Lost my job

[crazymikey]

The funniest part about Canada and the US, is that when I cross the border and get into the states, I feel like I'm in a foreign place. So much is the same, but there's small differences that make it seem different. It's a slightly different feeling atmosphere...or atleast after I cross the border, I just get a vibe of being somewhere different. Then the whole miles and gallons thing. And the fast food menus. My god! No wonder you're all fat. I would be 500lbs if I lived in America with your horribly disgusting, but such delicious choices of food...for cheap. I even walk into a Mcdonalds in the US and the menu is completely different than what we have here.


The first time I was ever in the States was actually '09 when I packed up to moved from Ontario to Alberta. I decided to drive through the states so I could see a little bit of the US, and thought I'd save a bit of money on gas with the exchange. At the time, in Ontario we were paying I think just under or around a dollar per litre for gas, and I remember filling up most of the way through the US for about $2.45 or 2.55/gal. When I crossed over the border from North Dakota into Saskatchewan, I ended up filling up in Moose Jaw,SK and gas was $1.05/L there. Drove a couple more hours and hit Alberta and the first station I saw was 95.9 just outside Medicine Hat.

Most recently being in Helena,Montana a couple weeks ago, regular (85 octane as well...ewww) was selling for 2.89 or 2.99/gal depending on the station.

I'll admit it was an interesting experience driving across the country. I left from outside of Toronto, and drove southwest down the 401 and eventually crossed the border in Windsor, into Detroit. I could not get out of Michigan fast enough. That is the absolute worst place I have ever been to in my life. Detroit was so run down and dirty, and even scary. The rest of the state, while somewhat scenic, just had a really dumpy feeling to it. The people I dealt with were friendly, but I just didn't like Michigan at all. I plan to never go back. I crossed over into Indiana and all of a sudden, it was a total change. Much cleaner and nicer, though a little boring. Again, very friendly people to deal with. Got into Illinois that same day and ended up staying the night in Arlington Heights, just north of Chicago. I actually really liked Chicago and IL in general. Wisconsin was really nice as well. Minnesota was very nice as well. North Dakota was quite scenic and nice. Fargo happened to be on my route, so I stayed the night there. I'm a big fan of the movie Fargo, so I felt like I had to go.

I finally crossed back into Canada in Sakatchewan and Saskatchewan is basically the Michigan of Canada. Oh my god. What a depressing, dirty and BORING place Saskatchewan is. I have to admit, the people in Sask are the friendliest people you'll ever meet, but I don't know how they live there without going crazy.

I've made some trips down to Montana since I've been living here and it's super boring there until you hit Great Falls or Helena. There's actually a very nice scenic bit of I-15 between Great Falls and Helena that twists through the mountains and is a very fun drive when there's little traffic. I get a weird vibe in Montana when I'm there. The people seem a little...odd. It's a weird feeling I have trouble describing.

Overall, I like the US, and I want to travel and see much more of it, especially the east coast and the south. I'm going to Vegas in March, and that'll be my first time going there, so I'm really excited to see Vegas.

Nowhere is ever going to be perfect to live. However, Alberta is somewhere that I actually chose to live after first visiting and then researching. Plus, also knowing people here helped as well. I'm happy with where I chose to reside. I wasn't happy where I was. I dislike Ontario greatly for many reasons.
Out here, it still feels different, but it's starting to feel more like home and where I belong. It's beautiful country out here.

I wish I could take the time to travel around the country. There's so much diversity to see.

[owequitit]

I dont live in Canada. I dont know how things work. I apologize for assuming it's a nice little country that has a few things figured out better than the states do. Im also sorry that you, apparently, hate it there. From what little i do know about Canada, aside from the major cities being more expensive than where currently live, I'd love to live there. Now this....

This is the "grass is greener" mentality. How do you know they have things figured out better? Isn't that the kind of thing you figure out based on actually using the system?

Canada-
"Each employed Canadian citizen pays toward an unemployment insurance, which is known as EI or UI. The money goes toward a fund for the unemployed. The amount received by the unemployed individual depends on how much you earned while employed, how long you worked there and how many people are unemployed in your area. The unemployment insurance is managed by Service Canada, which determines whether or not you receive help and how much."

