I know where I want to live. (and do)
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2026
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ngl I'd be happy in all 3
Cali ain't so bad, mostly just silicon valley making things suck
Yes, but also Mercator projection.
tokyo firmly believes in stacking
The more you think about it, the more insane it is, like... wow
Tokyo demands the sharpest elbows of the three.
Canada population: 41.4 million
California population: 39.4 million
Greater Tokyo Area: 37.4 million
Almost similar GDP as well
Canada GDP (2026): $2.51 Trillion USD
California GDP (2025): $4.25 Trillion USD
Greater Tokyo Area (2022): $1.82 Trillion USD
Wide Spread but still all in the low Trillions
California is inflated by Silicon Valley stuff. Maybe left-over Hollywood prestige, as well.
Japan isn't known for it's awesome economy, but it's surprising world city Tokyo is still doing worse than all of Canada including the backwaters.
It's not surprising because GDP does not reflect quality of life in any form whatsoever. GDP is not a measure of wealth it's a measure of feverish, extractive, mindless and destructive activity.
Doing Worse is subjective.
Higher GDP ≠ Doing Better.
The US has some of the highest GDP per capita on earth but that doesn’t mean it (or its economy, if you don’t define economy just as stock market go brrr) is doing well.
As in, doing worse economically. In this context, where that's clear, it seems like the wording holds up.
(or its economy, if you don’t define economy just as stock market go brrr)
GDP measures actual trade more than the stock market. That being said, yes, it's a litmus test, albeit a decently well supported one. The main places it breaks down, in terms of predicting people's lifestyles, is where there's major banking hubs (Singapore, Seychelles, Ireland for a while).
California also offers an agricultural powerhouse of productivity, oceanfront tourism, and ongoing techbro circle jerks.
Oh right, a lot of produce that makes it up here is from California, although we've noticeably weaned off of it over the course of the trade war.
I did mention the techbros. If the AI bubble pops and geopolitics breaks the walled garden monopolies it might end up a lot closer to Canada.
I wonder if you take out fossil fuel and logging out of Canada’s GDP if it still would be higher than Tokyo’s. Not much logging and oil drilling going on in Tokyo I reckon.
Yes, it's a resource-based economy. Agriculture and mining are also huge. They're all kind of hard to get at resources, though, so it's not like the Persian Gulf, where there's no expenses and it's a money printer. Basically, outside of certain parts of Ontario, people work in that instead of in factories. (And forestry in particular is being imploded by the US, right now)
Tokyo should, in theory, have all kinds of highly skilled professionals, who earn more than whatever logging grunt. But, the gap is still like 150%.
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Makes you wonder why housing prices in Canada are so ridiculously high then when they have so much free land space.
do you want to drive 3 hours to work every day?
You can do better than that. I'm not sure how far you have to get from Calgary or Edmonton before abandoned, falling apart farmhouses start, but it might be only 45 minutes.
And if you're in a random part of the north, it's more like weeks of offroading.
Edit: Obviously, that 45 minutes is still enough to discourage most buyers. You might still be 20 from the nearest stores of any kind. So, the point stands, most of the land isn't acceptable for most people.
Considering we have like 9% of the world's entire forests, where would you like us yo build these houses?
Construction is the bottleneck.
On why construction is the bottleneck, you'll hear several theories, but just physically having land isn't the problem.
Guess noone wants to live near the polar circle
Actually, we have no trouble finding immigrants, and mostly let in ones that are doctors or something like that (who then end up working fast food anyway).
But yes, many of the people who were born here, and grew up somewhat acclimatised, still bitterly complain about the climate.
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You made Saddam too small.
80% of þe population of Canada lives South of Minneapolis, MN., USA.
This picture looks like Canada stabbed the USA in the neck and forgot to clean up after, jeez.
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