Well that is the problem. We were dealing with a totalitarian virus that swoops in and just infects whoever it finds itself in that it doesn't respect individual rights or freedom or spirit. It doesn't stay away from you just because you had the spirit of not wearing the mask and still showed your smile. And it doesn't stop infecting just because you decided to hug the person next to you and not practice your social distance. So WHY couldn't the government implement more "totalitarian" measures to combat a totalitarian virus?? That I don't think so. First of all, China is not the only country that lets their potentially infected citizens travel to other countries. Every single country does that. This is how United States got all the variants. If every single country restricts their own citizens from traveling abroad, the pandemic would've been over lot more quickly and we certainly wouldn't have gotten all the variants. Face it, even though the original virus originated from China, all of the mutated variants did originate from countries other than China and we got them all here in North America so are you going to blame each of the respective variant-originating countries for spreading their variants on purpose to the rest of the world just because they let their citizens travel outside of their country? Second of all, I don't think it's true that China released it on purpose because they really think China would've been able to handle it better because there was no way for China or anybody to know beforehand how badly the West would f*** up, how ignorant of science and how inefficient and slow we would be in handling the pandemic. Nobody would have known that. Seriously how badly that the West had f***'ed up in handling this pandemic is just beyond anybody's wildest imagination. I had no idea Trump would be so ignorant and naive and screw up so much. I am a Trump supporter and I thought this pandemic thing would be Trump's moment to shine just like how Giuliani shined during the 9/11 event. I thought this pandemic would be Trump's "9/11 moment". Trump has always been a do-er and he got elected because he is the kind of guy who gets the job done. Well this pandemic will be the perfect opportunity for Trump to show how he gets the job done. I thought Trump would totally take charge and lead a coordinated effort on a national level to combat the pandemic and then implement what needs to be done to the state level and then so on and get everybody on the same page on a united front and have the pandemic down under control. USA has done it before and I thought USA will just do it again this time. I couldn't believe it Trump's leadership was so weak that he couldn't even procure enough PPE for all the healthcare workers that they had to count all the supplies by the days. I was really shocked. Anyway hope we can learn from our mistakes and do better next time and hopefully there is no next time.
We still need to build them. We will just protect the technology better this time and not be so naive. It's the only way. We can't just not build it just because we are afraid that the Chinese is eventually going to steal it. We knew the Chinese will attempt to hack (and they did) and steal our vaccine but we still built it.
Foreign ownership ( 3.4% ) and speculation isn't really an issue in Metro Toronto. Just isn't much supply of open housing and that will remain the case until at least year 2050 looking at projected immigration stats. Plenty of people here can afford it; there are benefits once you are set up ( no taxes on capital gains, reasonable property taxes, quality public schools ). There are a ton of communities outside of the biggest cities that are quite affordable some practically begging for young people to move there.
The recent run up in house prices in US are not driven by foreign demand, as covid19 has basically made it almost impossible for foreigners to travel here. It is mostly driven by the low interest rates and by people suddenly realizing that a house is preferable to an apartment when you are locked inside home. In my neighborhood on the east coast, the house prices were basically flat prior to covid19, but jumped a lot when the covid19 hit. The new buyers are mostly young couples with young kids. So it seems to me the demand is real.
House prices are now circa 10x times average earnings. This is down to 2 people earning and low interest rates. Lets look at Australia, a quick google reveals. Average house price approx 850K. Average earnings approx 90K per year. Now if you putdown a 10% deposit, say 100K So mortgage would be 750K, combined earnings 180K Mortgage Ratio is about 4:1. This is affordable as long as interest rates remain low. Cost to repay 750K mortgage over 25 years is about $3,000 per month at current mortgage rates. Easily affordable when combined household income is $10,000 after tax. Another quick google reveals banks in Australia will lend up to 5x joint income, so above couple (earning average wage each) could borrow up to $900K. And with a 100K deposit buy a million dollar home.
I don't know where you are getting your numbers but for sure avg house prices inside large cities are higher (for example in Sydney is over 1mln). Also, avg median income is not 90k but lower (https://www.bosshunting.com.au/hustle/average-australian-salary/). Same in Canada, in Toronto and Vancouver avg housing prices are above 1 mln CAD and avg incomes are around 76k. That puts spouses into a decade long bind. Much longer than ever before. And that is given rates stay low, none of the spouses EVER gets severely ill or disabled to earn income. Basically zero room for error. And that is middle class, imagine everyone below. Good luck. Your calculation paints a rosy picture. Its not as bright as you make it look like.
Yeah, except no Fed in Vancouver, Toronto, Christchurch, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne,... And the locust invasions of mainland illegal money into our cities happened long before covid. Only rich fucks from the mainland who illegally got money out of China and never had to verify their source of income. Many of the Chinese owners did not even ever show up in Canada or NZ or Australia, their empty homes just sit there and take valuable living space away from everyone else. You are creating a false narrative that is nowhere anchored in facts and the truth. Still working for the 50 cent army, little wumao?