The States-
"Unemployment benefits are usually available to workers who have been laid off or fired through no fault of their own. These benefits are insurance-not charity. Employers are required to pay a special tax to fund this national compensation program. In the aftermath of losing a job, thinking about money and how you are going to pay the bills can be overwhelming."

Things are a little different here. "Better" or "worse" is in the eye of the beholder. I was simply stating that Mikey made it seem like signing up for, and getting, unemployment was rather simple. Here, it requires alot of paperwork, patience in other people and waiting.

You are making false generalizations.

First off, by the text you yourself posted, the systems are all but identical in function. The biggest difference is who pays it. In Canada, the employee apparently pays it. In the States, the companies pay it. Advantage? US. Why? Because I get the same benefit with less out of my pocket. Unless you are a capitalist, in which case you could argue that that fee on US companies stifles growth.

However, if I get unemployeed in either place, through no fault of my own (that is a key part of BOTH programs), then I go apply, and get my benefits. You apparently misunderstood his APPLYING for benefits as automatically receiving them. He pretty clearly said his benefits would kick in AFTER his other money runs out, which means there is still processing time. Also, consider that each province is much like each state. They are able to do things at their own accord. There is no "standard" program. The Federal government sets certain guidelines for the money received from them, and then the states are free to set the rest up on their own. However, if you apply, and qualify (just like Canada) the process is relatively straight forward. Your benefits are based on your recent income, just like Canada.

By the time that money runs out, I should be receiving my first unemployment check.

And like you mentioned about EI above in Canada, it gets taken off every paycheck we get.

On my checks, It tells me the gross amount, in this case was $1961.44. It then telle me how much of it was Withheld, which was $482.73 and then they took off another $19.24 because I had the company's benefits plan.

Then on a second part, it says $90.43 was deducted for CPP (Canada Pension Plan), $33.60 was deducted for EI and $358.70 was taken off in taxes on my gross amount, so my final net for that check was only $1459.47.

So everybody who works in Canada pays into EI on every check. Then when we do need to ever collect EI, the amount we receive is based on an average of the wages we earned over the past 52 calendar weeks, and we only get about 55 or 60% of the wages. So when I receive mine, I'll be based on $15/hr.

When I was on it last time, in the past year I had worked at jobs from $10-18/hr, so my $10/hr job brought the average down and I ended up only getting the minimum of $244/week.

Not to pick on you, Canada or anything else, but I just wanted to use some of your numbers to elaborate a couple of facts about Canada vs the US.

First, they took about 25% of your gross income out for taxes and such. Based on your check being regular and steady, you seemed to gross about $51K Canadian. Based on just percentages, and assuming currency parity (which is pretty much true right now), in the US, you would be around 15% tax. Over the course of the year, that is going to add up. I also know for a fact that in Canada, your employer was taxed at a much higher rate than they would have been here because my uncle owns a manufacturing company up there. Sorry, just went through your itemized numbers just below. Basically, it looks like you would be at about 20% tax. What is staggering is how large your Pension payin is (I am assuming similar to our Social Security program).

A couple of notes about this specific income level too. Not sure how it compares to Canada, but in the US, the marginal tax rate starts to ramp up VERY quickly and significantly at $50K. The reality is that the top few % of wage earners in the US account for over 30% of the tax collected, so in order to make that happen, tax rates must ramp up significantly. Still, I think in the US, our marginal tax rate (taxes before deductions) is about 5-10% lower than yours at this point, and below $50K the gap would get quite a bit larger. Also, the only people in the US that pay the full marginal tax rate, are the ones that have a really bad tax person or don't know what they are paying. Again, not sure how it works in Canada, but I am pretty sure that by the time all of the numbers are cooked, we pay far less per individual than an equivalent Canadian citizen, unless you are a top wage earner.

Also, by the time you add in all of your other fees, the disparity grows larger. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that Canada is much more highly nationalized than the US. Since social programs cost tremendous amounts of money, the taxes must rise. Second, it is unlikely that the Canadian government is attempting to maintain the ultra-high level of stupidity of the US government with debt financing and giving money away for free.

