Issue 17, Volume 1
December 2, 2011
Our on the streets portion is literally of the streets. This map is from a surveying company who published the Edmonton plan in 1920. What is really special about this map is the fact that Edmonton's development stayed very close to a plan that was laid out 90 years ago. In the map, there are interesting changes. For example, the way Edmonton is divided is differently. Instead of just about everything being in the North West, the city is divided closer to down town. 109th street becomes West 5th Street, although it is still numbered as the 109th street on the map. Allendale was known as Martin Estates, but of course, there were no houses there at that time. There wouldn't have been much past Whyte ave. I've seen photos of what Garneau block looked like in 1940. Very desolate. Generally this map described what happened in terms of lot development up to the mid 70's or so. Now we may know why it's so hard to get council to change their ideas on infrastructure development.
Generation Failure
If I was Ford, I would
be upset. In fact, to look at this from a human perspective, to shed some light
on the idea of bailouts, let’s say I amFord – make Ford a
person, make them me. So I am Ford. I work really hard to balance my budget,
and it hurts, because some people who are my friends (ie employees) can’t be my
friends anymore because I just can’t afford to see them anymore. Some things I
like to do, I can’t do anymore (let’s call those racing programs) because I can’t
afford it. And some activities, and future plans I had that I was really
excited about, well I had to cancel because I can’t afford it (let’s call those
plans for future models). I had to get rid of some things I really loved, and I
had to move into a smaller house (let’s call that the sell off of Jaguar, Land
Rover, Aston Martin and Factory closures). But I managed to balance my budget.
And I continued to make ends meet. But there’s this guy GM at work, and if he
does well, I make less money, because there is only so much to go around. Maybe
we work at a 100% commission job. If he wasn’t around to make sales, things
would be great for me. Well he was going through some problems at home with his
budget too. But his parents got involved, which was weird, because he was an
adult, and they paid him a bunch of money, if he promised to move in for a
while. He had to get rid of some stuff too…his parents made him. But they also
gave him a bunch of money too. That really helped him get back to work. And now
I don’t make as much money because he makes a lot. But at least it wasn’t as
bad as those bank-guys I heard about. I heard their parents gave them a ton of
money, and they spent it all, and became unemployed anyway, and now just sit at
home and do nothing all day.
Like that exercise? We
all understand both the inherent negatives of a bailout, IE the large amount of
taxpayer dollars that are spent to keep a company from going under because of
their contractual idiocy; because if they go under, there will be a bunch of
taxpayers out of work, and long term consequences to the economy. But the way a
free market should work, is that if one company drops the ball,
other companies get larger market share. They can expand, and hire those
workers put out of business by their own mistakes. Imagine GM goes out of
business and Ford and Toyota take over GM’s market share. They are going to
need to increase output, and they’re going to need workers, maybe skilled labor
(UAW workers?) to help with that. Would GM’s demise really have ruined the economy? Probably not. The US and Canada could defend their
actions, because absorbing GM, the child that should have never moved back into
the house, they took it on as an asset. Governments invest like people do. So
apparently that makes that ok. Yeah, aside from the devaluation of a bunch of
used cars, I don’t really see it that way. GM should have gone under.
Nowadays we use bailouts
for all sorts of things. Countries bail out other countries. Governments bail
out businesses. Sometimes you bail out your roommate (Sorry Jerms) or at least
allow some sort of respite. If we’re so hell-bent on using bailouts, why not
use them on something that we really need bailing out. Is it the 99% I am going
to say here? No. But perhaps a portion of it.
Money Writer for The Metro Alison Griffiths discusses a possible bailout for a generation and
demographic of people. These types of bailouts we usually file under ‘social
program’ or ‘government grant.’ But what she says, not extrapolated to actually
outline the framework of a bailout, makes sense. According to the B.C.
