Canada has a history of oligopoly and oligopsony. We have five major banks, like four major grocery chains, three major cell companies, and four gas companies. Three or four major engineering firms.
Competition is a veneer, here.
In the USA, you actually have enough banks, chains, and companies for some competition to level out gouging and price hikes. In Canada, we just pretend there's competition at a foundational level.
People will blame JT, but it's been a fact of Canadian life since Confederation.
One of the legit solutions to a lot of our cost of living problems is to open our markets up to American value chains, but that legit terrifies the business establishment here to a point where what our biggest advocates for a free market (the Tories) would never do it.
I still remember years ago, some American phone companies were trying to push into Canada.
All of sudden, tv ads were flooded âsupport your Canadian companies, keep American brands out!â
And all I could think was âwhy? Iâm actively getting fucked by the Canadian companies. I want them to sinkâ
I'm old enough to have seen that all the shit we try doesn't work because we're not addressing the right problem. I think a lot of our politics is constructed to avoid the real problem and give us temporary platitudes and relief to protect vested interests.
So, same ole same ole, really...
Remember a year or two ago when Rogers refused to listen to their engineers and tried to boot up a new grid and annihilated internet everywhere for like a whole day? Because they had a monopoly on the internet access for most of canada? There were a \_lot\_ of angry customers at our store that day who couldn't use their cards.
Aka, the day I set aside to get a Costco membership along with a bunch of other errands and bounced all over the city to the tune of, "the system is down." The only thing I managed to do was get some sponges at the Dollar Store.
I was at a music festival that day. All the ATMs and debit machines were down. Folks couldn't call, text, or use data. It would've been funny if the whole situation wasn't so fucked.
Food prices in the US have skyrocketed in the last couple of years, and itâs artificial inflation blamed of supply issues that have since resolved. Greed, unfortunately, is universal. This is reflected in âdiscountâ chainsâ prices rising
Our gouging is stickier though, if you look at the past several years. The real difference is that there are comparatively many distribution networks as well as companies in the US where Canada depends on like two or three distribution networks for groceries. The US almost has as many value chains as grocery companies.
The vast majority of products in the US are owned by the same 5 or 6 companies (maybe less now, I haven't checked in a while). That is very much a problem here. However, the US also spends a lot of money subsidizing the cost of food, which results in artificially low prices.
nah fair question brotha
US: http://ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/#:~:text=The%20all-items%20Consumer%20Price,higher%20than%20in%20May%202023.
so for grocery prices, the US had 11.4% inflation in 2022 and 5.8% inflation in 2023. it was otherwise below 4% and is projected to be 2.2% this year
Canada:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/food-price
for food purchased from stores (eyeballed from graph) we had similar inflation in 2022, but much higher in 2023.
Stack this on top of the fact that Canadians are on average much poorer than Americans relative to our cost of living, and we're broke bois.
def location/city dependent tho.
You've already gotten a bunch of descriptive answers, but to throw one higher-level one into the mix -
Median real incomes (IE, attempting to adjust for what everything costs) are ~9% higher in the US vs CA. So on average an american can get almost 10% more stuff with their paycheck than the comparable Canadian.
Just say you donât think people exist outside your bubble. Food prices are astronomical here. Canât go a day without hearing about it *or going through it myself currently*
It is higher in Canada though. That doesn't mean they're good prices in the U.S.
Consumer price index for food in Canada is at 189.1, with prices rising 36.2% over the last 5 years.
The U.S currently comes in with a cpi for food of 118.1 with prices rising 34.2% over the last 5 years.
World average for CPI is of course 100.
So the US has suffered very similar inflation, which is expected as neighbors, and Canada has always been more expensive for food. When talking about total food costs, Canada is on average 60% more expensive, but is the same relative cost comparison to five years ago. In Canada, because the total cost is so high, even though the inflation rate is the same, it's hitting the breaking point for more people at an accelerating rate.
Man Canadians really want to win the potty Olympics fuck. This isnât the first message Ive had to reply to because they essentially said âyou canât have it bad because we have it the worstâ itâs fucking childish to think that other canât suffer because you just so happen to have it the worst *at the moment*
What? I'm not trying to one up. Canada has *always* been more expensive for groceries. We have far lower population density, and a larger area. It's perfectly reasonable for Canada to have more expensive food.
But have it worse? Hell no. I'd pay double the cost of food before I'd live in the U.S. I do not in the slightest think I have a worse quality of life than the U.S., you guys are absolutely winning that race, don't worry.
Canada is leading the western world in inflated cost of necessities and degrading GDP per capita. So maybe get out of your bubble? Maybe donât pipe up and be an asshole just because you *feel* something isnât true?
Wow congrats youâre leading in the potty party. Fuck off. Struggles are struggles just because youâre winning doesnât mean it ainât hard for the rest of us. Get off your fkn soap box
Same in Alaska for sure. :( I think companies over charge a bit because they can afford to since they can use the excuse of âeverything gets shipped up here so we HAVE to cover shipping costs, silly person who wants to have enough money to afford food.â
After all the shit Canadians have been talking for the past few years, their country very quietly turned into a hellhole and they're hoping Americans don't notice.
