Have you read other reddits ? If you read the Amsterdam one, London, NY, Sydney.. it's all the same. It's a GLOBAL problem.
Life is much less affordable now than it was 10y ago. Nothing unique to Canada.
Go ahead and find me as many doom and gloom posts about the economy in Amsterdam as here... I'll wait. Looking at the Amsterdam sub, it looks like the number of posts from people freaking out about work/homelessness/affordibility has been relatively consistent (and low volume) over the last 10 years. Vancouver on the other hand...
I'm not denying it's a "global problem" in that many cities are affected.
Yes, many other west coast cities are having a tough time (though at least jobs pay more relative to CoL in every other west coast city... even SF).
But cities like Amsterdam aren't, and people struggling in Australia are largely doing so for different reasons (politics / social attitudes rather than economy). The minimum wage there is much closer to a living wage. My friend who prefers Vancouver for nature/vibe is going back to Australia to work so he can save up some money to come back with.
Edit: Interestingly, people in the Amsterdam subreddit seem to think that Amsterdam is overall better/more affordable than Vancouver:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/xetw2m/comment/i...
> "i call bullshit, no fucking way that Vancouver or Calgary are more liveable than Amsterdam, no fucking way."
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/13fdx4z/comment/...
> "Vancouver property market (both buying and rental) is much much worse than the Dutch one."
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/xetw2m/comment/i...
> "Vancouver; liveable yes, affordable no"
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/y51soz/comment/i...
> "Housing crisis is worse in Toronto and Vancouver ... you earn less there and it’s still more expensive than here"
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/twxkio/comment/i...
> "As a Vancouverite that left for Amsterdam 11 years ago, moving to Vancouver is a horrible idea"
For the last year, the only time I've seen posts in /r/vancouver (from people who live here) talking about it being a great city, the praise is tempered by caveats about how it's going to be a struggle unless you're wealthy
Amsterdam has a wait list for one year for rental, there's zero availability, rents are through the rough and salary is way lower Vancouver for any tech person, apart from their tax credit in the first 3y you move there the taxes are bigger than here too, ask me how I know ;)
I'm not talking about tech specifically, just overall liveability/affordability for the average person trying not to die on the streets.
Is there some reason people in the Amsterdam sub seem pretty content and the people who have lived in both Amsterdam and Vancouver think Vancouver is unaffordable?
Well.. I've been in Vancouver for 10 years now also.
The city has gotten much worse.
I'm relatively privileged in that I'm able to pay bills right now, but many people aren't. I have so many friends working for less than $25/hr who are one renoviction away from homelessness (they can't afford the market rate).
And I have recently-homeless friends who have decided to live in their car rather than compete for rent.
Several friends on PRs have decided to go back to their home countries (India, Australia). Lots of young people who don't have parents to fall back on have left the city. Other friends have retreated to the interior or the island (though the affordability of everywhere in BC is abysmal right now)
I'm not saying there aren't more people coming than going (Canada's aggressive immigration goals have ensured that), just that most people who get here find it's a struggle.
> Again, go touch grass and plug out of reddit, that shit isn't good for your mental health.
I'm basing this on the experience of people I know outside of the internet, but obviously that's not something I can link to in Hacker News.
Most people I know IRL don't consider Vancouver a desirable place to live now. Perhaps more desirable for weather than other Canadian cities, but not on par with the major cities of other first-world countries (again, I have friends from other countries who have said this is why they were going back).