Things that are different in Canada

Bambooza

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The problem with socialism is you run out of other people's money,
the problem with capitalism is you run out of other people.
Love it.

No comrade, it was my fault for leading us down this path. ;)
Which is why at the end of the day we can grab a beer and drink to each other's health.
 

SoloFlyer

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Instead, the health insurers have seen record profits since Obamacare kicked in, and their stocks are soaring new to highs every year. The increased profits are NOT passed onto you and me in the form of cheaper premiums, the billions in extra profits they make are used for stock buybacks, acquisitions and a 4th yacht for the CEO.
Again, I have to agree. Bearing in mind what I said in my previous post, I get a discount on company stock purchases and things have only been improving in that regard.
 

Sraika

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Heh, Alexander Keith's IPA was one of my favorites. There are some craft breweries that have good product. Most of the rest is wet, so maybe? But I mean moose piss is wet so they generally weren't my first choice. Overall it's not exactly impressive, but there are a few gems.
i like keith's red better than their IPA :p
 

Cool-Hand-Luke

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Phil

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Sorry I got to this healthcare topic late..

I think I should start off by saying my wife of 11 years is Canadian, she was born in the Northwest Territories where people live in igloos lol, her birth certificate is actually written in Inuit and English, she didn't live there long but I thought it was a pretty damn cool story!

I think there is a distinct point to be made when you are talking about "lines" I don't think people are referring to lines literally its the lines for donors and more serious cases like transplants etc....

The bottom line is this, as an American our overall healthcare system is overall poor when compared to similar countries, in America a single case of cancer in your family could cause you to lose your home, 401k, pensions, savings etc.... simply because out of pocket expenses can be large. The politics of our healthcare system is broken, its based on profits rather than patient care. The average American hesitates to even go to the doctor because of billing and or costs or other stressful side effects of simply going to the doctor.

What should be important is that healthcare is a right every American should have and not be based on profits, before Obama passed the ACA pre existing condition was an issue, I know my family dealt with it first hand, my father was diagnosed with MS and long story short his company after working there and in the field since he was 19 years old cut him loose and our family was forced to pay premium cobra fee's of over 800$ a month to maintain coverage or he would never receive healthcare coverage due to pre existing coverage or the costs would be so large we would never be able to afford them, this was in the early 2000s, my dad was the bread winner in the family and we had lost our income, eventually their home, their savings, life insurance etc... was drained, drugs were offered at 100$ a shot 3-4 times a week out of pocket expenses at that time, now who can afford these extreme costs especially when you have lost your job due to an illness.

I keep hearing from people America has the best healthcare in the world and yes this is true in some regards, if your rich and have a serious illness then yes you might think its perfect, if you never have a serious illness and go through life never having to see the expenses or toll something like MS or cancer has on your family then yes it may seem this way, but the real truth is its not perfect and its far from the best in the world, yes we have top notch doctors, equipment and in those aspects we are strong, but the billing, the administrative and politics of our healthcare is simply broken and bad.

Obama ran on healthcare reform and was elected twice for it, its clear Americans want better healthcare, now I don't want to turn this into a debate over Obama and Chump..... I mean Trump... but its clear healthcare is a big issue for Americans on both sides of the political spectrum was the ACA perfect absolutely not, do we need something better than what we have absolutely yes we do and now we have the socialism debate....

I hear a lot of talk about socialists and socialism, lets make one thing clear, simply because we adopt a socialist idea or implement a socialist idea does not make us a socialist country, in the 1930s we adopted social security and during that time politicians had the same argument, that is socialism and ya one could argue forcing people to pay something they may not want or need at the time is socialist but that does not make it bad or wrong, social security actually works again is it perfect no but overall its effects have been positive, forcing people to pay car insurance, healthcare and other important things may be socialist in nature but again its for the benefit of everyone not just a few and as we have seen in other countries it works.

At some point this country will have to change, capitalism no longer works for the middle class its been turned into a money hammer for the rich, the CEO's, the shareholders etc... capitalism worked because the richest people knew a strong middle class is what made this country great and that ideal is no longer being supported, now were faced with the rich only caring about being richer, at some point we will have to move from a totally capitalistic system to something different the middle class is being squeezed only so the wealthiest can become more wealthy. Our healthcare system will need to move to a more socialistic system we can't keep going this way, the world is passing us up while were stuck in the 40s 50s and 60s but if you read your history and look back the rich were paying their fare share and this is why this country flourished and is now floundering.

