As IF Times

link Young families pull up stakes for better life.

While at first, articles such as this will provoke lots of knee jerk responses from those who will say “something must be done”, the reality is that in a free society, that would make little sense.  The constant promotion of Vancouver over the past decade or so though the staging of  world class events such as the Olympics has resulted in the benefits we see today.  Vancouver is a world class destination no longer undiscovered by those that have means.  We kept telling people what a wonderful place it was and whaddya know, it’s worked!  Go figure that people would find the stunning scenery, benign climate and amiable population attractive.  Attractive enough to lure people to buy homes here.

As residents are always proud of proclaiming,  Vancouver is a world class city.  That’s the upside.  But now comes the unintended consequences. The downside is that locals may not be able to afford to live in a world class city.  Unless you were fortunate enough to have owned property here from 20 years ago, it’s unlikely that owning a house within the city proper is affordable for most people.  That’s the way  it is.  It’s not likely that in New York City, or Hong Kong, or Honolulu or San Francisco,  young families would be able to get a 2000 sq ft house with a small yard for the dog and kids for $300,000.  In all of those cases, as is in Vancouver, they are victims of their own success.

If it’s that wonderful, guess what, people will pay to be there.  The wave of enthusiastic property purchases have made innumerate locals wealthy beyond their wildest dreams for simply having the good fortune to have owned property.  Some of that money goes back into the local economy through lifestyles and undoubtedly some will get passed on to the children of those fortunate homeowners.  Because of this wealth effect, people don’t blink when paying $4 dollars for a half calf, double mocha with a latte twist at the hundreds of coffee shops in this town.  They don’t hesitate to pay $200 to watch the Canucks play hockey at a stadium where they pay $30 to park and $12 for a beer.  And my favorite, $120 bucks to buy Lululemon yoga pants.  While of course it’s a burden for young families, it does require an evaluation and assessment of expectations.

The fact that we are seeing young people move to more affordable communities is the natural order of things. (If that weren’t the case, everyone would still be huddled around Plymouth Rock in Virginia).  These people  will then build communities and create opportunities in places more affordable. Eventually, they’ll sponsor a hockey team and pay high ticket prices there too.

What should not be encouraged is the ugly populist notion of entitlement.  As it should now be obvious to most sane people, the blanket mentality of entitlement  threatens to smother progress everywhere.  Living in a comfortable society allows us the luxury of heightened expectations for all aspects of our daily lives, but expectations are not rights.   The next time you hear about someone complaining about how high property prices are, ask them if they’d be willing to sell theirs for what they paid for it.  After the laughter dies down, the only sound you’ll hear are crickets.

link Photos: Riots, fire, destruction after Vancouver’s loss | Posted | National Post.

Protests against government oppression? Rioting to get adequate food or shelter? For human rights? For religious freedom? Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya?

ENHH!

It’s mild mannered,  latte sipping Vancouver after a hockey game!  This is a variant on the old joke that people went to a fight and then a hockey game broke out.  In fact, the criminal activity that followed in the aftermath of Vancouver’s loss to Boston in game seven of the Stanley Cup had nothing to do with hockey.  The convergence of so many people in one place allowed a few instigators to ignite and inflame mob mentality.  People in the aforementioned conflict regions of the world would be amused to see such violence and mass hooliganism over essentially nothing at all.  Sociologists will of course rush to explain the actions with the usual bleats about angry, disenfranchised youth, yada, yada, yada. 

That’s not going to wash, since there are few cities in North America with a more affluent population.  These weren’t street people with nothing to lose acting out of desperation over their circumstances;  these were affluent young men living in perhaps the most benign part of North America.  If anything, it was more of an entitlement mentality gone wild.  The chaos was exacerbated by a couple of things.  Firstly, the sheer numbers of people just standing around served to aid and abet the hooligans in their primal rampage by providing cover.  Secondly, the poor response tactics of the police which allowed the thugs to ‘burn’ themselves out instead of enforcing order only served to embolden the criminal activity.  The mayor expressed that the police had done a fine job of keeping the peace.  !!??  As long as you weren’t a car or shop owner in the vicinity or sitting in a port-a-potty, I suppose that’s true. 

In watching the live video, it wasn’t obvious that the police were effective at all in enforcing any kind of order.  The tactic seemed to be to wait the storm out rather than prevention of damage.  Probably just kids letting off steam.  That’s certainly a debatable strategy and represents the coddling mentality that exists in this part of the world.  The local media are chock full of experts who are tsk tsking the activity of the crowd and predictably expressing shock that this could  happen in Vancouver.   People can delude themselves and be complacent about human nature in this part of the world, but the stark reality is, in a mob scene, it may as well be Lord of The Flies.  The police can’t be afraid of acting like police.  They can’t act as if they were security guards waiting for the police to arrive.  They ARE the police! 

Apologists are quick to point out that these weren’t hockey fans and in no way reflected Vancouver as a whole, a sentiment which is plausible.  This is to be kept in mind the next time “passionate” protests break out against  a G8 summit, or global warming , or some other excuse for idiots to cause havoc. 

We can only hope that the miscreants are caught and get a strong scolding.  Crazy kids.  I’m sure it won’t happen again.