Canada is gripped by a surge in homelessness that has seen tens of thousands of people priced out of rental and real estate markets and left to live in the streets of the wealthy nation.
Your daily reminder that the main cause of homelessness is housing affordability. It is not inevitable. It’s a choice we as a society make.
Canada has one of the highest homelessness rates in the developed world, but it’s not like Canadians have more mental illness, use more drugs, or have less work ethic than Americans or French people.
According to the Government of Canada, 1 in 3 Canadians will be affected by mental illness during their lifetime. The CDC suggests only 1 in 5 Americans will realize the same.
use more drugs
According to the Government of Canada, 27% of Canadians use cannabis. The CDC reports only 18% of Americans do the same. According to the World Health Organization, Canadians drink 10 litres of alcohol per week. Americans, only 9.3 litres.
or have less work ethic
According to Queens University, Canadians are only 72% as productive as Americans. That may not be explainable by ethics, but we are working less. When someone attributes homelessness to work ethic, are they actually speaking to ethics specifically, or is it merely shorthand for any type of condition that would find someone working less than what would be considered typical?
Who the fuck do you know that drinks 10L of alcohol per week? That's 1.5L PER DAY. I might have two or three drinks a MONTH. Who is drinking MY 300L per month? Their urine would be flammable.
Assuming your numbers sre even correct, id say thats more an issue with the cdc underreporting mental health issues than with Canadians being more predisposed. Also what is your point exactly?
That was just a short-lived aberration due to the conflict in Ukraine, temporary fertilizer supply issues, and a weather event causing large crop loss. The latter two are dealt with and the former isn't the worry we thought it was. Farmers are already well on the other side of high prices, and the rest of the supply chain is quickly catching up.
What is concerning is how the grocers have petitioned the government to implement a price freeze. They claim it is stop prices from going higher, but we all know it is to ensure the prices don't go lower amid that crashing food supply chain.