Life in Canada

TORONTO - Canadians continue to rack up more debt but the speed at which they are piling it on is beginning to slow, the TransUnion credit agency reported Tuesday. Well isn't that reassuring. AS per usual its camouflaged with the typical term up oe down by certain percentage from last years comparison which we never see and find hard to find being a year old..or more.. Its a neat way of tell us nothing... The mushroom technique often used with great success by the Harper government and of course churned out by the governments mouthpiece STATSCAN

The average debt for about 24.8 million Canadians tracked by the report, which excludes mortgages, rose to $25,163 — up 4.3 per cent in the third quarter compared with a year ago. I wonder why it excludes mortgage?

The main source of non-mortgage debt for Canadians was vehicles, with credit card purchases a distant second.

TransUnion said Canadians seem to be managing their debts better than they were, with delinquency rates and past-due balances dropping across the country.

The national credit card delinquency rate was down nearly 10 per cent in the third quarter of this year, compared with a year ago when the Canadian economy was just beginning to recover from a major recession. Did Canada have a recession..well well...never heard it being said..heard it denied many many time that Canada was prepared better etc..and boasting of how well we were doing. Do you feel as if we are doing well.. Have you been shopping or paid insurance lately?.

"There continue to be positive signs in the credit market as Canadians slowly manage out of the recession," said Thomas Higgins, TransUnion’s vice-president of analytics.

"The most positive sign has been the significant decrease in past due balances (outstanding debt that is at least 30 days past due) which has dropped 15 per cent since last year after three years of increases." Maybe this is because the cause has been removed with delinquent accounts closed..or even worse re-funded.?

Quebec posted the largest increase in debt at 6.6 per cent, while Manitoba had the lowest increase at 2.6 per cent compared with the national average of 4.3 per cent.

However, TransUnion says that is still an improvement over the double-digit increases that had been going on since before the recession.

Canadian average credit card debt increased to $3,709 from the previous quarter’s $3,614, but fell 1.7 per cent compared with a year ago.

Average auto loan debt increased to $16,183 from the previous quarter’s $15,135, and up 9.8 per cent from a year ago.


I feel so much better seeing these figures and the other 5 blogs of my data this last week.. I am so well looked after by my government...I am so lucky?

OTTAWA - Canada's big cities are facing a fiscal crunch that threatens their ability to pay for such things as transit, sewers and housing, say business groups in a joint appeal to federal and provincial governments.

In a news release to be issued nationally Tuesday morning Nov 30th, the chambers of commerce from 13 of Canada's largest municipalities call for a new urban strategy to keep cities from falling apart.

"The bottom line is that Canada's largest urban centres need a more stable, secure and growing revenue source," the release states. The four-page statement is signed by the heads of chambers and boards of trade from coast to coast, including Halifax, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

They say that should not mean more taxes, but a different way to spit the current tax pie between the three levels of government.

In an interview, Toronto Board of Trade president Carol Wilding said the continuing trend of people flocking to urban centres has brought on a disconnect between tax revenue and spending requirements. About 80 per cent of Canadians live in the major urban centres, while according to studies, less than 10 per cent of all taxes are collected by municipal governments.

She also notes that 97 per cent of new immigrants move to major urban centres, particularly Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and that puts added burdens on those cities.

In many cities, urban transit and repairs for sewage and water are lagging behind needs.

The fiscal deficit has implications for the country's economy as well, Wilding argued, since cities are the acknowledged engines of economic growth.

"The municipalities need more money," she said. "We need to find a balance to make sure urban centres get the affordable housing in place, that the transit and infrastructure is built, in order to be globally competitive."

Canada's municipalities have made similar claims before, most dramatically in 2007 when they released a report from Saeed Mirza of McGill University that estimated cities' infrastructure deficit at $123 billion.

Without an infusion of cash, Canada faced "catastrophic failures" in bridges, water supply and other vital infrastructure, the report warned.

But while municipalities have traditionally placed the lion's share of blame on underfunding from Ottawa and the provinces, the chambers say the municipalities share some responsibility.

The chambers point out that recent property tax increases in urban centres have outstripped the rate of growth in population, inflation or gross domestic product.

Since 2005, Ottawa has turned over a portion of gas taxes to municipalities, currently capped at $2 billion annually.

"While cities may argue that growth has fed a need for increased services, there is little evidence of productivity improvements within municipal government," the chambers say.