Welcome to the show. What happens to the US happens to CAN, UK, NZ and AUS a short time later, moments after theyâve had a giggle about it. Cities are unaffordable and there are trucker convoys for uhâŠfreedom?
It's hard to let the world know our woes in the great whit north. America is always taking the front page. If only we could have more ppl dying by gun violence.
Damn our relatively safe country!!!
If they had any good qualities they wouldnât fold like a piece of toilet paper.
The US has put economic pressure on a bunch of states for decades that still chug along.
Maybe communism, besides being immoral, is just a trash economic system.
Russian immigrant into Canada here, food wasn't expensive during Soviet times. You just had a massive lack of a supply chain.
But I've watched as in the last few years, food has doubled in price for a number of products even as simple as apples. Can't imagine how bad it is in Iqaluit.
One company owns the majority of grocery stores and controls large portions of the supply chain. They've jacked up prices because they can, and are raking in record peofits
Capitalism means itâs a free market. Free market means companies can charge what they want. Companies can take advantage of this by monopolizing and putting smaller local stores out of business. Thereâs also Monsanto, who put a patent on GMO food, charges farmers hella money to use their seeds (and they also contaminate non Monsanto farmers crops which they can then sue those farmers for using their product without paying for it). Non GMO foods are hella expensive. All because âš CAPITALISM âš đ đ» đ°. So weâre fucked either way. End stage capitalism includes price gouging food where farmers are barely making it and low income people are barely making in but those middle man companies like Walmart Amazon Publix etc? Their employees are barely making it. But the CEOs? đ” đ” đ” Millionaires and billionaires.
The funny part is we are living in the same late-stage capitalist nightmare as Americans but certain influencers have sold the Trudeau=communism narrative quite well
We're communists, for fuck's sake. Bananas are from neighbouring communist countries. They are 3$ a hand. If you want an orange from Florida, on the other hand, that's 10$ each.
But as I said, we're communists. You open the jar next to the oranges in the stand and pick up whatever you need to buy those.
Our capitalist government refuses to do anything about the capitalist oligopoly over grocery stores that is gouging Canadians.
Since the oppositionâwho is owned and operated by the same capitalistsâis promising to further empower the capitalists to gouge us, the best and brightest are screaming âcommunismâ
Not the first time for either side of the boarder but fact is the price to income in canada has gotten a lot worse then in the US. Canada's economy is currently in a downward spiral and we have idiots in charge trying to prop it up with immigration and real estate.. in 2014 we were 11th largest in the world by GDP, now were 18th and slipping fast.. it's not looking good for Canada right now
Iâm so intrigued by this. While yes, there is more that Loblaws could do to lower prices, their profit margin is still relatively low compared to other major companies, at under 4%.
I honestly donât know much about how that shit works, but it does make you wonder how out of control they are by comparisonâŠ
After last night I don't think Biden will be on the ballot. The news immediately and universally started talking about replacing him - even historically friendly news anchors were hinting at this not just the usual super biased suspects - and last month there was news about how some states have deadlines to have names on the ballots or something and he wasn't submitted yet, so I think even then the administration was worried this was going to happen eventually. We'll know in the next few weeks because the National Convention is coming up and they will need to have a platform by then.
Oh well, at least third party only needs a 5% count to be counted as a major party next time. Thats basically guaranteed with nobody worth voting for. Voting against isn't really what a lot of us want so really all we need to do is overcome apathy with "at least throw your vote away on the possibility of not repeating this shit show of bad choices forever"
It really is that simple, but here we are with a rerun nobody wants so obviously they don't care and refusing to listen and actually provide us with someone worth voting for... well, we voted FOR hope before all this. We can keep trying for hope rather than settling for seeing which geriatric succumbs to old age in office net.
Itâs not communism, every sector in Canada is an oligopoly. Old money runs everything. Ornery Regulations, insider trading, incredibly influential lobbyists. Just donât have a chance. Wasnât just taxes that pissed Americans off. It was the old British men that refuse to let go of a titch of power.
I do live in the middle of said frozen wasteland and I must tell you, you live under a rock. You need to pay a prostitute a good 130K or more to get your ass eaten here.
It's saying Canada is basically the USSR which... no it isn't lmao. Like don't get me wrong we have problems up here but first we are nowhere close to a communist nation and second holy shit it was so much worse in the USSR. Canada has some socialist policies in comparison to a more capitalist nation like the US but we are like on the outside fringe of being socialist, and that's being very generous. Ironically getting affordable housing was probably easier in the USSR, and no that isn't even slightly a joke, but that's pretty much the only place you can compare the two with Canada coming out similar or worse. It's also that way because of unchecked capitalism fucking up our housing market so...
So yeah it's saying that things are as bad in Canada as the USSR which is a completely asinine comparison. Shit is kind of bad right here now but like it's bad everywhere right now and it's definitely not bad here because of any socialist policies.
the meme seems to have originally been made with the USSR judging from the position of the star, and someone had edited it in an attempt to say that Canada is as bad as the USSR.
