Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
It all depends on where you sit on the economic spectrum. I'm a Canadian on a work visa in the US and have been here a few years. Based on what I have seen, it's much better to live in Canada if you're poor to upper middle class.
For most Middle-class people - Health care costs, Education costs and insurance are the big-ticket items that cost more in the US (While federal and State taxes are lower than Canada you have to factor in higher local taxes if you want to live in a decent school district). For poorer folks all of the above also applies, but also there's much more government help and social programs in Canada and the bureaucracy is much easier to navigate in Canada (I believe the big reason why there's different attitudes towards government's involvement in everyday life between the countries is due to this. US federal and state governments are the height of incompetence and useless manual processes.)
Once you're in the range of US$200k/yr and up there's infinitely more opportunity in the US, the taxes lower compared to Canada and you're in the job category where most employer health insurance plans and access to health care are excellent and far superior to Canadian health care.
And yes Fotze, filling out FBAR's every year sucks! (I have a wife who likes to change high interest savings accounts everytime there's a higher rate somewhere else so downloading dozens of account statements and calculating the maximum balance for each is a PITA)
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I'm self employed and can live anywhere that has internet. I looked at moving to San Diego about 5 years ago, because
As a self employed person I'd need to cover my own health care. The break even where the savings on taxes covered the health care cost for a decent family plan was $275k.
Then I looked at the cost of houses in a good school district in US dollars and now we still live in Canada.... (luckily, as it turns out)