OT: COVID-19- March 17 2020 - No politics! Read post #1

[JT AM da real deal]

Up to a certain value yeah.

No
No
No
Yes
No

For most people, the basic rate for calculating EI benefits is 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings, up to a maximum amount. As of January 1, 2020, the maximum yearly insurable earnings amount is $54,200. This means that you can receive a maximum amount of $573 per week. The GOV has waived da 1 week start up period for processing so basically you start getting paid da 1st week.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Of course severances are "structured", perhaps try reading my post again. What I doubt is that severances are structured in such a way that would motivate top people to leave if it seems like bad times are on the way. In fact I suspect that the opposite is true.

Severance packages aren't structured for good times or bad, they just are. You COULD I suppose structure it differently but in general, they just are.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

My understanding is that you recover because your body develops the ability to fight it off, which would largely prevent you from getting it again.

If that wasn't the case, then I'm not sure how you could recover in the first place, since your house/bed is going to be covered in the virus and constantly re-infecting you.

I don't know what I'm talking about, admittedly, but I think the logic works.

I heard same thing from my family doc. The harder part to get here which he explained to me is that this virus is mutating so people could get infected again with a slightly different virus. Kinda like what happens with different flu strains but he said it is a one in a million kinda odds.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Severance packages aren't structured for good times or bad, they just are. You COULD I suppose structure it differently but in general, they just are.

Of course. My point was that company's would want to structure them in such a way that people don't have financial incentive to leave, period. In good times, or bad.

Anyway, 666 was able to answer my question, scroll up a few posts if interested.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Maybe 10 years ago my wife wanted to do a reno tear down and rental on a lower income triplex in Florida. Good solid 3 story with good foundation. We are not contractors like yourself so really did not understand as you say what da real costs were. This was right after da real estate meltdown in Florida when we picked up this place for under $50,000. We thought well in was on inland water way so we could fix and live in 1 unit when we go down there to visit and rent 2 units. Now da costs of renovating were much more than purchase price and we ended up getting delayed in permitting. Turns out da plumbing and electrical were not to code once we started peeling everything back. But we knew this was a $200,000 property once everything returned to normal. Bottom line cost us over $100,000 to repair and reno but rents on 2 units now cover all costs and we have a place to go for free when we visit. And now it is worth $250,000 so my point is even if things costs way more than planned and take three times longer if you buy right it takes away most sins even for the non constructor types.
Now Toronto it is hard to get a triplex under $1.4M (my wife looked into it a few weeks ago) so even though rents are higher 2 units do not even come close to covering half of all costs. So that is why I said Toronto market is way overheated. We could use a depression here to drop things down prices to realistic levels for people living in them. Too many of us here have gotten used to da wrong market so a correction was necessary.

I'm lucky to be able to do it myself as it costs about 1/3 as much that way. Folks in Toronto would sh!t a brick knowing I can get a 2600+ sqft home on a half acre in the city with views on 3 sides of the bay for about $150 K plus have 2 rental units. LOL.

 

[Kiwi]

You may be surprised at who amongst is really the more pragmatic capitalist. Hard to know the background of people you talk to on an internet website. You may even be talking to people who have started their own companies, employed hundreds of people, and generated 100s of millions of dollars annually. You may even be talking to people who have investigated setting up businesses in other countries, and are aware of the wide, powerful, economic unions that are studying applying international taxes to multinational corporations.

Its a slippery slope when you start stereotyping people you know nothing about.

I couldn't care less about you, it's your argument I'm interested in

I've been hearing about this for decades, yet it never change's

Those companies wield massive amounts of influence and wealth over all our political systems and politicians aren't going to want to end their careers going against them

Government's can't even coordinate a climate response, but this their going to do? Forgive me if I'm slightly cynical about that potential eventuality

 

[Slot]

Not sure what the known information is on re-infection after recovery, but whatever it is will be huge.

Preliminary results in primates are showing that you gain, at least temporary, immunity against sars-cov-2. So good news.

Monkeys Develop Protective Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2

 

[Merrrlin]

On the plus side theres going to be a hell of a lot of Canadians looking foe work in the near future.

Not that kind of work.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

I'm lucky to be able to do it myself as it costs about 1/3 as much that way. Folks in Toronto would sh!t a brick knowing I can get a 2600+ sqft home on a half acre in the city with views on 3 sides of the bay for about $150 K plus have 2 rental units. LOL.

LOL yeah Toronto people really have their head up their *ss on prices on real estate. It is absolutely ridiculous. But everyone tells me I don't have a clue what I am talking about on property. But I know when I am getting ripped off and Toronto is a rip off. Not a chance I am paying 1.4M for a 5o year old triplex that needs $100,000 of repairs. joke. and agent says to me don't worry once you fix it it will be worth 1.8M. i look at da guy and say would you give me 1.8M for it and he says no. another joke.