"We believe that the federal and provincial governments providing municipalities with access to greater revenues must go hand-in-hand with those municipalities demonstrating fiscal discipline." What in Canada?

Wilding said the chambers have recommended specific mechanisms for a fairer distribution of total tax revenues, nor how much more cities need — she says those issues should be worked out by the three levels of government.

The appeal comes at a difficult time for the two higher levels of government, who are also facing a fiscal crunch.

Ottawa reported a $55.6 billion deficit last year, and many provincial governments were even more in the hole when measured as a percentage of their economies. Ottawa's two-year, $46-billion stimulus package, some of which went to pay for infrastructure, is due to expire March 31.


We shall see...I forecast taxes will go up in Halifax

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada entered the club of countries with oversized current account deficits in the third quarter, posting the biggest shortfall on record as its worsening trade profile heralded a further slowdown in economic growth. Canadians are looking for identity and maybe just maybe have found it here..

The country's eighth consecutive quarterly shortfall in the current account -- a measure of transactions in goods, services and investment income -- totaled C$17.54 billion ($17.20 billion), compared with a revised second-quarter gap of C$12.98 billion, Statistics Canada said on Monday.

Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast a C$15 billion deficit.

A separate Statscan release showed producer prices and raw materials prices both jumped more than expected in October due to higher energy prices.

The deficit in trade in goods swelled as shipments to the country's top market, the United States, fell while imports surged due to businesses bringing more machinery and equipment across the border.

Analysts estimated the overall current account deficit to be roughly 4.2 percent of gross domestic product, the highest level since the 1990s, when the country suffered from soaring debt, and bigger than the U.S. equivalent figure. Official third-quarter GDP numbers won't be known until Tuesday.

"Canada suddenly finds its broadest trade deficit in the company of countries that have typically been cited as extravagant over-spenders/under-savers," said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

"While this may prove to be a passing phase, it is an early warning that the country may be living beyond its means," he said.

Canada generally considers itself a surplus country but the global financial crisis triggered deficits in both its current account and in the federal government budget, making it look more like an indebted consumer country than a cash-rich exporter.

In the days leading up to a G20 summit of the world's leading emerging and advanced economies, the U.S. Treasury proposed capping current account surpluses and deficits at 4 percent of GDP as a way of achieving a better balance between surplus nations like China and debt-ridden importers like the United States.

RECOVERY LOSING STEAM

The weak trade performance is expected to bite into quarterly growth and keep the Bank of Canada from hiking interest rates for the next several months.

Statscan will release third-quarter GDP figures at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) on Tuesday. Markets expect 1.4 percent growth at annual rates, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll.

"We anticipate this dynamic will also be reflected in tomorrow's release of real GDP growth where we are just below consensus in anticipating an annualized quarterly growth rate of 1.3 percent," said David Tulk, senior macro strategist at TD Securities.

"More importantly, this forecast is below the Bank of Canada's expectation for a 1.6 percent growth rate, which will keep the bank on the sidelines in December and indeed through the first half of 2011," he said.

Markets are pricing in a 94 percent probability the central bank will not change its benchmark rate on December 7, according to a Reuters calculation of yields on overnight index swaps.

The data kept up pressure on the Canadian dollar, which edged lower on Monday against the U.S. dollar as investors warily eyed the weekend rescue package for Ireland.

The bright side of Monday's data was a sign business investment is on the rise, reflected in purchases of machinery and equipment.

But anemic U.S. demand for Canadian goods, particularly crude oil, led to a decline in overall exports for the first time since the second quarter of last year. As a result, the deficit in trade in goods bulged to a record C$6.50 billion from C$2.24 billion in the previous quarter.

The deficit in trade in services was unchanged in the third quarter at C$5.66 billion, while the investment income deficit narrowed slightly to C$4.20 billion.

In October, the industrial product price index rose 0.5 percent, beating market forecasts of a 0.3 percent gain and accumulating a 2.3 percent increase on the year.

Statscan said reduced supply from U.S. refineries helped boost petroleum and coal product prices in the month by 4.5 percent.

Raw materials prices grew 1.7 percent in the month and 5 percent on the year.

Canada is the world’s most expensive country to invest in commercial real estate, at least when it comes to how deeply taxes cut into potential profits.

Taxes on commercial property rents in Canada are a “massive" 53 per cent of total income, according to a study by Luxemburg-based tax advisory firm Taxand. That’s 12 per cent higher than the United States, the next country on the list.

