And this blown up to the scale of an entire country is why Canada is suffering so much today. On every metric of measurement they are going down because the ability to take risks is simply missing in the country.
Never heard of this before, interesting! Can you direct me to some sources or YouTube video about this? I'd love to learn more.
Couple charts. Disposable income vs house costs, USA then Canada. https://www.reddit.com/r/canadahousing/s/SIRo14xudI
Relatedly, debt to income ratios, Canada vs USA. https://ritholtz.com/2013/10/household-debt-to-income-ratio-...
So Canadians like to spend too much for housing, live credit and thus don't invest. Why do they do that and does that matter? Well, we do that mainly because house appreciation isn't taxed as income (risk aversion in action) and it does matter because it crowds out investment in things businesses use to make money.
WSJ has argued that this is the second leg of the crisis: we can't earn our way out of it, because our productivity is poorer than the USA, at 71%. https://www.wsj.com/articles/canadas-poor-productivity-has-r...
Thirdly, Canada is cold and as a result we need a lot of energy to exist. Are energy prices declining? https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/energy-consumpt...
Forthly, I'm sure you're aware that the USA is deeply in debt and that the higher interest rates to combat inflation are pinching the ability of governments to operate. What you may not be aware of is that our Central Bank does whatever the Federal Reserve does in terms of rates about 70% of the time. If they did something different, bond traders would likely be able to destroy our currency. So we are trapped right now, hoping inflation ends real soon.
Lastly, to paraphrase a Mexican saying:Canada is far from God and too close to the United States. Our best and brightest leave to make 30% more in America, where the language and culture is very similar. We have been watching American television our entire lives. We don't have a market of 350 million people to sell to, and out government protected oligopolies are not able to compete in the USA. Our banks are making a push, but that's likely to be regional In America and not national.
This sums up the business climate. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.1013522
Personally, I've also noticed that because there are basically 4 companies to work for in any vertical, and there are fewer tier 1 cities to work in in Canada, middle management here is mostly concerned about avoiding mistakes rather than competing and excellence.
But I don't really know America, it seems like it's a hyper competitive place where you don't get to take your vacation time, and heaven help you if you really need a doctor and you are poor. Every country sucks in its own way.
Also the consumer climate really. As despite all the regulatory barriers, Wind got through in the end.
And nobody was interested. Consumers didn’t flock to the product.
Don’t know what Molson is? Well, the book argues that you would and should, but for our risk averse culture.