Alan2005

A border guard complaining that a mod doesn't have a sense of humour. Hahhahaha - I'm having an irony overload.

Look, FL, this could have been an interesting thread about debt and the Canadian economy (things that amarflora actually discussed in their post) but no, you have to spread your persecution complex all over it.

Alan2005

Sure. It's just that one symptom of the thing you say is an advantage to being here (it's easier to get credit) is that everyone is in more debt (there's this myth that Canadian banks only lend responsibly - the figures say otherwise). My view is that long term, Canada is going to do better than other places cos it's energy rich - you, as an individual, just have to make sure you are on the right side of that equation.

christmasoompa

I haven't checked that thread today as it happens, but your 'sense of humour' isn't terribly welcoming for newbies who don't know you and your background, so maybe you could keep it to appropriate threads? If you do feel the urge to post on a newbie's thread, then a simple 'welcome to BE' will suffice.

<wanders off to check the Various Questions thread>

MarylandNed

Here's an article from earlier this month:

http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/1...dutch-edition/

"Dutch household debt exceeds 240% of disposable income, the highest level in the euro zone."


Here's another recent article:

http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2011/101411.htm

"...Denmark stands out with gross household debt at 300 percent of disposable income."

Alan2005

Ah, yes. You did mention that you were talking about disposable income in your post. I wonder what the Canadian, UK, US figures for that are (either way those figures are bleak for those economies - servicing current debt might not be a problem, but taking on new debt might be).

MarylandNed

Canada just hit 153% which I believe is not much more than the UK and US (although they may not have released recent figures). As I said earlier, according to a report I read recently, the UK is projected to be at 175% by 2015.

Alan2005

Canada's went up 2.5% in the last three months - what do you think trend ends up with in 2015? Well over 200%.

MarylandNed

Who knows? But I doubt that simply extrapolating 3 months worth of data by another 4 years is going to give you the correct answer.

But the outlook certainly looks bleak in the UK:

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/household-debt-up

Alan2005

My point was that finding some report that makes a stab at what the UK's personal debt will be 4 years is all very well. However, right now, Canadians are carrying more debt and the trend in both countries is up.

Who said it wasn't? I'm not defending the UK's economic record - I'm saying Canada is in the exact same mess and it's only going to get worse.

MarylandNed

What you actually said is that Canadians are the #1 debtors in the world. That's clearly not true.

Alan2005

Not at all . The only comparative report I've seen is the one I linked earlier - to requote it for you:
Yes - it's a year old. But you think that household debt in denmark has doubled in one year?

Also, debt-to-income and debt-to-disposable income are different measures. You can argue the relative merits of each one, however this doesn't alter the fact that Canadians are more in debt than the Americans or the British by either measure.

Novocastrian

I'm a bit confused about terms here. What's the technical definition of "disposable income"?

Alan2005

I always thought it was income after paying taxes and debts, but according to googling it's just income after paying tax. In which case progressive european countries are going to look more indebted than they are because of the relatively high taxation.

JamesM

I'm in agreement with your definition.

The problem with disposable income is it does not factor in VAT or HST- nor the unspoken of "no competition" tax in Canada that leads us all to pay higher prices for products that we have less choice of.

I am a big admirer of the Big Mac Index in the Economist for understanding cost of living in a western country.

In fairness Canada is often regarded in business publications as a great place to do business. Probably down to the bank loans and lapsed regulation. The fact that the typical local is a numpty probably helps.........

JamesM

Unskilled jobs you mentioned.

I counted 4 spelling mistakes in your first paragraph.

The only surprise I have is that Novocastrian has not pointed it out!