Victims Of Success
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.