Living in USA/Canada pros and cons?

[photoguy99]

Canada is pretty far north. That means days are short in winter and long in summer. Of course this is true of the northern USA as well' but not as radically.

Cheaper health care in Canada, better health care in the USA (for a price)

Political situation pretty annoying in both places.

USA spends a lot more of your tax monies killing people in foreign countries.

More opportunities in the USA overall. Maybe not for any specific one person, though.

Canada and the USA are about as alike as two countries can be, though.

 

[runnah]

My biggest con is that greed gets in the way of common sense. But I think that is for most places.

 

[Designer]

So... is someone thinking of moving to this continent someday?

 

[407370]

I was born in Scotland, worked and lived in Middle East / Far East / USA / Canada.

American gun laws just scare me, Canada is cold, Middle East is very restrictive in every part of your life so that just leaves Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur is my favourite city on Earth and I had my wallet stolen there. Great people and climate.

 

[limr]

My biggest con is that greed gets in the way of common sense. But I think that is for most places.

Yeah, I don't think that's limited to here, though perhaps it's a little bit easier to be greedy here than it is in other places.

 

[Derrel]

Canada has great hockey, fabulous maple syrup, good macro beer, affordable health care, low levels of violence and low levels of gun violence, crappy weather most places, and has many, many poorly made movies.Canada also has a postal system that is the laughingstock of North AND South America. One of the real hidden strengths of Canada is the donut situation: Canada has tens of thousands of Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut shops, one every 1.18 miles( by law I think) and while the offerings are vanilla, they are clean, affordable, and more than adequate.

The USA has great American football, fake corn-sweentener based syrup, fabulous micro brew beers, very expensive health care, a violent culture and a lot of gun violence and craziness, good weather on the southern three coastal areas, and lots of movies, one out of every twenty-five worth seeing. The USA has a fast and efficient postal system. The USA depends on a fragmented network of donut and coffee shops and lacks the solid, country-wide network that is the colossus that is Tim Hortons, and the USA relies on Dunkin Donuts, Winchell's, and Krispy Kreme Donuts for its big box coffee and donut needs.

 

[sashbar]

Krispy Kreme Donuts should be made illegal.

 

[runnah]

America's gun culture is no where near as bad as the media would have you believe. Same with violence. Crime is way down across the country.

But we have a dozen 24 hour news channels and they have to find content to fill that time so every little thing is blown out of proportion.

 

[Designer]

mmaria; I am curious as to why you think America's health care system is deficient in some way. And FYI: huge major changes have occurred in the recent past, so are we discussing the "system" as it was prior to: "On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act." or after this was enacted?

As far as I know, America had the most advanced medical care in the world, and probably still does.

 

[tirediron]

Speaking from the Canadian perspective (and as one who has spent a LOT of time in North Mexico over the years) in many ways there's very little difference. If you want a European analogy, Canadians are to Americans as Belgians are to Germans. We tend to be a little more introverted and less overtly patriotic then our southern cousins, but we're also (as a nation) more analytical and less likely to jump into a situation without some hard thought.

Health-care is often cited as a major attraction by Canadians, but it's not quite as good as some would have you think. Yes, you can be in a car accident, be taken by ambulance to a hospital, x-rayed, treated, etc and leave with exactly the same money you had in your wallet when you entered, but... anything elective as well as "low-priority" non-elective medicine can take a longggg time.

With respect to the issue of winters... that depends on where you go. East of the coast mountains all the way to New Brunswick, yes, the winters range from just plain old nasty, all the way to "Holy S**t", but on the west coast where I am, snow is a rarity, and winters where it never goes below freezing aren't unheard of.

 

[tirediron]

America's gun culture is no where near as bad as the media would have you believe...

That depends on how you view the term "gun culture". I have many American friends, and to them, carrying a hand-gun when they go to Wal-mart is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. To most Canadians it's only slightly short of barbaric. As an interesting aside, a survey some years back indicated that per-capita, Canadians actually owned more firearms than Americans. Primarily long guns for hunting; you guys still win on the hand-gun front.

 

[Fred Berg]

mmaria; I am curious as to why you think America's health care system is deficient in some way. And FYI: huge major changes have occurred in the recent past, so are we discussing the "system" as it was prior to: "On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act." or after this was enacted?

As far as I know, America had the most advanced medical care in the world, and probably still does.

I find this rather surprising. Here in Germany the commonly held view is that the healthcare system in the USA, notwithstanding the changes introduced during Mr Obama's tenure, are at best inadequate for an industrialised nation, and that unless you are in a fairly good financial position pretty much unafffordable. Healthcare here is certainly not cheap but nobody misses out on financial grounds; and by this I mean there is a very solid welfare state which provides cover where necessary and no-one has to rely on charitable organisations or pro bono work from doctors and dentists.

 

[Designer]

In our state, every hospital is required to maintain an emergency room, and anyone who goes there with an emergency is treated. Afterward, if said person has insurance, the hospital is happy to send the bill to the insurance carrier. If said person does not have insurance, the hospital writes it off and charges the next insured person's insurance carrier double. So medical insurance rates can get kind of crazy, but most people think they are getting it "free" at work, so they don't complain. Heaven help anyone who is self-employed and wants to buy medical insurance.

 

[photoguy99]

Something often left out of the picture is that the USA provides a backstop of superb (albeit expensive) health care for the rest of the planet.

When the super rich need the best care, they come here. When a Canadian needs an MRI quickly, they take a trip across the border.

Basic health care is handled much better in huge swathes of the world than it is here. The care is perfectly good and the costs are not idiotic. But this is in a part because the very top end has been clipped off and is not particularly well handled in many of those countries.

And that is a luxury they can afford because, in a pinch and if you've got the cash, you can always fly to the Mayo. This isn't an option for the unwealthy, but guess who makes the rules?

If the USA adopted, say, the Canadian system, there would be global repercussions.

As a not-wealthy person I have opinions on whether that would be good or bad, which you are free to guess as. I'm not going to state them, though.

 

[Designer]

When my son and DIL lived in England, she was constantly in praise of the health care system. But then, nobody in her family needed a liver transplant, either.