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eXXon posted:The Star gives out financial advice for grad students while totally not young millennial shaming: Why not just tell him that he should really graduate and get a job before worrying about what to do with his poverty level earnings?
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Nov 19, 2019 05:57
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half cocaine posted:I'm not gonna click on that article but I bet it doesn't suggest that U of T sessional staff unionize and collectively bargain for higher wages. U of T sessional staff are already unionized. CUPE 3902 unit 3.
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Nov 19, 2019 06:09
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Mr Luxury Yacht posted:U of T sessional staff are already unionized. What a missed opportunity for them to join the United Steelworkers of America.
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Nov 19, 2019 07:25
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half cocaine posted:I'm not gonna click on that article but I bet it doesn't suggest that U of T sessional staff unionize and collectively bargain for higher wages. He's a grad student. And yes, grad students should unionise. But ... read the grad student thread if you wanna hear how that's going. Big universities across North America are fighting tooth and nail against it.
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Nov 19, 2019 09:05
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Also because students are students and tend to move on after a couple of years it's pretty hard to get any momentum, collective organization wise.
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Nov 19, 2019 15:49
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Mr Luxury Yacht posted:U of T sessional staff are already unionized. Teaching assistants are Unit 1. That doesn't cover much outside of TA positions, though. CRISPYBABY posted:Also because students are students and tend to move on after a couple of years it's pretty hard to get any momentum, collective organization wise. Uh, PhD students stay for quite a while longer than 2 years. The Grad Student Union is (or was, I haven't kept track) reasonably organized but the problem is usually that better-paid* students are unwilling to strike for the benefit of the poor as dirt humanities PhDs who take longer to finish but get paid even less and have guaranteed funding for 4 years or less. None of this changes the fact that basically all grad students get poverty-level pay and focusing on a $3/day coffee habit isn't going to make a dent in that. * 
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Nov 19, 2019 16:22
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My grad student union had tremendous difficulty keeping people around cause of turnover even in the PhDs and overall lack of interest but I suppose it varies. Anyways it's super hosed regardless, I just found that the population seemed even less interested because of the constant rotation of students but also that was my limited viewpoint as a two year masters guy. There's a reason unions are strongest for career type jobs, and it's not that they deserve it more or could use it more, it's just a real logistical challenge trying to organize with a temporary workforce. CRISPYBABY fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Nov 19, 2019 |
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Nov 19, 2019 16:43
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eXXon posted:None of this changes the fact that basically all grad students get poverty-level pay and focusing on a $3/day coffee habit isn't going to make a dent in that. Poverty level pay that sometimes doesn't even get paid out! The first thing my supervisor told me when I started my masters at U of T was to carefully check my bank account each month because the university sometimes underpays or forgets to pay at all. There's a lot of things I don't miss about grad school, but the overall sub-minimum wage pay was definitely the worst. CRISPYBABY posted:My grad student union had tremendous difficulty keeping people around cause of turnover even in the PhDs and overall lack of interest but I suppose it varies. That was my experience as well. Unless you've done something seriously wrong grad school is inherently a temporary thing so a lot of people just gravitate towards suffering through it. Getting people involved when a huge chunk of them are two year masters students who likely won't see a contract negotiation is tough. Getting overworked PhD students who are there longer to spend time organizing and planning is also tough. Finding competent negotiators out of those who are left isn't exactly easy. Mr Luxury Yacht fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Nov 19, 2019 |
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Nov 19, 2019 17:22
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Mr Luxury Yacht posted:Poverty level pay that sometimes doesn't even get paid out! The first thing my supervisor told me when I started my masters at U of T was to carefully check my bank account each month because the university sometimes underpays or forgets to pay at all. Sounds familiar. When I started at UW, I wasn't able to find a single person in my department other than the other students themselves who could tell me where, when, and how much I would get paid. The dept did know much I got in total, but the highly relevant info of "so you get this much in a lump sum grant at the start of each term, then you get this much per month for TA pay" was basically impossible to pry out from anybody I asked. The dept admin was near removed from the process, and it certainly wasn't on the profs radar aside from occasional handwaving towards a need for funding. Academia is a very silly place. Most of the administration at the dept level is done by people who would rather be researching, so no one tends to know anything whatsoever about the actual day to day logistics and organization.
