The Collapse of Canada and the Breakdown of the Power Process
The Collapse of Canada and the Breakdown of the Power Process
Canada is currently experiencing an unprecedented affordability crisis, where even those who work full-time find themselves unable to meet their basic needs. Rising costs in housing, inflation, and stagnant wages have left many feeling powerless, frustrated, and increasingly dependent on financial institutions and government policies. This crisis is not just an economic issue but aligns with the warnings of Ted Kaczynski regarding the power process—the ability of individuals to set goals, exert effort, and achieve meaningful success independently.
The Power Process and the Canadian Affordability Crisis
Ted Kaczynski described the power process as consisting of four fundamental steps:
- Setting a goal
- Exerting effort toward achieving the goal
- Successfully achieving the goal
- A sense of autonomy in achieving it
However, in modern society, and particularly in Canada’s financialized economy, this process has been severely disrupted. The most basic need—housing—is now inaccessible for much of the working class, despite their efforts.
Housing and the Death of Economic Autonomy
Over the past few decades, Canada’s housing market has undergone extreme financialization. Rather than being a necessity for living, housing has been transformed into an investment vehicle for banks, foreign investors, and corporate landlords. This has resulted in:
- Skyrocketing housing prices that have outpaced wage growth
- A shift from homeownership to life-long renting, trapping people in financial dependency
- Foreign capital and corporate speculation artificially inflating housing costs
For many Canadians, the goal of homeownership has become impossible to achieve through personal effort. No matter how much they work, rising prices, interest rates, and financial speculation keep housing beyond their reach. This represents a complete breakdown in the power process: individuals cannot meet even their basic needs through their own effort.
Trudeau’s Narrative and the Manufactured Dependence
Amidst this crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pushed the narrative that Canada is facing a labour shortage. In a widely disliked public statement, he insisted that Canada needs more workers, justifying continued high levels of immigration. However, this statement was met with backlash because it ignored the reality that:
- Many Canadians are already working hard but cannot afford housing.
- Wages have stagnated while inflation continues to rise.
- Increasing immigration without addressing wage suppression and financialization only fuels the affordability crisis further.
Trudeau’s message serves to shift blame away from financial elites and policymakers, making people feel even more powerless. Instead of acknowledging that financialization has stripped individuals of their economic autonomy, the government insists that bringing in more workers will solve the problem—when in reality, it only worsens it.
The Psychological Toll: Powerlessness, Depression, and Dependence
Ted Kaczynski warned that when people cannot achieve meaningful goals through their own effort, they experience deep frustration, leading to:
- Psychological stress and depression
- Feelings of powerlessness and loss of agency
- Increased dependence on external systems (government, banks, corporations)
This is exactly what is happening in Canada. Many Canadians are working tirelessly yet remain unable to afford homes, basic necessities, or financial security. Instead of being rewarded for their effort, they are pushed further into economic dependence on rental markets, government benefits, and debt.
Conclusion: A System Designed to Strip Autonomy
Canada’s affordability crisis is more than just an economic failure—it is a systemic dismantling of the power process. Through financialization, wage suppression, and mass immigration policies that ignore the real problem, the Canadian government and financial elites have created a situation where individual effort is no longer sufficient to meet even basic needs.
This aligns directly with Kaczynski’s warnings: when individuals are unable to exert effort and achieve goals on their own terms, they become dependent, frustrated, and ultimately trapped in a system designed to keep them powerless. If Canada continues on this path, the erosion of individual autonomy will only deepen, leaving more people unable to break free from an economy that works against them rather than for them.