I'm also an early millenial / late GenX and broadly support the things you mention.

At the same time, how do you explain that earlier generations were happy to start families well before national pharma care, etc.? Before people were concerned with the climate crisis they were terrified of a population explosion (hence China's one-child policy), nuclear war, etc.

My intuition is that the difference is that they were more financially stable and they were able to maintain a family with a single income, which provided them with both the money and the time that raising children require. So, maybe we should focus on that instead.

Basically, the “no immigration” path i

That is a strawman of your own creation. All I said is that I want my children to have the opportunity to have kids of their own if they wish to, which currently seems unlikely because our government does not prioritize fostering the conditions under which young people choose to start families.

I would prefer Canada to grow primarily through its own means rather than relying so heavily on immigration to avoid economic collapse.

If you prefer not having kids or grandchildren, that's fine by me, but don't assume we all want the same things.

That is a false dichotomy. Housing is expensive in Canada due to zoning laws forcing a very inefficient use of land, among other reasons.

I lived in Europe for decades, so I know for a fact that making our streets pleasant to walk around isn't some weird utopia, it is the basic reality in many developed countries.

And I want my children to have the opportunity to have kids of their own. In my experience, when young people feel financially secure and are not working themselves to death, they tend to start families. I want our kids' generation to have that opportunity.

Seriously. I’m in my mid-50s, and the bleakness of my generation is staggering. Nobody wants to be alive anymore.

I'm a decade younger. I thought Gen-Xers were doing decently well, at least compared to younger generations.

What sorts of problems are you folks having? I'd love to learn more.

Living in an area that is beautiful matters, and our urban landscapes are a big part of that. Trees, decorated facades, town squares, they may add some economic cost, but why is that the only cost that matters? What about the emotional cost of living in an ugly noisy jungle of concrete and glass?

News like these are the reason why I don't visit authoritarian or corrupt countries. Well, that and because I'm broke.

No, it’s because they are particularly dangerous to children.

If you peruse statistics of pedestrian deaths, you will find both children and seniors are the most frequent victims. Look it up.

Hey, hey! That's an unfair take. They also kill adults, seniors in particular.

I'm looking at 3br condos/townhomes for my car-free family and prices still look insane. We will likely have to leave the GTA.

I'll be perfectly honest: I don't care about the technicalities. Anybody can still buy compostable garbage bags that, to a layperson, sure feel similar to any other plastic bag.

If it is biodegradable / compostable, it should be available for purchase at checkout points for a small fee, regardless of whether it is made of plastic, advanced biopolymers or unicorn semen.

The only place I see with degradable bags at checkout is Whole Foods with their (rather robust) paper bags. All other shops have done away with disposable bags and it's an annoyance to customers when they forget their reusable bags at home.

As I understand it, plastic checkout bags are banned federally, regardless of which sort of plastic they are made of. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what the law appears to say.

I wish they continued selling single-use bags and instead required them to be biodegradable/compostable. It's fine to charge for them, too.

Why? Because sometimes shit happens and you go to the grocery store without a reusable bag. You don't want to buy a reusable bag, you already have them at home. And those reusable bags are rarely recyclable or compostable either, so are they really greener than compostable single-use bags?

It is called the "unmatched count technique" or "list experiment." It has a wider error range, so you need to poll more people, but you get honest answers.

There is probably no horror comparable to burying one of your children.

At the same time, I don't believe anybody should be forced to live when they no longer want to. Suicidal ideation doesn't come out of nowhere, it is the consequence of a tormented life where the desire to stop suffering eventually overcomes the fear of dying.

I hope all involved find peace.

Where do bikes fit in your overall design?

Alcohol is bad for you too. Are you going to ban that?

I wish they did. My father died of alcoholism.

It’s generational discrimination

You mean, like between the people who lived and died without being able to smoke cannabis legally and those who now can?

Every single law ever approved has created a barrier between those who lived before the law was approved and those who lived after. Public health care, public pensions, everything.

I can lend money to others without them as middlemen

Private banks are highly regulated businesses to avoid fraud and maintain the trust and stability of the financial system. They also play a key role in the creation of money supply. Banks literally create money when they issue a loan, something no other business can do.

and at the same time they seem to suggest that having money in banks is not risk-free

Because it isn't 100% risk free: your bank can default and if your cash balance exceeds the amount that is insured by the government you can lose that excess.

The central bank cannot go bankrupt because it issues its own currency. You could experience the effects of inflation, but you would be protected from bankruptcy.

That's why authorities are concerned about allowing citizens to hold their savings in central bank accounts.

You mean mixing businesses and residential units in the same walkable neighborhood like we've done for thousands of years? That would never work! We must maximize commuting distances in order to reduce traffic and commuting times.