Diplomatru said:
The GDP per capita is something that can be considered a determinant in a macroeconomics class. In real life income taxes in Canada amount to 40%. Sales tax in ON is 13% (almost twice as high as in FL). At the same time the infrastructure (roads, telecoms, etc) is pretty much unchanged since the 1970'. So, if you see the budget spendings, it would appear obvious that social sector is the BIG thing.
But in Ontario it takes several months on priority list and could be a year for a routine check in case of MRI. And since all doctors operate under provincial health insurance system, there are no commercial clinics where you can pay the fee and get it done next day, so people go to Buffalo, NY.
Why didn't you mention the States?
It was very interesting to learn about your experience in France. I sort of expected that Idefix originated from the Asterix cartoon
Yes! Idefix comes from Asterix
.
I've heard about the Buffalo connection related to shopping, I didn't know it extended to medical care too. Interesting but a bit concerning actually.
Why didn't I mention the States? Because it's a complicated issue and my post was already long
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The quality of life is high, incomes are higher then in Canada, taxes a bit lower.
Housing is very expensive, interest rates a bit higher.
But as a society they have a lot of issues right now:
- A bit part of the society doesn't like immigrant at all; racism is much higher then in Canada (Ferguson? WTF??);
- They can't seem to agree on an immigration policy; they even have illegal jails on the border that had several innocents in the last years;
- Green Card is a 5 year journey at least - and that's because I have a Masters;
- Violence is much higher - partially related to low spendings on Social Sector;
...and on and on. We'll discuss this over a couple of beers in a few months
Don't get me wrong: I would gladly live in France, US, Germany, UK... but after carefully looking at them, I think Canada has a better fit for me.
Regarding the "Real Canada" you mentioned earlier: people can't expect to go to Canada, find that everything is perfect, jobs are easy and pay a lot, houses are cheap.... If you can't find a job at your home country, chances are you are probably going to have a hard time finding jobs in Canada too.
If you are very good at what you do back home, then your chances increase a lot. I expect to find a very qualified job market, a lot of competition - and that's one of the big selling points for me. I find it much better to work with very competent people.
