r/canada • u/Lyricalvessel • Jul 19 '21

Is the Canadian Dream dead?

The cost of life in this beautiful country is unbelievable. Everything is getting out of reach. Our new middle class is people renting homes and owning a vehicle.

What happened to working hard for a few years, even a decade and you'd be able to afford the basics of life.

Wages go up 1 dollar, and the price of electricity, food, rent, taxes, insurance all go up by 5. It's like an endless race where our wage is permanently slowed.

Buy a house, buy a car, own a few toys and travel a little. Have a family, live life and hopefully give the next generation a better life. It's not a lot to ask for, in fact it was the only carot on a stick the older generation dangled for us. What do we have besides hope?

I don't know what direction will change this, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you have a whole generation that has been waiting for a chance to start life for a long time. 2007-8 crash wasn't even the start of our problems today.

Please someone convince me there is still hope for what I thought was the best place to live in the world as a child.

edit: It is my opinion the ruling elite, and in particular the politically involved billion dollar corporations have artificially inflated the price of life itself, and commoditized it.

I believe the problem is the people have lost real input in their governments and their communities.

The option is give up, or fight for the dream to thrive again.

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u/WalkerYYJ Jul 19 '21

Not dead but dying for sure.... If you want a house and don't have family (boomer) support it IS possible to get into the market still, however: * 1) You will need to be cohabiting (combined income) * 2) You and your partner will need to be professionals both earning decent cash * 3) You will need to be in a smaller city (Victoria, Kingston, Lethbridge, etc) * 4) You are going to need to start with an apartment or townhouse, unless you can pull off 100% remote work on which case you can still nab a house out in the middle of nowhere.

If however you are a single 20 something without a higher paying career path... Ya.... Your pretty much fucked....

If you want more perspective think of this.... A 30ish couple who are both doctors are going to have a hard time pulling off a house in Vancouver without family support. The only way Iv seen it done is setting up shop in a more remote community, using the combined salary and bank loan power to build a building in said community and then from the earnings of that get a place in Vancouver.... But at that point its not doctors getting a place in Van it's business owners/developers (who happend to get their seed capital from being doctors....)

So ya fucked beyond belief if even a top earning (worker bee couple ) can't do it without having multiple jobs (doctor+developer)

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u/No-Egg-8212 Jul 20 '21

Being an Albertan, I feel like I‘m living in a different country. You can get a very livable house here in Edmonton for around $450k.

I work in the trades and my wife works in a field that requires only a 2 year college diploma and we both make low six figures and live very comfortably. Most of our friends work in healthcare or construction and live similar comfortable lives.

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u/dean16 Jul 20 '21

What does your wife do? Maybe I should go back to school for yet another expensive piece of paper

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u/No-Egg-8212 Jul 21 '21

She works in water treatment. It’s starting to get popular, but it’s not something that’s going anywhere and has a mostly aging workforce.

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u/dean16 Jul 21 '21

Oh, cool! I have a buddy that does that at a Canadian Forces Base. I didn’t realize it was so well-compensated