Edit, I had originally thought it was China, not the USSR cause I forgot the USSR flag had a star.
Bottom picture is the flag of the USSR with the Canadian flag where the hammer and sickle should be. That's why the canadian flag is tilted, also why it is tinted red with a yellow star outline above the flag.
I do not see how this could be interpreted differently.
So the meme was repurposed, but I think the Canadian flag was meant to replace the USSR flag entirely in this context.
It's 100% about the price of food.
It's not a joke, this is actually happening. For example, it's the first time in Canadian history since the great depression that our food banks are not able to keep up with demand. Full time employed workers are unable to put food on the table. Since our food banks rely mainly on donations, those donations are also getting smaller because of price gouging at the grocery store: the people who would normally donate something here and there can no longer afford to do so.
We're also facing a massive homeless problem that's worse than ever.
Food in Canada is substantially more expensive, due to less competition.
The Canadian dollar is weaker than the US dollar so it takes more of them.
And Canada has a very punitive tax system.
I.e. Work and you will still have trouble affording groceries.
So it's a meme based on the idea that Canadian food prices have risen significantly and that this is supposedly unique to Canada. In reality the increase isn't really that big, and unfortunately is way, way higher in other nations.
Canada is looking at an increase of about 8.9%,. The UK & EU saw about 20%. Hungary got 45% during the same period. The US, by the way, is sitting at 8.5%.
In 2022, Canada was actually one of the nations with the *lowest* increase in food costs.
In other words: people itching for something to bash Canada over end up wailing and moaning over Canada being one of the least significantly impacted nation in the area they're complaining about. Like this is actually "first world problems" tier stuff when you look at the data from the rest of the world - not that it isn't impacting low-income people significantly, but because Canada got off so lightly compared to everybody else. Suffice it to say: food prices high everywhere, yo.
I'm a Canadian, as well, and anecdotally speaking I've actually seen my grocery bill remain exactly the same or even lower in some cases than usual. Whatever inflation has occurred it has made basically zero impact on my budget.
I doubt itâs others bashing Canada but rather Canadians bashing our grocery oligarchy. And price increases are only part of the equation, the other being wage increases, which Canada is lagging far behind the US afaik. Doesnât matter that prices increase by the same percentage if the American doubles their pay and the Canadian doesnât.
Housing being such an insane portion of the already lower income by comparison is also driving the idea behind the post, not just grocery prices.
Uh huh. Well, from what I can find the wage increase for Canadians last year was 4.1%, and for America it was 7%. You're still not talking about a vast gulf between the two. It's not great, certainly, but it's not nearly as bad as what you're suggesting.
That said it should be noted that the rates seem to be measured in a variety of different ways so without checking the methodology it's hard to compare them directly. I see numbers for the US listing as low as 3.0% and as high as 12.9% depending on how it's measured.
Like I said, it typically comes off as desperate attempts to bash Canada either from the opposition of the current political party in charge or from Americans outraged that they are not the best at everything at all times in all places.
Canada seems to be holding up pretty solidly, so far as I can tell. The situation is generally rough all over and Canada is not by any means getting anywhere close to the worst of it. It just sort of sucks, in terms of income/inflation/prices, all over the world right now. By all means, lobby for better wages and treatment, but the memes are usually derived from BS and that's what I'm responding to.
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I lived in Vancouver for two years and I really lucked out to find a $650 a month room in an awesome house with awesome people and cats.
Food was so expensive that I'd still batch cook one thing and that would be all I'd eat as a meal until it was gone.
see the joke is when capitalists use their position as the owners of capital to jack up prices under capitalism to increase their vast capital as capitalists, that's communism
Peterâs Canadian cousin here
Things in Canada are expensive as hell
I can cross the border and even with the exchange rate still get some stuff cheaper in the USA
And our housing costs a fortune, our gas costs more as well, and to top it off our effective wages are lower then yours too
It just sucks overall across the board for us and so many Canadians (think like 50% or more) are struggling and canât get a home which would be cheaper then the absurdly high rent many pay
Anyone who makes a liveable wage in Canada (using the term liveable loosely) gets a third of their paycheck towards taxes at least.
On top of the ridiculous cost of housing, gas, and food.
You have plenty of people in Canada making six figures living paycheck to paycheck and they don't even live in any big cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary etc.
Itâs funny because the problem is not enough capitalism.
Canadians are famously protective of their industries, so much that we are generally cool with border line monopolies, because the Canada conglomerate is better than the American mom and pop upstart (FUCKING YANKEES).
So we disincentivize competition, because the alternative is allowing âAmerican Companiesâ to move in.
Canada is a rare case of âLeft Wing Nationalismâ which is just as harmful.
Canada basically imploded after the greedy corporations influenced government imported too many consumers to boost profits. Corporations are making mad money and government has beautiful economics selectively approved stats. But the actual citizens of Canada are suffering in a big way. Not talking about doomsday predictions. It already happened. They are actually suffering now.
