Most skilled white collar professionals would earn more if they moved to the United States. I don't know what the difference between a Tim Horton's shift manager and a McDonald's shift manager is, but if you have marketable skills your earning power is going to be 30-40% higher in the United States.

Bold - And in Canada you die waiting to see a specialist. At least that's the line in the United States. It's hard to understand what the other place is like unless you've experienced it. Private insurance monopolies are a racket and they should be broken up, but it's also not as bad as Canadians generally seem to believe.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Feb 24 2025 11:38am

That's typically all I hear from Americans though is you will earn more money or its economically beneficial. American dream way too entrenched, money is everything, if you don't have a suburban home and a Tahoe in the driveway how could you be happy.

That encapsulates perfectly why I don't think anyone wants to join America and I don't think Americans will ever understand that because of its love for money and its undying love for the rich.

And by anyone wants I mean the majority of Canada.

This post was edited by SBD on Feb 24 2025 12:16pm

What about if Canada became a territory like Guam instead of a state?

God forbid people want to own a home

Making more money (assuming equal cost of living) is categorically better than making less money. Money buys healthcare and the other stuff. In Canada, the healthy who make the necessary sacrifices subsidize the unhealthy who don't make those sacrifices, which is a logical injustice.

I manage some us employees at the moment and I can see I would get a 100% raise by moving south of the border and probably keep more of it if I was deliberate about where I moved (Seattle comes to mind).

I will grant that our Healthcare system has gotten worse over the years but I don't think I could have managed some elderly family members for how long they were in the hospital in the us. This is why I'm in favour of a two tier health system

It’s honestly a double edged sword. Many things would improve for Canada while many things would decline. It’s even double edged on the same issues:

For Example Canada’s healthcare system gets high praises for it being socialized but on the flip side the waits and quality of service there are so bad that A LOT of wealthier Canadians still come to the US for serious treatment.

Honestly that’s a problem with socialized medicine is doctor wages tend to be streamlined which makes Doctors want to work elsewhere. My doctor here in the US is Canadian but he’s been here all but 2 years of his medical career for that exact reason.

A lot of the US and Canada’s systems would be double edged swords when comparing the two.

In the end, simply for lifestyle purposes I think citizens would be more comfortable with the current state of things and just focus on having stronger ties with eachother and quit taking jabs at eachother. We are different in many ways but also the same in many ways.

Sure, but the point being is that money is not the pinnacle of importance as Americans or even yourself is making it out to be, hence the majority not wanting it. I think it's quite obvious most know they would make more but the majority would still reject that as evident by polling. It's also evident that Canadian put greater value in things such as work life balance and our systems over the USA.

I'm happy to remain Canadian and subsidize those less fortunate than I, do I agree with all things my tax dollars go to, no. But that's a trade off and I have a vote that can change some of that. Some of it will probably never be changed and we will always have welfare and healthcare cost waste but again that's the trade off for the system we have.

As a Canadian, my take on universal healthcare in Canada is that the peace of mind is truly priceless.

It seems Canadian healthcare is hit and miss depending on the province and city. Lot's of different experiences and takes on it up here.

From what I've seen within my family, if you have a life threatening surgery needed, or simply a surgery that is by far better done ASAP, then it gets done pretty damn fast. I myself have had next day surgery after snapping my collar bone. Some things like a hip replacement or non threatening hernia in my family were a 1-2 year wait, which is slow, but not the end of the world. Also our older family members have had quite a combination of ER trips due to heart attacks and bypasses needed that were given prompt attention and they all ended up okay. Regardless we never had to pay so much as a deductible and it's extremely comforting to know we don't have to battle with any insurance companies trying to make money off our health. There's a lot of not so great things with Canada, but i wouldn't give up our healthcare for anything the US has to offer. No clue what kind of debt we'd have had to deal with if any of those were denied claims, or only partially covered. Like i said, the peace of mind has truly been priceless, especially now that my parents are getting older, and who knows what that will medically entail.

I hear a lot of people claim the provinces with conservative premiers, namely Alberta and Ontario, restrict funding to pubic healthcare so that its slower so they can push private healthcare as a solution, and they seem pretty frustrated about it. Sounds a bit conspiracy like to me, but so are lots of things that aren't all sunshine and rainbows.
I don't have an actual take on that, as I don't live in one of those provinces. Wouldn't be surprised either way if it was true or false, as I'm sure it's a multifaceted problem.

I've talked to some conservative Americans about the healthcare in Canada. They were convinced they are still happier holding onto 50 grand in a saving account in case something happened instead of pay a tax that is less than their monthly insurance so that they and everyone they know don't need to hold onto so much for their non-emergency surgeries to be done potentially sooner. As long as they're happy, I guess.
The involvement of a 3rd party that needs to make money surely inflates the cost of healthcare overall.

From the liberal Americans I talk to, our wait times for things don't seem to be all that different, as there's still only so many doctors, and regardless of the payment system, they still get just as backed up. I'm guessing just like Canada, location has a lot to do with it.

From my experience of being married to an American woman, I've seen her siblings get slapped with $2000+ bills here and there. Even tho they are all on insurance(in a Red state), there seems to be little holes in it for all sorts of things you don't expect. I'm sure many people have had their problems fully covered, but it doesn't seem consistent.

And as silly as entertaining the idea of becoming a state is, healthcare is the 2nd biggest reason I much prefer to stay Canadian, as it has yet to let my family down. The 1st obviously being to stay away from the insane amount of mass shootings America has.

This post was edited by nate321 on Feb 24 2025 02:37pm

does anyone need to highlight how dumb this is for you, or do you think you can figure it out on your own? lol

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Feb 24 2025 03:04pm

Home ownership figures are similar between the US and Canada (within 1%). The healthy grow older and will require some of that subsidized healthcare at some point in their life, not to mention bad luck and accidents. I'd rather not be paying more than I already am for healthcare. Justice isn't having the poor and the dumb dying early.