What kind of country do you want to live in?

Tax burdens in developed nations

Canada comes out pretty low relative to the other countries on this list which isn’t that surprising to me as the federal government has been cutting taxes ever since we slayed the deficit monster.

The numbers are misleading in a sense because there’s no discussion as to private costs for services that are not available from the government. In the Denmarks, the Norways and Finlands you get a range of services that either don’t exist or are extremely costly in countries like the US or even here. No nurse visits you at your home when you have a new baby in North America. There are no special immigrant integration services that help immigrant children pick up the native language faster. When you pay more taxes you get these services.

Well, not you in particular. Society gets those services and in these countries it’s believed that these services are a public service that are good for everyone or are good for the nation. Eg. Helping immigrants integrate reduces crime and unemployment among the immigrant class.

I generally am in favour of more taxes and more public services although I grow concerned with the benefits of these services are used by the few and far between. On the flipside if the benefit of said service is great then maybe it’s okay to do it – I’m sure new mothers in France GREATLY appreciate having a nurse come into their home during the first few weeks to help them. In Canada you get a year off and hopefully your parents. In America you get nothing.

I’d be interested in joining this report with one that includes the costs for private services – eg. medical care in the US to show how much income gets used to pay for “essential services”. I suspect the range suddenly becomes narrower – you’ll see Americans and Canadians paying out of pocket for things that are free in Europe, things that are everyone considers essential but for which we have decided we don’t want to pay taxes for.

The American habit of not wanting to pay for anything (no taxes but I want the service) is where they shoot themselves in the foot. Every modern health care system outside of the US is better run and less expensive yet because it’s paid for with taxes rather than private money a sizeable portion of the citizenry refuse to support it even thought it’s much cheaper and much better.

In all modern countries there are a core set of services that people use and more often than not the public one is more effective (but not necessarily more efficient) are producing outcomes that are better for the country. That’s not to say there isn’t waste in public programs (most public infrastructure projects are a waste of money) but private programs intended to serve the greater good rarely work out because the metrics they are measured against are rarely those that serve the greater good.

So what are our core services? Obvious ones are military, education, health care, infrastructure and law enforcement. Less obvious? Daycare? Arts and Culture? Environmental regulations? What else? Even within the obvious core services we don’t have clear tenets that define what each provides. How strong should our military be? Is university free? For how long is it free?

No discussion appears to be taking place in Canada about this while in the US the discussion has devolved into “death panels” and cries of communism. Our government isn’t doing its part since they have a very clear desire to cut as much as they can and are trying to cut as sneakily and quietly as they can.

It’s pretty sad.

Good fortune

Despite a plethora of black cats that cross in front of me in Victoria I have been pretty fortunate the past few years. I got my latest paycheque and realized that I know net more than I grossed 3 years ago and 3 years ago I was netting more than I was grossing 3 years ago. That’s pretty awesome.

Canada Line

I hopped on the new Skytrain line a couple weeks ago when I was travelling back and forth between Vancouver and Victoria and while it is a nice bit of kit and pretty convenient for a ferry rider like me I find it an appalling waste of money done mostly to make money for the moneyed interests of BC that had no basis in terms of urban planning or future funding or growth.

As it is built, the line is underfunded and undersized and is built not to carry residents of Richmond to work downtown but to take airport passengers downtown. The system fails both from a lack of capacity and a lack of population density – two things that shouldn’t happen at once for a shiny new rail line. The stations are sized for ridership of 10 years ago (too small) and the areas which it traverses are low density neighbourhoods populated by people who do not favour transit.

As a flood plain, it has long been agreed by most urban planners that Richmond should not pursue high population growth as a matter of safety. Chinese immigration put paid to that but this Skytrain line makes it worse and Richmond leadership is eagerly building up apartment towers near the stations in an area which is a total mess in terms of traffic congestion (immigrant Chinese do not like transit).

The money (several billion) would have been better spent on expanding services in Burnaby and Coquitlam and maybe even that dump we know as Surrey. All those areas could use it and it could have been either more buses or a number of light rail lines that would have led to better communities instead of an underground line that is a waste of money.

I moved

I moved to Victoria. I’m sure you heard. All 3 of you.

People in Vancouver look down on Victoria in general – I guess when you’re used to living a “large” town Victoria looks like hick/senior-ville to you. (Vancouver is only big if you haven’t been to a real big city – NY, Shanghai, HK etc)

I happen to like it though. I like the smaller town feel and how everything is nearby – I can get to everything important in the city in 20 minutes. In Vancouver 20 minutes sometimes only got you 5 blocks.

In other news I have no news.