Subj : Re: Chinese Scientists Cr
To   : KURT WEISKE
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Thu Feb 20 2025 02:15:00

RM>  And in general I would not want to be
RM> poor down there seeing how a lot of them live compared to up here.
RM> Not that it's universal, we all have bad areas. But Trumps biggest
RM> platform in his bid to take over Canada is how much our taxes would
RM> go down if we joined the USA, which are admittedly high,

KW> Their taxes pay for medical care, a pension fund, welfare and other social
  > services we don't have or don't do as well. And, they certainly don't
  > threaten to take services away as "entitlements".

KW> If you include everything we pay to private insurance and retirement
  > funds, I bet it's a wash.

It's hard to say without really looking closely at it. I know we spend
about $5000 per person by population on 'free' healthcare, so there
are taxes to pay for that, and generally not enough so services are
getting slower and a few things not covered even though paying full
price for most medical treatments here is much cheaper than what you
would pay down there without insurance.

But a senior over 65 who has never paid a cent into pensions, gov't
or private, still gets over $1700 a month. You can make something
up to about $25,000 a year and pay no taxes at all and a lot of our
low income earner benefits only rely on your actual income to decide
if you qualify. They don't look at your assets / net worth.

No system is perfect. We land somewhere between your system and
Britain's system, which has become a joke for decades now but I'm
happy enough with ours. My Niece had a very premature baby, who
thankfully is now perfectly normal and healthy and too smart for
her own good, but without our healthcare system, they would have
been handed a bill for $250,000 when they left the hospital.

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 * SLMR Rob  * Professional cordless bungee jumper
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)

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