4 replies to this topic

[berrycurious]

Which would you rather live in and why? I'm still trying to decide myself, having moved here to Vancouver in December as an international student in hopes of becoming a citizen. My perspective has changed a lot since living here for a few months.

Random tidbits...
Canada
-health insurance for $64 a month (no, not free), at least in BC
-dirt oil and resource exploitation industry. Especially the tar sands extraction in northern Alberta.. and coal.. ugh.. Canada first went on with the Kyoto Protocol but then gave up around 2007

Vancouver in particular:
-gorgeous mountain view
-as compared to Los Angeles, my previous city, MUCH lamer art museums and galleries and less to do overall
-there is a large population in East Van of crackeads. Scary ones. Even walking through the area is a real fright.
-a lot of Asians.
-the weather is pretty tolerable. I actually don't mind the rain. Perhaps preferable to the extremely monotonous sun in LA. We don't get any thunder, but occasional snow

[Mind]

Canada might have some problems but I don't think they compare to the U.S. which is going to "hell in a handbasket", IMO.

What the U.S. has going for it are some pockets of tranquility, and few dynamic cities with a least partially safe neighborhoods (New York, Miami, L.A., Silicon Valley, Portland). The dynamic (wealthy & safe) areas are still real leaders in the world when it comes to intellectual, economic, and cultural diversity. If you aren't in one of these areas or if you don't like living in the quiet agrarian heartland, there isn't much left.

In general it seems like Canada is safer and saner. If tumultuous times would happen to hit (wars, economic collapse) I tend to think Canadians would be able to weather the storm better than many countries, including the increasingly totalitarian U.S. Canada also ranks much higher than the U.S. on the index of economic freedom.

[berrycurious]

Canada also has a higher life expectancy. Overall seems like I don't see quite as many obese people here. Maybe it's just Vancouver.

[lunarsolarpower]

Really? The $64 a month insurance bothers you? I still haven't gotten used to the $0 co-pay for doctor's visits. In the US I think I was paying $70 a month for a $10,000 annual deductible catastrophic only policy (with no real health problems). I lived a bit inland of LA for 4 years and I don't miss the smog one bit. I'm always impressed how the job of the government in Canada is to govern the country. In the US it seems like it's the job of the two parties to make each other look bad and hold the operation of the country hostage when it's convenient to their ultimate purpose.

I feel like many Canadians are more concerned about lifestyle and taking time off than Americans (with the exception of the newer immigrants).

If you're interested should try to make it out for our Life Extension hike in a couple weeks and we can talk more: http://www.facebook....16620938456848/

[drus]

Long story short, Canada is the overall better place to live.