Canuckistani

Who does pretend that? This is just you whistling past the graveyard with your "you do it too..." I won't talk about getting a dollar for that because the only place I've really seen this is from the two defenders of the American way on this forum. "You do it toooooooooo. We have no problem because you do it tooooooo." 20 kids shot in an elementary school - you do it toooooo. Extremes of poverty - you do it tooooooo. Lack of social moblity - you do it tooooooo. Money driving politics - you do it toooooooo. Does it echo when you stick your head in the sand like that? Well, you do need some recompense for having to live where you do.

I guess you'd have to match me in dollars for every time an American says "but you have x y z" too, so there's no difference. False equivalency - it's the American way. There is a difference, which is why this is a better place to live. But you're right, the American way is to say "it's so much more than yours...." Enjoy it.

Nice try but we're no 10, you're 24. Corruption exists in every country, but it's much less in ours than yours. Just another thing that makes this a better place to live. And again, Angus when talking about money in politics wasn't talking about corruption but the perfectly legal or at least not illegal influence of money on politicians. You do have us beat there, in spades. Just another thing that makes this a better place to live.

It is, but it can make sense. Take the RCMP example - they certainly need people on the force to reflect all of Canada. I would suggest they not lower their standards (which by instances we've seen are pretty low), but if it comes down to equally qualified applicants, pick minorities, aboriginals or women every time. That would mean that since so many white males apply, not all will get in. But a large percentage of the hires are still white males. Just don't lower the standards to suit political correctness, they way they've done with firefighters, say. Or, more accurately, have the same standard for everybody, not one for white males and another for other groups.

Good points. That's how it works. The squeaky Indigenous Peoples get some grease to shut them up, nothing ever changes.

Argus isn't talking about corruption, but the legal influence of lobbying money. Much greater, even relative to population in the US. Our guys just don't spend that much money on getting re-elected as the US pols. Our corruption score of 8.7 which puts us in 10th place. The US is 7.1 in 24th place. We're closer to NZ in 1st at 9.5 than we are to the US. Take Quebec out of the equation, and I'm sure we'd move right up the ladder. Top 5 countries: 1. New Zealand 9.5 2. Denmark 9.4 2. Finland 9.4 4. Sweden 9.3 5. Singapore 9.2 Those damn socialists beating us again.

I don't know why you say but, as if you are disputing me - we're on the same page here. Clinton is also responsible for pushing the banks to make loans to shaky creditors in order to encourage homeownership by minorities. A nice idea in theory, a disaster in practice. The main drivers of this mess tho were the banks themselves - with their derivatives and such, marketing garbage as AAA securities. We also agree on corporate taxation. The case has been made to have no corporate taxes at all. it would prevent corps from playing games with tax deductions. Instead tax dividends and capital gains as income, same as earned income. That would pressure the corps to re-invest the money the make instead of paying ti out to share holders. Once the mess hit the fan, the US banks should have been nationalized and restructured so none are too big to fail, and a new version of Glass-Stegal introduced. Then re-privatize them. And go after the Wall St crooks criminally. What was that story we jut had here, where HSBC was not charged with criminal money laundering because it would have set off another round of bank crises. Because they're certainly not the only one.

This was really brought home to me in a dramatization of the crash - forget the name of it, but it had actors portraying all the real life figures in the event. As banks start teetering, money to lend dries up. The chairman of GE calles up Bernake or some such offical to say " we make dishwashers for God's sake, we have nothing to do with this meltdown. But if I can't get credit I can't meet my payroll, and I go bankrupt too." Letting the banks go bankrupt might have been an option, but not all the businesses that would be affected by it. Also discussed in the film was the fear of "socialism" that prevented the govt from just taking over the banks and creating order. Instead the govt just handed over about a trillion dollars to the banks and said 'we trust you to do the right thing." They didn't.

No, it's what I said after reading your post. So, how would the 2008 collapse have been mitigated by having "corporations in control?"

Ponder my last sentence and you will have your answer.

You're right. The US govt should have removed even more banking regulations. And most importantly, the US govt should not have poured all that money into the economy after the collapse. That's the job of the corprations, and if they had been in control the collapse would have just been a little downturn in one quarter. When will we learn to let the smartest guys in the room run things?

People have said that Obama is an Eisenhower Republican, and that Reagan, never mind Nixon would not be able to get nominated as a Republican candidate today. Huge shift to crazy land. Which is why they're going to start losing more and more elections. Popular vote is already against them.

Good to see. And a country like Sweden actually has a very competitive business climate. Easy to hire and fire, easy to start a business. Where they do it differently is in having greater income redistribution, so that people don't fall thru the cracks. Sounds very Red Tory to me.

What's needed is the resurrection of the Red Tories. The CPC has been pushed in that direction anyway, because of public opinion, but it would be better if we had leaders who led in that direction instead of reluctantly following. I rue the day we didn't elect Bob Stanfield.

No conspiracy. Just unintended consequences of greed. They destroyed the very economy that made them rich.

They have a funny way of showing it. What did they think would happen when the elite (they probably are elitists as well) gutted the middle class by outsourcing and sucked the economy dry with all those shady financial instruments? They may want a well functioning economy, but their greed has all but killed the goose. No more golden eggs for you. Oh, well, I'm sure the American elite will do just as well selling Chinese made stuff to the Chinese. It's not as if the Chinese can do that for themselves.

We may have strict laws about who may come in, but it does't stop us from accepting more people per capita than anybody else. To say it's easier to get into any European nation is just nonsense. And we certainly don't have the strictest refugee laws.

http://americanturba...us-than-canada/Seems pretty clear cut to me. BC is very non-religious if by that you mean identifying as an adherent of an organized religion.

I agree. Not sure how we ever move past this tho. Doubt we'd ever find the consensus to change the constitution unless it comes to the point where the FN's really po the ROC. So within the legal constraints we have, what do we do?

Keeping on guard,. or what. Do you patrol every forum that has it's servers in Texas? You must keep mighty busy/

Sure. But don't take it personally. As I've said, I've met many great Americans. It's the country as a whole. Lots of factors go into it. Part of it is American's own sense of superiority. It's not all one way. Until recently y'all had the power to have things your way - that's going to breed some resentment. That seems to be fading away. Who knows, maybe in a few years we'll be the best of buddies sharing our resentment of the Chinese.

American media dominates the world. An American (well except for the really smart ones, few and far between) what that's like for non-Americans. Yes, you all are going to have to figure it out for yourselves. But we'll continue to shout out encouragement from the sidelines. But then, this is a Canadian forum, where we discuss what we think about things, including Americans. Why are you here again, if you don't care?

When I was young I met a couple of American girls up here and was very surprised when they weren't impressed with my slagging of America. Everybody did that, i thought. Actually we're like those cows in the Far Side cartoon who are standing talking when one goes "car" and in the next panel they are on all fours munching on grass. We just act like this around Americans. Especially ones that come to our websites to tell us what's what. And, for my part at least, it's anger. The kind of anger you would feel for your big brother who's screwing up.

Yep. It's part of the Canadian identity of who we are - not American. And we give thanks for that.