 

[Jojalu]

LOL yeah Toronto people really have their head up their *ss on prices on real estate. It is absolutely ridiculous. But everyone tells me I don't have a clue what I am talking about on property. But I know when I am getting ripped off and Toronto is a rip off. Not a chance I am paying 1.4M for a 5o year old triplex that needs $100,000 of repairs. joke. and agent says to me don't worry once you fix it it will be worth 1.8M. i look at da guy and say would you give me 1.8M for it and he says no. another joke.

As I am all over the US and Canada for work, I always like to pick up the local real estate pages wherever I am.

It is absurd in the GTA what real estate prices are. I could build a house from bottom to top and know how much it would cost. The land price is so out of control that people in Etobicoke will buy a million dollar house to tear it down to just to own the land

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Of course. My point was that company's would want to structure them in such a way that people don't have financial incentive to leave, period. In good times, or bad.

Anyway, 666 was able to answer my question, scroll up a few posts if interested.

Yes and what he said doesn't really contradict anything I said. You seem to be hung up on the notion they are(n't) structured around "incentive to leave in good time or bad". If someone is handing you $10+M dollars, what do you see as the disincentive? The only thing you have pointed to as a disincentive was related to your own stock selling options, which isn't anything I have argued (in fact I outright said IF someone dumped all their stock and walked THEN I would be more inclined to buy into the conspiracy theory).

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yes and what he said doesn't really contradict anything I said. You seem to be hung up on the notion they are(n't) structured around "incentive to leave in good time or bad".

I never said he contradicted you or anyone else. He simply answered my question, something which no one else had been able to do.

If someone is handing you $10+M dollars, what do you see as the disincentive? The only thing you have pointed to as a disincentive was related to your own stock selling options, which isn't anything I have argued (in fact I outright said IF someone dumped all their stock and walked THEN I would be more inclined to buy into the conspiracy theory).

All I was saying that I couldn't see a reason for companies to structure things in such a way that top execs would ever have financial incentive to leave. 666 was able to show me one such scenario under which a company might do so and that's all I was ever asking for. And I was never interested in the conspiracy theory angle to begin with, people can believe it or not, I really don't care.

 

[Gabriel426]

If you guys think GTA prices are ridiculous, try Vancouver prices.

 

[Ratboy]

My understanding is that you recover because your body develops the ability to fight it off, which would largely prevent you from getting it again.

If that wasn't the case, then I'm not sure how you could recover in the first place, since your house/bed is going to be covered in the virus and constantly re-infecting you.

I don't know what I'm talking about, admittedly, but I think the logic works.

Also, how would a vaccine work if this wasn't the case?

 

[leburn98]

Gross pay. Sorry to hear about it man. But you won't have to pay more taxes.

Hopefully things get resolved soon enough.

Thanks for the help and kind words. I work as an accountant at a Travel Agency so obviously this isn't exactly a great situation for us. It is a small business, relatively speaking to other TMCs, but they have enough capital to keep them afloat for many months if need be. The temporary layoffs and continuing with a limited staff will allow them to survive during this time. As for me, I'll be fine. Thankfully, my expenses (excluding food) is roughly $1000 a month. I should be able to live comfortably on EI for the time being.

Nevertheless, the one thing that is certain about travel industry is that people need and want to travel for business and leisure. Once this get resolved, and like you said hopefully soon enough, there will be this pent up demand for travel when the borders open.

 

[dubey]

I'm lucky to be able to do it myself as it costs about 1/3 as much that way. Folks in Toronto would sh!t a brick knowing I can get a 2600+ sqft home on a half acre in the city with views on 3 sides of the bay for about $150 K plus have 2 rental units. LOL.

I'm pretty sure most people in Toronto can appreciate the fact that land is cheaper the further away from the core. Also hope you can appreciate the fact that there are reasons why that land is cheaper - one of the main ones being no one wants to actually live there (lol).

 

[Jojalu]

When we conquer this as a world, I am excited to resume our seemingly insignificant arguements about whether Marner or Nylander is better.

I appreciate all the info everyone has tried to keep everyone informed and kept hostilities to a minimum. Warms the heart that although we all have different opinions, political or religious beliefs that we are trying our best to help each other out

 

[thewave]

I'm pretty sure most people in Toronto can appreciate the fact that land is cheaper the further away from the core. Also hope you can appreciate the fact that there are reasons why that land is cheaper - one of the main ones being no one wants to actually live there (lol).

If it gets to the point of a strict lock down, the opposite will be true after 3 weeks. Why didn't I choose to quietly raise a family outside of the city! WHY!!!

