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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt’s Now the Canadian Dream
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/opinion/kristof-its-now-the-canadian-dream.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0A report last month in The Times by David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy noted that the American middle class is no longer the richest in the world, with Canada apparently pulling ahead in median after-tax income. Other countries in Europe are poised to overtake us as well.
In fact, the discrepancy is arguably even greater. Canadians receive essentially free health care, while Americans pay for part of their health care costs with after-tax dollars. Meanwhile, the American worker toils, on average, 4.6 percent more hours than a Canadian worker, 21 percent more hours than a French worker and an astonishing 28 percent more hours than a German worker, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Canadians and Europeans also live longer, on average, than Americans do. Their children are less likely to die than ours. American women are twice as likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth as Canadian women. And, while our universities are still the best in the world, children in other industrialized countries, on average, get a better education than ours. Most sobering of all: A recent O.E.C.D. report found that for people aged 16 to 24, Americans ranked last among rich countries in numeracy and technological proficiency.
Economic mobility is tricky to measure, but several studies show that a child born in the bottom 20 percent economically is less likely to rise to the top in America than in Europe. A Danish child is twice as likely to rise as an American child.
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It’s Now the Canadian Dream (Original Post)
eridani
May 2014
OP
calimary
(81,323 posts)1. Well, that thar is "American Exceptionalism" for ya.
diabeticman
(3,121 posts)2. This should be sent to EVERY Republican, CEO, DINO and Read on every radio and tv station and on the
floors of the House and Senate.
Maybe THEN a min wage of $10.10 an hour will happen seriously THEN we can lobby for a living wage of $15 or $17 dollars like most Western Countries have...
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)3. The objective of teh corporate class...
...has always been to have a labour pool so desperate that they will work for pennies and to whom the employers owe nothing. The corporates, and teh Republicans who are their political arm, are well on the way to achieving that in the US (and teh Tories are trying to do the same here).