Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#21

Post by artorias » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:41 PM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #15

Canada is far from perfect. We too have infrastructure deficits, the city I live in suffers from incompetent city planning (although recently it's gotten better), our house prices are insane, and the cost of living is very high. That being said, the one thing I think Canada does 100x better is politics. Mainly because Canadians generally don't 'belong' to a political party or movement. Almost everyone here will vote…

>one thing Canada does 100x better is politics >almost anyone here will vote in almost any direction

I think the vast majority of liberals that make up the larger cities in Canada would severely disagree with you.

Thanks for that 20m tax payer donation btw ;)

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#22

Post by owebmaster » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:41 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #2

If this article inspires anyone to finally move to Canada, there's lots of startups here in Toronto that are hiring. Also Amazon is hoping to fill 200 more desks this year in their Toronto office and Google is nearby in Waterloo. Happy to help anyone interested.

How do I contact you, mabbo? Or should I ask here directly? I'm interested. Actually this thread is a great coincidence as I decided yesterday that I'm going to invest the next months to reallocate to another country and Canada is on the top of my list (I'm Brazilian). My biggest doubt is: should I look for a job from here in Brazil or it would be better to go to Canada first and look there? I'm a 29 years old self-taught developer, programming for a living since 12 with some international clients/employers.

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#23

Post by seigo » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:42 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #2

If this article inspires anyone to finally move to Canada, there's lots of startups here in Toronto that are hiring. Also Amazon is hoping to fill 200 more desks this year in their Toronto office and Google is nearby in Waterloo. Happy to help anyone interested.

I'm interested :), are people from Brazil welcome?

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#24

Post by transverse » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:43 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #2

If this article inspires anyone to finally move to Canada, there's lots of startups here in Toronto that are hiring. Also Amazon is hoping to fill 200 more desks this year in their Toronto office and Google is nearby in Waterloo. Happy to help anyone interested.

Share your email.

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#25

Post by artorias » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

Sodman wrote: post #17

jjawssd wrote: post #3

> Denmark, with a tax burden of 49.6 percent, stands atop the OECD index. It also happens to be a wonderful place to live, with a high standard of living funded by a diversified, high-tech, export-driven economy. Denmark is NOT a wonderful place to live. It is a stable society where everyone is equally poor except the tax dodgers. Furthermore, the climate is more bleak than Seattle. This article makes Denmark seem li…

Except that Denmark was named the "Happiest Country to live" in 2016, and got 2nd Happiest country to live in 2017[0]. From the article, this is based on: -social happiness -freedom to make life decisions -generosity & social support -good governance & public trust -honesty -health & life Expectancy -income & income inequality -GDP per capita [0]United Nations World Happiness report http://worldhappiness.report/

Denmark is "happiest" because they consume an otherworldly amount of anti-depressants.

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#26

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #5

> "Much of the surrounding road and rail infrastructure is in even worse shape (the trip from LaGuardia Airport to midtown Manhattan being particularly appalling). Washington, D.C.’s semi-functional subway system feels like a World’s Fair exhibit that someone forgot to close down. " Yes, those low tax, anti-government strongholds of NYC and DC are great examples of how more taxes will solve everything.

[deleted]

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#27

Post by moomin » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:46 PM UTC

bkohlmann wrote: post #12

This argument has always interested me: "Because Canadian entrepreneurs can quit their day jobs without their spouse losing access to dialysis, or their children losing access to pediatricians, such a system allows business-builders more professional freedom." Does the data show that countries with single payer, or even individual-based (not employer) health care, have greater percentages of entrepreneurs? How about…

Don't know, but I do know that the SV model seems to be principally based around Ivy League kids who already have that kind of safety net in place.

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#28

Post by venning » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:46 PM UTC

bkohlmann wrote: post #12

This argument has always interested me: "Because Canadian entrepreneurs can quit their day jobs without their spouse losing access to dialysis, or their children losing access to pediatricians, such a system allows business-builders more professional freedom." Does the data show that countries with single payer, or even individual-based (not employer) health care, have greater percentages of entrepreneurs? How about…

That's a good question, but probably impossible to answer due to the US's peculiarity. From Wikipedia's list [1], it appears that the US is one of only a handful of countries with employer contribution. All of the others countries I could see are noted as using employer contribution as secondary, where a very large percentage of US coverage has employer contribution as primary or only.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_systems_by_country

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#29

Post by ameister14 » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #11

jjawssd wrote: post #3

> Denmark, with a tax burden of 49.6 percent, stands atop the OECD index. It also happens to be a wonderful place to live, with a high standard of living funded by a diversified, high-tech, export-driven economy. Denmark is NOT a wonderful place to live. It is a stable society where everyone is equally poor except the tax dodgers. Furthermore, the climate is more bleak than Seattle. This article makes Denmark seem li…

There's basically a single statement about Denmark and it merely an example that a high tax burden isn't universally harmful. A reasonable counterexample would be a country with a high tax rate that is in terrible conditions caused by it rather than pointing out that Denmark isn't perfect (which is a straw man argument in the first place). There conflation of paying taxes and "more government" is also on display on i…

The article doesn't make a point backed up by data, though. For example, the US spends much more than Canada per capita on schools yet performs worse.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-globa...

Re: Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better

#30

Post by throwawayjava » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

bkohlmann wrote: post #12

This argument has always interested me: "Because Canadian entrepreneurs can quit their day jobs without their spouse losing access to dialysis, or their children losing access to pediatricians, such a system allows business-builders more professional freedom." Does the data show that countries with single payer, or even individual-based (not employer) health care, have greater percentages of entrepreneurs? How about…

> Does the data show that countries with single payer, or even individual-based (not employer) health care, have greater percentages of entrepreneurs? How about overall entrepreneurial outcomes?

It's worth noting that the quote from the article and this question are not at all the same thing. National economies are big complicated things.

Aside from the USA, few countries without+ universal healthcare have high rates of what we in the US would consider entrepreneurial activity (e.g., excluding "self-employed" subsistence farmers and the like). But the USA is one of if not the most entrepreneurial country. Again, those two facts tell us basically nothing about the effect of health care systems on entrepreneurship. Trust me, South Sudan's lack of functional universal healthcare is not the reason they haven't usurped SV...

People try to study the actual effect by controlling for other variables. Unsurprisingly, "it's complicated" and also EXTREMELY politicized, so you can find studies on both sides of the issue.

+ But does the US "not have" universal healthcare? cf Canada/western Europe and the answer is yes, but cf other countries and medicare/medicaide and the answer is more fuzzy.