 

[Gary Nylund]

Thanks for the help and kind words. I work as an accountant at a Travel Agency so obviously this isn't exactly a great situation for us. It is a small business, relatively speaking to other TMCs, but they have enough capital to keep them afloat for many months if need be. The temporary layoffs and continuing with a limited staff will allow them to survive during this time. As for me, I'll be fine. Thankfully, my expenses (excluding food) is roughly $1000 a month. I should be able to live comfortably on EI for the time being.

Nevertheless, the one thing that is certain about travel industry is that people need and want to travel for business and leisure. Once this get resolved, and like you said hopefully soon enough, there will be this pent up demand for travel when the borders open.

For sure. Was just saying the same thing to my stepson today who works in a bar. When the bars open again it's going to be nutso!

 

[Jojalu]

For sure. Was just saying the same thing to my stepson today who works in a bar. When the bars open again it's going to be nutso!

It will be a national and maybe global day of celebration!

 

[yubbers]

It will be a national and maybe global day of celebration!

Super St Patties :p

 

[yubbers]

As I am all over the US and Canada for work, I always like to pick up the local real estate pages wherever I am.

It is absurd in the GTA what real estate prices are. I could build a house from bottom to top and know how much it would cost. The land price is so out of control that people in Etobicoke will buy a million dollar house to tear it down to just to own the land

I'd rather just buy land up in Meaford and build out custom for half the price.

When we conquer this as a world, I am excited to resume our seemingly insignificant arguements about whether Marner or Nylander is better.

I appreciate all the info everyone has tried to keep everyone informed and kept hostilities to a minimum. Warms the heart that although we all have different opinions, political or religious beliefs that we are trying our best to help each other out

Yeah. It's really been a nice change to the never-ending partisan bickering. People, I haven't spoken with in a while cause I offended them on FB or something even reaching out :p

 

[Pookie]

My understanding is that you recover because your body develops the ability to fight it off, which would largely prevent you from getting it again.

If that wasn't the case, then I'm not sure how you could recover in the first place, since your house/bed is going to be covered in the virus and constantly re-infecting you.

I don't know what I'm talking about, admittedly, but I think the logic works.

You can recover to the point of beating off the infection for an acute period of time but that doesn't necessarily translate into immunity that lasts beyond a few days. They haven't been able to study that over the long term.

And even then, there will be many strains of this.

Think of the common Cold, which is a strain of the Coronavirus. There are over 200 different strains that will cause your "Cold."

Ever had one?

Ever had two?

Ever get them every year?

This will become something we have to live with. Ideally, they will be able to pick the right strain to vaccinate against every year. Ideally, anti-viral medications can be developed to treat people.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

Personal experience so far from a small business owner (and regular guy):

- Things seem to be a lot more real today. Getting virus policy emails from all clients and other consultants. I'm in the construction business and building departments are shutting down everywhere. But some people aren't getting it. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I was forced by an important client to walk into the seediest apartment building in history yesterday and I had to actually go into someone's apartment that was a complete trash mess. I felt like I was in corona-central. Pretty sure I wasted an entire bottle of hand sanitizer yesterday.

- Cheques are definitely not coming in as routinely as normal. Probably the biggest issue I have because I can only float things for a few weeks before I have to lay people off. In 20 years of business I've never once had a cash flow problem but I will be looking into the new federal government measures as soon as real info comes out.

- I've offered for a week or so now that my people can work from home. Only 1 person has taken that offer up so far. I'm lucky enough to have a business that makes it viable we can all work from home and I've had a VPN set up for network access for years but see above.

- On a personal note, I've lost 20% of my savings so far which is way better than market but it's stretching my tolerance limits. I could still bail from the markets tomorrow and retire comfortably and it's stretching every fibre of my being to not do exactly what I'm not supposed to do yet it would take away 99% of my angst.

Just sharing.

 

[Pookie]

Also, how would a vaccine work if this wasn't the case?

Flu vaccines are created by identifying "candidate" virus strains that they expect to be the dominant ones over the course of the "flu season"... where we are in closer contact.

They then process the vaccine based on the strain their models predict will be the most popular.

There are over 130 different strains of influenza. We do not vaccinate against all of them every year.

And sometimes they miss... as they did this year:

Flu Vaccine Selections Suggest This Year’s Shot May Be Off the Mark

and

This year's flu shot will likely be ineffective in the US, UK and Canada, expert warns | Daily Mail Online

"This year's flu vaccine may not be effective, a top expert warns.

Dr Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert from the University of British Columbia told Stat News that the this year's flu shot for the Northern Hemisphere - including the US, UK and Canada - is likely to be a 'mismatch.'

Flu shots have to be newly developed ahead of each season based on scientists' predictions of which strains will be most active in the coming months.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) choose the strains for the Northern Hemisphere's shot in February, and chose those for the Southern Hemisphere last week."
​

It's safe to say there is no immunity to influenza given the vast number of strains. We couldn't live long enough to experience all of them.