Gas was at 95.9 Cents/L up til christmas, and sat at that price since I moved here in 2009. For the holidays it has bumped up to 99.9. Cost me $36 to fill my car yesterday which is average, I usually pay $30-38 to fill it.

$10 is an expensive fast food meal. I can get a regular menu footlong sub at Subway for less than $6.50. I can usually buy most of my meals for under $10, unless I go somewhere like KFC or Arbys which seem to be pretty pricey, and easily spend $15 there. I pay $575/mo to rent a basement suite in a house. There's 3 of us living in the house. My utilities and everything are included in my rent so it never fluctuates.

Groceries are relatively expensive here, especially if you shop at Safeway. However, they've dropped alot of prices lately and I can go in there and spend $50 on groceries to last me 2 weeks.

Plus, we only pay 5% GST on everything here, there's no PST here.

I found Ontario very expensive to live in. Since moving here and being on my own, I've found it relatively easy and comfortable to get by.

A couple of notes here too. Your costs are marginally higher than ours, but not really too far out of line. I pay about $625 for a half duplex that was new construction when I moved in, and has a garage, so depending on size, that doesn't seem ridiculous. I would say my cost of living is...fair. California on the other hand can have rooms for rent on the order of $600+ per month, so depending on area, it can get stupid here too. However, your gas is more expensive. I spend about $25-30 bucks for premium and have only even gotten close to touching $35 bucks when I was literally coasting into the station on fumes. However, that isn't hugely out of line either. Canada seems to be pretty good about taxing the non-essentials and leaving the essentials cheaper.

However, in the US, there is no Federal Sales tax, and the state tax varies by location, much as the PST would.

One thing I have noticed about "liberal" states and countries is that they have gotten creative in hiding and dispersing tax to make them appear to be less prevalent than they really are. For instance, when they determine they need X amount of dollars, rather than make a 15% increase in income tax, which they KNOW people will bitch about and not like, they may make 2 or 3 smaller tax changes (increase GST, income tax and some other tax by 1-2% each), and then devise a myriad of fees to recoup the rest of the cost. This allows them to make it look like they are not greatly increasing fees, when in actuallity they are, which is why it is important to watch where your money is going, and how much.

Here is a case in point. Your marginal income tax doesn't appear to be GROSSLY out of line (certainly higher though), but when you add in your pension and the other fees, some of them are significantly higher. Also, when you stop to consider that 10% extra tax is actually a lot (imagine having to suddenly pay 10% in PST when you had none), it changes the perspective a bit. That works out to an extra $5,000 a year. I also find it interesting that on top of your provincial health care tax, you have to pay extra for insurance on top of that, which is nearly as much as I pay for my own insurance, so overall, you are paying more for what amounts to probably more or less equal care. Now, if I spend a fortune on healthcare that might change, but at this age I don't. Also, I think I have an annual maximum to pay if something were to happen. Anyway, when you start adding up the extra costs, it changes the picture significantly.

Washington state is another good example of this. They ballyhoo the fact that they have no income taxes, but in reality, the other fees and costs more than make up for it. However, the PERCEPTION is that people THINK they are not being taxed as much. All governments do it in various ways. The US LOVES to collect money for something and then divert it, or to tell the voters that a tax is only "temporary" until the shortfall is made up, and then it never goes away.

John I remember before you moved here you were the prototypical "grass is greener" person.....Then you moved here and guess it doesnt live up to your expectations....so now its the worst place ever?

You can not compare the US to Canada for much....Especially when you start comparing things like prices.....Wanna know why shits cheaper in the US?....how bout the 300 million more people they can sell to...or the fact that farms can run year round rather than just the summer....yes we are taxed out the ass....but then again if I get hurt I dont have to worry about paying for it.

Im not trying to start a war of words here because both will have positives and minuses.....I would LOVE to be able to live in California or florida....or fuck anywhere that stays about 0 year round....but at the same time I doubt very much I would leave if I had the opportunity

And last I checked.....Canada is fairly democratic....Im pretty sure we are free to live our lives as we please....and Im not sure but arent we independent of Britain as well?

