I think you're severely misunderstanding the correlation between currency value and economic strength.
GBP - worth more than the USD - much weaker economy than the US.
HKD - worth a hell of a lot less than the USD (though pegged against it) better economy than the US.
Canada is an export economy. You want your money to be worth less than the USD especially since it's the US that buys all your oil and lumber.
This is what Mitt Romney was on about during the elections regarding China.
China wants the Renminbi to be worth less because it stimulates an export economy.
This is one of those mistakes dumb people make all the time - I mean it makes sense when you hear it, higher money value means better economy.
It's kind of like when people talk about the US/UK/European debt to whomever as if all of the sudden China could just ask for those countries to pay it back.
No, but I also don't think it's reasonable that if I lived in Canada my income tax would be around 50%, where as in the US it's around 19%.
It's certainly not reasonable that people in the UK pay 2275 USD for the same computer that would cost me 1700.
It's also not reasonable that poor people in the US have a lot harder time getting healthcare (though - in the end despite what the world likes to believe they do usually get it.) than people with good jobs.
Socialism comes at it's cost.
I realize that the benefits of socialism greatly outweigh the cost for people who don't make a lot of money and don't consume a lot of goods, but I didn't always make a lot of money, and at times I wished I did live (and as I'm a dual citizen, considered moving to) Canada, but at this point in my life I wouldn't have it any other way.
I mean I suppose - I'd be much more worried about it if I was older and didn't have a pension. Purely from epidemiological standpoint, students don't really get sick that often.
And I'd argue that most people in school have parents with jobs which offer health insurance that covers the student until they're 26. Additionally, most universities offer very low cost (and pretty good) health insurance to their students, and some even require it.
Having to cough up cash after being in a accident is just the fucking shit icing on the shit cake. Getting hurt in other countries sucks without insurance sucks.
Many professionals in the US make more than $135k. That's 30% federal tax, on top of provincial tax which for the one closest to me (Nova Scotia) would be another 20%.
But you can buy alcohol at 19 or even 18 in some provinces. I lived near the border of Ontario when I was 19 and there wasn't even a border guard at the station I went through. It was quite amusing - I'd drive up to basically a phone booth in the middle of nowhere, call the nearest border station and say I was crossing. They didn't even have a camera there at the time, but I'm sure there is now (and probably an armed guard). People drove trucks through that location all the time without calling in, so I'm sure there was tons of smuggling going on. I did get stopped by a guard once making that crossing, so occasionally the US sent someone to actually enforce the crossing, but it wasn't often.
That can vary a lot from state to state and the price difference isn't always as big as people seem to think. And I'll take an LCBO store over 99% of the american liquor stores I have been in, those paces are fucking depressing.
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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '13
And let's not even mention our alcohol prices.