> Like many other things affecting western countries though, it's worse in Canada since we have lower investment rates
And I am asking why that made it worse. Less investment means less investment to lose. Canada could lose 100% of their VC investment and it would have less of an impact in terms of people affected than a small trim in the US.
I think you're thinking of a different definition of "investment". Since this is a discussion of the economy, I'm using the "economics" definition of investment spending.
You don't "lose" infrastructure, land, machinery, etc... in a downturn. The point is that Canada spends less of our wealth on things that improve the economy. Half as much as the US (as a % of the economy).
Well this started by talking about investment (e.g., from VC) in the software sector which carries very little infrastructure, so I don't know what you're talking about now. That may explain why you were saying costs are very high when wages are typically far below the US, you don't seem to have been talking about the same thing.
VC is the type of grassroots investment that still can be called "investment" in the economic sense. Ie. you're not looking for immediate returns so any money pumped into startups by VC firms helps the economy whether or not it yields anything.
The VC scene in the US will help your recovery since VCs will still be putting money into the system (albeit at lower valuations) meanwhile in Canada it'll completely dry up.
And again, this isn't the type of "investing" where you're super concerned about paper losses like, say, the stock market.
Also software does count as an economic investment, the same as infrastructure.
> VC is the type of grassroots investment that still can be called "investment" in the economic sense. Ie. you're not looking for immediate returns so any money pumped into startups by VC firms helps the economy whether or not it yields anything.
Are you making up this as you go along? VCs absolutely look for returns and they're much less patient than what you would call a long term investor. If they don't see returns on investment from growing equity, they'll can it.
> The VC scene in the US will help your recovery since VCs will still be putting money into the system (albeit at lower valuations) meanwhile in Canada it'll completely dry up.
We're talking about the effect of investment fleeing due to the downturn though. In absolute terms, the amount of investment leaving USA is far larger because the investment in Canada tech companies is so small.
> And again, this isn't the type of "investing" where you're super concerned about paper losses like, say, the stock market.
Now you're definitely making things up. That's the only thing tech startup VCs care about. They don't even care if they know it's a sham, so long as they'll be able to cash out and leave someone else holding the bag.
> Also software does count as an economic investment, the same as infrastructure.
You've lost me. Tech startups create very little in the way of long term valuable assets like infrastructure. In any case it doesn't matter what kind of strange way you like to classify these things, doesn't change what they are.
> Like many other things affecting western countries though, it's worse in Canada since we have lower investment rates
And I am asking why that made it worse. Less investment means less investment to lose. Canada could lose 100% of their VC investment and it would have less of an impact in terms of people affected than a small trim in the US.