a fight i did not get into this past weekend

[jazzfish]

Uncle-in-law C--: "I really liked living in Vancouver, but, you know, you're paying like 40% of your income straight to the government, you never see it."

What I said: "Yeah, and I'm also getting full health care for two people for $110 a month[1]." At which point, irreconcilable differences having been expressed and acknowledged, we went about our business.

What I did not say: "You, with your giant house and your three cars, complaining about taxes while taking public transit to and from work, are half of what's wrong with this country, and the main reason why I will almost certainly never live there again if I have any choice in the matter."

What I also did not say: "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody."

How sad is it that I cannot remember the last time someone prominent stood up and argued that in public?

---

[1] Fudging a bit: there are things (such as drugs, or chiro, or psychological outpatient counseling, to name three I've run into in the last couple of weeks) that the provincial[2] Medical Services Plan doesn't cover. I'm also enrolled in a supplemental insurance plan that covers a lot of what the MSP doesn't, and the supplemental is paid entirely by work.

[2] In Canadian this word lacks the same overtones of "backwards and country," as in Canadian "province" means "state." Note that "territory" also sort of means "state," except for the ways in which it doesn't.

Comments

[jazzfish]

Oh god yes. I mean, I don't yet, but I will come tax time. We're going to have an accountant do it all for at least this first year because it's not worth our time to mess with it (partial-year nonsense, plus I own just enough stocks to make it a headache).

I don't really recommend the UK, but mostly because there's literally no freedom of speech. As I recall they very nearly didn't join the EU because it required ratifying the EU's bill of rights. I've heard good things about most of the rest of the EU. Canuckistan's pretty keen as well. :)

[rbandrews]

Well, England has this nice feature where they speak, well, English. My other top choice is the Netherlands, which I think I'd really enjoy living in. My only real argument against Canada is that it would seem like I was doing it just because you did.

But my thinking is, I've been unhappy with pretty much everything about this country since I've been old enough to understand what's been happening, and it'll only get harder to move the older I get.

[jazzfish]

Danish is kind of like English. I mean, their newspaper is "Het Daaly Niews." My understanding is that it's obscenely difficult to get into the EU, though.

[rbandrews]

Yeah, but once you do immigrate, you can live anywhere in there.

There are two other downsides to the Netherlands: very high population density, and if we're going to move somewhere, it makes sense to move somewhere where we know people. Which pretty much means Blacksburg, DC, or Vancouver.

I should elaborate some: because I get anxious around people, I like living in places like Texas, where everywhere is a long drive away and there's plenty of psychological room. I might do well in Sweden, I bet.