Also EI is easy to get here.....You apply and if you didnt get fired or quit....you get it.

And you lived in the GTA right?.....Pretty much the most expensive place to live in the Country (maybe VAN is more but TO up there)

Sorry, but some of your assertions are incorrect.

1) We do not have lush and fertile ground year round. Yes, we have a lot of it, and SOME can produce year round, but some of our major corn and wheat states suffer from winters that are more than severe enough to put the kabosh on any winter farming. In fact, many of our most productive states border you (Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, MN, etc) and are extremely unproductive in the winter.

2) Actually, you DO have to pay for your injuries and sicknesses, and you SHOULD worry about it. I have noticed a shift in Canadian mentallity lately that is partly false on two counts. First, your healthcare is not free. You ARE taxed out the ass for it, and in addition, many people have to carry additional health insurance anyway. So even though you don't cut a check when you walk into the hospital, you do pay for it, every moment you are at work, in fact. On the other hand, we don't pay for it every day, we pay for it when we use it for the most part, so we BOTH are paying for healthcare.

Secondly, Canadian (and US liberals) seem to have developed this incorrect vision of someone having to walk into a hospital and having to cut a check for $200K in order to be helped. That is not only false because hospitals in the US can't refuse help, even to those who can't pay, but the vast, vast majority of Americans have rather good insurance that removes most of the burden. Take my mom's heart surgery for instance. Total cost of everything was about $260K US. Total cost to my parents? $1500 plus whatever her montly premium was. Total cost was less than 2K, which works out to just over $100 a month. That is less than what most Canadians contribute to the provincial plans, and also doesn't include any additional health coverage you have to carry, as that included her medical, vision and dental. Mine is VERY similar, and that is despite having lost much of the quality of insurance in this country over the last 10 years, due to inflation. Now, let's take someone with ZERO insurance. Ultimately, if they require care, they go to the hospital and receive it. If that hospital can't provide the level of care required, they have to transport the patient to one that can. At the end of the day, if the patient can't cover the cost, it is charged off, and ultimately absorbed by the state and Federal government. Hence, it is no worse than your system, other than the fact the person may not have paid in. However, they wouldn't have paid that total amount in many cases anyway. The leftist media has done a pretty swell job of convincing the average joe that they are in immediate peril and thus should surrender total control to the government over such a vital function, because if they don't, the system is going to collapse. The problem is that it is going to collapse anyway, it will probably just be faster with the Feds in control, and I will elaborate as to why in a moment.

There is a great push in the US to convince people that they need the government to provide health care for them. Even with the majority of people not supporting it, they pushed it through anyway, which is why the democrats no longer control the house. Here is why. The US politicians KNOW that the government can't foot the bill without way upping fees. So the solution was to make the businesses pay for it. The problem with that is that the businesses already provide care for their employees in most cases, which means that most employeers have, or will have to drive down coverage for their employees for the same amount of money. That is bad for us, because now those with insurance effectively have a lower quality of life than they did, for the same money. Then, the fees from that increase on employers is designed to pay for those without insurance. The problem with that was they initially promised they could cover 30 million Americans for 10 years for $1 trillion dollars. When all was said and done, they can cover less than 10 million Americans (leaving 20+ still without insurance), for 6 years for just under 1 trillion dollars. If you extrapolate the numbers, you quickly see that they are in fact covering 1/3 of what they promised, for half the time, for 1.5 times the cost. It doesn't add up. Of course, I don't get any benefit from that, because my employer is required to maintain my insurance, so the only benefit I see is an increase in my cost, and a decrease in my coverage. They have already started reducing the parts of the plan that were eliminated under the new law which were seen as "frivilous" by the federal government.

Now, here is why it won't work. The media in this country (and apparently Canada) would have you believe that without nationalized healthcare the US will collapse. The problem is that A) it will collapse anyway, because our politicians are short sighted and corrupt, are on the payroll of special interests, and we perpetually reward them for that. B) the only thing fundamentally changed by nationalized healthcare is who collects the money, and who pays the bill. It doesn't change the dynamics of cost and service, which are the real root of the problem.

