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Re: Canada

#101

Post by footy »

abernard1 wrote: post #42
footy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah yes, the places where women can expect to die if they happen to need medical care while pregnant and where LGBTQ people are not treated the same as most citizens. Sounds lovely.

Whatever the epithets, the truth of the matter is those urban areas are closer to what Canada aspires to be (and currently is). Whereas the parts of Canada she cares about are alive and well in the US (and used to be more like what Canada was). The question becomes: if you're traveling on a line, and you see the destination looks dark ahead of you, do you turn around or keep going? Canada's notoriously polite deferen…

This comment is nonsensical. The parts of Canada the author cares about are also alive and well in Canada and your entire premise is that they're not

Re: Canada

#102

Post by footy »

retired wrote: post #82
footy wrote: post #3

I was not born in Canada, but I chose to immigrate here and it's one of the top 5 best choices I've ever made. I have access to so much that in other places would be wildly expensive. My life is richer due to the diversity of the people I am surrounded by, if I bought every book I borrowed from the library last year it would have cost $3000 or more, and even after moving away from a large city I have access to public…

Being Dutch* it's such a strange concept that you don't have to pay to bring books to your home. I hope that we will see that over here as well in my lifetime. It would do wonders to increase literacy in the population.

I spent a lot of time in Latin America growing up, including in parts that didn't have public libraries. Your comment is shocking to me, I guess I just assumed most developed countries has libraries that function in similar ways. Wikipedia says there are about 600 libraries in the Netherlands, do you not get to borrow books for free?

They're integral to the fabric of society in my view.

Re: Canada

#103

Post by greenavocado »

nozzlegear wrote: post #72
raydev wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you had any stays in a hospital yet? Children? I ask because a lot of Canadians can't fathom having to worry about those sorts of bills, given that many employers don't offer great insurance, and especially if you happen to be between employers. Like how do you handle a sudden $20k bill that insurance won't cover?

Yes to the hospital and no to children. My insurance covered the hospital without any issues, just a small copay and $300-ish bill that I paid over several months. I wouldn't say I have great insurance. It's some run of the mill bullshit conglomerate that covers most people in my area. > especially if you happen to be between employers. Like how do you handle a sudden $20k bill that insurance won't cover? My wife is,…

You prefer a public option because you have never been to a Western country with public healthcare and tried to obtain emergency medical care. I have. I was in an overcrowded waiting room for 12 hours and watched one person die as they rushed him past me and around the corner. The whole character set and scene was extremely grim. There was ONE ER doctor on duty at night. Contrast that to the US where I received prompt emergency care and was only charged a couple hundred dollars which were eventually dropped because I qualified for their compassionate care write off since I make under a certain amount. Childcare hospital facility expenses (~$3000) were also written off each delivery because of the income qualification (400% of poverty line + household size factor in). The office of the doctor they contracted for the delivery stiffed me hard in my wife's third birth, but I am on a $100 a month payment plan for 12 months to pay it off. Considering the far better state of healthcare in the US than the extremely grim hospital scene I took part in the capital city of a Western European country, compounded with the discussions I had with the various characters I meet in the ER treatment waiting area, I can fully appreciate the disastrous effects public healthcare has. I'd rather fight a $50,000 bill than to go through the wringer again aka the public hospital. Coincidentally my grandmother died shortly after she there a few years after my incident. She slipped and fell on the front steps; they sent her home after a 5 minute cursory evaluation and she ended up dying from awful complications a few tens of hours later. Not to mention you have to actually pull strings with bribes to be seen sooner than 6+ months out for basic diagnostics or procedures. Each evaluation and treatment step is a wait of 6+ months.

Re: Canada

#104

Post by ChromaticPanic »

gdevenyi wrote: post #46
jonapro wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite the statement there bud. Care to back it up?

Every province except Alberta is in dire financial states(Venezuela events will finish them off) . We have no gold reserves. In the next 5 years there will be a mortgage cliff for those who bought at the peak. Major Universities are about to be bankrupt. Canada is going to get very poor soon. These social goods will be gone, and we will be worse for it.

Is this the new "We're going to turn into Greece" scaremongering the Conservatives were slinging 15 years ago.

Re: Canada

#105

Post by dgudkov »

Archelaos wrote: post #51

European here. What do Canadians think about joining the EU?

I think it makes sense. The EU is possible because the founding countries are of more or less similar size. You can't really make a fair balanced partnership with a country 10 times bigger, we've just learned that. So Canada joining the EU makes sense from a political perspective. Carney had a point when talked about "middle powers" in Davos.