Securities Commission, a recent study shed some frightening light on the state
of an entire generation of Canadians that may go under. Imagine that 20 years
ago you could still buy a brand new car without taking out a loan, and yes, it
was still semi-possible to save for a house cash. Now that’s an automatic loan
and mortgage. Imagine if in another even 10 years from now or less, suddenly
the fashionable thing to do was just to continue to write off your debt and go
bankrupt. From my time at the bank, people actually do this more than you might
think. I can see it becoming a hideous trend in the future. This would
undoubtedly lead to market failure. When you pay for something credit, it’s a
promise that you’ll pay, through the credit agency, for something you bought,
say a television. Now imagine that debt gets written off. Either the credit
agency takes the hit, pays the company and the credit agency goes out of
business; or maybe the television company has their own credit division, and
they take the hit directly, lose the money. You can’t operate by giving things
away for free. You can’t pay your employees or produce more things to sell, or
even pay your overhead costs. Goodbye business! What B.C. Securities commission
found was that either there will be no one to pay for anything, or everyone
just won’t be able to pay their debt. This is my own extrapolation of their
data. But look at the data. The BCSC found that the average 25-34 year old with
a post secondary degree, designation, diploma or ticket makes only on average
$31,640. That means, while minimum wage in our province is only $9.40, an
entire generation of people with post secondary education are only making
$15.21 an hour, assuming they’re working full time. What’s even more disturbing
is the fact that upon graduation, even before seeking a job, new graduates on
average already have $18,000 of debt. Shockingly $8000 of this is racked up
between the ages of 17 and 20. And the unemployment rate for people in that age
group is 14%, twice the national average. All this while 25% of people in the
demographic group said they had done nothing or had no plan to pay down any of
their debt, and also said they would have trouble if their paycheck was delayed
by even one week. Finally, people of this age group (17-20) believe that they
will make $90,000 a year. But people literally only 5 years older than them are
only making $31,640 with the same education. Some of these youth will graduate
in only two years, with $18,000 debt. Will we suddenly expect the economy to
turn around in two years so that people can make $90,000 at 30 years of age? Of
course not. Things will likely be much the same as they are now. Considering we
are in what some call a double dip recession, there is likely to be another
bottoming out of the economy soon, leaving us in 2 years maybe on the upswing,
but probably on the part of the upswing that is about as good as where we are
on the downswing now.
Alison Griffiths’
solution is a bailout package for a generation. A bailout package for an age
range of people 25-34 to keep the economy from failing. To keep a generation
from failing. She doesn’t describe how though.
This is where I come in.
Really, how difficult would it be to bailout based on a student loan
forgiveness basis? Not the entire student loan, and not for everyone. Of course
that would be like paying GM when Ford did just fine. How about a percentage
for each person. Say take the average, maybe that $8000 of $18,000. Does 44% of
each student loan sound like too much? Then maybe just $8,000? What is
reasonable?
Thus far, the Government
of Canada feels that interest is a reasonable portion to cover, assuming you
meet the criteria. A phone call I placed to Edulinx yesterday indicated that
the Government of Canada will pay the interest portion of your student loan for
a period of three years, to be re-evaluated after three years. I opted out as I
didn’t know how the government program would appear on my credit report.
Therefore, I never got as far as to find out what constitutes a qualification.
But is this enough? Interest on student loans is 3%. It’s an open,
non-amortized loan. So let’s say you owe $30,000. Is $900 really going to be an
adequate chunk of that to help you at all? Or let’s say you owe the standard
$18,000 average. Is a $540 check from the government going to really solve your
problems? Well that’s not exactly how it works. Generally loans are amortized
at prime+1% over something around 114 months. So that interest is actually
calculated on each payment. That can add up, which is why some people like to
pay off their student loan faster. Let’s assume interest stays at 3%. If you
owe $18,000, and you make 114 payments, that’s $157.89 a month. But add in
interest on that payment. There’s an extra $4.74 added to that monthly bill
which means you pay $162.63 a month instead. For people who may have tight
purse strings, that $4.74 might be worth it. But then you sort of have to think
that $4.74 might be had by cashing in empties. So the interest? Yeah, that’s
not much.
It's clear that this generation needs something more. I understand that Alberta has created a ton of jobs recently, but that is still not enough. Appropriate credit handling is the problem; and for many, it's already too late.
Cars versus Pedestrians...Everyone's Angry.
