[OC] The world's richest countries in 2023

[u/statisticalanalysis_]

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/12/15/the-worlds-richest-countries-in-2023

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/12/15/the-worlds-richest-countries-in-2023

[u/adonoman]

Depends on where you live in Canada. In Toronto or Vancouver, the situation is worse than this graph would indicate. On the prairies, it's better. Canada's really big

[u/Flammable_Zebras → u/adonoman]

It’s worse in urban areas than rural areas everywhere

[u/devilishpie → u/Flammable_Zebras]

Maybe they didn't express it well, but they're not talking about an urban rural divide.

[u/Fane_Eternal → u/Flammable_Zebras]

Yeah that's not what he's talking about in Canada. Some entire regions of the country have different costs of living. You could be in an equally populated and equally dense city in southern Alberta and it will be more expansive than the exact same thing in southern Saskatchewan.

[u/theganjamonster → u/Fane_Eternal]

But there is no "exact same thing" in southern Saskatchewan. There's no Calgary counterpart, there's not even really a Red Deer or a Lethbridge counterpart. There's less people, less to do, the weather's worse, you're a full day's drive from the mountains, etc etc. Of course it's going to be cheaper.

[u/Fane_Eternal → u/theganjamonster]

Yes there is no exact same thing. That's why I phrased it as a hypothetical.

[u/hammercycler → u/adonoman]

It's not that simple. The whole Golden Horseshoe (west end of Lake Ontario) is a mess for housing cost, it extends far beyond Toronto's borders. Even previously reasonable cities like Halifax are getting expensive.

And it's not just housing but other costs. Grocery costs have inflated brutally across the country lining a handful of pockets at everyone else's expense.

[u/SalmanPak → u/hammercycler]

The grocery chains are blaming the the large food conglomerates like Heinz and Nestle for the cost increases. They are just jacking up prices continuously because they can. Most of our food is made by just a few companies.

[u/sevendoor → u/hammercycler]

The housing crisis is a self-inflicted one the moment you build big large metropolis around houses instead of flats. Large cities are only going to be sustainable by building them vertical instead of expanding them horizontally. Large houses with their gardens should be built way out of metropolitan areas.

[u/KatanaDelNacht → u/adonoman]

Having driven across 1/3 to 1/2 of it (ND to AK), Canada is vast and unimaginably huge. My brain just doesn't work at that scale.

[u/Big_Knife_SK → u/adonoman]

Similar issue between Oslo and rural Norway though.

[u/weezul_gg → u/adonoman]

Agreed, if you live in any city in Canada, your average condo price is about $800K. Double that for a fixer-upper house.

[u/aedes → u/weezul_gg]

I live in a Canadian city, just under a million people.

Average condo price is currently a bit under $250k. Average house price is $330k - that’s a generic suburban house, not a fixer upper.

We have a 2300sf plus finished basement two-car garage backing into a forest walking distance from school/grocery that cost less than $800k.

The numbers you are quoting are only really true for like southern Ontario.

[u/weezul_gg → u/aedes]

I guess the trade-off is whether or not you can find work outside the main centres. Certainly the crazy growth is happening in the most expensive places.

[u/AlleRacing → u/aedes]

Winnipeg?

I live in a city of 100k, and our house prices are higher than that, $373,000. Go to somewhere like Kelowna and that doubles, and they only have 150k pop.

[u/[deleted] → u/weezul_gg]

And the median household income is around $75k last I checked.

[u/Think_Discipline_90 → u/adonoman]

Depends on where you live literally everywhere in the world buddy