The US has a very unique healtcare problem as a result of WWII. We have a huge glut of adults called the "baby" boomer generation. The problem is that this generation outnumbers mine by about 6 or 7:1. That means that for every one of us, we have to effectively care for 7 people. This is resulting in a huge glut of services rendered which means there aren't enough healthcare professionals to provide it. No matter how much they recruit and train, it isn't enough. As per the laws of economics, when supply of labor is short, and demand is high, cost goes up. Nationalizing healthcare will NOT remedy this fundamental component of health care cost. As costs rise, it becomes harder for insurance companies to pay the bill, unless they reduce coverage or increase costs, or both. Having the Federal government deal with it is NOT going to fix the problem, because even though they are not profit driven, they waste far more money, which offsets any profits that would have been made. So we haven't resolved the inflation issue, and we have increased waste. I have yet to find someone who can explain to me how that reduces costs. The additional compounding problem that has not been addressed is the fact that the average life expectancy for my grandparent's generation is also increasing rapidly. So in essence, while having to care for 6 baby boomers, and 3 grandparents, I will also have to figure out how to provide insurance for myself. The government can't fix that issue, unless they start knocking people off.

Secondly, litigation is a MAJOR issue in this country and it is out of control. We have devolved to the point where we preach freedom of speech and religion and everything else under the sun, but we sue anyone who doesn't agree with us. The problem with lawyers is that they are expensive. They don't want to work for free, and they feel entitled to lots of money. Rightfully so. They are highly trained and educated professionals. The problem with being a lawyer, is that you don't get paid unless you are working, and the best form of working for a lawyer is to take on a case that will pay beucoup bucks for the time rendered. Hence the villification of corporations. Unless the lawyers stop suing for everything, stuff like malpractice insurace will continue to sky rocket out of control, which directly affects inflation. The government largely neglected to address this issue, because if you look at the paycheck of the controlling party and follow it back, the lawyers pay big bucks to shut them up. Why? Because law practice is big dirty business just like big dirty oil companies, which brings me back to my point about "special interest groups" and their destruction of our country.

The real controversy is going to occur in 25-30 years when all of these baby boomers dying off results in a massive meltdown of the healthcare industry, as the huge numbers of people will no longer be required to perform their job functions.

The fact is that it is an issue that reaches far beyond nationalization, and this apparently increasing perception that people don't pay for healthcare in a nationalized system is simply stupid and ignorant. The misconception that Americans are dying in the streets by the millions is also retarded.

California and Florida are nice, but there are other, less expensive places you can live that are almost as nice. Just depends on what you wanna do for a living, what kind of weather you like, how expensive your tastes are and what kind of people you're willing to put up with, lol. Arizona and New Mexico, for exaompe. Both are rather warm year round with mild winters and the cost of living is decent. It may be farther south than you'd like. Tennesee, Kentucky and the Carolinas are nice. Humid though. And the people there can be....different. Lol. I have a love-hate relationship with Missouri. Im 2 hours from Kansas City, 2 hours from St. Louis, 6 hours from Chicago and 8-12 hours from a number of other large cities. The summers here are hot and humid and the winters can be bitter cold, but temps tend to stay above 0*F and snowfall averages in the 4-12" total per season. Just saying, if you find people or visit places, you may find they're what you're looking for.

No offense or anything, but I really don't you lived here even remotely long enough to tell people how it is climate wise.

I would say that 4-6 months out of the year in the southern half of the state qualify as a little more than "pretty warm." Also, if you claim a dry heat, then you probably have not been anywhere near water in August. Humidity is not a linear scale, so while it might be convenient to say it is only 60% humidity in AZ, that neglects the fact that 60% humidity is a lot more than 90% humidity when the temperature is 20-30* hotter. Also, I am still not sure how people can say "it isn't that bad" when opening a door is like preheating your oven to 300* and putting your face right in front of it while opening the oven door. Most people who make that comment haven't been here when it was really hot. The rest of the year is not bad. We basically trade winter activity for summer isolation. As for the norther part of the state, it is wholly different. Different elevation, terrain features, climate, everything. It is not unlike the more northerly parts of the country due to elevation difference. In fact, it snowed in Phoenix yesterday, and will be well below freezing in my town tonight. There was even snow nearly to town level in my hometown yesterday, which is about the hottest place on earth in summer time. Snow, icy roads, skiing, the whole works.