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Nov 19, 2019 18:33
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It's a nightmare. Tuition was covered at U of T as part of the funding package but instead of doing the sensible thing of just not charging you tuition, you had to go through this process to defer your fees each year until April, then pay U of T back with the money U of T parcelled out to you throughout the year. I'm still dealing with poo poo from it because CUPE apparently messed up my T4s from TAing and a couple years later I got a letter with basically "oops due to massive clerical errors here's your actual T4s, have fun doing taxes this year". I didn't notice at the time because my pay was coming from so many different buckets with different T4s or T4As for each I figured it was all there. TL;dr unless you have a clear career goal in mind from it I highly recommend people do not do grad school.
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Nov 19, 2019 19:05
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eXXon posted:The Star gives out financial advice for grad students while totally not young millennial shaming: OTOH, at least that's below the cutoff for paying taxes. OTOH, LMBAOOOoooo at "saving money for the future" on minimum wage. It's drat near impossible to do so on twice that salary in the current economy.
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Nov 19, 2019 20:03
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THE BEATWEAVER posted:OTOH, at least that's below the cutoff for paying taxes. OTOH, LMBAOOOoooo at "saving money for the future" on minimum wage. It's drat near impossible to do so on twice that salary in the current economy. $23K/year is, unfortunately, not below the cutoff for paying taxes, even taking a tax deduction for fees.
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Nov 19, 2019 20:43
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https://thebreaker.news/news/liaoning-muchang-lawsuit/ Oh Canada, home of criminals hoarding real estate. I thought Harper signed a deal with China to seize and split the assets of Chinese criminals.
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Nov 20, 2019 00:17
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Lead out in cuffs posted:$23K/year is, unfortunately, not below the cutoff for paying taxes, even taking a tax deduction for fees. You probably know this but for those who aren't aware, scholarships are not taxable, so non-sadistic departments try to pay their grad students with (mostly fictional) awards, leaving only TA income as taxable. You're screwed if your research work is paid as an RA instead and should complain endlessly. Most of Europe treats graduate research positions as contract jobs, which has downsides (it's difficult to get extensions even with extenuating circumstances), but they finish sooner and generally come with better benefits and working conditions, if not necessarily pay. Did the Liberals* even bother to do anything to change any of this over the last four years? I vaguely recall some reversals of Harper cuts and cancelling of pointless industry programs, as well as some announcements with gaudy numbers, but I don't remember how much of that was just reshuffling existing funding. I'm guessing not much of that had trickled down to basement-dwelling grad students yet either way. *Not even going to bother to ask about conservative provincial governments.
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Nov 20, 2019 02:09
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As a foreign student, I was ineligible for like 95% of scholarships, so was paid out of my supervisor's grants. Right around the time I started my PhD, the CRA brought in the rule/clarification that that would be taxable. I didn't pay much tax, but I did pay tax on my sub-minimum-wage grad school stipend. And no, the Liberals have done nothing to fix grad students' situation in this country. Nor have they reversed the massive cuts the Conservatives made to Tri-agency fellowship funding. All just part of the intergenerational wealth transfer, to be honest.
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Nov 20, 2019 02:59
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Lead out in cuffs posted:As a foreign student, I was ineligible for like 95% of scholarships, so was paid out of my supervisor's grants. Right around the time I started my PhD, the CRA brought in the rule/clarification that that would be taxable. I didn't pay much tax, but I did pay tax on my sub-minimum-wage grad school stipend. If Canada increased research funding then more grad students would just be hired at the same poverty wage since departments set the stipend amounts. The giant labs would also just suck up any increased funding in huge grants while grant success rate would continue to drop from the pathetic 15% funding rate. So wed just end up with more trainees in the system for no funding or jobs. The research system is broken in Canada.
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Nov 20, 2019 04:33
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cowofwar posted:The research system is broken. FTFY
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Nov 20, 2019 06:04
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Maybe you should try harder next time and make sure your parents are rich mainland Chinese plutocrats?
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Nov 20, 2019 07:02
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half cocaine posted:Maybe you should try harder next time and make sure your parents are rich mainland Chinese plutocrats? Pretty sure this is the only way to get ahead in Canada.
