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I cannot help
wondering how we became the most expensive city in the world. I try
not to believe what people say about our government – that it is
full of corruption. But I find myself asking: What went wrong? Where
did our money go? We have high taxes, for example, GST and PST. Of
every pay cheque that I receive, 12% goes to the government. That is
a total of $800 out of my net salary. Imagine that you work as hard
as a horse, yet a significant amount of your hard-earned money goes
to the government. Even though our basic salary is the same as other
provinces, including the USA, we pay very high rent and mortgage, as
well as high taxes, compared to these countries. Why is our country
so expensive to live in?
Vancouver is
apparently the most beautiful city in the world. Give me a break! If
only everyone knew how expensive it is to live in this ‘beautiful’
city. What makes a beautiful city is the people, but take a look
around – there are homeless people in every corner. I encounter
mentally ill people in the street every day who have no place to
live. Inconveniently, we don’t even have a public washroom in every
train station. I have noticed that business people take advantage of
the fact that the majority of the population experiences financial
difficulties - PayDay Loan centres are booming and expanding in new
locations all over Vancouver. Debt consolidation advisors have
service fees; immigration lawyers/advisors have a talent fee! They
want you to immigrate to Canada! You see, it’s all about the money,
rather than helping people.
I feel as though
our government is ripping us off. They manipulate and they brainwash,
and in the end, we all feel miserable. Politicians are in a position
of power – our money is in their hands. But I find it very
difficult to trust these politicians - just look at the state of our
economy! They ask us to vote for them in this coming election,
claiming they are ‘different’ to the other politicians. Really, I
ask? They are all the same, I’m sorry to say. A few weeks ago, I
saw a billboard posted around the street of downtown saying something
alone of the lines of "the government wants you to work hard to
support the welfare". This is not nice to hear. In fact, it is a
punch to the stomach. Why should hard working people have to support
the unemployed? And when will the government start to support the
hard workers? I believed in freedom of speech. Thank you very much for reading.
Emmanuel Noel (Speak-Easy)
Full time employee
https://twitter.com/knowellex