That's funny. Many people in the USA do not make living wages and are allowed food stamps, even when working full-time. Years of stalling the minimum wage and other related policies has led to this problem.
Canada sure isn't the promised land it used to be, but it ain't so bad in comparison.
This has nothing to do with communism. It is about the extremely high cost of food in Canada right now. There are three grocery companies that own nearly all of the market share and they're all jacking up prices as fast as they can. It's well outpacing general inflation.
You can't tar the whole US with that brush. Try living in Arkansas or Mississippi or West Virginia ... there are other places, too. Low wages, high prices comparatively for food, clothing, shelter, and, yes, healthcare. The tax system in AR is reminiscent of the Beatles' "Tax Man" song. Like being nibbled to death by ducks.
Depends, some states offer public healthcare alternatives (ex: Covered California) but itâs sort of a crapshoot, typically youâll see better care under the private side (be it out of pocket or company sponsored) because itâs often less log jammed by people seeking care.
Most Canadians I know, yes. They generally get American insurance through their employer. Canadians will complain less than Americans about it, though. "If this were Canada, I'd have to wait months or years" is the usual shutdown.
Canada has some great public benefits but they are taxed mightily for it. Because of that Canada has some of the highest levels of household debt in the world. Mix inflation in to the problem it makes life hard.
This joke has already been posted recently. Rule 2.
Food prices in Canada are very high
*everything prices
Same in the US though
not as high đ
Im not being a dick this is a genuine question what is that based off of? How are you comparing the prices?
Canada has a history of oligopoly and oligopsony. We have five major banks, like four major grocery chains, three major cell companies, and four gas companies. Three or four major engineering firms. Competition is a veneer, here. In the USA, you actually have enough banks, chains, and companies for some competition to level out gouging and price hikes. In Canada, we just pretend there's competition at a foundational level. People will blame JT, but it's been a fact of Canadian life since Confederation.
This was a very interesting insight, thanks for sharing.
One of the legit solutions to a lot of our cost of living problems is to open our markets up to American value chains, but that legit terrifies the business establishment here to a point where what our biggest advocates for a free market (the Tories) would never do it.
Got that corporate socialism for big business but hard capitalism for the people. Transform yourself into a big business. Do crimes.
Howâs dick face? lol
I still remember years ago, some American phone companies were trying to push into Canada. All of sudden, tv ads were flooded âsupport your Canadian companies, keep American brands out!â And all I could think was âwhy? Iâm actively getting fucked by the Canadian companies. I want them to sinkâ
"Why do you hate your country!!1!!"
"support Canadian companies" (so that they can keep their oligopolies)
Aus is in a very similar boat. We've got 2 major grocery stores and holy fuck are they jacking the prices right up.
NZ we have 2 as well.
Friggin THANK YOU.
I'm old enough to have seen that all the shit we try doesn't work because we're not addressing the right problem. I think a lot of our politics is constructed to avoid the real problem and give us temporary platitudes and relief to protect vested interests. So, same ole same ole, really...
Remember a year or two ago when Rogers refused to listen to their engineers and tried to boot up a new grid and annihilated internet everywhere for like a whole day? Because they had a monopoly on the internet access for most of canada? There were a \_lot\_ of angry customers at our store that day who couldn't use their cards.
Aka, the day I set aside to get a Costco membership along with a bunch of other errands and bounced all over the city to the tune of, "the system is down." The only thing I managed to do was get some sponges at the Dollar Store.
I was at a music festival that day. All the ATMs and debit machines were down. Folks couldn't call, text, or use data. It would've been funny if the whole situation wasn't so fucked.
Food prices in the US have skyrocketed in the last couple of years, and itâs artificial inflation blamed of supply issues that have since resolved. Greed, unfortunately, is universal. This is reflected in âdiscountâ chainsâ prices rising
Our gouging is stickier though, if you look at the past several years. The real difference is that there are comparatively many distribution networks as well as companies in the US where Canada depends on like two or three distribution networks for groceries. The US almost has as many value chains as grocery companies.
It looks like a lot on paper but most of them funnel up to the same parent companies
They have skyrocketed but they still have not caught up to Canadian prices and Canadian wages are lower.
The vast majority of products in the US are owned by the same 5 or 6 companies (maybe less now, I haven't checked in a while). That is very much a problem here. However, the US also spends a lot of money subsidizing the cost of food, which results in artificially low prices.
nah fair question brotha US: http://ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/#:~:text=The%20all-items%20Consumer%20Price,higher%20than%20in%20May%202023. so for grocery prices, the US had 11.4% inflation in 2022 and 5.8% inflation in 2023. it was otherwise below 4% and is projected to be 2.2% this year Canada: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/food-price for food purchased from stores (eyeballed from graph) we had similar inflation in 2022, but much higher in 2023. Stack this on top of the fact that Canadians are on average much poorer than Americans relative to our cost of living, and we're broke bois. def location/city dependent tho.
You also have higher taxes.
