-new-world-b...trys-progress/
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  #264  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2018, 10:10 PM
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Treepedia: EXPLORING THE GREEN CANOPY IN CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

Green View Index

36.1% Tampa
29.3% Singapore
28.8% Oslo
25.9% Sydney
25.9% Vancouver
25.5% Montreal
23.7% Durban
23.6% Johannesburg
23.6% Sacramento
21.5% Frankfurt
21.4% Geneva
20.6% Amsterdam
20.0% Seattle
19.5% Toronto
19.4% Miami
18.2% Boston
17.5% Tel Aviv
16.2% Turin
15.2% Los Angeles
13.5% New York
13.4% Cape Town
12.7% London
11.7% Sao Paulo
10.8% Quito
09.4% Kobe
08.8% Paris
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  #265  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2018, 11:41 PM
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Quite a few surprises there.
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  #266  
Old Posted Jun 20, 2018, 12:08 AM
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Indeed. Who would have thought Montreal would be higher than Amsterdam or that Tel Aviv would be higher than London...
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  #267  
Old Posted Jun 20, 2018, 1:06 AM
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Note that those are only for trees on streets and do not include parks.

"Treepedia measures the canopy cover in cities. Rather than count the individual number of trees, we’ve developed a scaleable and universally applicable method by analyzing the amount of green perceived while walking down the street. The visualization maps street-level perception only, so your favorite parks aren't included! Presented here is preliminary selection of global cities."
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  #268  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 6:43 PM
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  #269  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 7:29 PM
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Interesting that the most egregious offenders are the nations that tend to score the highest on human development indices (Canada, ANZAC, Scandinavian countries).

Maybe this is an ideal that all nations should be aspiring to........
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  #270  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 7:37 PM
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Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post


Interesting that the most egregious offenders are the nations that tend to score the highest on human development indices (Canada, ANZAC, Scandinavian countries).

Maybe this is an ideal that all nations should be aspiring to........
I prefer the egalitarian paradises of Zaire and North Korea! I would imagine that what is really being mapped here is the answer to the question:

"How honest are the really rich people in a given country about the fact that they've got a lot of dough?"
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  #271  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 7:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy6 View Post
I prefer the egalitarian paradises of Zaire and North Korea! I would imagine that what is really being mapped here is the answer to the question:

"How honest are the really rich people in a given country about the fact that they've got a lot of dough?"
Well, considering that the Russian oligarchs apparently only control 15% of their country's wealth, I would say that you have hit the nail on the head!!

There you have it then - at least Canada's 1% are honest. I think that's saying something isn't it?????
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  #272  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 9:51 PM
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Income inequality is a misplaced concern. The real concern is how well the standard of living is for each social class. If over a certain time period, the wealthiest have, say, a 20% increase in income, the rest of the population has a 10% increase in come, and inflation goes up 5%, it means that literally everyone's lives are getting better even though income inequality would actually increase.
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  #273  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 11:32 PM
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  #274  
Old Posted Jun 23, 2018, 11:33 PM
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  #275  
Old Posted Jun 24, 2018, 12:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post


Interesting that the most egregious offenders are the nations that tend to score the highest on human development indices (Canada, ANZAC, Scandinavian countries).

Maybe this is an ideal that all nations should be aspiring to........
They mislabeled the map. It's backwards.
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  #276  
Old Posted Jul 4, 2018, 4:00 PM
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  #277  
Old Posted Jul 4, 2018, 4:43 PM
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Originally Posted by 1overcosc View Post
Income inequality is a misplaced concern. The real concern is how well the standard of living is for each social class. If over a certain time period, the wealthiest have, say, a 20% increase in income, the rest of the population has a 10% increase in come, and inflation goes up 5%, it means that literally everyone's lives are getting better even though income inequality would actually increase.
I think this is a seductive line of reasoning based on the math but it is mostly untrue given how our society and psychology work.

One big problem with this theory is that under our capitalist system, those with the most money can direct the overall path that society takes. This happens through the courts, lobbying, and direct spending. If you are poor you have less agency, and your level of agency can decline even if your material wealth does not. When the rich have 90% of the wealth they direct society and everyone else loses out even if their wealth on paper isn't going down.

Another fact is that, at the end of the day, humans judge whether or not they have a good standard of living by looking at other humans. The lifestyle of a well-off 18th century merchant would be considered unacceptable for a poor person today because our standards have scaled up. This process will continue. Average people will be really unhappy if they have a slightly better than 2018 standard of living in 2100 while a few rich people never have to work, live for 150 years, and go on trips to Mars.

A third quasi-objection is that inflation is hard to measure and even when it seems like incomes are going up people often lose some kinds of purchasing power or some aspects of their quality of life. Real incomes have been growing around here for example but housing is less affordable, there's more gridlock, fewer people have secure jobs with good hours and benefits, etc. I don't believe that slightly positive income growth for the lower quintile of our society as measured by current methods truly signifies an improvement in the standard of living.
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  #278  
Old Posted Jul 4, 2018, 5:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Mtl View Post
Treepedia: EXPLORING THE GREEN CANOPY IN CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

Green View Index

36.1% Tampa
29.3% Singapore
28.8% Oslo
25.9% Sydney
25.9% Vancouver
25.5% Montreal
23.7% Durban
23.6% Johannesburg
23.6% Sacramento
21.5% Frankfurt
21.4% Geneva
20.6% Amsterdam
20.0% Seattle
19.5% Toronto
19.4% Miami
18.2% Boston
17.5% Tel Aviv
16.2% Turin
15.2% Los Angeles
13.5% New York
13.4% Cape Town
12.7% London
11.7% Sao Paulo
10.8% Quito
09.4% Kobe
08.8% Paris

This doesn't seem very accurate at all.

125 Rue Wilson, Dollard-Des Ormeaux, Quebec H9A 1W8, Canada 30.8% Canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.49444...7i13312!8i6656

VS.

25 Colgate Ave Toronto, Ontario 13.7% Canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/23+...!4d-79.3434061

VS.

1263 West 40th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V6M 1X4, Canada 22.6% canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/126...4d-123.1339554
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  #279  
Old Posted Jul 4, 2018, 5:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123 View Post
I think this is a seductive line of reasoning based on the math but it is mostly untrue given how our society and psychology work.

One big problem with this theory is that under our capitalist system, those with the most money can direct the overall path that society takes. This happens through the courts, lobbying, and direct spending. If you are poor you have less agency, and your level of agency can decline even if your material wealth does not. When the rich have 90% of the wealth they direct society and everyone else loses out even if their wealth on paper isn't going down.

Another fact is that, at the end of the day, humans judge whether or not they have a good standard of living by looking at other humans. The lifestyle of a well-off 18th century merchant would be considered unacceptable for a poor person today because our standards have scaled up. This process will continue. Average people will be really unhappy if they have a slightly better than 2018 standard of living in 2100 while a few rich people never have to work, live for 150 years, and go on trips to Mars.

A third quasi-objection is that inflation is hard to measure and even when it seems like incomes are going up people often lose some kinds of purchasing power or some aspects of their quality of life. Real incomes have been growing around here for example but housing is less affordable, there's more gridlock, fewer people have secure jobs with good hours and benefits, etc. I don't believe that slightly positive income growth for the lower quintile of our society as measured by current methods truly signifies an improvement in the standard of living.
This is also the general direction I see most western societies heading in...
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  #280  
Old Posted Jul 4, 2018, 6:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TorontoDrew View Post
This doesn't seem very accurate at all.

125 Rue Wilson, Dollard-Des Ormeaux, Quebec H9A 1W8, Canada 30.8% Canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.49444...7i13312!8i6656

VS.

25 Colgate Ave Toronto, Ontario 13.7% Canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/23+...!4d-79.3434061

VS.

1263 West 40th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V6M 1X4, Canada 22.6% canopy
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/126...4d-123.1339554
Aren't those numbers for the entire city? I don't see any numbers for specific streets or neighbourhoods.
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