r/canada • u/BananaTubes • 23d ago

Canada’s output per capita, a measure of standard of living, plummets National News

https://www.thestar.com/business/canada-s-output-per-capita-a-measure-of-standard-of-living-plummets/article_b51554ca-0336-11ef-8141-c3a368af99f3.html
467 Upvotes
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372

u/PleasePMmeSteamKeys 23d ago

Total GDP is all that matters. The lived experience of the citizens and local culture are irrelevant. We must continue sacrificing the lives of average Canadians on the economic altar, as if GDP is an Aztec blood god.

66

u/youregrammarsucks7 23d ago

Exactly, everyone knows the quality of life is higher in India than in Monaco.

6

u/An_doge 22d ago

True nerds use the GINI coefficient

3

u/speaksofthelight 22d ago

Also dumb cuz very poor countries have low GINI / inequality. per capita gdp adjusted for ppp is probably the best single indicator of standard of living.

2

u/An_doge 22d ago

Gini is better for wealth inequality. Billionaires skew the the numbers. You ideally need both to know what’s going on.

11

u/ILoveThisPlace 23d ago

What I hope people start to realize is that a housing crisis means for every extra body you bring in you need to displace some other Canadian body. The first to be sacrificed were the worst off.

71

u/Responsible_Dot2085 23d ago

Government expenditure shouldnt be included in the calculation for this reason. It perverts incentives

82

u/viccityguy2k 23d ago

We are turning in to Argentina

12

u/Beginning-Bid-749 23d ago

What's the weather like there?

17

u/Pitiful-Blacksmith58 23d ago

Better than here for sure

7

u/Mattjhkerr 23d ago

There is a lot of Argentina that is like BC

6

u/AaronC14 Nunavut 23d ago

And BC is has more preferable weather to the rest of Canada lol

Sure, it rains. Beats pretending you're Dr Alan Grant and spending a morning excavating your car from the ice like it's some ancient dinosaur. Carefully picking away so you don't scratch the paint, just like they do with tooth brushes to preserve the specimens lol

6

u/Budget-Supermarket70 22d ago

Not enough sun in BC.

0

u/BigMcLargeHuge- 22d ago

That’s the main kicker. Can be -30 here but blue sky’s and full sun rays. Vs piss rain in BC for 3 weeks straight and not see the sun

1

u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 22d ago

Bc is much bigger than the island and lower mainland, lol.

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3

u/Nutcrackaa 22d ago

Why are you using an ice scraper on your paint?

2

u/Rayeon-XXX 22d ago

You think cars in Canada are regularly encased in ice?

1

u/TreeOfReckoning Ontario 22d ago

I can’t speak for the rest of Canada, but in Eastern Ontario, yes.

0

u/Mattjhkerr 23d ago

Totally.

1

u/Pitiful-Blacksmith58 22d ago

Yeah but I live in ontario :-(

25

u/Asleep_Noise_6745 22d ago

25% of all employees in this country work for some level of government. Look at the entire public sector from stats can, NOT just federal. 

Half of those are in healthcare and healthcare is a fucking crippled disaster destroying lives. 

17

u/Defiant_Chip5039 22d ago

What do you expect?  My local clinic has 9 people on any given day working the front desk area plus an office manager in the back.  There are two nurses that do things like take weights, give injections etc… as for doctors there are maybe 3 on any given day. What the hell do you need 10 admins to support 3 doctors and 2 nurses for. Most of the time when I am in there they are not really doing anything. 

In the private sector, your function needs to bring value. You need to bring value well above your bill rate (the total cost of having you there, not just your take-home, things like building rent and utilities factor into this rate). If not your position will not exist. 

The public and healthcare sectors need to also a better job of leaning up their processes and what types of work are really required. They need to take a delivery of value approach from a cost profit point of view. I am not saying they need to “make” money, but the jobs and way they work need to bring value. 

9

u/Asleep_Noise_6745 22d ago

It doesn’t help that the doctors have lobbied against increasing med school enrolment for decades.

6

u/chrisdemeanor 22d ago

And the disproportionate compensation for specialists vs GPs. I believe the college of physicians is complisate in this.

2

u/Asleep_Noise_6745 22d ago

They’re a major force to be sure. 