Theres a reason why things are more expensive here.....and its simple as supply and demand....We dont really have the option of growing everything year round...well not to the extent where we can comfortably live off it.....plus like I said you guys have 10x the population so of course prices are gonna be a bit cheaper.....plus I will admit our government has been a bit dumb with dealing with the US....as a country we pay much more for things than we really should....like gas for instance.

But milk isnt 5 dollars for 3 liters....its 4 dollars for 4....and You can easily eat at mcdonalds (or any other major fast food place) for less 7 dollars....John is just making it seem worse than it really is to make his argument stronger.....Canada really isnt that much different than the US....he just didnt like it here so hes gonna bitch about it.

1) Not all of your cost increase is attributed to economies of scale, unless you are in the really isolated areas like the Yukon. Since the vast majority of Canadians live within a couple hundred miles of the border, this is not the cause in the majority of cases.

2) Remember that a supply curve is asymptotic. That means that the cost reduction from going from 30 million Candadians to 50 million Canadians is not the same as it would have been going from 10 million to 30, probably by several orders of magnitude. What that means is that while 300 million Americans consuming does have an effect on the cost of goods, we also require a much larger amount of infrastructure to produce the quantity of goods we require, and thus our costs are much higher. You make it sound as though it costs us the same to produce, but we use a lot more and it is all profit. I also remind you that our population is much more spread out, and thus our transportation costs are several orders of magnitude greater, because in addition to distributing east/west, we have over 1,000 miles north to south that must also be distributed to.

Your milk is 30-50% more than ours is, so I would hardly call that insignificant. It would require a lot of studying, which I am not going to do for a thread here, but I would bet you could calculate the majority of your cost increase back to taxes and fees along the production line (remember that if we add taxes and fees at small amounts along the process, it looks smaller than it actually is).

CPP we cant collect till were 65....and I think when you do collect its like 1000 bucks a month or something....We do get taxed out the ass (specially ontario)....but it does go to help out the population so at the end of the day its worth it to me....Its like you guys buying health insurance....Its kinda the same thing for us....we just dont have a choice....and it does go for more than just health care

I still can't figure out how having fewer choices is supposed to be having more "freedom."

[crazymikey]

This has actually turned into quite an interesting comparative discussion.

As for my income, ha! I wish I made $50k a year. I'd have no problem getting by with my current situation.

I made $15/hr and paid bi weekly. I'd usually net $1000 and change per paycheck. So really, I'm a little over $30k annually, which is borderline on the poverty/you can just make it by line.

[owequitit]

This has actually turned into quite an interesting comparative discussion.

As for my income, ha! I wish I made $50k a year. I'd have no problem getting by with my current situation.

I made $15/hr and paid bi weekly. I'd usually net $1000 and change per paycheck. So really, I'm a little over $30k annually, which is borderline on the poverty/you can just make it by line.

Interesting. I thought it seemed sort of fishy, because I just extrapolated your last check, but it didn't seem like $15 would make that. That is what I get for being lazy.

At 30K you are getting screwed comparatively speaking, as in addition to all of the other costs, you are still paying about 10% more in income taxes. I was going to find the actual rough marginal tax rates from the US Internal Revenue Service, but this comp doesn't have excel on it, so I can't open their spread sheets.

Depending on the part of the country here, you can make it OK with about 30% less than that in the more reasonable areas. In the higher priced areas, your level of income is probably about the breaking point.

[King James]

When I saw you posted here scott I was like fuck...hes gonna shoot me down haha

I wasnt trying to say our healthcare is perfect....Far from it and I know it....I was just using it as one example as to where our taxes go.....but I must say Ive never heard of anyone having to pay for the majority of health needs here (ontario anyways)

I also realize that your major farming states cant really produce in the winter....but you do have those that can produce year round....not to mention we have to pay out the ass to get stuff shipped here for us...we seemed to get fucked on anything that crosses our boarder....plus you guys are just closer to the areas that can produce year round....and on the milk comment I know we pay more for everything through taxes....I just was annoyed how John was making it seem as if we pay exorbitant amounts for everything.

