That's why the real hack is to live in Canada and work remotely for an American company.
Why Canada ?
- Getting a masters level education is much cheaper.
- Immigration has less hoops to jump through. Specially if you are willing to live in the Atlantic side.
- Great government and social benefits
- I heard people are generally nicer.
Why not Canada -
- TAXES! TAXES! TAXES!
- Canada is essentially the money laundering heaven [0] of North America. So buying a house and being in the so called "middle class" is a nightmare.
- I believe that there is no middle class in Canada but I could be wrong as an outsider. If you are making money within a specified range that supposedly makes you an middle class individual, it is best to find shelter in government assistance programs because the income taxes are so brutal. I could be wrong, and I hope I am wrong.
- American LCOL salary even if you live in Vancouver or Toronto which is HCOL.
- If you want to earn big bucks you have to open an LLC and start contracting, which I believe requires a Canadian citizenship. I don't think you can open an LLC with a PR. Doing contract or remote work often requires an LLC.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_washing
I am happy to hear your feedback though. I personally prefer the whole middle region of America (WY, SD, ND, KS, IA...) than to Canada.
I'm a citizen, but I work as a contractor without having to do anything to create a legal entity. I'm considered self-employed, and a de facto business of one.
> Great government and social benefits
> - TAXES! TAXES! TAXES!
are one and same thing. Unless you think benefits can just appear out of thin air. Or just that others must pay for all good stuff that you looking to get.
First of all levying higher taxation or regulation for money laundering. I think that alone will reduce the tax burden on the middle class people.
Taxation is a long controversial discussion that often leads to no where.
But the gist is that, for the 60k+/year roles, if you are employed in America, from what I heard, your medical coverage is the same as the public health coverage by the Canadian government.
In America you can buy a house within a smaller time frame at a more reasonable financial burden compared to Canada.
The cost of Canadian taxation is reasonable to a limit.
They should take it one step further and make it illegal!
Making money laundering illegal will send shockwaves across its economy. Canada is being criticized by both its citizens and foreign governments but the illegal moneyflows are actually proping the housing markets of Vancouver and Toronto up. It is a very complicated situation as taking any action against money laundering will also might greenlight foreign governments to sue Canada for harboring money from corruption and illegal activities.
Taking actions against money laundering is always a slippery slope.
The canard that the housing market in Canada has been propped up by illegal money has been debunked so many times it's not funny. Everyone continues to prefer to think that over the real truth, which is that domestic speculation and house-horniness (house at any financial cost, down-payments from a HELOC on the family house, etc.) is responsible for the insane market. How else do you explain the 50%+ increase in rural Ontario over the pandemic? Peterborough didn't suddenly become the hot spot for laundering.
If you want to call money laundering foundational, then you need to explain how on earth that is connected with the market in Peterborough being up 50%+ over the pandemic. Peterborough isn't unique; it just gives the lie to the idea that this is somehow foreign money causing the problem. Foreign buyers have tanked in the last two years (since most of the time they were not even permitted to enter the country) yet it is continually called out as the culprit. Nonsense.
I have been thinking about the idea of social benefits. For the middle class what is even good social benefit? Affordable housing, affordable medical, maybe some kind of financial support for the elders, good public education, enough social benefits which lowers crime rate. Like if that is the things that are essential, America is doing a fantastic job.
But over emphasising social benefits aspects at the cost of the middle class is a bad idea. Canadian middle class from what I heard is somewhere between too rich to not get access to subsidized housing and too poor to buy a 600k house.
* Saving for retirement
* Saving for college or having a kid in college
* Having young kids and paying for daycare or losing an income
* Dealing with a health crisis (while not currently a full time employee at the kind of corporation that has great insurance… even if at other times you were or you will be again)
* Caring for an aging parent
These are all significant financial stressors even to the upper middle / professional class in America, whereas in a strong social benefits environment none of them are a big deal at all. The idea that middle class families need to stand up to all all these costs personally, sink or swim, is not necessarily pro-middle-class.
Like, why is it so important to own a house? One reason is so that you could sell it or otherwise tap the equity in case you have to do something ruinous like go to the hospital while between jobs. Another is that the apartments are all in neighborhoods overrun with untreated mentally ill people. Both of these are self-chosen problems.
This isn't true. Canadian PRs can start a business
I found out that PRs can do essentially everything except for vote and run for office.
Thanks again.
If you get a PR through express entry it should be 6 months, then 3 years living as a PR in Canada, then apply for citizenship, and a year later you are a citizen.
And express entry is "simple" to apply, you fill boxes, get points, every month they publish the points threshold, if you are above it, you get a PR!
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...