“The alarmingly high total tax rate in Canada is largely the combined result of high levels of both income tax, which stands at a rate of 30 per cent and real estate tax at 3.6 per cent," the study concludes.

Finland charges the least tax on commercial rental income at 8.99 per cent.

The taxman takes a smaller bite out of sales, however, with Canada in sixth place with a take near 14 per cent. Norway, with a rate of 21.18 per cent, is the most expensive country, with Malta, India, Brazil and the USA rounding out the top five.

“Our research draws some interesting conclusions regarding the appeal of particular locations for investment in commercial real estate with a number of developed economies such as Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. remaining outside the cheap bracket and less popular choices such as Cyprus, Finland and Luxembourg emerging as attractive alternatives from a tax perspective," Taxand’s head of real estate said in a statement.

OTTAWA — One in 10 Canadian children is living in poverty, according to a report on the status of child and family poverty released Wednesday.

With Parliament's self-imposed deadline long past, it still has far to go on the promise it made 21 years ago to eradicate child poverty by 2000.

The most recent numbers show there is a 9.1 per cent rate of child poverty in Canada, down slightly from 11.9 per cent in 1989, the year Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty, it says in Campaign 2000's report card, which cites data from 2008.

It’s important to remember that the reality for many Canadians living in
poverty since the recession hit here in 2008 has yet to show up in the numbers, as our national statistical agency is always two years behind in reporting Canada’s income data,” says Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator of Campaign 2000.

"This is the moment for our government leaders to demonstrate their commitment to work together and eradicate poverty during the next decade," said Laurel Rothman, national co-ordinator for Campaign 2000, a national network of 120 organizations.

Part of the plan includes ensuring continued access to equal health care for every Canadian, the report said both provincial and federal governments will have to play a part, as health-care budgets now take up an increasingly large share of public sector spending, it said.

"The federal government, which will transfer $57.7 billion to the provinces and territories for health, education and social programs in 2010-11, needs to collaborate with the provinces and territories which oversee the delivery of health-care services to Canadians," the report says, noting that the agreements that guide the way in which health and social funds are transferred are set to expire in 2013-14. "It's important to plan now to ensure that sufficient and predictable funds are made available."

While the short-term benefits of ending poverty among the 610,000 children seem obvious — fewer children with problems affecting their physical, emotional and psychological health — government must also consider the long-term effects of childhood poverty, the report said.

"The impact of dire living conditions during childhood, such as inadequate nutrition and crowded or unsafe housing, carries far into adulthood," Monique Begin, a former minister of health under prime minister Pierre Trudeau, said in a statement. "Research has clearly demonstrated that there will be significant economic savings and better health outcomes for us all if we improve the incomes of people in poverty."

Aboriginal kids and children of recent immigrants and racial minorities are at an increased risk of living in poverty, the report said, noting those children also have a greater risk of living in persistent social and economic inequality.

All parties in the House of Commons last week supported a committee report recommending the government initiates and commits to a plan that will reduce poverty, an action Rothman said is encouraging.

"This reflects an emerging consensus among all the parties that poverty must be addressed as a national priority."

In the last decade or so of my life, in my humble opinion incompetent and sometimes cowardly leadership has done more to change the face of our world than perhaps in any other time in my short time on earth. Recent,in my view, badly managed events like Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq have proven that blind faith in our rulers is more than foolish--it can be downright dangerous.

The world possibly has grown more complicated and more volatile, and it follows that making intelligent decisions about the people in charge has never been more crucial. The quality of discernment ( insight and good judgment ) is often missing after the election of such persons. The 'spin' works for sure.

What causes us to follow bad leaders and how can we stop it? The answer in Canada is simple: ~Public Apathy~

If we want better leaders, we need to become better informed I personally use the GOYA technique and need more demanding knowledgeable followers. The realm of 'Animal Farm' which in my view has a civic address in Nova Scotia, must cease

I would love to have the support of a 'free press' ......... a free and independent press that is. I am still looking in Canada. It should be one Canada's best protections from being taken in by unscrupulous leaders ......... if we had one.?

I personally find it so difficult here in the Nova Scotia province of Canada to find out important breakdown details about almost any subject matter As an example, the actual method of calculating the price of Gas is almost impossible to find out. It seems that everything is in place but nothing is available. The veneer covers it all. Try it yourself ask for a clear method. This is my challenge to readers.