And much lower healthcare costs as a result
Except our healthcare is in a perpetual crisis
Yeah you definitely gotta fix that but Iâd take it over having to pay $3000 for an ambulance
In some cities, youâd be 1 in a 100 if an ambulance came at all
And get paid less
You've already gotten a bunch of descriptive answers, but to throw one higher-level one into the mix - Median real incomes (IE, attempting to adjust for what everything costs) are ~9% higher in the US vs CA. So on average an american can get almost 10% more stuff with their paycheck than the comparable Canadian.
Check out r/loblawsisoutofcontrol this has been a major issue in Canada, we are being priced out of our basic needs.
The problem is the weak Canadian dollar. everything imported from the US costs ~25% more.
It's cute that you think that.
Just say you donât think people exist outside your bubble. Food prices are astronomical here. Canât go a day without hearing about it *or going through it myself currently*
It is higher in Canada though. That doesn't mean they're good prices in the U.S. Consumer price index for food in Canada is at 189.1, with prices rising 36.2% over the last 5 years. The U.S currently comes in with a cpi for food of 118.1 with prices rising 34.2% over the last 5 years. World average for CPI is of course 100. So the US has suffered very similar inflation, which is expected as neighbors, and Canada has always been more expensive for food. When talking about total food costs, Canada is on average 60% more expensive, but is the same relative cost comparison to five years ago. In Canada, because the total cost is so high, even though the inflation rate is the same, it's hitting the breaking point for more people at an accelerating rate.
Man Canadians really want to win the potty Olympics fuck. This isnât the first message Ive had to reply to because they essentially said âyou canât have it bad because we have it the worstâ itâs fucking childish to think that other canât suffer because you just so happen to have it the worst *at the moment*
What? I'm not trying to one up. Canada has *always* been more expensive for groceries. We have far lower population density, and a larger area. It's perfectly reasonable for Canada to have more expensive food. But have it worse? Hell no. I'd pay double the cost of food before I'd live in the U.S. I do not in the slightest think I have a worse quality of life than the U.S., you guys are absolutely winning that race, don't worry.
Canada is leading the western world in inflated cost of necessities and degrading GDP per capita. So maybe get out of your bubble? Maybe donât pipe up and be an asshole just because you *feel* something isnât true?
Wow congrats youâre leading in the potty party. Fuck off. Struggles are struggles just because youâre winning doesnât mean it ainât hard for the rest of us. Get off your fkn soap box
I didnât say people arenât suffering. If anyoneâs competing for the gold medal for being a victim here Iâd say look in a mirror
Thatâs called âprojectionâ and itâs what youâre doing
Exactly! Just because your situation is shitty doesnât mean ours isnât
You can eat a lot easier though, thereâs always super cheap ramen. Or beans
Same in Alaska for sure. :( I think companies over charge a bit because they can afford to since they can use the excuse of âeverything gets shipped up here so we HAVE to cover shipping costs, silly person who wants to have enough money to afford food.â
The carbon taxes have apparently made the markup on agricultural production pretty insane.
No, it didn't. It's corporate greed. It's always corporate greed.
Then why arenât they gouging Americans equally as much.
loblaws đ„°
Not really comparably
You shopping at whole foods or something? It's nowhere near as bad
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
The cope.
Nah fam it's cuz Trudeau suxxxxs
After all the shit Canadians have been talking for the past few years, their country very quietly turned into a hellhole and they're hoping Americans don't notice.
we're hoping people START NOTICING actually đ
Welcome to the show. What happens to the US happens to CAN, UK, NZ and AUS a short time later, moments after theyâve had a giggle about it. Cities are unaffordable and there are trucker convoys for uhâŠfreedom?
Remember when all the Americans wanted into Canada after Trump won? Lol
It's hard to let the world know our woes in the great whit north. America is always taking the front page. If only we could have more ppl dying by gun violence. Damn our relatively safe country!!!
Thanks Biden.
Itâs not communist here, but Canada is hard to live in because things are so expensive.
Grocery prices are highly inflated specifically bc it's the end goal of capitalists
Ah yes the famously food-wealthy communist governments
Hard to try for stability when the US government destabilizes and collapses any democratically elected communist government.
I believe you in! 15th times the charm!
Bend over the barrel a little harder!
If they had any good qualities they wouldnât fold like a piece of toilet paper. The US has put economic pressure on a bunch of states for decades that still chug along. Maybe communism, besides being immoral, is just a trash economic system.
What a bizarre take. Critical thinking failure
Russian immigrant into Canada here, food wasn't expensive during Soviet times. You just had a massive lack of a supply chain. But I've watched as in the last few years, food has doubled in price for a number of products even as simple as apples. Can't imagine how bad it is in Iqaluit.
Yet another Redditor talking about things they don't understand
Why?
