U.S is superior to Canada

Thanks Pro. Let’s discuss taxes farther, because this is a defining difference. If Americans had the same kind of services that Canadians have, then you might have a good case. However, as I showed earlier, our education, paid holidays, benefits, universal healthcare, environmental, and our public safety services all rank significantly better/higher than the U.S. In the States, you pay less taxes, and thereby have considerably less services – and you pay for it in other ways. ‘Many Canadians’ do not travel across the border to shop for anything but liquor and cigarettes, which are taxed very high here (especially cigarettes), if they do at all. Trust me, there is no mass exodus to buy American groceries or anything like that. As I pointed out, lower taxes is one of the few political ‘advantages’ Americans can truly claim. An interesting case in point was unintentionally made by Pro in bringing up income tax. We pay more for married couples with 2 children by about 10%, however, the benefits received make up for this tax hike by a fairly generous margin. We have the CCTB (Canada child tax benefit) for example, which reimburses parents financially for every child under 18, and it increases to compensate lower income families. We just cut taxes for families and our benefits /deductions have never been higher. Some examples: Parents can now have ‘birth-related’ costs covered by the gov’t. ‘the Harper government announced a family tax cut credit that would allow eligible parents with at least one child under the age of 18 to effectively shift up to $50,000 of taxable income from the higher-earning spouse or common-law partner to the lower-earning one. The maximum credit is $2,000, and it's in effect for the 2014 tax year.’ Child fitness credits up to $1000 per child per year Child Art credits up to $500 per child per year A tax-free Post-secondary education fund Child care benefits up to $160 a month per child Transit passes can be paid for Post-Secondary books/tuition benefits up to $5000 Etc. etc. Benefits like these are why our taxes are higher – not to mention healthcare, etc. Keeping with taxes, let’s look at taxes and income disparity in the United States, because this is where it is very interesting: In the U.S. the top tax bracket has to make $400,000 a year or more, and they get taxed 39%. Back in the 50’s, that was at 90%. A brief glance at the American debt, which is at $18 Trillion, and the income disparity, in which the top 10% makes 70% of the income…you can see how the system is broken. In Canada, the top bracket has to make $136,270, and only pay 29%. That’s 10% cheaper and we have more benefits, and we are lower in disparity. “Between 1966 and 2011, the average inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90 per cent of American workers grew by a negligible $59. Meanwhile, the income of the top 10 per cent of workers soared by $116,071. Among OECD countries ranked for worst income disparity, the U.S takes fourth place, behind only Chile, Mexico and Turkey. Canada comes in 12th out of 34 nations.” Our lower brackets do much better as well – we look out for the poor much better – down to 15% with tons of benefits – check out this list for low-income families: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca... Our corporate taxes are lower as well. The corporate tax rate in America is at 40%, the highest in the world, and in Canada, it’s at 26.6%, although we tax environmentally destructive companies up to 50% more. You really have to examine the entire picture and not just the percentage. Our roads are better, our transit is better (we are the top country in the world for people taking public transit to work). Just look at the benefits. For example, how we have halved healthcare costs compared to the U.S. It’s worth it. As for Culture, unfortunately, I can’t argue against that, after all, America is 10 times the size in population. For our size, Canada puts out a lot of great musicians and actors and writers – just check out the Canadian indie music scene. If we could somehow gauge culture per capita, I’d argue that we come pretty close if not better than America. Universities (which you ironically spelled wrong) don’t do much good if less people use them and the people who use them have had a terrible grade school education. As I said before, 48.3% of Canadians have P.S. education, while only 40.3% of Americans do. Canada’s schools rank in the top 10 of 65 countries every year, in 2009 we were 6th, while the U.S. was 17th. 54% of Canadian low-income kids get educated in post-secondary, while in the States only 30% do. Again, using only a big objective number does not represent how much foreign aid a country gives. Interestingly enough, tracking exactly where that money goes is always an interesting affair. For example, the second-most donated-to country is Israel, with some $250,000 in actual economic ‘donation’ and $3 Million in military assistance. In Afghanistan, the number one donated-to country, $3 Million in economic assistance, and $9.5 Million in military assistance. You tell me if Israel and Afghanistan need more military assistance. Really, it boils down to 13 cents per capita gov’t aid for America. And 17 cents per capita gov’t aid for Canada. Keeping with this theme of ‘bigger is better’, I’d point out that the GDP by External Debt ratio is 98% in America and in Canada it is at 81%. Or take GDP per capita, which, according to the American CIA Factbook, the U.S. makes $52,800 per capita, while Canada makes $52,100. That’s much closer. The U.S. is running a 4% defecit of GDP. Canada ran at 1%, but should be shifting into a surplus in the next year. Most of Pro’s arguments boil down to bigger is better. A per capita ratio would be far more revealing, rather than the obvious fact that America is ten times as big and therefore logically should export more. Is that really a sign that America is better? Or is it the obvious conclusion – ten times as big – ten times the export. Except in hockey, it would seem. Take the Olympics, for example. Despite the fact that the USA is ten times as big, we did nearly as good – in Sochi we were three medals away! You tell me if that is an honest ratio. As for Pro’s claim that the youth unemployment rate is lower – your sources don’t work, and my information is very reliable – here’s another source: http://data.worldbank.org... Finally to rebut the First amendment fallacy – I’d encourage Pro to check out the detailed Section 2 in our Charter: Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association. Sources http://www.cbc.ca... http://www.thestreet.com... http://www.usdebtclock.org... http://www.statcan.gc.ca... http://www.macleans.ca... http://www.infoplease.com... http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca...