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[Gil White <gil.white AT xplornet.com>]

And as always there's bit and pieces of truth on both sides.

As a Canuck, I would agree with Drew that the $100 a month from my BC 
neighbour doesn't cover the cost of healthcare, it's a premium charged the 
individual family over and above what the tax system pays for. 

At the same time our tax includes a portion for university education - even 
though Canadian students are always complaining about the cost of University 
tuition  - is only about 25% of the actual cost. 

I remember hearing a fairly good radio documentaty ( did I mention we have a 
great public radio network ) that compared a family of 4 living in Montreal 
to a family of 4 living in Boston - roughtly equal sized cities. When 
everything was thrown in - and I mean health insurance, university education, 
municipal services like water and hydro the tax versus income were just about 
the same.

Now I will admit that so called higher ( cough cough ) education and 
insurance were optional for the American couple but I think that's a cost 
that most Canadians are willing to live with and a number of Americans are 
probably paying for it anyway.

We have our own fringe lunatics to deal with - like the Canadian Medical 
Association which I believe doctors have to belong to here to practice 
medicine and another group that believe the tax payer should be paying for 
all private grade schools whether ethnic or religious based, but for the most 
part our federal government seems to act more like a referree and less like 
favouring one side or the other. 

To slightly change the direction I was in Bangalore, India last summer for 2 
weeks on business. The daily paper was full of stories that I would call 
petty bribery - an inspector turning his head while a contractor extended a 
building into a park, zoning bylaws being ignored, that kind of thing. 

I almost never see that stuff reported either here or when I've been to the 
US. I can't help wonder if the Indian press was better at digging up dirt or 
do the bribes just go to the upper reaches over here?

Gil




On Aug 14, 2009, DSanner106 AT aol.com wrote: 

Very true, on both sides. I don't have a dog in this particular fight 
either, 
it just sets off my bells anytime the govt. says just give us your money
and we will take care of it for you. 

Drew


In a message dated 8/14/2009 12:59:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
Clansgian AT wmconnect.com writes:

I don't really have much of dog in this fight, Drew, as I don't need 
anyone 
to 'care' for my health and I'd quite frankly just as soon die as muck 
with 
the modern medical morass. But I've paid attention to this and I find 
that 
all that is being bandied about is misinformation:

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