That's not the spirit!

That is definitely true, but unfortunately that isn't the be-all end-all. Sometimes I theorize that Trudeau wants to legalize Marijuana in order to increase the tax revenue he needs for our healthcare system in this time of baby boomers hitting their senior years.......

And then of course Ontario is piloting a basic income payout; I'm curious to see what becomes of that

You wouldn't expect something like pensions in a capitalist society. That's not a product of capitalism.

This is old news to most people in Europe. In Belgium, the average income hasn't risen in at least ten years in real value and yet everything else has risen sharply. They are killing us.

It isn't, but pensions aren't part of the problem. Those are things we didn't get because the government felt like they were in a giving mood.

Uhhh...I'm still not that far. I don't know how they were made.

Well yes and no. I'd argue that here in Canada our biggest concern as Gen Y is to pay the health care bills for the enormous aging/tax-paying population. We do get quite a few young immigrants to the country so I suppose they could be a pool of tax money for health care (our Universal health care that is).

I'm not sure how an increasingly socialist model could reverse that trend

You don't have enough............ hate

If you wish to face the PS4 one day, you must foster your hatred towards the Brazilian Dollar. Hate it, detest it, and live an unsightly life. Cling to your pitiful PS3, and then one day when you posses the funds necessary, come before it.

And the alternative? Price controls? Hyperinflation? Restricted markets? Loose property rights? Shortages? Protectionism? Cuba? Zimbabwe? Venezuela? 

I can see why people argue for social democracy, even though I don't think it can last. At least social democracy works in the short-term. But actual socialism? Right... 

There is no utopia. Freedom is the best we can have, even with its faults. The world today is better than the world 100 years ago, and for damn sure a paradise compared to the world 200 + years ago. 

@OP I think we are just seeing short-term effects of developing countries competing with established industrial ones. In the long-term things will stabilize. Honestly, more people around the world having wealth is a good thing, and it is through free and open markets that this happens. So while life might be slightly harder for current generations (for a variety of reasons) living standards in Asia and South America are improving. That is a success in my opinion. I don't discriminate according to silly national borders. Another factor is urbanization in first-world countries. For example, in the United States more people lived in rural areas in the 70's than they do today. This meant housing prices were cheaper and getting a house easier. I would assume the same is true for other first-world countires. 

Well what do you expect when today you can't get a decent job unless you incur tens of thousands of dollars of debt before you're even out of your teen years. Here in the US, most of our parents and grandparents' generations went straight to work out of HS and were able to raise families and buy homes all on a single income. And if you had a college degree you practically had it made.

That's no longer the case for today's youth. It's either go to college and then spend the next decade of your life paying off that debt for a degree that unless it's in STEM fields doesn't guarantee you squat, or hope you invent the next Facebook or are physically gifted enough to be a pro athlete.

Rupees? Pounds? Euros? Yen? Rocks? Idk what Brazilian money is called lol

Wasn't me it was an Itachi copypasta #DealWithIt