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Comment by ahelwer | Hacker News Reader

As a Canadian living in the US: it really isn't. The US wants to believe it isn't a dumpster fire but beyond its natural beauty (literally the Chinese name for America means "beautiful country", of which I'm jealous because the Chinese name for Canada is Jianada) and high salary there are so, so many reasons why it is not a very desirable place to live. Institutional racism and a comically horrible healthcare system are some examples. Many Americans are quite delusional about this.

One big benefit of living there is you won't be bombed by the US military, I guess.

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> One big benefit of living there is you won't be bombed by the US military, I guess.

US Military bombs Canadians living in Canada? I didn't know, source?

Come on now. You're being deliberately obtuse.

Exactly, throwing around "US Military bombing everyone" is a hyperbole seeded with deep prejudice and anti-US sentiments with no objective backing. The question raised was to show the absurdity of this argument.

There is a lot of shit wrong with America. But, seems like people are getting more nationalistic and throwing away logic, reasoning, objectivity, rationale and common sense - most importantly self introspection of tribalism that is going on these days.

Folks - the world is getting more inwards looking. Be careful if your psyche falls into the trap of nationalism. It will cloud your judgement and pretty much everything with it.

I am seeing this, frankly, a lot from our friends in EU. Authoritarian governments want the west to fragment and cause infighting amongst themselves. We must use facts, truth and integrity. Our democracies is at stake. It is unfortunately, not going to go well with this type of climate exasperated by Coronavirus travel restrictions.

We are heading to the wrong direction.

ikr? what about the half of the world they -dont- bomb...

Source please.

It is only hyperbole to the exceptionally privileged, exactly mirroring the belief that internal police violence is hyperbole. It is or is not depending on who you are/where you live.

Many authoritarian governments in history and today exist because people desire security and fear the incredible violence exhibited by an external, dominant power. If you don't make sure this actually is hyperbole and check the abuse of power at home and abroad, the violence will one day (perhaps soon) come to you, along with authoritarianism. Not recognizing the cause and not seeing the already creeping trend in the face of all evidence is what's clouding people's judgement.

Pretty easy to imagine this happening to control access to fresh water & arable land as climate change progresses. The corn belt is shifting north.

Fresh water doesn’t come from Canada for most of the US. Additionally, it’s not nearly to the point of being a war-worthy resource. There would be plenty of water in California if farmers just paid for it the same way everyone else does.

California grows a lot of water-expensive crops (e.g. almonds) because legacy farmers don’t pay anything near what residents, commercial, or new farmers do. That would rebalance quickly and obviate the need for any invasion if we just dumped wasteful “water rights” and instead priced water like any other rivalrous good (e.g. govt auctions).

Why live in the US if you dislike it so much? Why are you willing to live in a “dumpster fire”?

Currently: high salary and partner is in medical residency for the next number of years. After the only candidate who actually wanted to fix your ridiculous healthcare system dropped out of the presidential primary, my desire to continue living here has dropped precipitously. I'll probably end up moving back to Canada before long, or some other country that doesn't literally drive you slowly insane.

Curious, as a high salary earner, you must have good health coverage. Do you still feel that the Canadian healthcare system with it’s infamous delays, etc is better?

Basically: yes, absolutely. Canadians in general love their healthcare and my personal experience with it has been nothing but positive. My frustration with American healthcare is augmented by how much better I know it can be. I pay $500/month for shit-tier health insurance here and actually using the healthcare costs even more money!

Most of the drawbacks you've heard about Canadian healthcare have been promulgated by the many many entities whose pockets are lined by this idiotic system continuing to grind forward.

Ah, so you’re not with a company that has a good healthcare plan. This is part of what leaves the US healthcare system so broken. The experience is drastically different if you have an employer with a “Cadillac” healthcare plan.

A recent tech company I worked for in the Bay Area charged about $50 pre-tax twice a month and I paid nothing out of pocket. The gulf between good healthcare coverage and bad coverage is what’s obscene in the US.

I haven’t seen an argument for how the good coverage is worse, which is why I always ask.

Third world countries have rich people who live with a substantially higher standard of living than the rest of their society, and yet we don’t consider that fact as evidence that the country is doing well.

The existence of premium healthcare plans for the high earners or the wealthy is not a reflection of the healthcare system. It’s how much access most people have that matters, statistically.

Not rich or wealthy, this is middle class. 60% of Americans are happy with their healthcare.

If it was just the rich that did well, it would be trivial to get consensus to vote for change.

The argument is the US health care system is worse. People like to bring up wait times, but your wait time is infinite if you can't afford a specialist / non-acute care.

Oh, I definitely would. The only things keeping me here is my job, and my wife’s job, and my family, and my wife’s family, and my friends, and my wife’s friends, and my daughter’s friends...

Moving countries isn’t easy. Sometimes you just gotta find a part of the dumpster that isn’t on fire and do the best you can.

I agree with you in regards to the delusion. People in the EU are so much happier and have better quality of life in comparison with your average American. Working in tech is one of the most valid reasons to remain in the United States. We still have the best salaries, job opportunities, and employers. That might change someday, but it's still the case.

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