It's about fucking time......senate to investigate huge price differences ....

[tboy]

i'm not talking about $40,000.00 per child here....i'm talking about limiting the amount to something like, oh, $1,000,000.00. The point being that right now, and it's getting worse up here in canada, the rich stay rich and the middle class and the poor stay poor. I fully realize that some businessman who started a company deserves to reap the rewards for his efforts and his risk, but how about his kids? where is their effort or risk? what did they do except be born lucky? not a damn thing......

I forget the rates here but i seem to recall that the lion's share of growth in the economy went to the top 30% of the population. I read recently that that now is something like the top 20%...in the US 99% of the economic growth went to the top .1%.....

Now with the tuition fees for an advanced education rising, where are the oppurtunities for the middle class to join this top 30%? pretty soon there won't be because only the elite will be able to afford a better education therefore continuing the cycle.....

I'm talking about levelling the playing field. Set the limit to $1,000,000.00 per dependant and give the rest to schools to fund lower or middle income students. If jr can't make his way in the world starting with a million, he doesn't deserve it. I mean hell, there are students out there working 3 jobs to get the same thing.....

I also have an idea regarding taxing the rich. It is widely known that they do NOT pay their fair share...they escape taxation via non-repayable loans in lieu of wages, bonus' are taxed at 50% yet they receive their bonus' tax paid, etc etc etc. I remember back when i worked for crappy tire, they hired a guy to be the president from the US. Management was harping on us about how we have to limit our spending and were going through a wage freeze. Then buddy comes up from the US and the company: bought his house in the US for something like $6M US ($9M CDN), bought him a house here for $4M, gave him a $2M US signing bonus, and his salary (tax paid) was something like $1.2 per year.....plus stock options.

Now i did a little calculating. Since there was 2000 employees at the time, no wage increase, that $17M +/- equated to a raise of $8500 per employee.....now did he increase sales in the company? Nope, not anymore than was happening before they hired him. Did he increase profitablility? nope.....did he increase share value? Nope, in fact the shares dropped from $72 each to $6.95 (I personally lost over $300K).....

This is a prime example of how the rich get richer and the middle class gets fucked.....

Another example: I worked for a company and the president got married, went to fiji, and got stuck there for a month. During this time the GM was away on business. Did the company fold? nope. Did our sales suffer? nope. Did the company lose millions? Nope because the upper ups don't actually do the work that makes the company profitable...it is the peons that make the company......

One of the policies that i'd like to see brought in? (not my idea, got this from a radio commentator)....the citizens of a country that is wealthy in natural resources should enjoy the benefit of those natural resources. Like argentina, who has an abundance of oil/gas...gas is 25 cents a litre.....we should sell our resources at fair market value outside our borders but inside? we should be able to live better, cheaper than those we sell to....

 

[Jesus Quintana]

I'd love to see the price of gas drop by 90% too T-boy but reality is that if we tried that here then the US would be so far up our asses at the WTO and in our courts that we'd be better off leaving things as they are.
Don't forget that we have enjoyed years of horseshit over our softwood lumber policies.
And lets face it would Alberta rather sell to you are 50 bucks a barrel or to the Chinese at 125?

 

[blackram]

Some further investigating going on, looks like:

With the loonie at par, is it fair to charge Canadians higher prices? - The Globe and Mail

 

[Bugsbunny]

I have a question: why were you buying US dollars?

If you're going to the US just get your money out of an ATM, no transaction fee percentage. usually it's just the $1.50 non bank fee per transaction. When I travelled in the US on business I used to buy US cash at the banks. Then one trip ran longer and I needed more money so I took it out....yup, only cost me $1.50 on $500 US...what's that? .3%???

I tried the same thing when I was in Mexico, I tell ya, it was COOL to see 34,987,000.00 in my bank lol.....

If you happen to have a no non-bank atm fee plan, it won't even cost you the $1.50......

The same holds true for the Euro when traveling in Europe.

 

[blackram]

The commission seems to have zeroed in on import duties and taxes as the source of the discrepency between Canadian and US prices. They're suggesting cuts in those taxes.

Canada-U.S. price gap report calls for import tax cut - Politics - CBC News

 

[tboy]

A couple of key points in that last article:so

One is: the cost to distribute the products in Canada....sure, back to the cost of fuel.....and we all know that high cost of fuel equals more tax revenue for the government and more money for their $35,000.00 expense accounts.....

The other big point is: Canadians are used to paying more.....FUCK me.....so, that means since we're used to getting raped it's ok to continue to do so?

I know many retailers in Canada are in trouble and they blame it on online shopping. SOrry they can blow me. there's a shitload of items I will not ever buy online and can't fathom how anyone can....shoes for instance. I have never in 40 years of buying my own shoes ever had the same size in two different makes fit the same. Hell, I don't think I've ever had 2 shoes from the same maker fit the same (Nike is a prime example, you'd think size 8 would be the same for all their shoes...nope).

No, the reason retailers are in trouble is exemplfied by zellers going out of business sale that's going on right now in town. THey have 30% off sheet sets (for example) as a BIG BLOW OUT SAAAALE...BULLSHIT they had 50% at least 10 times last year (I know I bought some 800 thread count sheets then).....I mean, last fall they had insulated work shirts on for $10 off and the cost was $25 that's what 40%?

Plus they advertise "everything in the store 30 - 60% off"...bullshit, I went in there and they have 10% socks and underwear......

THAT is why they're going out of business, what the fuck do they think we're stupid? I have been in there a couple of times and at the most, I have seen 20 customers.......I was looking at the underwear and overhead a woman say to her husband, it's cheaper at walmart. I said to her "I know, some blowout sale eh"?