If you want to make America great again than you have to be willing to change, this means everything from climate change, healthcare system overhaul, capitalism and even our constitution, the American way is something that progresses with the times, changes and adjusts with the future, if we don't do this we will be the next Rome and cause our own destruction.
 

Vavrik

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How is the Internets up there?
Canada has largely the same carrier network that the US has, even run by the same companies - with a different set of ISP's. If you're in or near a city, or within 100 or 200 km of the US/Canada border (where most of the people live) there really isn't much difference.

Population density gets really low the further north you go, so the infrastructure is not always in place up there. One of my kids lives in an Inuit settlement on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and he has broadband now, but not all villages have that yet. They're working on it, but it's difficult when you don't have the population density to pay for it to happen all at once.
 

FZD

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How is the Internets up there?
Oh yeah, let's compare internet connections shall we

I got...
100 Mbps broadband with unlimited data. It's practically free, it's throw on top of my electricity/water bill, those are unlimited too for 30€/Month. I'd say that's pretty sweet deal. Ah, and it also includes dubious amount of heating in the winter. Like if I didn't do anything myself it'd be 18 degrees celsius here, but throw in some electrical heaters and it's right there at 25 like I like it.

I also have another 100 Mbps unlimited mobile broadband that I pay 17€/Month, unlimited calls and texting. I guess I don't like limits.

If I wanted to upgrade my connection, though I see really no need to, I could get 1 Gbps fibre for 29,90€ / month. It would take only 7 minutes to re-download the entire Star Citizen (my folder says it's 51GB) with that kinda connection, but... meh, I can wait the half an hour it would currently take me (My router allows me to combine two connections, so I can get a combined total of 200 Mbps when I plug my phone in as secondary WAN)

This is in Finland.
 

Esctasy

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Oh yeah, let's compare internet connections shall we

I got...
100 Mbps broadband with unlimited data. It's practically free, it's throw on top of my electricity/water bill, those are unlimited too for 30€/Month. I'd say that's pretty sweet deal. Ah, and it also includes dubious amount of heating in the winter. Like if I didn't do anything myself it'd be 18 degrees celsius here, but throw in some electrical heaters and it's right there at 25 like I like it.

I also have another 100 Mbps unlimited mobile broadband that I pay 17€/Month, unlimited calls and texting. I guess I don't like limits.

If I wanted to upgrade my connection, though I see really no need to, I could get 1 Gbps fibre for 29,90€ / month. It would take only 7 minutes to re-download the entire Star Citizen (my folder says it's 51GB) with that kinda connection, but... meh, I can wait the half an hour it would currently take me (My router allows me to combine two connections, so I can get a combined total of 200 Mbps when I plug my phone in as secondary WAN)

This is in Finland.
I have a bundle. 600mbs unlimited internet, 216 Channels, and a single land line for $221 Cad/month. That a good deal?
 

Vavrik

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I have a bundle. 600mbs unlimited internet, 216 Channels, and a single land line for $221 Cad/month. That a good deal?
Depends what your other options are in your area in comparison, and what the latency and throughput are of the actual connections.
Knowing the bandwidth only tells you 1/3 of the story of your internet connection. You're getting television too, with that many channels it's probably the lions share of the price. The cable companies usually bundle services to reduce the pain.
 
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FZD

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I have a bundle. 600mbs unlimited internet, 216 Channels, and a single land line for $221 Cad/month. That a good deal?
I'm assuming you really like TV?

no, we get massively over charged for data services in Canada (in north america in general) I've got 500mbs and a land line and it's about 140 CA a month
140 CA a month, wow. If you wanted to go a step down, could you get like a better deal? Or are they only selling these multi-hundred-Megabit-per-second -connections knowing most people won't need the full capacity almost ever?

100MBs down, 40MBs up, $99 a month here in Australia.
Wow, that's a lot, but at least Australians earn a ton more on average.

Depends what your other options are in your area in comparison, and what the latency and throughput are of the actual connections.
Knowing the bandwidth only tells you 1/3 of the story of your internet connection. You're getting television too, with that many channels it's probably the lions share of the price. The cable companies usually bundle services to reduce the pain.
Well, latency is basically just whether it's copper, fibre or carrier pigeons with high capacity SSDs. And while there can be a huge difference over shorter distances, over longer distances it becomes more or less irrelevant, and most of the way would then be over the same few cables laid in the ground/ocean.

But yeah, bundled deals make them harder to evaluate.
 
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