"Hardheaded Socialism Makes Canada Richer than US"

[holyunholy]

Because my hard work should not pay for those who refuse to. And before the arguments to help the poor come in, we both know their are plenty of people who want to live off the welfare stare (SOME not ALL)

I would say that saying SOME is an under-estimation. At least here in Quebec, there are a lot of people running around not working and living off "free money"

[Dakia]

IIRC, I read a analysis on these numbers that attributed the major shift to the absolute bust in the housing market that Canada didn't feel to the same extent. There is a lot more to this than simple political systems people.

[Collegeguy]

I honestly kind of shriveled up when I heard that you were using an average to compare Canadian and American economy.

[Llunai]

I honestly kind of shriveled up when I heard that you were using an average to compare Canadian and American economy.

While I agree that averages only tell a small fraction of the story (for example, check out Canada's abysmal productivity figures), Americans have been using them to justify its feeling of superiority for decades.

[holyunholy]

I honestly kind of shriveled up when I heard that you were using an average to compare Canadian and American economy.

There was a similar topic about a couple of days ago and this is what I posted :

It says average net worth. Keep in mind that Canada does not have a quarter of its population crying slavery and racism at every turn and use it as an excuse for poverty. That probably bought down the U.S. average significantly.
Personally, I am moving to the U.S. soon to escape the socialist glass ceiling in terms of salary here in Canada.

In the end using an average does not tell the whole story. Many subtleties are lost

[Collegeguy]

While I agree that averages only tell a small fraction of the story (for example, check out Canada's abysmal productivity figures), Americans have been using them to justify its feeling of superiority for decades.

We have? This is news to me.

[Llunai]

We have? This is news to me.

Well, some have. The people who read things. I'm not talking about the ones waving those big #1 signs even today.

[Diraction]

Nothing at all to do with socialism? I mean I understand it isn't pure socialism unless the banks are govt owned. But banking regulation by government, and not allowing banks to merge would be considered what exactly? It's certainly more socialist leaning than capitalist, right?

The US has lots of bank regulation. If the existence of any type of bank regulation = socialism, then every country in the world is socialist, except maybe some primitive society which doesn't have any financial institutions.

[Puck]

Yay, we're number one!

[Adam Jensen]

like "forwards"?

Obama bumbles as bad as Bush ever did... he's just really good at reading a teleprompter.. must I link the video of 7.5 minutes worth of umm and uhh taken from a single 41 minute speech again?

Oh jesus, the teleprompter?

Seriously?

You mean the speech aid, EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE ITS CREATION has used? Bush couldn't even give a speech when he had one in front of his face!

[tachycardias]

Several flaws in the logic here. The stat they give is average wealth per household, which doesn't make canada "richer:

1) The USA has never been the highest income per capita. Countries like Germany and Japan have long had higher income per capita.

2) Household wealth ignore business wealth, which the US trounces Canada on.

[Nadev]

Oh jesus, the teleprompter?

Seriously?

You mean the speech aid, EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE ITS CREATION has used? Bush couldn't even give a speech when he had one in front of his face!

I hate the weird head movements he does during speeches.

[Fuzzzie]

like "forwards"?

Obama bumbles as bad as Bush ever did... he's just really good at reading a teleprompter.. must I link the video of 7.5 minutes worth of umm and uhh taken from a single 41 minute speech again?

Like I said, he makes many audible pauses. I usually listen to the content and not the parts where he's not actually saying anything. The parts where Bush was saying stuff didn't make sense. he could have used a few seconds to actually read what was written for him.

[Cairm]

Its just because our bank are set to certain law and procedure. As it seems in the US its not really the case, see all the recent scandals.
Its not only this, but the fact that the current governement, while i deeply hate him, won the last election with the majority of the vote and thought he could do whatever the fuck he wants. Here the province have most of the social power, so if anything, provinces are to blame for being good at what they do.

[Bosen]

What works for a country of roughly 34million people wont necessarily work for a country of 310million...

I agree with this person.

[Wells]

Like I said, he makes many audible pauses. I usually listen to the content and not the parts where he's not actually saying anything. The parts where Bush was saying stuff didn't make sense. he could have used a few seconds to actually read what was written for him.

I don't generally go in for these kinds of things, but there are some studies that indicate frequent use of filler words like "um" are a sign of intelligence as its the person consciously selecting the words they use.

[Felya]

Oh jesus, the teleprompter?

Seriously?

You mean the speech aid, EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE ITS CREATION has used? Bush couldn't even give a speech when he had one in front of his face!

Even JFK's, "it's not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" speech, features him looking down at his written speech. Most speeches given by presidents are sent to news casts before the speech is made.

[Tydrane]

So what can the US learn from Canada?

Uh, have a high-performing resources sector? Have more primary resources to extract?


Seriously.

[Gheld]

Honestly though, prices in the US are typically around 20% lower than prices in Canada. And gas is ridiculously cheap in the US compared to most of Canada.

A foot long steak and cheese at Subway in Canada will cost you upwards of 8 dollars after value added taxes, and you can't even get pepper jack cheese on it.

Whereas in the states it's a couple of dollars cheaper, and pepper jack cheese is available.

But I mean, 50,000 dollars a year in Canada is roughly equivalent to 40,000 dollars a year in the US. Our dollar is weakened locally by all the red tape set up to catch additional tax dollars to pay for health care. So then you'd have to compare that to health insurance premiums that the average american pays, plus their annual out of pocket medical expenses.

But the bottom line is it's not as simple as comparing median salaries.

That said I'd rather pay a couple more dollars for my steak and cheese than have to worry about health insurance.

EDIT: Plus it's fun to go south of the border with what seems like a trivial wad of bills and live like a king because of the current near parity.

[Dbone]

Well, when a country spends this much more than it brings in revenue what else is to expect?? Maybe if more than one half of the country paid taxes it would be different.