Where to Settle USA or Canada?

  What they want depends a lot on their position, personality, and goals. I'm from California, but I often visit friends in Calgary, which is a great city to live in. It's actually my favorite train line. I have noticed that 30 to 60% of the main CBC news show every night is about news in the US. You could say that most of the news in Canada is dull. It's mostly about things like forest fires in British Columbia, a strike in Halifax, messed-up train tracks in Manitoba, politics in general, and so on. Trump is shown on the news a lot more than Trudeau. There are also a lot of scams, mass shootings, denials of climate change, medical bankruptcies, general craziness, and other things going on in the US. Since mass media tend to reflect where they come from, it looks like Canada has a more civilized and well-organized culture.

Don't let the US happen to Canada is something I often say to my Canadian friends and other people in groups

My friends in Calgary live in a big house where I have my own room-sized space. There is a nice neighborhood near the coast of California that is kind of country, but I visit Canada several times a year, in all four seasons. One thing I don't mind about being cold is that I love to ice skate.It's no longer exciting to be best friends with the boss of the free world. The US isn't in charge of anything anymore. It is placed lower than the living standards of 17 other countries, including Canada. It is behind six other countries, including Canada, in terms of general education level. 45 other countries, including Canada, have higher rates of basic reading than it does. It has 15% of its people living below the poverty line, while only 9% of Canadians do. It is placed lower than 29 other countries, including Canada, when it comes to life expectancy. The US has the most money and armed power in one place, and it's determined to keep it that way. I hope they have fun, but there are better ways to live.The idea of quality of life is very complicated. One reason for this is that it goes far beyond the material things that people need to live. There are values like persistence, modesty, stoicism, self-reflection, ambition, and pride that aren't very connected to the real and material world.What would you say about things like safety vs. boredom or a love of history vs. a love of new things?

Thinking about life in Canada vs. thinking about life in the US, one big "break point" for me is the need for people to separate their identity from their country

Thinking about life in Canada vs. thinking about life in the US, one big "break point" for me is the need for people to separate their identity from their country. Many of these ideals, as well as the other ones I'm talking about, come from being taught. How and what did you learn to feel as a child? Now that you're an adult, who tells you how to feel and think?Part of what I mean is that there is no such thing as a "natural person" beyond the most basic biological urges and genetic tendencies. How long does it take for a baby to learn about the society where they live? I think a child doesn't need to be more than a year old to understand what is right and wrong.Another very clear difference between the two countries is the difference between people's hopes and dreams and what they expect to happen in real life.What about your life makes you feel very at ease? I feel like Canada might be losing this one. The USA is a lot bigger and has a lot of big towns. Big cities have their problems, but some of the USA's many cities are in places with good weather. Some of the towns are run well. And a lot of them have pretty high incomes that aren't taxed too much. Some of them even have good job prospects. This makes for nice-looking neighborhoods with lots of sunshine, well-kept lawns, nice homes and condos, palm trees, golf courses, specialty shops, lounge bars, and people driving fancy cars who look like they're doing well. You don't see that kind of atmosphere in Canada in that way.

Most of all, they are very large places

A lot of unique hobbies can make your personal life fun and interesting and help you meet people you want to meet. No matter what the interest is—going to gay discos, jousting battles, bird watching, comic book conventions, crochet clubs, or leather fetish events—if only 2% of people in a city want to do it, then that city needs a lot of people to support it. There are only three big cities in Canada with more than two million people each. There are only about 1,400,000 people living in Ottawa-Gatineau, which is the national capital. The same is true for Calgary and Edmonton. It's not enough, especially in places with high taxes where many people don't have much extra money.In both English-speaking and French-speaking Canada, you get a kind of basic, one-size-fits-all Canadian way of life. From the suburbs, it's easy to get to work. People go to the mall, need a car, pay a lot, and enjoy being with their families. It can be hard to find a new way of life that works. Don't forget that you need that money from work. When you add in the combined federal provincial HST/GST sales tax, which is around 15% based on the province, a good winter parka can cost well over CAD200. (A Canadian dollar is worth about US$0.75 right now.) Think about how you would dress a family of four. Think about the coats and gloves that are used for hockey. Then pay to heat your home in the cold, which lasts about five months a year. Then, when you go to the shops, take them out to eat. Not any cheap deals. And it costs a lot more at Walmart too. For every American gallon of gas, it costs about US$2.80. There isn't much public transportation in the suburb where you live, so your journey is about forty miles round trip. You need tires that can handle snow. It costs about CAD$800 for a whole set. You have to pay a locker to take them off, and you have to put them away when it doesn't snow.