Why America should be like Canada .

This says it all.

I have often wondered , and yes I would be accused of being some kinda "socialist" for saying this . Here it is . I wish America was more like Canada.  The great north holds a lot of promise , a great model for the United States . So far our nation (the U.S.A) is turning more and more the the "south" IE : MEXICO . I like Mexicans , yes . I don't like much of the political system there , but in our Country the system seems to be just slipping an economic down-slide . Our Dollar in a world context looks more like the Peso , and you know that the high inflation devalues the "dollar"as a global currency . First, for context, we need to do a numbers comparison with the U.S. Canada’s unemployment rate is now 7.3%, whereas the current U.S. unemployment rate is 8.2%. Canada’s combined federal and provincial debt to GDP ratio is 57.9%, while Canada’s federal debt to GDP ratio is 34%.  Meanwhile, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio reached 101.5% in 2011. Then there is the Canadian banking system. Canada’s banks are among the best capitalized in the world and far exceed the norms outlined by the Bank for International Settlements. During the financial crisis, no Canadian banking institutions had to be bailed out. The rest of this article, of course, could be filled with details about the troubles with U.S. banks and the Democrats’ Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, but I’ll let all that be addressed in other articles. It’s worth noting here that homeowners are also in better shape in Canada. Today just 0.35% of Canadian mortgages are behind on their payments, whereas TransUnion reported that in the January-March 2012 quarter 5.78% of U.S. mortgage holders were behind on their payments by 60 days or more (that’s more than 10 times more than in Canada). ( Canada Canada Dreams Link ) For its higher taxes Canada has a larger system of social programs than the United States. This includes having a national broadcaster in the CBC, a largely government-funded health care system, and having all major universities receive partial government funding. The United States, however, does have most of its major universities subsidized by state government. The US also has two national public broadcasters which receive partial government funding, PBS (television) and NPR (radio).The greatest difference in social programs is in health care. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Government spends as much on health care, 7% of GDP, as the Canadian government does,^[12] and total healthcare spending is much higher - 14.6% of GDP in the US vs. 10% in Canada.^[13] Canadians, however, receive comparable care to those Americans who receive treatment, and result measures. The Canadian health care system is said by some also to be attractive to employers, as in Canada health care is mostly paid through employee income taxes, while in the United States most companies choose to extend health benefits to full-time employees. Many employers in Canada do offer employees some additional medical coverage, for non-necessary treatments, and for pharmaceuticals which are not universally covered by the government-paid health insurance system. The most common complaint regarding the Canadian system are the long lines and waiting periods that have appeared for minor and non-life threatening procedures over the last 15 years, since the introduction of widespread cuts to public funding. Separately, a number of medical tests and screenings are not covered (or due to increasing costs, are no longer covered) by the Canadian health system, forcing patients to pay for these services out of their own pockets. For these reasons, some relatively wealthy Canadians undergo treatment at private healthcare facilities at their own expense, either in Canada, in India, or in other nations^[14] to avoid waiting for medical treatment, joining "medical tourists" from many nations, including the US.^[14] Despite these sporadic problems, Canada's healthcare performance is generally on par with the US. Efforts were made to reduce wait times by many provincial governments in the 1990s and 2000s, in an effort to improve care. Furthermore, healthcare coverage is universal for Canadians, and transferable outside a home province within Canada. In the United States, however, the most common complaint is that approximately 50 million people are uninsured, and thus do not have access to even the most basic healthcare services which Canadians have access to. This puts a burden on the emergency room services in the States and causes increases in healthcare costs significantly. They have a better standard of living for their population overall. They have less crime, less racism, less ignorance, less poverty, less political divide, less guns, less pollution... and on top of that they have an excellent public education system (Canada is one of the most educated societies in the world), a universal health care system that covers everyone both rich and poor, and a sound economy.  Canadian cities consistently rank as the cleanest and the most livable in the world with Toronto, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia routinely taking the top spot. If I get the chance to move to Canada I'll do it in a heartbeat. It's a perfect place to live if you ask me. I'll leave America to the mob.  I won't wait until they turn us into a Third World Country.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** Canada is a good example what America should be . They never meddle in world affairs , they have virtually no enemies .