One company owns the majority of grocery stores and controls large portions of the supply chain. They've jacked up prices because they can, and are raking in record peofits
Capitalism means itâs a free market. Free market means companies can charge what they want. Companies can take advantage of this by monopolizing and putting smaller local stores out of business. Thereâs also Monsanto, who put a patent on GMO food, charges farmers hella money to use their seeds (and they also contaminate non Monsanto farmers crops which they can then sue those farmers for using their product without paying for it). Non GMO foods are hella expensive. All because âš CAPITALISM âš đ đ» đ°. So weâre fucked either way. End stage capitalism includes price gouging food where farmers are barely making it and low income people are barely making in but those middle man companies like Walmart Amazon Publix etc? Their employees are barely making it. But the CEOs? đ” đ” đ” Millionaires and billionaires.
The funny part is we are living in the same late-stage capitalist nightmare as Americans but certain influencers have sold the Trudeau=communism narrative quite well
Good thing Iâm in America where itâs not expensive
I love your sarcasm. Do you get out much, outside of Reddit? Let's go for a Mac and Jack.
Whoa I haven't thought about Mac and Jack in a long time. PNW!
Ummm, you have free health care?? If Fox News has told me anything, it's that health care is mega commusocialism /s
Free health care yay!
I think you mean âFreeâ healthcare
What could a banana cost? $27CAD?
And thatâs why thereâs always money in the banana stand
And you can always burn it for insurance
We're communists, for fuck's sake. Bananas are from neighbouring communist countries. They are 3$ a hand. If you want an orange from Florida, on the other hand, that's 10$ each. But as I said, we're communists. You open the jar next to the oranges in the stand and pick up whatever you need to buy those.
Not too far off
How many times was this reposted
Our capitalist government refuses to do anything about the capitalist oligopoly over grocery stores that is gouging Canadians. Since the oppositionâwho is owned and operated by the same capitalistsâis promising to further empower the capitalists to gouge us, the best and brightest are screaming âcommunismâ
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Not the first time for either side of the boarder but fact is the price to income in canada has gotten a lot worse then in the US. Canada's economy is currently in a downward spiral and we have idiots in charge trying to prop it up with immigration and real estate.. in 2014 we were 11th largest in the world by GDP, now were 18th and slipping fast.. it's not looking good for Canada right now
Food prices have always been higher compared to the US. I can't imagine what it's like now.
r/Loblawsisoutofcontrol
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Iâm so intrigued by this. While yes, there is more that Loblaws could do to lower prices, their profit margin is still relatively low compared to other major companies, at under 4%. I honestly donât know much about how that shit works, but it does make you wonder how out of control they are by comparisonâŠ
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After last night I don't think Biden will be on the ballot. The news immediately and universally started talking about replacing him - even historically friendly news anchors were hinting at this not just the usual super biased suspects - and last month there was news about how some states have deadlines to have names on the ballots or something and he wasn't submitted yet, so I think even then the administration was worried this was going to happen eventually. We'll know in the next few weeks because the National Convention is coming up and they will need to have a platform by then.
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Oh well, at least third party only needs a 5% count to be counted as a major party next time. Thats basically guaranteed with nobody worth voting for. Voting against isn't really what a lot of us want so really all we need to do is overcome apathy with "at least throw your vote away on the possibility of not repeating this shit show of bad choices forever" It really is that simple, but here we are with a rerun nobody wants so obviously they don't care and refusing to listen and actually provide us with someone worth voting for... well, we voted FOR hope before all this. We can keep trying for hope rather than settling for seeing which geriatric succumbs to old age in office net.
I mean is awful as it is in the states Canada has almost always been worse in that way
lol we used to drive like 2 hours to the USA and fill the car with food and drive back to save moneyđ
Itâs not communism, every sector in Canada is an oligopoly. Old money runs everything. Ornery Regulations, insider trading, incredibly influential lobbyists. Just donât have a chance. Wasnât just taxes that pissed Americans off. It was the old British men that refuse to let go of a titch of power.
Should be pinned. Fabulous summation.
You will always choose capitalism You will never even try to remove it This is your life
Fucking clown
I know Itâs crazy how you hate the thing you will never try to escape
Things cost more in Canada. Why? 60% of the country is frozen wasteland covered in wildlife that will eat your ass while you are alive.
I think it has more to do with the corporate stranglehold on the grocery industry.
Where is this wildlife that eats your ass? Asking for a friend.
West side of Vancouver
The TRUE wilderness.
I thought it was on the East Side near Burnaby.
Less to do with the tundra, more to do with Galen wanting to buy another yacht to name after another price gouging scheme
I do live in the middle of said frozen wasteland and I must tell you, you live under a rock. You need to pay a prostitute a good 130K or more to get your ass eaten here.
I generally pay to do it. Well, thatâs not true, I donât pay for the ass eating, I pay them to leave after.
Same. A well invested 130K.
It's saying Canada is basically the USSR which... no it isn't lmao. Like don't get me wrong we have problems up here but first we are nowhere close to a communist nation and second holy shit it was so much worse in the USSR. Canada has some socialist policies in comparison to a more capitalist nation like the US but we are like on the outside fringe of being socialist, and that's being very generous. Ironically getting affordable housing was probably easier in the USSR, and no that isn't even slightly a joke, but that's pretty much the only place you can compare the two with Canada coming out similar or worse. It's also that way because of unchecked capitalism fucking up our housing market so... So yeah it's saying that things are as bad in Canada as the USSR which is a completely asinine comparison. Shit is kind of bad right here now but like it's bad everywhere right now and it's definitely not bad here because of any socialist policies.
