The first grocery shop is always expensive but fuuuuuccccckk!
Welcome home to Trudeau's green-left Canada! Only Germany is better at inflicting massive damage on herself by having a bunch of incompetent green-laquered commies running things straight into a brick wall. But don't worry, give Justin a little more time, he'll get there eventually.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're not a fan of JT
😆😂
What gave it away? :-)
😂
I'm surprised you follow Canadian politics so closely. Any particular reason?
No, I'm not following that closely, but took note when the Trudeau gov't started trampling all over your charter rights, especially during Covid.
I have a thing for Canada; it used to be like a better version of the U.S. and it is a wonderful country with an overabundance of space and natural resources shared among a comparatively small population.
I would have considered retiring there, but to my disappointment, wokism and similar crap is taking hold there as much if not worse than in western Europe. Might as well save my money.
Anyway, I'm glad you made it home safely. Don't let the politicians ruin it for you.
I would say that it's way worse. Society in N. America in general seems to revolve around business. You don't even notice it when you're in it but when you leave, it becomes glaring. You can see that it drives policy, lifestyle and even the mindset of the people. People mostly only talk about work here. It's like the first or second thing brought up in conversation with anyone - friends, family, strangers. It's really strange and disheartening once you recognize it. It really is a "live to work" situation here. Even the novelty of stores shutting down for half a day on Sunday in France was a shocker when we first got there. Now it just seems like common sense. I think Germany goes a step further and shuts down Saturday afternoon to Sunday in some parts.
The political situation seems inevitably fucked however you look at it hahaha. You're screwed either way. I have a bad feeling that we will lose universal Healthcare in Canada probably within my lifetime. The conservatives keep chipping away at it and it inches its way closer every few years. The newest one was that the Ontario government (Conservatives) announced that they will start paying for Healthcare services that people use in the private sector. That is obviously a huge move towards privatization. They say it's to ease pressure from the public sector, which it does, but it also undermines the public sector. Instead of using that money to invest in the public sector (more nurses, doctors, equipement, facilities...etc) they are essentially pushing people into the private sector and then paying those private companies. It incentivizes nurses to leave public and go private and incentivizes people to turn to the private sector. I don't like the Liberals but I really don't like the Conservatives because they push for oil and fossil fuels, privatization of Healthcare and public services, and basically anything that favors businesses over people. The liberals are fucked too though so like I said, you're fucked either way ha 😂
Sorry for the novel/essay but on a somewhat related note, did you hear that the liberal government is partnering with Germany to evolve the hydrogen fuel production industry? Germany wants a green energy fuel source and wants to partner with Canada.
Yup, that's how it is for us, the little guys. I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What Germany wants and what she's getting are two different things entirely. Being a fully deindustrialized shithole pretty soon, unless the people get off their asses and force policy changes by means of mass protests and general strikes, the question will arise how Germany intends to pay for all her green pipe dreams? Do you think any Canadian investor will put a loon into this kind of financial uncertainty? Trudeau is a liar for selling you this bill of goods and Habeck (minister of economy) a fool. Only, being a writer of children's books, he doesn't have the education to know any better.
By now - after not even a year of green governance - we're already looking at rationing of energy (HEAT IN FUCKIN' WINTER!!!), rolling blackouts, and people having to decide whether they want to eat, drive, heat, or have the lights on: pick one. I'm confident this is going to become a lot of fun once people get their annual energy bills in December. Mind you, those bills won't even fully reflect the Ukraine situation yet - that's coming December 2023. At this point, we're at third world level here.
Germany is pretty much broke at this point, and so is the Euro / EU. The EU will only exist as long as Germany is footing most of the bill (Maggie Thatcher) and it looks like close to game over. Our producer price index is at 46% inflation to date (official numbers, probably higher in truth) and roughly one third of that will hit the consumer immediately. (ex energy cost)
Time out! I won't get into it any deeper; there are so many construction sites that need work, we'd be here for a week discussing it back and forth after barely scratching the surface. I'm sorry, I should have kept my mouth shut.
Yeah the energy situation is a bit rough in Germany at the moment. I think that was a pretty unforseen circumstance though with the Ukraine - Russia situation. I only know a little about it because the company my wife works for has a few locations there. I can't speak intelligently about it though.
Haha me too man, me too.