If incompetence were all we had to worry about when it came to bad political leaders, we could count ourselves lucky. But bad leaders are frequently dangerous, even deadly. After all most of these leaders who are 'pillars of society' are well off often legally and financially trained professionals who in fact make the laws that make themselves so dangerous. An enigma..a paradox?.. You choose.

Just ask the survivors of America’s Katrina disaster or visit graves relating to the Haitian disaster aftermath, about the amount of damage incompetent leadership can cause. Ask the people of Afghanistan and of Vietnam and perhaps Korea.. the list goes on. and closer to home Ask the people who have lost life-time investments because of poor government decisions, poor expensive laws and 'greed' with poor government fiscal management with zero accountability. Ask the long growing line of the unemployed and the waiting lines in hospital corridors and waiting rooms.

In Canada ask the elderly. Ask the First Nations people.. Oh Canada

We are living in a world where right and wrong are not polar opposites but only shades of difference. Thinking is required. The seemingly obvious course of action is often wrong. What’s certain on the surface is often an illusion. Dogma leads to despair. We are living in an age when measured action is a necessity. But how do we measure it. Should this change if we are unhappy with the current methodology Intelligence isn’t a luxury. I pray that We’ve used up our stupid quotient. It is time to get it right. We must cast away all the things that get in the way of knowledge.We must set our sights on a higher purpose, built upon facts, new science, and just plain smarts.

The world is no longer a simple place. It is interconnected, unpredictable, and speeding toward who knows where. Events seemingly of any nature are driven out of control, and to a large extent they are. The spin cloud cover is magic.

I truly believe we must educate the young to be devoted to true knowledge and not superstition, to enlightenment and not ignorance, to inclusion and not rejection, to reality and not blind faith, and to honesty and transparency by our leaders with powerful audit facilities to measure the actions of both failures and successes.

We need to believe in ourselves again. We need leaders who measure up.We must demand much more of those who say, ”Follow me.”

We want( but do we need) to enhance our self-esteem and sense of self-worth. How about self compassion insteaad ? We want a sense of competence, power, achievement, and confidence that we can cope with and exercise control over our environment and governments.

Our leaders of course fulfill this WANT feeling and tell us 'by voting for them that this 'WANT' will come to to be'..yeh...?

I feel our leaders are more often than not, Narcissistic? an 'asset' that enables the “mirror hungry” person to rise in organizations, society, and politics. If this is so then its is not hard to see why such people are generally so successful. After all, they:

* Exhibit high levels of self-confidence that people equate with competence.
* Have an infectious enthusiasm.
* Have an unrelenting drive for power.
* Are good at office politics.
* Are frequently charming.
* Build large numbers of quick, albeit superficial, relationships.
* Are able to make quick decisions with seeming ease.
* Have especially in Canada, Machiavellian “street smarts”when it comes to getting their way.

We must diligently employ Kipling's 'Poem'

“I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.”

And we must insist on an answers based on real truth, not empty rhetoric. Don’t just tell us that the torch has been passed to a new generation. Tell us what you intend to do with the torch. Words aren’t enough. We want a clear and practical path to tomorrow.

In my opinion Canada needs a method like some USA states to be able rescind any leader if they do wrong or are not able to carry out the promises they made or they downright lied.

It’s time to send a message to corrupt politicians, incompetent bureaucrats, and all those who assume power and then abuse it that we won’t take their failures and betrayal anymore. We all fail at times, its the way of life but to cover it up and deny it is wrong. These people in my view have no conscience so they are able to sleep every night.!

If you are sick of being misled by politicians who promise much and deliver little, this blog is for you.
If you are tired of being seduced by the imagery of false prophets and
tricked by those who exploit corrupt influence for personal gain, this blog is for you.
If you are tired of leaders enriching themselves and that includes in Nova Scotia misappropriation* at your expense, this blog is for you.
If you are tired of voting for change and getting only more of the same, this book is for you.
If you are tired of members of Parliaments and the Senior ministers putting
politics ahead of voters’ concerns and country needs, this blog is for you.

If you are ready to make your leaders and I include clergy, and myriads
all those others who proclaim they are “in charge,” your servant rather than your savior...then this blog is for you.

Lets find out - cost out and then cast out the many leechers. We can not afford them bureaucrats?.

Do you know who these bureaucrats are fellow Canadians? ...Lets make a list.. please contact me..

It wasn’t always that way .. Canada..

In law, misappropriation is the intentional, illegal use of the property or funds of another person for one's own use or other unauthorized purpose.

More to come...