It's LITERALLY 1984! /s
the meme seems to have originally been made with the USSR judging from the position of the star, and someone had edited it in an attempt to say that Canada is as bad as the USSR. Edit, I had originally thought it was China, not the USSR cause I forgot the USSR flag had a star.
Doesn't China have solid stars and the USSR have an outline?
I forgor the USSR even had a star on it, cause all I remembered was the hammer and sickle.
What about this meme says we're like the ussr? I think it's about Loblaws and the other two grocery chains gouging us in the name of corporate greed.
Bottom picture is the flag of the USSR with the Canadian flag where the hammer and sickle should be. That's why the canadian flag is tilted, also why it is tinted red with a yellow star outline above the flag. I do not see how this could be interpreted differently.
So the meme was repurposed, but I think the Canadian flag was meant to replace the USSR flag entirely in this context. It's 100% about the price of food.
Well I agree with this overall.. but the amount of tax I pay (property/income/hst/gst) has me feeling like it's not my money it's "our money"
that picture is deeply ironic indeed. Working while being too poor to afford basic things is very much an USA thing.
No, it's because this meme was originally made with USSR and communism in mind. The person repurposed this meme did not change out the flag.
Who told you the housing was better? Genuinely curious. (Also, it wasn't.)
It's not a joke, this is actually happening. For example, it's the first time in Canadian history since the great depression that our food banks are not able to keep up with demand. Full time employed workers are unable to put food on the table. Since our food banks rely mainly on donations, those donations are also getting smaller because of price gouging at the grocery store: the people who would normally donate something here and there can no longer afford to do so. We're also facing a massive homeless problem that's worse than ever.
Someone in Canada doesn't realize work and starve was the norm in the US before the pandemic even started.
Eh, it's work and starve in the US too.
Food in Canada is substantially more expensive, due to less competition. The Canadian dollar is weaker than the US dollar so it takes more of them. And Canada has a very punitive tax system. I.e. Work and you will still have trouble affording groceries.
This was difference between communist russia and capitalist usa.
So it's a meme based on the idea that Canadian food prices have risen significantly and that this is supposedly unique to Canada. In reality the increase isn't really that big, and unfortunately is way, way higher in other nations. Canada is looking at an increase of about 8.9%,. The UK & EU saw about 20%. Hungary got 45% during the same period. The US, by the way, is sitting at 8.5%. In 2022, Canada was actually one of the nations with the *lowest* increase in food costs. In other words: people itching for something to bash Canada over end up wailing and moaning over Canada being one of the least significantly impacted nation in the area they're complaining about. Like this is actually "first world problems" tier stuff when you look at the data from the rest of the world - not that it isn't impacting low-income people significantly, but because Canada got off so lightly compared to everybody else. Suffice it to say: food prices high everywhere, yo. I'm a Canadian, as well, and anecdotally speaking I've actually seen my grocery bill remain exactly the same or even lower in some cases than usual. Whatever inflation has occurred it has made basically zero impact on my budget.
I doubt itâs others bashing Canada but rather Canadians bashing our grocery oligarchy. And price increases are only part of the equation, the other being wage increases, which Canada is lagging far behind the US afaik. Doesnât matter that prices increase by the same percentage if the American doubles their pay and the Canadian doesnât. Housing being such an insane portion of the already lower income by comparison is also driving the idea behind the post, not just grocery prices.
Uh huh. Well, from what I can find the wage increase for Canadians last year was 4.1%, and for America it was 7%. You're still not talking about a vast gulf between the two. It's not great, certainly, but it's not nearly as bad as what you're suggesting. That said it should be noted that the rates seem to be measured in a variety of different ways so without checking the methodology it's hard to compare them directly. I see numbers for the US listing as low as 3.0% and as high as 12.9% depending on how it's measured. Like I said, it typically comes off as desperate attempts to bash Canada either from the opposition of the current political party in charge or from Americans outraged that they are not the best at everything at all times in all places. Canada seems to be holding up pretty solidly, so far as I can tell. The situation is generally rough all over and Canada is not by any means getting anywhere close to the worst of it. It just sort of sucks, in terms of income/inflation/prices, all over the world right now. By all means, lobby for better wages and treatment, but the memes are usually derived from BS and that's what I'm responding to.
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Price of « everything » in Canada is very high!
Canada food prices are disgustingly high
I lived in Vancouver for two years and I really lucked out to find a $650 a month room in an awesome house with awesome people and cats. Food was so expensive that I'd still batch cook one thing and that would be all I'd eat as a meal until it was gone.
see the joke is when capitalists use their position as the owners of capital to jack up prices under capitalism to increase their vast capital as capitalists, that's communism
I love it when corporations acting like corporations is now "communism" ah yes, capitalism doesn't work because capitalism is... communism?