From an economical perspective, it makes less sense because of, well, the Atlantic ocean. Nevertheless, Canada has what Europe needs - oil, LNG, minerals. To a certain extent, things can work out.

Re: Canada

#106

Post by nozzlegear »

greenavocado wrote: post #103
nozzlegear wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes to the hospital and no to children. My insurance covered the hospital without any issues, just a small copay and $300-ish bill that I paid over several months. I wouldn't say I have great insurance. It's some run of the mill bullshit conglomerate that covers most people in my area. > especially if you happen to be between employers. Like how do you handle a sudden $20k bill that insurance won't cover? My wife is,…

You prefer a public option because you have never been to a Western country with public healthcare and tried to obtain emergency medical care. I have. I was in an overcrowded waiting room for 12 hours and watched one person die as they rushed him past me and around the corner. The whole character set and scene was extremely grim. There was ONE ER doctor on duty at night. Contrast that to the US where I received promp…

To be clear, a public option means a government-backed health insurance plan that competes with private insurance plans to keep prices down. It doesn't mean abolishing private insurance and replacing it with public or universal healthcare. I don't personally believe European or Canadian-style healthcare systems would work in the US at this point and I don't want to try them here either.

Re: Canada

#107

Post by light_hue_1 »

apsec112 wrote: post #35
light_hue_1 wrote: post #10

I grew up in Canada and live in the US now with kids. The US is not one country. It's two that are radically different. There's wealthy America. The top 5% to 10% that have healthcare, have their own safety nets, don't need to worry about money, their kids go to select schools that they can buy into (mostly by buying into the right neighborhoods), an amazing pension plan, etc. My kids go to a fancy library with readi…

The median American is, materially, much richer than the median person pretty much anywhere else. The US is a bad place, by rich-country standards, to be in the bottom 10%. But in terms of consumer wealth - how large your house is, how many cars your family has and how nice they are, if you have a dishwasher and home A/C, how often you eat at restaurants or travel long distances, can you afford a home repair or the l…

Yup. That's the brainwashing for you.

That having a bit more money matters when your employer can fire you for any reason. When college costs are astronomical. When you can lose your healthcare for any reason. When getting cancer might mean losing your house. When housing costs mean that anyone who rents could well be thrown out into the street.

But your tv is bigger than three average tv in Germany. For sure!

That's not quality of life. That's trinkets to hide the horrors. All good as long as you don't think about it and get lucky.

Wealthy America is great though.

Re: Canada

#108

Post by garbawarb »

I-M-S wrote: post #79
garbawarb wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just silly because we're not a European country. I think Canada would benefit a lot from a CANZUK-type agreement though. The lack of a large single market makes Canada less competitve compared to the US/EU/China in many ways like scaling a business.

Australia, New Zealand, and the UK aren't on the same continent as Canada either, so I fail to understand why that type of agreement doesn't get labeled as silly as well.

The European Union is strictly meant for European countries. CANZUK is a hypothetical agreement that would only include the above. I'd also say that one challenge the EU has is the free movement of citizens of poorer EU countries to richer ones. It might work well for the EU but Canadians are very concerned about immigration and the idea of newcomers undercutting domestic wages. The CANZUK countries all have similar levels of wealth and cultural similarities so that would be much less of a concern. Also, none of the CANZUK countries are in a common market as large as the European or American unions so they would all stand to benefit from that.

Re: Canada

#109

Post by abernard1 »

I-M-S wrote: post #81
MegaDeKay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Canada didn't have an air of superiority to comfort itself with, it would have nothing at all. Canada might be known for many things, but you're the first I've heard refer to an "air of superiority" that we carry around. "Nice" and "polite" maybe. Sorry you feel this way. Have a good day.

Canadians aren't crass enough to describe it as superiority, but it is true that the identity of English-speaking Canada is largely built on "not being America" and that the vast majority of the population is content as long as things are "better than in the USA".

They of course are "not better than in the USA." But one can hold that weight long past you're drowned in the ocean.

Re: Canada

#110

Post by amrocha »

apsec112 wrote: post #55
amrocha wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re wrong, but this essay is about Canada so I’ll focus on that. The median canadian earns more than the median USian and we do it without letting kids go hungry in schools or murder squads.

Median American pay for full-time workers was ~$62,000 USD in Q4 2024 (BLS), which is around $85,000 CAD. The median Canadian salary is very definitely not $85,000 CAD.

Now adjust for PPP and subtract healthcare costs. Not to mention all the other benefits Canada provides.
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