[JohnD1079]

you guys are paying a significant amount more for the same products as us. I dont understand why you cant admit it. Almost everyone I know from Canada that has visited the states comment on how much lower prices are here. People (from the GTA) travel to Buffalo to go shopping and stuff because its cheaper, and then have to "smuggle" it back into Canada. Prime example is....Cars.

Im sure there are some things, but I honestly cant think of anything that is cheaper in Canada then in the US, except for maybe weed.(ohh wait, school. Its definetly cheaper there, but then again because ALL(I think) schools in Canada are state schools, they are right on par with our state school. In the whole 1.5 years of living there, I never bought an article of clothing. I have friends/relatives buy and ship stuff to my house all the time. Shipping (although it went up everywhere) is also much more expensive. I could go on and on naming things.

I also feel that many many things in Canada are monopolized by the government. The government really does support the main chains. I dont think I have ever seen a small private bank anywhere(there could be though). Tow trucks are basically supported through the government.

Now I should go on to say I love Toronto. Its a really great city and I would live there. If it wasnt for the weather, government and a few other things, I would still be up there. Id just rather visit it instead of living there. I always though American should just take over Southern Ontario and just give you guys Michigan, lol. While there is a "ghetto" in Toronto, it is not bad at all, compared to what ive seen before. There are lower and high class area's, but I have never been in an area where I havent felt safe. Almost everything in Toronto is beasutiful.....in the summer. Winters are long, hard and depressing.

**General comments, not necessarily about Canada**
People always bitch about how the government dosent provide what they need, but then when they try to accomodate the populations needs, raising the taxes, once again you hear bitching. Its like all people do is bitch without common sense. You want stuff, it costs $$, and your gonna have to pay for it through taxes.

Funny story. I was at a BK in jersey, ordering whatever combo special they had at the time, $4.99, and it came out to $5.XX after taxes. The guy behind the counter was like, ya, taxes always fuck up everything. I felt like sayin, bitch, I feel like I should be paying more taxes so you guys can fix all the potholes.

[JohnD1079]

Also, crazymikey. Did you notice a fuel ecomony drop when you went from the states to Canada? I dont know if you keep track, but my mpg is always 2-3 mpg lower if I fill up in Canada.

[J-specCb4]

i lost my job (which i LOVED) on the 4th of november.... life has been crazy since, but tonight i may have gotten my steady job back plus some perks. cheers to that! everything will work out for the better man, just keep urself from going nuts... the last few months of my life have been hell! lol.

[MikeW]

Holy Jesus, Scott.

I do apologize for generalizing weather in Arizona. You are correct in that I only spent 6 months there and it was from October through April. I was not there during the summer. What I meant to say is that, while I havent experienced summer temps, I have experienced some of the heat, when I first arrived in October and right before i left, in April. Humidty here, in Missouri, during the summer, reaches close to 100%. Actual temps, without humidity can, and do, get over 100. Then add the humidity. From what Ive been told, by people who live there year-round, is that the humidty is low but temps reach 110, 115, even 120 in some places. I think the lack of humidty is a trade-off for higher actual temps. 104 in 97% humidity is miserable. You wanna talk about sucking...Id rather breathe hot, desert air than breathing in hot, moist, humid air. In the summer here, the air is thick and breathing it sucks. When you sweat, you stay wet. You can go in and cool off, but it takes you longer. In Arizona, so Ive been told, it gets hot quicker, but you cool down easier and faster. I, personally, prefer dry heat to humid heat. Personally.

I made just over $17k, after taxes, in 2010. I do live with my parents, but this town is cheap to live in. I could get a 1 bedroom apartment for around $500/month. Hell, the house we're in now is half of a duplex; 3bed/2bath with a 1-car garage and we pay $675/mo. It was brand new and the neigborhood is pretty nice. Utilities for an apartment would probably run me about $150/mo +/-. Count in gas, food, cell phone, insurance, etc and Im probably looking at roughly $1000/mo total, for everything. That leaves me with about $400 to play with. That's $100/week for "extracurricular activities". Depending on what you do or how often you do it, that may or may not be enough. Doesnt leave much for emergencies.