TORONTO - Canadians amassed mortgage debt at a slightly higher than normal level in 2010 as low interest rates helped push the country's total residential mortgage debt to over $1 trillion for the first time. Lots of propaganda will follow I am sure. New rate increase for mortgage are on the way for sure..smoothing the way Canadian style. Look for the information 'Canadians can afford at least a $300 increase in their monthly mortgage payment' Excellent news for Harper..its as good as done!

The value of outstanding mortgages is now 7.6 per cent higher than it was last year, the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals said in its annual report released Monday. The average annual increase is around 7.1 per cent.

In the early 2000s, debt growth hovered closer to 10 per cent year over year.

"Canadians are being smart and responsible with their mortgages," he said. "The survey results speak to the strength of our mortgage market, especially when compared to the United States."

Murphy said most Canadians have heeded warnings from economists — including the Bank of Canada — about growing debt levels and took advantage of low interest rates to refinance and pay off other debts.

The low interest rate environment has also encouraged one in three mortgage holders to either increase payments or make a lump sum payment on their mortgages in the past year.

Murphy noted that higher home prices drove many Canadians to borrow heavily to finance home purchases, while a low interest rate environment encouraged others to refinance loans and consolidate debt.

The market has been cooling in recent months as many sales were pushed ahead to the beginning of the year in advance of tighter mortgage qualification rules, a new tax regime in B.C. and Ontario and higher interest rates.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada's policy rate has been hiked three times to one per cent, still historically low and an admitted mistake.

The low interest rate environment has enabled some consumers to take on bigger mortgages than they might otherwise have been able to carry, while it has encouraged others to borrow against their homes. The report found 18 per cent of mortgage holders have taken equity out of their homes to free up extra cash.

Almost half of those mortgage holders surveyed in the report cited a need for “debt consolidation or repayment” and the average amount borrowed against home equity was $46,000.

The report says about $15 billion was taken out for renovations, $6 billion for education and other spending, $7.5 billion for investments and $4 billion for "other purposes.”

Apparently most mortgage holders appear to be comfortable with their debt levels and that the vast majority — about 84 per cent — said they could afford at least a $300 increase in their monthly mortgage payment.

The association asked approximately 2,000 Canadians surveyed how much of an interest rate hike they could withstand. The average Canadian has room for $1,056 per month on top of current costs, the report found.

However, about 350,000 out of 5.65 million, or about six per cent of Canadian mortgage holders, would be challenged by rate rises of less than one per cent, CAAMP said.

"Most of the people who have low tolerances for increased payments have fixed-rate mortgages," the reports said. (So) by the time their mortgages are due for renewal, their financial capacity will have expanded and their mortgage principal will have been reduced."

Many Canadians continue to favour fixed-rate mortgages and a five-year fixed-rate mortgage remains the most popular option despite the fact that variable rates have become much less expensive than fixed rates, the report found.

UK Ministers have defended their plans to force the long-term unemployed to do manual work or lose benefits.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told the BBC the idea was not to "punish or humiliate" but to get people back into the habit of working.

But the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the changes could drive people "into a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair".

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Smith is to unveil the plans this week.

Under the plan, claimants thought to need "experience of the habits and routines of working life" could be put on 30-hour-a-week placements.

Anyone refusing to take part or failing to turn up on time could have their £65 Jobseekers' Allowance stopped for at least three months.

The Work Activity scheme is said to be designed to flush out claimants who have opted for a life on benefits or are doing undeclared jobs on the side.
'Bit more of a push'

Job advisers would be given powers to require tens of thousands of claimants to take part in community work for charities or local councils.

Mr Duncan Smith said his plans were designed to reduce welfare dependency and make work pay.

He said: "One thing we can do is pull people in to do one or two weeks' manual work - turn up at 9am and leave at 5pm, to give people a sense of work, but also when we think they're doing other work.

"The message will go across; play ball or it's going to be difficult."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, expressed his concern, telling the BBC: "People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are - I think - driven further into a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in that way.

"People often are in this starting place, not because they're wicked, stupid or lazy, but because their circumstances are against them, they've failed to break through into something and to drive that spiral deeper - as I say - does feel a great problem."

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman told the Andrew Marr Show she would wait to see the full details of the proposals on Thursday before giving her verdict.

But she said the government needed to understand that to get people back into work, there had to be jobs for them to go to - and at the moment there were five people chasing each vacancy.
'Encourage'

Mr Alexander denied the plans were treating the long-term unemployed in the same way as criminals doing community service, telling the BBC's Politics Show the "purpose is emphatically not to punish and it's not to humiliate".
Continue reading the main story

When the government unveils its welfare reforms this week, there will be lots of new support for unemployed people - more help to find work, a new universal benefit to claim.

