Working Women, Mass Transit and More Shopping

Today I picked up my lovely sister-in-law Jessie from the West Coast Express terminal in Coquitlam. While waiting for her to appear I saw many, many ladies making the trek from the train to their cars or waiting 'drivers'. They all looked quite tired after a long day at work with their nylons and heels and skirts and attaches. Man, is this women's 'liberation'?? I mentioned this to Jess and (note: she was born and raised in Korea so she's not your typical Canadian gal) she agreed. She said that this women's lib business ended up hurting women as they can't help but clean up at home (men only seem to tidy up when there's a gal coming over; ask Seinfeld: "the tub is love") and then they have to work outside of the home as well.

I have to ask myself why these gals are working. First, I should say that I am all for someone having a vocation and a sense of pride in one's work. However, if you take into account taxes, lost government benefits (because the household has a higher income), and the cost of work clothes, transportation, baby-sitting, lunches (who can brown-bag it consistently?) I figure you have to be making about $50,000-$60,000 CAD to make it worth it to get a job outside of the home. Add to that the time involved, added stress, missed workdays because of sick kids and other crises and the intangible that kids are better when raised by their parents than by outside caregivers (I'll get a citing on that and insert in a bit) and you have to ask yourself: Why??

Perhaps it's Western society. We tend to think that we ask less of our ladies than traditional societies like, say, Korea. But, in Korea once a gal is married and has kids she basically quits her job (heck, my wife did that before we even conceived). Part of that is because most jobs (except perhaps teaching and nursing) in Korea do not allow any maternity leave; society and family also dictates that mothers (and other women in the family) should make raising the kids their primary duty/job/obligation. Does this make sense? One thing that I've learned is that NO ONE cares more about you and your family than you do. At the end of the day they can't really leave you (much as they might try to)--especially in Korean culture--and you also cannot leave them. Thus, you should make sure that your kids have the very best at all times: you. Why give the delicate and important task of raising your children to strangers who, in essence and no matter how 'good' they are, will place their needs above those of your kids? Also, working takes a lot out of people (and, as noted, it seems to take a hefty income to get something economic back) so when you come home can you take the reins of rearing as well? I don't think so.

Ok, that's enough on that...much as I love to get comments on my blog that may be the limit on a hot topic for now. Let's move on to urban planning. Driving around Vancouver today got me thinking that Seoul has one thing very, very right: highrises and public transportation. Here we have (i) buses; (ii) mini-neighborhood buses; (iii) Skytrain; the (iv) West Coast Express (WCE); (v) and cars. Vancouver is very spread out with many single-family homes as well as town-homes and apartment buildings clustered around the city. By-and-large the apartment areas are connected by Skytrain and buses and the WCE runs from the outskirts to downtown. Oh, and there is also a smallish passenger ferry to augment the bridges from the North Shore to the downtown core. There are major and minor highways running all through town as well.

Here is the problem, as I see it: there are too many people spread out over too large an area. This is typical of Canada (which, basically, has oodles of land)--especially compared to Korea/Seoul. Vancouver has these clusters of people in Downtown, Richmond, Burnaby, the North Shore and Coquitlam where populations are dense (not stupid, just lots) and, in some cases, growing quickly. However, (i) there are not enough, it seems, to support an extensive subway system as in Seoul and (ii) no one is willing to let construction crews tear up their boulevards for a few years to put them in place. So what we get is a hogde-podge of links and thousands of cars on the road everyday. We build wider streets and install more lights at intersections and things don't get any better.

My idea (but it will take a while): (i) change zoning regs to allow for more high-rises that are multi-use (commercial, residential, tourist) to allow builders to (tastefully) build up rather than out; (ii) purposefully make parking a pain in the butt so that residents do not rely on their cars as much and (iii) build real public transportation that does not interfere with the above-ground (I mean subways) and might even be new commercial areas (as Seoul has hundreds of businesses adjacent to and inside the subway stations). This might take 10-15 years but it might be better to start the planning now than to have a worse problem later. Having multi-use buildings could mean fewer people commuting anyways, as every business that is located there could have its staff in nearby apartments. I also know that apartments can be very comfortable. In Korea they are usually thin so that both sides of the dwelling have windows (in Canada just the corner units have the luxury of a cross-breeze) and even 2-storey ones exist.

Let me know what you think on these two topics...I'd be interested to know.

And, as you know I continue to compare shopping in Korea and Canada/the West. One place where we got Korea beat is Starbucks. In Korea a Grande Mocha is about 4,700 won (at 895 KRW/CAD that's 5.25 CAD) and in Canada it's about 3.70 (plus 7% GST makes it 3.96 CAD). That makes a Grande Mocha in Canada 25% cheaper than in Korea. But there are other places where your dollar doesn't go as far as your won. Umbrellas in Canada are about 15CAD + 14.5% taxes here in British Columbia makes them a lot more expensive than the ones I bought in Korea for 3,000 to 8,000 won...and many businesses give them for free to clients as part of their promotions which really tilts things. Batteries are another area where Korea wins. Get this: even in a 7-11 (where prices are higher than most places) 4 AA Energizers (not no-name ones) cost 3,500 won (or 3.90 CAD) while in Canada (at London Drugs) they are 6.99 (plus taxes = 8.00 CAD!). Good God, that is outrageous! It's over 100% more in Canada...I'll have to look into this more...will report more crazy pricing as I find it (try to contain your enthusiasm).