Taxes are one of the most common gripes I hear about on online messages boards. Americans think they're paying too much. Back in April, Tea Parties were held by American conservatives protesting high taxes. They fear Obama is going to raise taxes to an unprecedented level to offer "Canadian style" social services. Canadians pay a vary steep price for our social services and I'm not sure we're getting anywhere close to getting our money's worth. So, it's worth comparing the two countries in terms of what we receive versus what Americans receive for our dollars. In Canada, people spend half their year working for the government. According to Wikipedia, my bible, Tax Freedom Day in Canada, the abstract date in which we start working for ourselves and not for the tax man, will land on June 14th this year. The United States has already passed their Tax Freedom Day, which landed on April 13th. The average tax burden of Americans, that is the percentage of money going towards the government from all taxes, state and federal, is 28.2% and is actually decreasing. For Canadians, the tax burden is 44.8% and climbing. Canadian taxes are over a third higher than they are in the US. To add to this, Canadians also make less money than Americans do. According to the CBC, the median household income of Canadians in 2005 was approximately $41,404 CAD, a figure that has not changed since 1980 when adjusted for inflation. Using today's exchange rate, that works out to be $35,179 US. (the rate then was similar to what it is now so it's just easier to use today's rate) By contrast, American median household income was $43,389 during the same period. Americans get to keep about $31,153.30 after taxes while Canadians keep just $19,418. Americans make more and get to take more of it home than we do. Of course I'm using pre-recession figures but we can assume that the large gap still exists.
Of course, Canadians have to take home less because we're paying for health care, right? Americans have a choice of health insurance and what they want and don't want to be insured. Canadians do not have that choice. We can't shop around for the best deals. In Ontario, $600 to $900 annually is collected in tax per person as a "health premium" on top of what is already being paid into healthcare from other taxes. It's worth noting that the socialized medical insurance plans don't cover eye, dental, drugs, physio-therapy, and medical supplies. Everyone is guaranteed health treatment but this often doesn't mean Canadians are entitled to the best care available. While wait times have decreased, average ER wait times are still six to eight hours for minor ailments and up to 19 hours or more for more serious conditions. People are often left on stretchers in the hallways of many urban hospitals because there aren't enough beds. Rural hospitals are being closed down in many provinces to cut costs. Wait times for diagnostic examinations such as MRIs and ultrasounds must be booked months in advance. Many Canadians lack family doctors, particularly in more rural regions but the problem exists in major suburban areas as well. While health treatment in the US is not equal across the board, Americans will usually receive faster service and treatment than Canadians do. While I don't have the statistic in front of me, the US government supposedly spends more per capita on health care than Canadian governments do.
Another incident of Americans having it better than we do in Canada boils down to something much simpler that effects us all on a daily basis; municipal services. I have a friend that lives in Fairfax, Virginia. To give you some idea, Fairfax is a medium sized town that's a suburb of Washington DC. It's like Streetsville would be to Mississauga; a town within a city. I was floored when she told me they get their garbage picked up twice a week. That's everything including recycle. By comparison, in Halton region of Ontario, where I live, garbage is only picked up twice a month while recycling is picked up weekly. In Toronto, residents have to pay for their garbage collection on top of already steep property taxes. Halton uses two trucks to pick up garbage and recycle while most US cities use one truck that can store both. Aside from better garbage collection, Americans also get mail delivery on Saturday. In fact, there was some controversy when the USPS was considering dropping weekend delivery due to the recession and increasing costs. Canada by contrast has never had Saturday delivery. For transit, the DC area features a robust subway system that reaches right out into the suburbs and runs trains all day. In the Toronto area, the subway only operates in the city and commuter trains only run during rush hours. It costs nearly $7 ($5.95 US) to get from outlying areas of the GTA to Union Station, one way regardless of time. By comparison, it costs about $4.50 US to get from far flung Fairfax to central DC during the rush, and $2.35 at all other times. Want to go further? Hop on the Accela Express, a Canadian built electric train that runs between DC and New York City at speeds of 200km/h. You could travel from Toronto to Kingston in 1.5hr rather than the three hours it takes for VIA's aging diesel trains. For those who know the area, Washington DC is hardly a model city. However, it still manages to pull off better services for average citizens, and for less money than we do here.
Canadians are getting ripped off when it comes to the level of services versus what we pay out. The high taxes wouldn't be so bad if we actually got what we paid for. Each year we're asked to give more while governments claw back services or simply leave things to fall far behind the rest of the world. So where is all this money going? Corruption, pet projects, and bureaucratic red tape are the primary culprits. Simple projects, such as constructing a highway offramp or building a badly needed railway grade separation, get tangled up in years worth of environmental impact and cost feasibility studies. At minimum it takes a year for any infrastructure repair project to get approval. The civil service chews up money as it it were going out of style, most of it going to their ludicrous salaries and benefit programs. Politicians spend it on their little projects, such as Toronto mayor David Miller's green initiatives which have sunk the city far into the red. Granted, Americans don't always have things better. Canada's schools are probably better than theirs and we do pay less for electricity. However, if we continue to waste money at this rate, Canada risks slipping further and further behind the rest of the developed world. We're paying a small and increasing fortune annually to the government, who keeps infrastructure and basic services at the level of barely adequate at best. It's high time we Canadians started holding our own Tea Parties. The government needs to know that if they expect us to pay out so much, we at least want our services to reflect that. As for the Americans, you guys really don't have it all that bad, even with Obambi as your new president. Anybody know where I can get a green card?
0 comments: on "Americans Have It Good"
Post a Comment