But amid the carrots, there will also be some sharp sticks. One will be the threat that anyone who has been unemployed for a long time who refuses work could be forced to do community work placements.

The Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith likes to talk of a new contract between the state and the unemployed.

Compulsory community work is clearly part of the bargain.

It was intended to "support and encourage" and to get people back into the habit of getting up and going out to work. It also meant those who did it could demonstrate their employability to prospective employers.

This meant that "more people can do what they want to do which is get a job and go out to work because that is the best thing for the country, but it is also the best thing for those individuals and it is by far the best route for anybody out of poverty".

Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show tackling the welfare budget was "one of the big political challenges".

"What we are talking about here is people who have not been used to working having both the opportunity and perhaps a bit more of a push as well, to experience the workplace from time to time and again the vast majority of people in Britain will think that's the right thing to do."

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Douglas Alexander accused the government of "focusing on the workshy but offering nothing to the workless".

There are five unemployed people chasing every job vacancy, he said, adding: "The tragic flaw in the Tory approach is that, without work, it won't work. A longer dole queue will mean a bigger benefits bill."

Richard Exell, a senior policy officer at the Trade Union Congress, said there was high unemployment, not because of a problem with the work ethic, but because there were not enough jobs.

"Unemployed people are the victims in this story, not the villains," he said.

The UK has five million people on out-of-work benefits and one of the highest rates of workless households in Europe, with 1.9m children living in homes where no-one has a job.

A not-so-minor criticism of windows 7. Based om my own recent experiences
My first gripe: Hardware profiling..

Have you ever tried upgrading a CPU in a windows 7 system?

Or upgrading a motherboard?

How about moving a system image of a retail install to a new system, or a new HDD, or even restoring from an image backup?

You can do none of those things without Microsoft's approval. I say it's none of Microsoft's business what hardware I'm using as long as only one computer at a time per license is being used.

Memory, monitors, printers and other USB and PCI devices fall into the PNP category. Replace almost anything else because of a hardware failure and windows usually has to be reactivated if it even boots. In old versions of windows it was possible to drop a HDD with a working OS install into a new build with a completely different set of hardware and it would boot right up, recognize the changes and keep on rolling.

I've done all of the above in old versions of windows without any problems, without having to allow the system to connect to Microsoft or activate windows by phone. The mere act of enabling a serial port in bios is enough to cause windows 7 to freeze with a black screen and fail to boot.

2nd:
USB controllers are driven by bios, but you can't install windows to a USB HDD or a flash drive, because windows breaks the USB connection during boot. It's no wonder a lot of people are having trouble with slow USB connections. It's totally unnecessary for the USB connections to be broken during start up. Linux can be run from a flash drive. Why can't windows?

3rd:
The windows firewall, windows defender, unnecessary network protocols, and remote access can't be removed or fully disabled without causing network problems.

My biggest gripe:

Windows 7 is designed to notify Microsoft every single time someone logs into a windows 7 computer, anywhere in the world.

Here's what I believe really happens when you log in: While the network location awareness service is "identifying" the network you've been connecting to since the day you installed windows and telling you there's "no network access" or "limited or no connectivity", it's already contacted or attempted to establish connections with a DNS server, ICMP, home group, ICS protocol, the Microsoft software licensing service and several others, every time you login and start a network connection. This leads into the problem with installing an effective firewall on windows 7, and expands on my 3rd gripe.

No operating system that requires direct access to a network to remain functional is secure. If you want a windows 7 computer that has restricted access to the internet and therefore no access to Microsoft whenever the h*ll it feels like phoning home, you can't have local only connections either. In what would otherwise be an extremely effective security measure, if you try to isolate windows from the internet while allowing your browser internet access from an isolated sandbox environment, Windows 7 will try 4x at 3-5 second intervals every four minutes to connect to Microsoft, using a different port every time, relentlessly, for hours on end. If it can't connect directly, it will try port forwarding from your router. Failing that, it attempts to hijack your browser. Block that too, and after about a 6 hour period with hundreds of failed attempts to contact Microsoft, you'll lose all networking capability on the next reboot, until windows is allow to phone home.

The idea of a cloud based windows makes me cringe. If that happens, I'll switch to linux permanently and never look back.

Thoughts please........