I'll wager after war UK and US come out smelling like roses!

[Sabastian]

The US needs Canada for cheap labor.

You mean cheap, highly educated labour who come with health plans?

Yep, but at almost half the salary of a typical engineer in California, it's still a win.

This isn't accurate really. While lower income jobs may in fact be somewhat cheeper, for example call center jobs, a position such as an enginer could never be cheaper. Consider that the Canadian employee pays so much more in taxes(average taxation in Canada is 50%) and that in order for these skilled people to remain in a job position in Canada they would have to be paid considerably more in Canadian to match a US counterpart. Further there are many whom are paid in US funds.(I can point out that this is definitly the case with ATIs ART X team, I know there are hockey players as well likely many other professionals accrossed the board also demand that they be paid in US funds.) To call Canadians "cheap" is rediculous because our min wage is $6.50 where in the US the min wage is much lower AFAIK and this may vary state to state. In the end there really isn't much in the way of benifit in terms of cost of labour between Canada and the US.

 

[Neutrality]

......our min wage is $6.50....

Heh, thats pretty darn low.

Where I live the min wage is $12.

-Neutrality-

 

[Sabastian]

......our min wage is $6.50....

Heh, thats pretty darn low.

Where I live the min wage is $12.

-Neutrality-

Heh, well that is in Canadian funds. $12 an hour here is not bad pay but not that great either. Your $ must trade pretty cheaply compared to the US $. Canadian $ = approx $0.67 US.

 

[RussSchultz]

Where I live (Austin), grocery sackers and fast food employees start at about $9US. (Even though statutory minimum wage is $5.75--I think).

 

[PeterT]

Re: I'll wager after war UK and US come out smelling like ro

(...) the US and Britain will come out smelling like roses.

I don't think so.
(Warning: could be disturbing to some. But no more disturbing than the rampant jingoism of CNN and the like)

 

[Saem]

...our min wage is $6.50...

Are you quite sure about this? Maybe it's just BC, but the minimum wage is closer to $8per/hour. Or are you normalising it to US funds?

As for Canadian pros, I definately think you're off the ball. First of all, US companies don't need to pay employees in Canada that much, because said employees would otherwise move to the US and some of them do. They move to the US and get higher paying jobs. The ones in Canada, DON'T. Seems like stating the obvious, but it seems I need to. Think about it these are the people that for some reason or the other don't want to or can't move to the US, so they're restricted to this economy, which means lower pay.

I'm Paul DeMone at RWT could tell you a fair bit about from first hand knowledge.

BTW, the ARTx team is in the US, so why would they not pay them in USD?

 

[Sxotty]

So Russ you live in Austin aye? Well you must know where I live then

 

[RussSchultz]

I try to forget the year of weekends I spent in College Station visiting my wife.

Thankfully, that's a few years ago.

 

[Neutrality]

......our min wage is $6.50....

Heh, thats pretty darn low.

Where I live the min wage is $12.

-Neutrality-

Heh, well that is in Canadian funds. $12 an hour here is not bad pay but not that great either. Your $ must trade pretty cheaply compared to the US $. Canadian $ = approx $0.67 US.

Its $12 US dollars. I live in Denmark and here the min wage is 85 DKK and with the current exchange rate thats a little over $12 US Dollars.

-Neutrality-

 

[Himself]

Well, how much you get paid only matters if everything costs the same.

 

[RussSchultz]

What!? I thought if we raised the minimum wage far enough, we'd solve the poverty problem.


















(and no, I don't believe that)

 

[pax]

-Neutrality-[/quote]

Heh, well that is in Canadian funds. $12 an hour here is not bad pay but not that great either. Your $ must trade pretty cheaply compared to the US $. Canadian $ = approx $0.67 US.[/quote]

Its $12 US dollars. I live in Denmark and here the min wage is 85 DKK and with the current exchange rate thats a little over $12 US Dollars.

-Neutrality-[/quote]

Holy crap im moving to denmark! Free university education and a reasonable minimum wage!... just one question how much is the pizza in your country and how much is the typical combo at rotten ronnies?... Knowing how profitable junk food outlets are im betting its not much more pricey then here...

 

[Neutrality]

Himself, RussSchultz : Lets just say that in Denmark there are NO poor people. So while we have very high taxes(second highest in the world) and goods usually are quite expensive its really a non issue since no one here has to worry about medical care, education(everything, including going to a university is paid for by the state, books excluded) etc.

With one of the lowest crime rates in the world, very liberal laws on alcohol, sex, etc. its not a bad place at all to live.

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/da.html


-Neutrality-

 

[kyleb]

 

[Sabastian]

Re: I'll wager after war UK and US come out smelling like ro

(...) the US and Britain will come out smelling like roses.