I know wally world has fucked up retailing in Canada but I worked in retail for 17 yrs and believe me, a properly run company can compete with walmart up here due to our retailing laws. For example: (If I remember correctly) a retailer cannot sell an item below their cost (loss leader) which is something walmart is allowed to do which causes a lot of local businesses to fold. Unless of course they apply for and receive a special permit.

 

[blackram]

A couple of key points in that last article:so

One is: the cost to distribute the products in Canada....sure, back to the cost of fuel.....and we all know that high cost of fuel equals more tax revenue for the government and more money for their $35,000.00 expense accounts.....

The other big point is: Canadians are used to paying more.....FUCK me.....so, that means since we're used to getting raped it's ok to continue to do so?

I know many retailers in Canada are in trouble and they blame it on online shopping. SOrry they can blow me. there's a shitload of items I will not ever buy online and can't fathom how anyone can....shoes for instance. I have never in 40 years of buying my own shoes ever had the same size in two different makes fit the same. Hell, I don't think I've ever had 2 shoes from the same maker fit the same (Nike is a prime example, you'd think size 8 would be the same for all their shoes...nope).

Online retailing is just a convenient excuse. Before there was online retailing, they always blamed the border-town American retailers for undercutting them. Endless stream of excuses.

Now the new excuse is that those evil distributors mark up stuff destined for Canada. So get new distributors then! If Canadian shoppers are showing enough initiative to at least go south of the border to find their bargains, then the Canadian retailers should show at least the same level of initiative to keep their customers!

No, the reason retailers are in trouble is exemplfied by zellers going out of business sale that's going on right now in town. THey have 30% off sheet sets (for example) as a BIG BLOW OUT SAAAALE...BULLSHIT they had 50% at least 10 times last year (I know I bought some 800 thread count sheets then).....I mean, last fall they had insulated work shirts on for $10 off and the cost was $25 that's what 40%?

Plus they advertise "everything in the store 30 - 60% off"...bullshit, I went in there and they have 10% socks and underwear......

THAT is why they're going out of business, what the fuck do they think we're stupid? I have been in there a couple of times and at the most, I have seen 20 customers.......I was looking at the underwear and overhead a woman say to her husband, it's cheaper at walmart. I said to her "I know, some blowout sale eh"?

Well, Zellers is going out of business because they sold themselves out to Target. Target is going to come in with its own distributors, so they don't need any of Zellers' distributors, just their retail spaces.

The Zellers going out of business sales were all a joke, they just marked their prices up, and then stuck X% off stickers on them to bring them back to regular prices. I also know for a fact that they used the going out of business sales as an excuse to sell inferior products. They sold a whole bunch of products from no-name Chinese manufacturers, stuff that you'd normally see in a dollar store, and you never saw at Zellers before, and now all of a sudden Zellers was selling them? Zellers also became a clearing house for products from The Bay, that The Bay itself couldn't move.

I know wally world has fucked up retailing in Canada but I worked in retail for 17 yrs and believe me, a properly run company can compete with walmart up here due to our retailing laws. For example: (If I remember correctly) a retailer cannot sell an item below their cost (loss leader) which is something walmart is allowed to do which causes a lot of local businesses to fold. Unless of course they apply for and receive a special permit.

Walmart in Canada is just as fucked up as any other retailer. You just have to compare Walmart prices here vs. in the USA. Earlier this year I was looking for new tires for my car. These are unusually large tires, on 18" rims. I called all around my local town's shops, from the small tire shops all of the way upto the big retailers, and noone had anything for less than $300/tire. Even Wally World Canada, wouldn't even stock it, it was too unusual a size for them. Once they told me they could order it in for me but it would take them 2 weeks to get it delivered, then the next day I called them again, and they didn't know what I was talking about. I then called an American Wally World, in a town that's just 45 minutes away from me. They said they didn't stock it either, but they could order it: and I was getting ready to hear them tell me it's going to take them 2 weeks too, but they said they can get it in 24 hours! This is a proverbial little hick one-horse-town, but their Walmarts can get it faster than Walmarts in a Canadian city with a population over 1 million! On top of that, the price of the tire was only $125/tire! I got them mounted. I even declared them and paid the HST at the Canadian Customs office, and even after all of that I paid less than 1/2 of what I'd pay for them here.

That's another reason why Target is coming up here: so they can charge higher prices, but it would still look like lower prices to us!

 

[Cardinal Fang]

That's another reason why Target is coming up here: so they can charge higher prices, but it would still look like lower prices to us!

Yes I love their press release where they say they're coming up here to "compete." Ya compete with Canadian Retailers and their high prices.

Another point that pisses me off. The Chevy Camaro is more expensive in Canada then down in the U.S. Yet that car is built here and shipped down to the U.S.

 

[blackram]

Yes I love their press release where they say they're coming up here to "compete." Ya compete with Canadian Retailers and their high prices.

Another point that pisses me off. The Chevy Camaro is more expensive in Canada then down in the U.S. Yet that car is built here and shipped down to the U.S.

Yeah, however it looks like they're moving the production out of Canada:

 

[tboy]

Yes I love their press release where they say they're coming up here to "compete." Ya compete with Canadian Retailers and their high prices.

Another point that pisses me off. The Chevy Camaro is more expensive in Canada then down in the U.S. Yet that car is built here and shipped down to the U.S.

it's not just the camaro, every vehicle purchased in canada is cheaper in the us....by thousands! And to prevent us from going down there and buying them cheaper many makers won't honor the warranty of a US vehicle here in Canada (if registered here).