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Comment by blairbeckwith | Hacker News Reader

That's tough. Not everyone who wants to be an actor gets to be an actor either.

People have to settle for not fulfilling their dreams every day.

True that, but a system that relies on a steady stream of people with unrealistic ideas about what they're doing and going to do, is not a healthy system. Either it will continue to receive misplaced hopes and turn them into cheap labor, or it will not. Either way is bad.

Not to take this off track, but imagine how much more prone to taking risks we would be if we had guaranteed health insurance. No one wants to risk financial ruin and death in poverty.

The "winners" usually come from old money and then just play with VC billions, never risking a dime, or at least not much.

I'm very fortunate to live in Canada, and can't imagine how much harder it would be to take risks in the states. When I left my stable job to pursue my own small business, my health wasn't even one of the factors I considered. I have never asked for details about health insurance prior tom accepting a job.

Yet for whatever reason Canadians are far less likely to take risks than Americans.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/c...

That’s the culture. The risk takers just need to go south for more opportunities anyway, why stay in Canada?

I don't know why this is getting downvoted. I'm an American living in Canada and I totally agree. Canada has a better minimum wage, so the middle-of-the-bellcurve crowd has it a lot better. Like, I could afford to go back to bartending and live a decent lifestyle, albeit probably have a roommate (I'm married though, so that's covered).

However, STEM salaries are on the order of 40% lower -- lower overall numbers on top of 20-30% currency difference (CAD to USD, with CAD being weaker to drive exports). If you're a motivated engineer you're headed south, getting into oil & gas (where salaries are still decent), or learning to accept things as-is.

OTOH the number of well adjusted people, broke people, and all-around happy people is higher north of the border.

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