J Smith

@Profiteroles12 @myabradshaw78 Whether you like the US or not, USD is the global currency. Canada and the US both use the dollar, but the world thinks of the dollar as the US dollar. Here is him talking about $300 million USD from Norway despite it being 2.8 billion Norwegian kroner: x.com/ZelenskyyUa/st…

@smith1095 @myabradshaw78 So a public statement is given in CAD, then another place makes one in a currency that isn't their own, and isn't their neighbors, but is instead in one from a country that told them to surrender?

🤔 the math isn’t mathing. Zelensky thanks Mark Carney for $200M in funding and Carney announces $270M for Ukraine.. Ummm where’s the $70M??

@Profiteroles12 @myabradshaw78 I didn't say it was Ukraine's official currency, I said it was the GLOBAL currency. Public statements given in dollars are often USD. You can google and find articles stating the $200 million figure is USD. People don't usually know the CDN exchange rate. They know the USD one.

@smith1095 @myabradshaw78 lol a tech specialist that cant use google

@mobocks The r/Toronto mods are particularly bad for this. I met several of them (and Reddit admins) at a Mod meetup years ago and none of this shocks me. And r/Canada doesn't let you post videos at all. Even if from CBC. It made it an echochamber since most interviews are videos.

I posted in r/Toronto seeking to interview people for a story. Now I’m banned for “solicitation” even though that’s not what I was doing and not what their rules say????

@gobertenjoyer1 @ThayIsTired I saw it. But it felt very forced. And then there were the Buck scene's which really didn't lead anywhere in the season. And sure, she had trauma, but why the hell was she working for Fisk and falsifying statements? This was Matt's girlfriend in S1. The arc made little sense.

@ThayIsTired Muse almost killed her and she felt powerless, so she eventually becomes Muse to reclaim that power he had over her in that moment. It’s trauma response. How can you not see that no shade?

I still don't know what's up with this woman. Such a terribly written arc

@JJ_McCullough Aside from gas prices, which obviously has a far reaching impact, I haven't seen much political fallout. The only time I see updates on it are from Trump himself, the media has moved on. Given the economy was already flailing here, gas prices suck, but so does everything.

Thinking about the current US-Iran war and its impact on world affairs, the global economy, American politics and so on, would you say the conflict has been:

@Nerdrotics But seriously, wasn't she supposed to be staying safe in a room. Yet somehow she's out with everyone for the climax? This show had a great idea, but the writing seemed like it wanted to take away some of the realism for shock value or to look cool.

WTF?? Daredevil: Bored Again Season 2 finale was comically bad.

@JoshStrifeHayes I know you'll get flak for this post, but it's a great reminder. Saying you'll do the right thing is easy. Doing it is hard. Go do something positive, or throw a few dollars to something like @TheOceanCleanup regularly. It's much more effective than saying you'd press🔵

I would press the 🔴 I also give blood. If you want to social clout of preaching the 🔵 is the morally superior choice, I hope you are also doing what you can literally right now to save lives.

@PeterMcCormack @mcnicollme Do you currently pay any servers over minimum wage?

@mcnicollme Whatever the market rate is and what each individual competently deserves.

A minimum wage of £15 would end my coffee shop, it would have to close, as would many other businesses. I’ll explain for the economically illiterate. Staff costs are currently half our costs, a £15 minimum wage is actually more than £15 an hour for the company, because you have to add: - 12.07% holiday - Sick pay - Maternity pay if and when required - National insurance - Pension contributions These costs would mean the shop loses money because remember, energy costs are up, rates are up, regulations are up. Now you can pass these costs onto the consumer - that would mean charging a lot more for coffee, people won’t pay it. The likes of Starbucks and Costa can, because they have economies of scale. The independent doesn’t. Now the little socialist will say well this is your fault, if you can’t run a business that can afford to pay its staff properly, but the little socialist has never run a business and does not understand the dynamics. Now I could pay some staff off and fill those hours myself or reduce us to one staff member during certain periods - but this proves the point that a minimum wage costs jobs. There was a time when these jobs were done by kids, perhaps on the weekend, paid a lower wage, no holiday and no silly employment rights. Perhaps they were even paid cash. The dynamic worked and small businesses like this could operate. It was also a great first job. Sadly now it isn’t worth employing entitlement youngsters at this level of pay. So alas, I don’t need the stress, the business would close, a number of jobs would be lost. Economics is about understanding these dynamics, no vibes. The cost of living is not solved through passing on inflation to the business, it is solved by ending high inflation and creating prosperity. This is what socialists don’t understand, they can’t create prosperity, they can only destroy it.

