phreaks said:
warren said:
*snip*


Erm, it's not that your health care costs are cheaper, it's that ours is more expensive.

And if you can't tell me why Canada is part of the reason that the US's health costs (especially pharmaceuticals) are so much more expensive; then there really is not much of a reason for anyone to continue this conversation.

You mention something about gleaming information from the Internet, what exactly are your credentials that make you such an expert in global economics again?

And what is Canada's GDP again.

AND BTW, "purchasing parity" is only 1 factor in determining the value of any currency vs another.
In our models it's one of the least weighted; interest rate trends, financial sector strength (which has several sub-factors), consumer spending and cyclical history all have a higher weighting in predicting exchange rates (in my models)

So wikipedia, yeah...

One more thing, I'm not going to argue whose financial model is better, but they are fundamentally different.
And we really don't want to adopt your model, thanks anayway; but our model works pretty well for the most part.

Sure it needs to be re-evaluated now and again, as all models ought to be. And sure we have a higher risk exposure, which contributes to bigger rewards and more opportunities and ... jobs.

I'm up on my knowledge of Canadian & American business, politics and economy because it is a big part of what I need to know for my professional work; I'm also from one country and getting married to someone from the other, so, hey, it's part of what I need to know in my personal life as well.  I don't need to look up exchange rates, gas prices or commentary on the comparative quality of roads, health care and education, or on the state of politics because I live my life in both countries, see these things with my own two eyes, talk to quite a number of people in both countries, and compound that with a lot of research.

That's the starting point for my perspective on things.  Almost by definition, it's going to be more a informed perspective than people who recite the dross you get from self-described patriotic conservative talk radio hosts, or where-ever the hell it is some Americans pick up the kind of badly-informed, unrealistic viewpoints that aren't grounded in actual reality.

As for Canada's GDP, when measured per capita it is more or less on par with the United States, though usually behind by a bit (depends on how you measure it).  Canada's GDP to debt ratio has also been close to the United States, but unlike the United States, Canada has been running budgetary surpluses, not large deficits through the 2000s, so that's been tilting in Canada's favour.

That said, I'm not really much of a believer in using the GDP alone as a proper measure of the success of a nation.  Spending lots of money on stuff is only part of the equation.  Is the money being spent in the pursuit of feeding the personal greed of the few or improving the quality of life of the many?  Is our children learning?  The Human Development Index does a better job of measuring the real effectiveness of both public policy and private spending.  Canada's GDP per capita may be lower, but.... so?  The quality of life is measurably better.

And which is more important to you as a functioning human being?  Money or happiness?

(that question always reminds me of a story: A catholic friend of mine went on a church mission to the shantytowns in the hills surrounding Lima, Peru.  Destitution is widespread there .  But, she found that many of the people there were happier and more at peace with their life than just about everyone she'd ever known in her home state of Connecticut.)