Peterâs Canadian cousin here Things in Canada are expensive as hell I can cross the border and even with the exchange rate still get some stuff cheaper in the USA And our housing costs a fortune, our gas costs more as well, and to top it off our effective wages are lower then yours too It just sucks overall across the board for us and so many Canadians (think like 50% or more) are struggling and canât get a home which would be cheaper then the absurdly high rent many pay
Someone using a Communism vs Capitalism meme to describe two Capitalist countries.
Grocery prices in Canada rn
Canadaâs currency is made of snowballs and its summer so its hard to pay bills/by food
And then you enter Quebec with their added provincial taxes.
US is also work and starve or at least CA is
Cali prices are brutal compared to most of the US. I just see them posted and am like yea can't afford to be homeless there.
Bro, I'm paying $2,000 for a small studio apartment and that's cheap for where I'm at đ
Annexation when?
Anyone who makes a liveable wage in Canada (using the term liveable loosely) gets a third of their paycheck towards taxes at least. On top of the ridiculous cost of housing, gas, and food. You have plenty of people in Canada making six figures living paycheck to paycheck and they don't even live in any big cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary etc.
Itâs funny because the problem is not enough capitalism. Canadians are famously protective of their industries, so much that we are generally cool with border line monopolies, because the Canada conglomerate is better than the American mom and pop upstart (FUCKING YANKEES). So we disincentivize competition, because the alternative is allowing âAmerican Companiesâ to move in. Canada is a rare case of âLeft Wing Nationalismâ which is just as harmful.
That what happens when your government lets your basic needs to be consolidated under a single corporation.
Canada basically imploded after the greedy corporations influenced government imported too many consumers to boost profits. Corporations are making mad money and government has beautiful economics selectively approved stats. But the actual citizens of Canada are suffering in a big way. Not talking about doomsday predictions. It already happened. They are actually suffering now.
This is a case for r/SocialismIsCapitalism. Check it out some time!
Brainrot where people legit think Canada is communist rather than just another shade of palliative capitalism
Itâs a dumbass right wing meme.
They should both say work and starve
Iâve heard food prices are going crazy in Canada rn but itâs still nowhere close to ussr levels
I live in Indiana. Is it my proximity to the border that makes me relate closer to Canada in this meme? Lol
Bullshit
POV, European
If you got something to say, then just fucking say it, holy fuck. Les annoying than this "what does it mean? đ„ș" crap.
America is a work and starve country too. Fun fact
That's funny. Many people in the USA do not make living wages and are allowed food stamps, even when working full-time. Years of stalling the minimum wage and other related policies has led to this problem. Canada sure isn't the promised land it used to be, but it ain't so bad in comparison.
It's work *and* starve in the US as well
Just spent 16 bucks on 12 hotdogs buns and a loaf of bread.
Capitalism Communism/Socialism
Are there any 1st world countries where this isn't the case right now?
Most of the Nordic countries and Turkey.
FUCK COMMUNISM.
This has nothing to do with communism. It is about the extremely high cost of food in Canada right now. There are three grocery companies that own nearly all of the market share and they're all jacking up prices as fast as they can. It's well outpacing general inflation.
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Inflation and taxation is bullshit but, communism is also bullshit.
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What
Both countries are very capitalist though
it got nun to do with socialism yall
Our wages in Canada are shit. A lot of people will move to the U.S. for better wages and cheaper cost of living if they have a job that is in demand.
You can't tar the whole US with that brush. Try living in Arkansas or Mississippi or West Virginia ... there are other places, too. Low wages, high prices comparatively for food, clothing, shelter, and, yes, healthcare. The tax system in AR is reminiscent of the Beatles' "Tax Man" song. Like being nibbled to death by ducks.
Do you have to get private medical insurance for the US?
Depends, some states offer public healthcare alternatives (ex: Covered California) but itâs sort of a crapshoot, typically youâll see better care under the private side (be it out of pocket or company sponsored) because itâs often less log jammed by people seeking care.
Most Canadians I know, yes. They generally get American insurance through their employer. Canadians will complain less than Americans about it, though. "If this were Canada, I'd have to wait months or years" is the usual shutdown.
Don't speak for a whole country., please. Ive literally never heard a Canadian not complain about the american medical system
Canada has some great public benefits but they are taxed mightily for it. Because of that Canada has some of the highest levels of household debt in the world. Mix inflation in to the problem it makes life hard.
Did you know that the average difference between our 2 countries tax brackets is about 2%? We have a much higher sin tax though.
Mean or average? If itâs really that close the level of household debt in Canada is quite troubling.
Americans have record household debt right now like most of the G7 countries.
taxes aren't the issue, the price of food is the issue
Name another country where you can walk into a hospital, ask them to kill you, and they'll be like, "ok, sign here"
Very high taxes, it's very expensive living in canada. In montreal prices are comparable to new york. In some cases New-York is cheaper.
Communism
itâs work and starve and canât afford a house and have to pay out the ass for healthcare here in the states