Quick lesson on “ghetto taxes.”

This is the phenomenon where people with less income actually pay more for the same things rich people do.

<thread> 🧵 👇
2/ The biggest one is lending IMO. How are interest rates determined?

By credit score.

How do you get a better credit score? By borrowing more, and paying it off.

How do you borrow more? Make more money.

On a mortgage, this means poor people pay thousands more in interest.
3/ Groceries is another huge one. Since wealthier households can afford larger bulk buys (Costco-style), they average down on costs.

Example, people on tight budgets may not be able to buy a year of toilet paper at once, and thus may pay 4x more for the same supply over time.
4/ There’s dozens of examples. The point is, being poor is expensive. More expensive than rich folks can typically understand, due to a different experience.

“Poor people must be wasting their money!”

Actually, rich people just don’t understand how expensive it is to be poor.

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More from @StephenPunwasi

9 Oct
One thing a lot of people don't realize is how lucrative the pandemic has been for big business. The stock market is entirely driven by it.

We now have a situation where many big businesses, politically connected companies, and investors *want* a lockdown. Which is wild.
One of my best friend's family owns a relatively large manufacturing operation in Canada.

Orders were *delayed,* not gone.

They received cheap capital, and labor subsidies. In other words, free money. He's super excited about how much cash the government just gave them.
His also made a point I made.

Companies need labor. The labor subsidies are free money. They weren't going to fire everyone and not do business.

People are so worried about losing their job, they were willing to subsidize their own wages.

Read 4 tweets
7 Oct
In Toronto you can only get a test by appointment *and* you're symptomatic, so this number is most likely waaaay higher.

Ford is throttling numbers so he doesn't look totally incompetent.

#onpoli #cdnpoli
"Nearly impossible" to get tested. But the numbers are going down. 🙄

#Toronto

"extremely limited" testing. Cases are falling tho!

Read 4 tweets
6 Oct
See this building? It's one of the buildings at the Geneva Freeport. It's how a lot of the super rich dodge taxes.

... it also happens to be home to the world's greatest art collection, that will never be seen.

<thread> 🧵👇 Image
2/ Freeports are where raw materials are temporarily stored, until they have a market. This way companies without a final destination for their goods, like wood and ore, don't pay fees before finding a market.

It's pretty obvious why politicians pitch them.
3/ An art dealer named Yves Bouvier had this brilliant idea – what if the super rich just kept their artwork in these freeports. Then they could buy, sell, and trade without taxes.

Instead of public art deals, relatively anonymous people could buy and sell from each other.
Read 9 tweets
30 Sep
Canadians are actually one of the biggest driving forces for white supremacy in America, yet Canada pretends it doesn't have a problem.
2/ Surprisingly a lot of Canadians that have no clue.

Let's start with Canadians are the largest per capita producers of online content to radicalize white supremacists.

vice.com/en/article/7kp…
3/ The globe analyzed posts from far-right Canadian groups, and found while relatively small, they focused on high stakes and influential operations.

theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…
Read 9 tweets
18 Sep
A few people that follow me have complained they want finance discussion, not social justice rants. All new investors.

It's actually THE SAME ISSUE. In order to discuss where the market is going, you need to understand where it's been.

Inequality is a signal.

<thread>
2/ First, it's rare for me to discuss discrimination *I* face. I discuss rising inequalities, and historic inequalities in the context of the history of commerce.

That's because as inequality begins to become a bigger discussion, the gap is widening.
3/ When economies boom, we see resources spread across society more readily. Fewer people see the injustices that impact society, and a lot of people suffering think they're just a few moves at work from breaking out of the cycle.

The injustices still happen...
Read 9 tweets
17 Sep
Canadians think of the Hudson's Bay Company as something to be proud of. A lot of them drape themselves in the iconic stripes.

My family is from the Caribbean though. So while I was educated in Canada, I'm reminded of a totally different kind of branding.

🧵👇
See Canadians are taught the founder of HBC, Prince Rupert, funded the expedition of Canada to develop the fur trade.

In fact, they're taught in a cutesy way that most of the country was originally just called Rupert's land. Remember that? Adorable and harmless, right?

2/7
What they don't teach is Rupert is one of history's worst monsters. His wealth didn't come from HBC.

HBC was funded in part by the profits from another company he founded – the Royal African Company (RAC). Canadian history tends to leave out any mention of this venture. 🤔

3/7
Read 8 tweets

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