@JJ_McCullough @TheAtlantic They mention Claude Code, which, while apparently very good, it a small fraction of what AI was sold as. At my company we're struggling to find uses for it. It saves on niche development time, but that's it. We've scaled down our licenses dramatically due to cost.

Here's an aggressively contrarian piece in @TheAtlantic arguing that there's no AI bubble. Contrary to narratives that AI is a waste of money, he says there's SO MUCH proof that AI is making companies profitable and efficient, "the burden of proof has shifted to the naysayers."

@status_is_down Looks like it's resolved now. Give it another try, everyone.

Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA)'s website is reportedly down for some users at the moment. Are you one of them? #CanadianRevenueAgency #CanadianRevenueAgencyDown #CRADown #CRA #CanRevAgency #CanRevAgencyDown community.designtaxi.com/topic/27832-is…

@Gubloinvestor @KingFibman Payment is always due April 30th, but if you're self-employed, you can wait until June 15th to file the actual return.

@KingFibman that part i am not sure of. top says pay before 30th. i did taxes today alone.

I did my taxes today, i owe CRA $92,042.24 in capital gain taxes. Time to move out of this beautiful country 😥

@realDrPenguin @summoningsalt Some random dudes will accidently stab themselves with knives. Do we ban knives just to ensure that doesn't happen? I have sympathy for the random dudes, but I can't be responsible for everyone making a dumb decision. And I can't honestly rely on 50% of the population either.

A train is coming down a track. Everyone on Earth has the choice to either tie themselves to the track, or not. If more than 50% of people choose to tie themselves to the track, the train turns around and doesn't run them over. Yes or no - do you tie yourself to the track?

@JJ_McCullough Trump is still posting about it on Truth Social. The last update I saw was yesterday. According to him, Iran officials said were trying to figure out their leadership situation to open the Strait. He seemed optimistic. The media focus feels like it's shifted though.

So did anyone ever sort out that whole Strait of Hormuz situation…?

@pumpkin_oranges @The_Plain_Bagel @PierrePoilievre I know that this is an investment rather than a tax. My point was more that we've seen the direction/course set by the government already and, to me, the returns have been lackluster, so I'm not sure why we'd want them directing additional investments funded by taxpayers.

@smith1095 @The_Plain_Bagel @PierrePoilievre I think you think the way you do, b/c you still see this as a cost and not an investment that could be (hopefully) profitable for multiple stakeholders. No issue being a skeptic & I don't blame u for being 1, but it's time to try something new and not be stuck in old failed ways.

Canada is launching a sovereign wealth fund that will allow Canadians to invest in the country's major infrastructure projects. It's a weird choice - sounds good on paper given that we have an investment problem, but doesn't really make sense given our deficit. Time will tell...

@pumpkin_oranges @The_Plain_Bagel @PierrePoilievre I agree, but the gov't has already been setting an economic direction with tax/policy. My taxes should already be going towards these type of investments. This seems like a way of asking for even more of my money to do the same thing.

@smith1095 @The_Plain_Bagel @PierrePoilievre Sometimes it's not a bad idea for the gov't to set the direction/course - in Canada's case b/c the economy is just not big enough to just blindly invest in anything & everything. Less fragmentation & also individual investors don't necessarily know what the country needs.

@Mill_Moron Yeah, I'm having trouble understanding this one. And I'm curious how this works with his capital/operations budget too. Will this fund the same capital expenses as the government? Will this be used move capital off the books? It sounds cool though.

...isn't a sovereign wealth fund something you do when you have extra money, not a huge deficit? This seems more like a scheme to get retail investors on the hook for some private equity nonsense.

@maoist3rdwrldst @linusgsebastian @AmazingZoltan I do! But you also said it screws over the poor. That's where we disagree. It's regressive, but worth it due to rebates and the benefits it provides in turn.

@smith1095 @linusgsebastian @AmazingZoltan yes my argument was that it is a regressive away of raising taxes - seems you agree.

Nobody pays taxes on 100% of their income. Even if you earn $1 million/year, you still don't pay taxes on all of it, with the tax rate being 0% on everything below the personal exemption amount. This is a stunning example of basic financial illiteracy from a federal party leader.

@maoist3rdwrldst @linusgsebastian @AmazingZoltan Absolute dollars paid by the rich is important. Middle/high income earners help fund the government through sales tax. Those funds tend to help support lower-income households more than middle/high income earners. It's regressive coming in but redistributive going out.

@smith1095 @linusgsebastian @AmazingZoltan Rebates and exemptions help, but sales tax is still regressive because lower-income households spend more of their income, while higher-income households can save untaxed money. Absolute dollars paid by the rich is not the relevant measure.