[HN Gopher] We're not even close to ready for the population gro...
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       We're not even close to ready for the population growth we're
       getting
        
       Author : tarakat
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2022-09-22 20:07 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nationalpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nationalpost.com)
        
       | norwalkbear wrote:
       | Then we probably need to stop immigration until we can get a
       | handle on it.
        
         | bergenty wrote:
         | Stop the professionals that create a vast majority of the
         | wealth or build more housing? It's not really a tough decision.
        
           | norwalkbear wrote:
           | How does that lower the population?
        
       | bsder wrote:
       | People have been predicting this for _centuries_. It hasn 't
       | gotten any more correct.
       | 
       | We know what happen when countries modernize--they invariably
       | fall below replacement rate. So, the "solution" is to modernize
       | the places that immigrants flee from.
       | 
       | The real issue "modern" societies are starting to have is that
       | everything is based on a pyramid scheme (more young people than
       | old people) that is beginning to unravel everywhere. _That_ is
       | something nobody is ready for.
        
       | chizhik-pyzhik wrote:
       | Seems like a good article. Stable, wealthy countries like Canada
       | are in the best position to build more housing and absorb
       | migration from poorer regions.
        
       | rayiner wrote:
       | I don't understand the article. If population growth will strain
       | scarce housing resources, why not just cut immigration? It seems
       | like a knob you can turn to make things balance?
       | 
       | > I have seen no coverage that presents this as a problem -- not
       | even from Quebec, which is hopelessly consumed with linguistic
       | and ethnic political diversions and where StatCan projections
       | present a different kind of scenario: Smaller cities like Trois-
       | Rivieres and Saguenay are projected to see their visible-minority
       | populations rise even as their total populations decline, and not
       | just by a little.
       | 
       | I just got back from a cousin's wedding in Toronto. Quite a bit
       | of my family from Bangladesh has moved there. The number of south
       | Asians in the city is remarkable. It was nice in some ways.
       | (Obviously nice to see family, but also to be around other folks
       | from a similar background.) But I wonder if they can in the long
       | term avoid the fate that's befallen Anglo and French Canadian.
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | The Canadian government has been targeting increased
         | immigration for the past several years [0]. There has been a
         | lot of bipartisan lobbying in support of this by the Century
         | Initiative [1]. Imo the Canadian immigration system is a pretty
         | streamlined system that the US could take a couple pages from,
         | while also keeping the INS's strong background checking
         | infrastructure. Sadly I know a number of people who abused the
         | system (fake asylum claims, fake documents), but Immigration
         | Canada doesn't seem to take background checks as seriously as
         | the US.
         | 
         | [0] -
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-14/trudeau-p...
         | 
         | [1] - https://www.centuryinitiative.ca/
        
           | rayiner wrote:
           | But if the population growth is a problem, why?
        
             | alephnerd wrote:
             | Mostly because despite the massive growth in population and
             | immigration, there isn't the equivalent in housing or jobs.
             | Salaries still suck back in Canada, and if you're a White
             | Collar Canadian citizen, it's better to just work in the
             | Bay Area or Seattle indefinetly on a TN Visa (clearly you
             | can see which part of Canada we used to live). The US can
             | easily absorb the amount of immigration Canada is seeing,
             | but a country that has around 10% of the US's population
             | and a GDP that's around 5-10% of the US can't
        
             | Jemm wrote:
             | In Canada immigrants vote for the Liberal party who are
             | currently in power. It doesn't take long before many of
             | those immigrants forget their past and vote against their
             | best interest for the Conservative party.
             | 
             | The Libaral party (which is actually the moderate of the
             | three parties) pushes for immigration.
             | 
             | Immigrants are a source of cheap labour to be exploited.
             | There is a real shortage of jobs here that pay a living
             | wage.
             | 
             | Immigration raising the population is good for the housing
             | investors who want to see prices continue to climb. Many of
             | our politicians are either real estate investors or have
             | ties to real estate investors.
             | 
             | Canada is a huge country but most people live along the
             | southern border. Services and infrastructure even a few
             | hundred kilometers north are bare to non-existent. Much of
             | the land in Ontario, for instance, is flood plane,
             | conservation controlled, native land or greenbelt farmland
             | which cannot be divided (until a mega rich development
             | company somehow manages it). This means crowding.
             | 
             | Most people think Canada has no corruption and is stable,
             | well that is not really true. Corruption here is just at a
             | much higher level.
        
         | bergenty wrote:
         | Because Canada is woefully underpopulated and the South Asians
         | basically create a massively disproportionate amount of our
         | wealth. It would be the dumbest fix to the problem considering
         | building new housing is easy.
        
           | alephnerd wrote:
           | The South Asian aspect is false. Desi Canadians tend to be
           | blue collar. Chinese Canadians tend to be way more white
           | collar than us.
        
       | rendang wrote:
       | Perhaps Canada could use a new planned city or two on the BC
       | coast. That area must be among the most underpopulated in the
       | world, accounting for the mild weather and presence of fresh
       | water.
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | Jobs would be even better. Richmond, Burnaby, Langley, and the
         | Lower Delta are all newish built (1980s-2000s), but a large
         | enough white collar job base simply isn't there.
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-22 23:02 UTC)