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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • It’s simply not possible to drop housing prices significantly until we get a reasonable supply. Right now (and until the end of the decade) demand is predicted to exceed supply of new housing by about 4:1 (i.e. we need to build about 4x as many new units as we currently are).

    There are some mechanisms to reduce some demand like vacant housing tax, increased taxes on second+ properties, and banning non resident purchases, but it still comes back to supply and demand.

    In theory, once supply exceeds demand, house prices should start to fall. There really isn’t any other sustainable mechanism to significantly reduce housing prices until that point. Government owned and subsidized housing is one way that we have attempted in the past, and I think it’s a good idea, but it won’t actually reduce prices except for those lucky enough to get one of these units.

    Each of the parties has a plan to increase housing supply, targeting different aspects of the supply chain. It’s a good first step, and realistically all that they can do in a single term.







  • Their batteries may not be special, but if they can scale to what they were promising a few years ago (which is a much bigger “if” than it used to be), their battery business could easily surpass BYD’s, which could justify its current market cap on its own (but not much higher).

    I’ve got mixed feelings on FSD. I think it’s nearly “solved” for places with nice climate, but I think there’s a lot of work needed to deal with inclement weather like snow and slush and even heavy rain. I don’t think any company has any idea how to solve that issue, so they’re just pushing it down the road until someone else solves it first.


  • The share price isn’t based on car sales. If it were just about car sales, it would be about 10% of the price it is now.

    The share price is mostly ridiculous, but it is also people trying to get in early, on the assumption that they solve FSD, battery storage, Optimus (their robot), and battery manufacturing.

    If they solve all of this, then Tesla could 10x again. It’s very future dependent, and I think that future is a lot longer away than a lot of other shareholders think.

    I got in at ~$20 per share. I’ve significantly reduced my position over the last few months, but I do still believe in the original mission of Tesla. I just don’t think they’re going to get there with Elon.




  • Also, the so-called progressive NDP needs to stop kicking people out for taking a stance against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians (yes, that happened; look up Sarah Jama’s unceremonious ousting, among others).

    It’s important to separate the provincial NDP from the federal NDP. They each have their faults, but they’re different faults, and we shouldn’t blame the provincial parties for things Singh has done, and we shouldn’t blame Singh for things provincial NDP parties have done.






  • That’s fair, but at least personally, I was initially turned off of switching to vegetarianism/veganism due to sites and recipes such as the linked one. It took another decade before I tried it again. It doesn’t create a great first impression when your exposure to vegetarian and vegan cuisine consists of the same recipes you already make, but using “non-dairy milk” and “plant-based meat”.

    There are actually a lot of great vegetarian recipes that aren’t just meat-based recipes in disguise, substituting meat/tofu/mushrooms for the meat. Fewer vegan ones, but they do exist. The best ones I’ve found come from cultures that are largely vegetarian or have large vegetarian sub-cultures (e.g. Indian or Ethiopian dishes).


  • I’m not trying to be a downer here, but a lot of those recipes are just “use dairy-free milk/yogurt/butter” instead of the dairy version. There’s nothing inherently vegan about those recipes.

    Imo, the non dairy versions are all worse than the dairy versions, and some (like vegan butter) are actually less healthy than the dairy version. Much like how beyond meat isn’t healthier (or cheaper) than beef (though is much better to the planet), dairy free alternatives just aren’t all that great.

    Over the last year, I’ve worked my way to about 50% of my meals being vegetarian or vegan (mostly vegetarian), but I’m largely unimpressed by vegan/vegetarian recipes that rely on 1:1 replacements for non-vegan products.


  • The problem with resorts is that they’re expensive, so if someone pays for a trip, they’re going no matter what. So you get guests with super contagious infections, and then everyone gets it.

    There are things resorts can do to better mitigate the damages, but if someone with Norovirus decides they’re going to spend the day at the swim up bar, a lot of people are going to get sick.

    If a resort is open long enough, their reviews will eventually contain a week or two of people who all got sick.

    It’s also possible that food handling is not done safely and all manner of other things, but that’s hard to distinguish when looking at reviews.