• cheery_coffee@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Canada’s lackluster performance can also be attributed to various factors including a dearth of research development (R&D) spending resulting in what he refers to as an “innovation gap.” This persistent underfunding has led to a continual decline in R&D expenditure over the last two decades and currently stands at a mere 1% - a total output half of the US, and lower than most other countries worldwide.

    This rings true to me. It’s why over half of our best CS grads go to the US. I work in tech and I work in the US because the salaries just aren’t comparable.

    I think the reason for this is largely on Canadian investors who love to invest in dividend paying rent seeking monopolies instead of innovative companies who would invest that dividend into productivity. Workers can’t increase GDP per Capita if there’s nowhere to work that enables them, it’s a mutual relationship.

    • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Investors won’t invest in Canadian tech because the regulatory environment won’t support it. Take iCraveTV. As soon as it started seeing a little bit of success, we changed the laws the kill it. Investment requires satiability. As such, the investment that does take place in Canada goes to the few places where there is commitment to providing that stability; which is a small handful of industries that have been around for centuries.

      • cheery_coffee@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I kind of agree but iCraveTV closed because of legal pressure from US companies and US law before Canada did anything.

        • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          A strong regulatory environment fends off attacks from other countries. Imagine if Canada tried to pull that stunt on an American company. It’d be considered a declaration of war.

          We bent over backwards to appease the Americans, only to see them allow Youtube to do almost exactly the same thing moments later…

          You can’t invest in that kind of environment.