cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51076051

Read & Listen https://curmudgeonlycanadian.substack.com/p/the-country-that-will-not-look-in

The Country That Will Not Look in the Mirror

Canada, the Protected Present, and the Future It Keeps Postponing

Canada’s housing crisis, weak productivity, labour shortages, credential barriers, and declining institutional performance are often analyzed as separate problems.

We have come to believe they are connected by a deeper political and economic pattern.

Too many Canadian systems are optimized to preserve existing arrangements rather than create new capacity.

Housing policy protects asset values while attempting to improve affordability.

Labour policy can help employers fill positions without addressing weak wages, poor conditions, inadequate training, or underinvestment.

Immigration policy recruits educated and experienced people, while professional systems may prevent them from contributing at their full capacity.

Public institutions report inputs, programmes, and activity, while citizens continue to experience deteriorating outcomes.

This is not an argument for dismantling Canadian institutions, rejecting immigration, or treating homeowners and businesses as villains.

It is an argument for reconstruction.

Protection should produce capability. Public spending should produce measurable outcomes. Population growth should be accompanied by housing, infrastructure, and productivity. Professional regulation should protect the public without wasting human capital.

Canada does not lack expertise or policy proposals. The more difficult challenge is deciding which established arrangements the country is prepared to change.

https://curmudgeonlycanadian.substack.com/p/the-country-that-will-not-look-in

#Canada #PublicPolicy #Productivity #Housing #EconomicPolicy