California Dreamin'

I can back up what Mc is saying. On the odd occasion that we venture up there we find everything much more expensive than it is here in southern California, and this is the second most expensive place to live in the USA after New York/Connecticut. the bonus here of course is the weather.

ian-mstm

I disagree.


Have you ever wondered why? Canada is trying to operate a world-class economy with only 10% of the population of the US. That means a smaller tax base, which means higher taxes to do what they want to do.


Again, I disagree. I made way more as a high school teacher in Canada than I could ever get in the US... even with the exchange rate. Mind you, I was "Max Cat 4" but even compared to a similar position in the US, I was paid better in Canada.


You can't have it both ways. You can't complain about the high taxes in one breath and laud the free healthcare in another.

Ian

Marocco

Why would that be? Fewer people also means fewer consumers of public services. Besides, Hong Kong and Singapore manage to provide excellent public services despite having much lower taxes (and a smaller population) than Canada.

California Dreamin'

Have you ever wondered why? Canada is trying to operate a world-class economy with only 10% of the population of the US. That means a smaller tax base, which means higher taxes to do what they want to do.


It matters not Why. He made a statement, is it true or not ??

scrubbedexpat099

I am not sure I understand either, apart from a theoretical benefit for economies of scale.

I do think making a comparison would be tricky, I do not know about Canada, but the US has lots of hidden costs that complicate the comparison.

ian-mstm

Fixed costs don't scale! For example, hospital equipment costs $xx. Hospital equipment doesn't cost less just because there are fewer consumers! The same is true of the actual buildings... they aren't less expensive because there are fewer consumers. Salaries also... but you get the idea.

Ian

E3only

I totally agree on the statement regarding ‘Customer Service’. Gosh, compare it with Australia and US is absolutely miles miles away. May be California is not a representation on how US ranks but people here hardly smile. I have to search for good customer service in California.

Don’t even get me started on cleanliness, safety, healthcare etc.

Then again, I still like it here haha. It’s much cheaper to get around, taxes are lower (for the money I earn), opportunities are higher, world’s stronger economy, great places to visit, diversity, better money (may be debatable) etc…

E3only

Exactly. The fixed costs are the same. So lower population base means government was lower people to recover those costs. Take an example. If we had 10 buses running a county and there are 75,000 people in a US county vs. 35,000 Canadian County – all things being equal the government would earn less in Canada than in US which means higher drag on tax money in Canada than US and also means higher taxes to cushion that drag (in Canada)

mcdavis

Ian,
I said higher SALES taxes and was comparing 15% in Canada to 5% - 8% in the US.

Ref. customer service - we were quoted 4-6 weeks to get cable / internet service (in this century!!) and they still failed to mail the modem we ordered or switch on the service, we have requested the allocation of a GP on 3 separate occasions and still nothing (so that free healthcare isn't worth much really), and trash collection is only done when they feel like it.

E3only

It’s going to get worse (government/public services) with the massive debt we have here. That’s for sure.

Ray

A Greek father in law !!! does he talk about Windex a lot

ian-mstm

I didn't disagree with you on sales tax... although I thought NB was 13% HST. I could be wrong, it's been a few years since I lived in Halifax where the HST was 15%. Ah... doesn't matter, really! The reason behind the higher sales tax, and higher taxes in general, is because Canada is trying to run a world-class economy without a sufficiently large population base.


Ah... then I misunderstood your term "customer service". I've been in the US too long. Here, customer service is the help desk at Wal-Mart when you're returning goods. That's different from utility services where things get done quicker in the US because there's actually laws against utility monopolies... although, not really, but yes! Anyway, that's a topic for a whole different thread.

Sorry about the rough time you're having with it. When I moved to Halifax, I had power 2 days after moving in, and cable/internet a few days later.

Ian

essence

Still off-topic, and stories do not tell the overall story, but...

Flight I was in from London - Houston had to make emergency landing at Chicago. Burning in a seat (turned out to be audiovisual problems).

So, hundreds of us at Chicago airport, want flights to Houston. All a little stressed out.

BA refuse to be of any help. They tell us it is up to us to find a flight.

Probably helping anybody once off the flight is outside their job description, or not covered by liability insurance.

After waiting around for a bit to see what is going on, I go up to 'customer service' desk at airport, and ask for a list of flights for the rest of the day.

A - I don't have a list, I don't know
Q how can I find out what flights there are?
A I can give you this map showing you where the airline customer service points are
Q But there are lots of airlines, which of them fly to Houston?
A I don't know, you will have to go to the different terminals and ask them
Q But you are sitting in a booth with a big sign saying customer service, what kind of customer service do you provide?
A All I can do is hand out these little maps

I then walk off in state of anger.

To be fair, BA hostess had seen this, and she did help me call United and they found me a flight eventually. But of course I had to pay for it, and then trying to get money back from BA is a nightmare.

So no country has exclusive rights to appalling customer service.

E3only

Are you expecting customer service from BA? Record annual losses and people being asked to work for free. What can one expect.

I do find it very hard to believe (I do believe you) that they asked you guys to take care of the Chicago – Houston flight. At the end of the day, the contract was to fly you guys from London to Houston NOT London to ‘anywhere where we land’ in US.

essence

To be clear, I was talking about two different customer services. BA, and the Chicago airport customer service.

Both as bad as each other.