Mikey, you are correct, we are fat. Scott may not be but the rest of the country is. Something like half of us are overweight and/or obese. Might even be approaching the 2/3 mark. Two-Thirds!. That's crazy. And while I think cheap, BAD food(or the companies that produce it or make it available) arent necessarily to blame, they're not helping. Morgan Spurlock did "SuperSize Me" some years back and while his testing was extreme(nothing but McD's, 3x a day) his findings were very true. Ive worked there and I see how things are and I know how bad they are. Anyway, I think people blaming companies for providing food thats bad for us, for cheap is a cop-out. Have some self discipline. Have some self control. Once in a while or when you're in a pinch, thats fine. But every day or ordering $10 worth of food(at McD's thats alot) is not necessary. But thats how it is here, or at least in the stores Ive been to. Food thats bad for you is cheap. The stuff thats good for you, tends to me more expensive. Ive actually researched this myself. It's not the companies trying to rip us off or make us fat, that's just how it is. Better cuts of meat and lower percentage milks, require more work than their less-healthy counterparts.

All-in-all, Scott, you are right. It's hard not to get that "Greener Grass" mindset without actually living there. Even if you do research, it's like a relationship; you can know everything about someone but you dont truly know them until you live with them. Same goes for geographical location. It may seem better or nice but until you actually live there, there's no way to know for sure.

[SilverShadow]

Happy new year and I wish you a better year. After reading your entire post, I had some flashbacks of all my jobs and the way they started and ended.
Most of my life I worked as a grocery store cashier. About that later. I had two jobs that were very interesting..I worked as the guy who drove around and fixed and took out the money from pay phones for private company. Going into some very bad places in LA can stress you for life. That company sold and I went with the sale. Assholes owned the new place and I was fired for not performing. Then got job as Super Shuttle driver. Great job but was the Jew working for Armenians....difficult to get the dispatcher to give me work when he funneled it all to his homeland buddies. Got into hit and run and I sold the van. Last job was with Wal Mart..Quick summary...Got fried over something I said to customer. They denied my unemployment, I challenged it and won! Got all checks (3k) at once so nothing now. Filed disability after heart attack, stroke and triple-by pass. Now I check out sites on computer and visit my wife who is at a convalescent because she has Muscular Dystrophy.
I know..long post but I had to to show you and everybody how things can be better or worse depending on your state of mind.

[JohnD1079]

ohh, something id like to point out, and agree with some of you, is that Canada(keep in mind, when i talk about canada, i am actually referencing to toronto), is much more diverse than america. toronto is the definition of a multicultural people. i have never met soo many people from different places of the world. you go out and will literally see all types of different people. depending on who your talking to, that could be seen as a good or bad thing though.

also, the girls in canada are much much more prettier/hotter/sexier. that statment could be biased though, considering that i live(in the burbs) of the ugliest and fatest(i think) city in america. i literally fell in love with how beautiful toronto was, but once i got over the puppy love stage of it, i realized that toronto and I just arnt meant to be, lol

[deevergote]

Yeah, there are some truly hideous people around here, John...

[JohnD1079]

lol, not sure if serious, but philadelphia ranked last in person attractivness in a recent article analyzing the top 30 US cities for various different catagories.

[deevergote]

It's all the cheesesteaks and pizza places!

Though if you know where to look, there are places in Philly (and the surrounding areas) that are packed with beautiful people. I went to a dive bar in Ardmore last night, and the bartender was gorgeous (I learned later that she is also a model)

[JaberCB7]

Even if you dont find anything right away to sit down for too long, i went through similar situation but after my first month searching for a job i kinda told myself "fuck it, ill collect for a month then start looking again"......3yrs later i was still collecting but luckily on the last year i got productive and was working security and doing body work under the table, Thank god ive been working now since june, not the best but good paycheck for single guy with no kids