I don't think so.
(Warning: could be disturbing to some. But no more disturbing than the rampant jingoism of CNN and the like)

Yeah lets just forget about the oppression of the Sadam and blame the US over that poor sole. Never mind he holds the country by use of terroristic tactics like this on the people he is ruling."Fight them Americans to your deaths..... if you don't we will kill your family." His regime has kept the Southern peoples of Iraq is third world poverty. Forget about the hundreds of thousands of people whom have died under his rule. Never mind he has used chemical warfare on the people of Iraq and neighboring countries. Forget about the fact that he trans terrists in his country. Forget about the fact that he attempted to take over Kuwait. Never mind that Saudi Arabia is fearful of Sadam. How many have died under his rule over the past 20 years? The numbers probably can easily be measured in the millions.

Kurdish victims...(warning the images may be disturbing.)
http://www.kdp.pp.se/chemical.html

Never mind the media is massively controlled in Iraq and they portray America as an evil place ruled by evil people.(This will change.) Never mind Sadam is in his last days and the resistance to the collition forces is futile. The colition forces are not trying to kill civilians and I am sure that the people of Iraq are seeing that effort. The POWs that the colition are taking in are being treated well. There are no real good arguments against regime change in Iraq..... non. The people of Iraq are being controlled by a massive army that is unscrupulous in their tact and for the most part the people of Iraq want to see Sadam go.

Sadam will be ousted, leave no doubt about this the people of Iraq will come to know the US for what it really is after Sadams regime is removed and they will see that they have been missing out on in terms of liberty and wealth creation.

Iraq is a rich country supplying massive amounts of oil to the world market there will be an explosion of wealth in favour of the Iraqi people that they simply don't have because of Sadam.

It may take a couple of months to destroy Sadams military(at the most.) machine but after that there will be very small pockets of resistance. Shortly there after the people of Iraq will have a democratic election and will elect their new leader whom will be subject to the populations vote in the next election. Iraq will develop its own police force and the US and UK will exit leaving Iraq with a new lease on life.. With the freedom to speak out their own opinions and say what they will without fear of the state cutting their tongues out. The people of Iraq will be, I believe, grateful to the US and UK for this. In the end they will wonder why everyone opposed the Iraqi people from release of the Sadam government. Pacifist are really making asses of themselves on this because they are supporting an oppressive government that will not go without the use of force.

 

[Sabastian]

Iraqi militia fires on civilians.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/890574.asp?0cv=CB10

 

[epicstruggle]

With one of the lowest crime rates in the world, very liberal laws on alcohol, sex, etc. its not a bad place at all to live.

-Neutrality-

Sorry but most people dont catagorize how good a place to live based on how liberal the laws are on alcohol, sex, etc. (where i think etc is drugs).

Im curious about denmark:
-what is the minimum drinking age?
-what is the age of consent?
-is marij. il/legal there?

later,

 

[Sabastian]

Exactly.. hard to have crimes of possession illegal drugs, rape, prostitution etc if these things are not illegal.

Further I would also argue that their unemployment numbers are also skewed and those whom are on unemployment are reported as employed or not registered as unemployed because they have an income. Also what percent of the population is employed by the state? (artifical employment.)

These countries that have high tax rates must absolutely hide or not show the problems they have because the state is responsible and if they are doing poorly then it looks real bad on them. Even the people in these countries could not really say if they know their governments are being honest about these stats all they can do is regurgitate what they are told.

A high min wage is inflationary in that it devalues the dollar. It cost more to produce something that can be done else where for considerably less but really does not help anyone because everything costs more to buy because of the increase in cost to produce. The people are getting wage increases even though they are not being more productive.

 

[Neutrality]

-what is the minimum drinking age?

There is none. However you have to be 15 to buy alcohol at a store and 18 to buy it at bars etc.

-what is the age of consent?

Its 15.

-is marij. il/legal there?

Illegal, though that might change in the future.

-Neutrality-

 

[chavvdarrr]

Re: I'll wager after war UK and US come out smelling like ro

Kurdish victims...(warning the images may be disturbing.)
http://www.kdp.pp.se/chemical.html

But what about kurds killed by Turkey? Wait, Turkey is US friend... so they can kill freely...

Shortly there after the people of Iraq will have a democratic election and will elect their new leader whom will be subject to the populations vote in the next election. Iraq will develop its own police force and the US and UK will exit leaving Iraq with a new lease on life.. With the freedom to speak out their own opinions and say what they will without fear of the state cutting their tongues out. The people of Iraq will be, I believe, grateful to the US and UK for this. In the end they will wonder why everyone opposed the Iraqi people from release of the Sadam government. Pacifist are really making asses of themselves on this because they are supporting an oppressive government that will not go without the use of force.

You do believe there will be democratic elections? No massacre between kurds, shiits, sunits ?
Optimist. We can HOPE this will happen, reality usually is different