As long as there's favorable compensation and tax policies on the US side, Canada's brightest, healthiest, and wealthiest will just hop over to benefit from the more favorable conditions there after reaping the expensive taxpayer funded social benefits (healthy upbringing, affordable higher education).
The bulk of Canadian taxes are paid by the "brightest, healthiest and wealthiest" [0], so the expensive social benefits Canadians enjoy are largely funded by extracting taxes from these people, not the other way around.
Thus, I can hardly blame them for moving to a place where they don't have to subsidize others as much.
[0] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=111000...
According to your link, the top 10% of Canadians pay about 50% of the taxes in Canada. In the US, the top 10% pay a larger share: 70% (although this is only federal data).[1]
So moving to the US to avoid subsidizing others is probably not the best rationale.
[1] https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-inco...
A 90th percentile American in Washington right across the boarder would make $125k and pay 24.53% to taxes.
We can compare NY to Quebec where at $125k/$100k respectively Quebec has a slight tax advantage (33.65%NY vs 32.70%QC) that goes back in favor of NY with +$20k (34.48%NY vs 35.43%QC).
Ontario fares better though. Maybe that's the cause of the US rust belt.
Nevermind that if you're 90th percentile of California or NY, you'd be making near $300k. So your tax rate might be 10% higher, but your take home is easily triple of what you'd have if you stayed in Canada.
That would seem to be a more realistic and mutually beneficial economic arrangement than expecting people to ignore an opportunity to make substantially more lifetime income out of allegiance to their birth country. We stole one in Ohio, she even married into the family. Her parents are absolutely amazing folks, just saw them on their way back from wintering in Florida (where they were actually able to get vaccinated, unlike back home where nobody is vaccinated and the cops are facetiming neighbors to make sure there are no visitors.)
Maybe Canada can stabilize as an incubator for cool people and recoup those expenses through the impact they have on the world.
The US is the only country anyone cares about that taxes their expats.
It's generally considered one of the worst aspects of the American tax system.
See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_American#Taxation_o...
Regarding the US and Canada, there are NAFTA cross-border tax rules which are complex and annoying, but not especially onerous in terms of tax obligations.
Those people still have the hassle of having to declare American taxes, without generating any revenue for the fisc. That's a pure deadweight loss, if there ever was one.
I see this repeated often on the web, but I hate this saying. I work in engineering. I'm surrounded by bright individuals, both fresh and experienced. Saying the brightest people leave Canada implies only the dumb and at most the mediocre remain in Canada, which I find not only offensive, but also not matching the reality.
Our Principle Engineer at my last gig did like ~10 years around the DC area and then pissed off back to Calgary to raise kids and settle down. Still works remotely for the said US gig.
Plus have you ever been through a winter where it dips to -40C? Fuck that noise. I'm from the south and live in Canada and never though I'd miss bitter VA winters...
Yes. I live in Calgary.
This stuff seriously concerns me because apart from natural resources, we have very little to leverage. I worry for my kids and their kids. Canada is in a very precarious economic and political position from my perspective.
Could easily see Canada become the agricultural leader of North America.
The agricultural leaders of <anything> are countries that are nearly universally dirt-poor.
Agriculture is a small fraction of what IL produces.
(Not just now, but also historically.)
In any case, have a look at https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-dutch-economy-in-the-golden-...
Agriculture has been important for the Dutch for a long, long time.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolutio... which arguably allowed Britain to become the wealthiest place on the planet for a while.
Who is we?