I was walking to my car today (I have the pleasure of being able to be a pedestrian and a motorist) when I saw a guy in an Infiniti pull up to a light, planning to turn right. He didn't enter the intersection, or even cross the stop line, but the pedestrian felt the need, just because she was surprised, to shake her head at him. The point of that, I was unsure about, the motorist wasn't doing anything wrong. In fact, pedestrians often do a lot of things that are illegal and put themselves at risk. For one, you're not supposed to cross once the hand starts flashing. That pretty much goes out the window downtown. People will downright go on a yellow, just like a car turning left. But if a car turning left tries to turn on a yellow, and a pedestrian runs across the street, then that person can't turn. Now the motorist is angry and impatient.
Sarah often tells me stories about how someone has sort of raged against her, and got angry in traffic. I wonder what would want to make any grown man physically harm my girlfriend. I have never been angry enough at anyone to warrant wanting to try and intimidate physically or mentally, a woman. Now I understand I'm engendering this here, but the old adage that you don't hit a girl still rings true to me. I apologize if this is creating a gender gap. But we should all just relax a little.
Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if you get mad, because I'm doing the speed limit, and you can't get around me. Unless you have diarrhea, and are trying to get home (who hasn't this happened to) in which case, okay, I have some sympathy for your frustrations (but likely they're not pinned to any other specific motorists). But this rarely is the case. We actually have one of the shortest commutes of any big city in North America. Our average round trip is actually 22.8 minutes according to a 2010 survey from CAA. If you live in Montreal, your average round trip is easily twice that.
So be happy that you don't actually spend THAT much time behind the wheel and chill. Because if you should ever happen to harm my girlfriend because you are impatient and somehow getting behind the wheel turns you psycopathic, I will kill you. So keep that in mind.
Ween
Ween hasn't released a new album or anything, I just can't stop listening to them. The best music isn't always the new music. I recommend trying to get a hold of a copy of Quebec with the songs 'I don't want it' and 'its gonna be a long night' as well as 'transdermal celebration'. There is also the revered album The Mollusk. Just be prepared to laugh, and cry, as Dean and Gene Ween do whatever they want on every album.
Letters To The Editor
rbw2@ualberta.ca
Note To Readers
I am not using facebook anymore. Check out my co-blog with Sarah at http://lwofb.blogspot.com. As well, since I'm not using facebook I won't be able to easily announce what I'm doing with the blog anymore. So now, if you check on the sidebar, you can subscribe via email for when there's an update.
Thanks for putting us over 700!
Sarah often tells me stories about how someone has sort of raged against her, and got angry in traffic. I wonder what would want to make any grown man physically harm my girlfriend. I have never been angry enough at anyone to warrant wanting to try and intimidate physically or mentally, a woman. Now I understand I'm engendering this here, but the old adage that you don't hit a girl still rings true to me. I apologize if this is creating a gender gap. But we should all just relax a little.
Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if you get mad, because I'm doing the speed limit, and you can't get around me. Unless you have diarrhea, and are trying to get home (who hasn't this happened to) in which case, okay, I have some sympathy for your frustrations (but likely they're not pinned to any other specific motorists). But this rarely is the case. We actually have one of the shortest commutes of any big city in North America. Our average round trip is actually 22.8 minutes according to a 2010 survey from CAA. If you live in Montreal, your average round trip is easily twice that.
So be happy that you don't actually spend THAT much time behind the wheel and chill. Because if you should ever happen to harm my girlfriend because you are impatient and somehow getting behind the wheel turns you psycopathic, I will kill you. So keep that in mind.
Ween
Ween hasn't released a new album or anything, I just can't stop listening to them. The best music isn't always the new music. I recommend trying to get a hold of a copy of Quebec with the songs 'I don't want it' and 'its gonna be a long night' as well as 'transdermal celebration'. There is also the revered album The Mollusk. Just be prepared to laugh, and cry, as Dean and Gene Ween do whatever they want on every album.
Letters To The Editor
rbw2@ualberta.ca
Note To Readers
I am not using facebook anymore. Check out my co-blog with Sarah at http://lwofb.blogspot.com. As well, since I'm not using facebook I won't be able to easily announce what I'm doing with the blog anymore. So now, if you check on the sidebar, you can subscribe via email for when there's an update.
Thanks for putting us over 700!