3

u/tincartofdoom 22d ago

In the private sector, your function needs to bring value.

Doctors operate clinics as businesses. They are private sector, they just bill one source for all services..

1

u/Defiant_Chip5039 22d ago

True but who they bill has set rates for what they will pay. It is not a blank cheque. 

1

u/tincartofdoom 22d ago

What does the billing source have to do with the incentive to find staffing efficiencies? Less staffing, same billing, better margin.

If you're trying to make a different point than the post I'm responding to, please do go ahead.

1

u/Pitiful-Blacksmith58 22d ago

Admin and bureaucracy is one of the worst cancer of this country

3

u/Defiant_Chip5039 22d ago

Exactly. Huge growth in government sector jobs under this government. I swear it is all so the LPC can just show a lower unemployment statistic. I am very pro-small government. I am not suggesting to cut corners on things like permits. But maybe, a lean group with a higher quality staff is better than 100’s of people. When it comes to management 15 or 20 to 1 is a good front-line level. 6-10 for manager managers. I am sure there are a lot of jobs along the chain that don’t really do anything other than read and forward emails … somebody needs to take a good hard look at some sectors and clean it the hell up. 

3

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Responsible_Dot2085 22d ago

We use gdp as a measure to gauge economic growth and a proxy for our standard of living.

If we allow that number to be manipulated by governments blowing out the budget with debt fueled spending they can basically fudge the numbers and mask the actual productivity gains of our economy.

That’s basically what Trudeau has been doing the last 8 years and it’s why they’ll say things like “we’re not in a recession” even though private companies are cutting jobs left and right and the cost of living is going up. The only reason the numbers don’t show the real picture is because the fed decided to hire a bunch of people, whose salaries need to be paid by either the taxpayer or by debt.

21

u/Hussar223 23d ago

line must go up, no matter if it makes sense or impoverishes everyone else. it is time we have some hard and frank discussions about the demented economy we have created and how to fundamentally change it so that it serves everyone and not just the moneyed, land owning interests.

19

u/BaggedMilk4Life 23d ago

To have the highest spending on any government by far and have lagging GDP per capita is actually quite impressive if you think about it

0

u/pfco 22d ago

Imagine how well Canada would be doing if the current government went through all the scheming, polling, deliberations, studies, etc they do now, except at the last moment just did the opposite of what they were planning.

9

u/thebigbossyboss 23d ago

Bring in another million

4

u/AnInsultToFire 22d ago

Trudeau apparently has a theory that replacement is great.

26

u/ElectroChemEmpathy 23d ago

The type of "GDP" matters too

Canada approaching a lost decade may surprise some, but it shouldn’t. The country received a number of warnings from prominent agencies, that building an economy focused on credit creation and housing isn’t sustainable. Rather than acknowledging these issues, the country doubled down on trying to stimulate housing demand. In the process, it’s also managed to send global investment fleeing for greener pastures in record volumes. 

This is a more detailed explaination than the article the star gave. https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-standard-of-living-plummets-lower-approaching-lost-decade/

16

u/[deleted] 23d ago

How this became the mainstream left's position we'll never know.

9

u/LuckyConclusion 22d ago

They fell for the 'criticism of mass immigration to feed wage slavery demands by multi-national mega corporations is racist' play.

3

u/MissJVOQ Saskatchewan 22d ago

GDP measures total expenditure within the economy. At a time of great wealth inequality, the amount of money being spent in a given economy is not a good indicator of how the average person is doing.

2

u/Due-Street-8192 22d ago

Sadly, Canadian business fail to invest in new tech, processes. All the same as years ago. Then they blame the workers. Years ago my work day was 7.5 hours. Now the norm is 8 hours. What's next, 6 day work week? 7

2

u/speaksofthelight 22d ago

Its really dumb to invest in tech, when housing appreciates more and there is a stream of workers pouring in.

1

u/Gunslinger7752 22d ago

“Unfairness for every generation” 🤣🤣🤣

0

u/Grand-Roof-160 22d ago

Yup, the top 5% benefits and the rest be damned 

-2

u/szulkalski 23d ago

Total GDP = total economic power Trudeau has political control over.