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Nov 20, 2019 07:32
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McGavin posted:Pretty sure this is the only way to get ahead in Canada. Hey now, let's not discount the old fashioned technique of being the son or daughter of a Canadian politician and/or billionaire. It worked for my daddy, and his father before him.
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Nov 20, 2019 17:14
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https://www.therecord.com/news-story/9733733-buying-a-home-out-of-reach-for-half-of-kitchener-households/ I'd like to see the raw data, but this article is saying Kitchener house prices have risen by 88% over the last three years (rent by 35%). We're so hosed.
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Nov 22, 2019 14:54
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Audits find 10% lying about their empty home statusquote:Vancouver empty homes tax nets another $39M as number of vacant properties drop, city says
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Nov 22, 2019 17:37
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CRISPYBABY posted:
It's all insane. I grew up in KW and seeing it transformed into yet another unaffordable place is so frustrating. I'm currently in Toronto and actually contemplating buying a (older, non-glass) condo even at the inflated prices because the stock market is also hugely in a bubble so there's not much alternatives for my money to go, and my friends keep getting renovicted and the lack of stability in renting is horrifying. I was talking to a friend and while we both love the city, if things keep New Yorkifying, we wonder how much of the city we love will be around. But then as more of my friends price out to the suburbs, I realize how lonely they are since no one is going to be able to visit your nice fancy home in Galt. The fact that this thread has been around so long and nothing has changed is so disheartening.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:04
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Segue posted:It's all insane. I grew up in KW and seeing it transformed into yet another unaffordable place is so frustrating. We escaped the impact of the 2008 economic crisis by the skin of our teeth, learned nothing, and long ago blew past the worst state the US ever hit immediately before that crash. The global economy right now is teetering in the worst state it's been since the roaring twenties, and its only going to take something like Brexit or a startup unicorn imploding, or China getting too handsy with a soveriegn nation post HK to set it off. Only the insane would look at how lovely the economic stability is right now, look at the classical red flags such as the US Fed inverting, look at how Canada has no room left to cut on interest rates, and go "yeah, whatevs, time for a mortgage!". Yeah, it's lovely we all sat out the past decade of rampant speculation, that's no reason to commit financial suicide now.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:21
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THE BEATWEAVER posted:We escaped the impact of the 2008 economic crisis by the skin of our teeth, learned nothing, and long ago blew past the worst state the US ever hit immediately before that crash. The global economy right now is teetering in the worst state it's been since the roaring twenties, and its only going to take something like Brexit or a startup unicorn imploding, or China getting too handsy with a soveriegn nation post HK to set it off. That's the irrationality of it. My brain is just stupidly latching on to these things because in these sorts of circumstances it's hard to just sit on yout hands. I've sat out and said the same thing for the last six years and things keep going apace. As you watch society crumble in front of you and seniors on fixed incomes get kicked out of their rentals, it's hard not to latch on to shelter as the one thing I need. I doubt I'll buy because the market is insane but I've gone from never wanting to, to feeling the pull more and more as late stage capitalism upchucks everything.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:35
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Segue posted:The fact that this thread has been around so long and nothing has changed is so disheartening. What are you talking about? Prices are up at least 25% since then.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:37
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Segue posted:It's all insane. I grew up in KW and seeing it transformed into yet another unaffordable place is so frustrating. I moved out here in 2017 and was already feeling like rent was dumb compared to when I was a student (2009-14). In the meantime, my apartment has went from "Ok this is kinda grimy for the price but the location is good and all I've wanted all my life is a single bedroom place to myself so I guess I'll pay for it" to "I'm not moving and am sitting on this rent control unless I get a long term partner to split rent with or a six figure salary". I feel you on the disheartening thing. I think that within my lifespan, if we're not already there yet, property transfers are gonna be almost entirely hereditary. The main cash windfall that's going to allow prople to actually afford a place is gonna be inherentance from the value of your parents property. And if your parent's don't have any intergenerational property value to pass onto you, you're straight up hosed. My parents are rich. I'm lucky. They've said that at some point they'd be willing to help me out getting a place. But if they didn't, I'd probably have to make the choice of between saving up for retirement or saving up for a house. I make decent money, am paying under 30% of my income in housing costs, and still can't imagine how you could do both at the same time with current prices.
