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0 pointsnostromo1y ago0 comments

Most of Canada is pretty poor now.

From the Economist: https://archive.is/UdixF/ec46ebf7fe812cd5e9432f45f68bd142e6c...

Their housing is more expensive than the US, but taxes are higher and wages are lower.

If Canada’s provinces were states, the populated ones would be poorer than the poorest US states, along with higher taxes and expensive housing.

https://brilliantmaps.com/us-vs-canada-gdp-per-capita/

British Columbia is now poorer than Idaho, again, while being much more expensive. Ontario and Quebec and Canada as a whole are now poorer than West Virginia.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

throaway891y ago· 3 in thread

The social services are better in Canada though. The big downside is the lack of quickly available treatment for serious-but-not-life-threatening illness.

UncleOxidant1y ago

> The big downside is the lack of quickly available treatment for serious-but-not-life-threatening illness.

Which often happens in the US as well. I recall having to wait 3 months to get in to see a gastroenterologist about 10 years ago. People living in rural areas of the US often face this so it's not like it's a problem exclusive to Canada or other countries with universal healthcare.

bko1y ago

It doesn’t help if you can’t afford a house. If you just look at a simple crude statistic like gdp per capital US is 83% higher. You can’t make stuff appear out of thin air, there’s less resources to go around and people are objectively worse off

throaway891y ago

It actually does help, in fact it helps MORE if you cant afford a house, or are homeless, to have a strong social net. Not arguing that the US isn't richer or can offer more financial resources to its citizens.

wk_end1y ago· 2 in thread

You say "now" as though it's ever not been the case. These comparisons do a poor job of taking into account cost-of-living and quality-of-life; it's simply not the case that you're better off in Montgomery than Toronto.

nostromoOP1y ago

The median wages for Toronto and Montgomery are actually quite similar:

Toronto: $84k CAD ($58k USD)

Montgomery: $55k

The person living in Montgomery can easily afford a house and a middle-class life. Can the person in Toronto?

Would I rather live in Toronto personally? Yes. But on a median salary, no way.

https://www.city-data.com/income/income-Montgomery-Alabama.h...

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/9877-City-...

wk_end1y ago

> The person living in Montgomery can easily afford a house and a middle-class life. Can the person in Toronto?

Of course not. But a person living in New York City - making the much higher median household income of 75K USD - also can't afford a house or a middle-class life there. And yet across almost every metric New York is considered a better place to live with higher quality of life than Alabama.

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