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Nov 22, 2019 19:04
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So in local outrage-fuel, there's a City-owned parking lot off Hastings just east of Nanaimo Street in Vancouver, which local businesses have been using. The City donated the parking lot to an organisation to use for affordable housing. https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/housing-project-led-by-women-announced-for-hastings-sunrise-1.23848681 ... and now the owners of the neighbouring business property on Hastings are suing the City, claiming it's actually their property. https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/hastings-sunrise-property-owner-sues-city-over-ownership-of-17-7-million-parking-lot-1.24013005 Because we really need a loving surface parking lot more than we need social housing right now. Yep.
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Nov 22, 2019 21:48
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Pretty sure that's the same group of chucklefucks who tried to rebrand the neighborhood from "Hastings Sunrise" to "East Village" to sell more condos.
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Nov 23, 2019 00:27
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THE BEATWEAVER posted:Pretty sure that's the same group of chucklefucks who tried to rebrand the neighborhood from "Hastings Sunrise" to "East Village" to sell more condos. Maybe that's just what the downtown eastside needs! A rebranding! DTES is a pretty sterile term.
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Nov 23, 2019 02:32
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Segue posted:the stock market is also hugely in a bubble so there's not much alternatives for my money to go Stocks have basically no carrying cost and pay dividends without you having to do anything, which is something that can't be said for residential real estate.
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Nov 23, 2019 06:24
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half cocaine posted:Maybe that's just what the downtown eastside needs! A rebranding! DTES is a pretty sterile term. What about Dotoeasi? It rolls off the tongue.
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Nov 24, 2019 05:40
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half cocaine posted:Maybe that's just what the downtown eastside needs! A rebranding! DTES is a pretty sterile term. I think you mean "Railtown"
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Nov 24, 2019 11:15
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Decent reddit thread on why everything about affordable housing (for legit poor people) sucks: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/e1bere/it_took_six_months_to_evict_this_tenant_his (Landlord shouldn't own units this crappy either, burn it down and build something nice that costs 3-4x already.)
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Nov 25, 2019 18:28
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Habitat for Humanity project for 24 low income houses in Oshawa stalls out from lack of funding, buildings are damaged by weather during the lull in construction. Meanwhile in the same region there are hundreds of units being built for 500k+. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/habitat-for-humanity-durham-project-stop-and-start-1.5367652 What a complete joke of a society where it's come down to using charities to build low-income housing, and even that's stalled out.
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Nov 26, 2019 00:00
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Segue posted:The fact that this thread has been around so long and nothing has changed is so disheartening. It did change. Vancouver crashed on the heels of speculation and foreign buyer tax so now all the money laundering has moved to Toronto. I thought maybe the feds would care if what happened to Vancouver happened to Toronto but I guess not.
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Nov 26, 2019 03:40
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Some stats on Vancouver's Empty House tax from the city: https://council.vancouver.ca/20191126/documents/p2.pdfquote:Analysis of the types of properties currently subject to EHT indicates that the majority of properties paying the tax are high-value condominiums, with the bulk of the remainder made up of single family homes. Seventy-seven percent of properties paying EHT are condos with average assessed value of $1.4 million (average for all condos is $0.9 million), 19% are single family homes with average assessed value of $3.5 million (average for all single family homes is $2.4 million), and the remainder are a mix of other types of properties. For properties that declared vacant or were determined to be vacant after an audit, 34% of the owners also owned at least one other property in Vancouver, 13% of properties were worth over $3 million and 18% have mailing addresses outside of Canada. Pied a terre city
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Nov 26, 2019 03:52
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Went for a hike starting up at the top of British Properties. Lots of oversized ugly stucco houses clearly not maintained and with missing roof tiles or plastic covering sections. Hilarious. Why not just hold the land? Why build an ugly poo poo mansion and then let it fall apart?
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Nov 26, 2019 06:22
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Buying up all the land to hold is like making a short squeeze play except that anyone not in market becomes homeless
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Nov 26, 2019 06:37
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Dreylad posted:Habitat for Humanity project for 24 low income houses in Oshawa stalls out from lack of funding, buildings are damaged by weather during the lull in construction. Meanwhile in the same region there are hundreds of units being built for 500k+. I think this was more or less unavoidable considering how many economic hardships high earning Canadians have been suffering. The cupboard is bare and the people who give to philanthropic causes are tapped out, there's simply no money left to give.
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Nov 26, 2019 15:43
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