I’m kind of in a strange boat right now where I’m really comfortable in Canada yet I can’t shake this feeling I need to get over to the US of A in order to take advantage of that strong USD. I, like many Canadians, work for an American firm and have a TN visa. Recently, my employer offered to sponsor me for a green card, if I ever choose to relocate to the USA. I can live pretty much anywhere I want as I’m a remote employee, but I do travel to the USA for client work.
It’s a tough decision to make. While I consider it, I thought I’d ask the community. So, say you good lemmings?
No, im really not. There is too much darkness, and too much hate.
The gun culture, “freedumb” insanity, and lack of basics such as healthcare make me view it fairly close to the third world. the only they thing have better there is more buying power.
Hell no. We even talk leaving Canada for Europe because of the influence US has here. I will gladly have a month PTO and better worker benefits, thank you.
Same. With our first kid almost here we’re starting to realize this isn’t going to be a place that has much of a prosperous future for him. Our politicians want us to be USA Jr. so bad, our polarization is stronger than ever, and most of our main industries are run by a few oligarchs that no parties care to break up. My wife works for an EU company so we’ve seen and talked first hand with many friends over there and despite their own problems (no country is problem free) it’s a region of the world that has a lot more to offer for social benefits and securities for families, and they have much less of a divide that all the far right nut jobs are sewing all over North America in recent years. Considering our options over the next 4 years.
Hell no, that country seems to be on track for a civil war.
Why go backwards?
I went to the US for y2k , and was there for 5 years.
I came home with the exact same amount of money as I had when I left. And I also got a deep understanding for the absolute depths of cruel poverty in the US and for safety nets they don’t have.
Do it. You’ll never be the same, and you’ll really appreciate Canada better.
We did it for four years. Washington state in the Seattle are is very nice. We met a lot of great people and we have fond memories.
Having said that it was clear early on this was not going to be permanent. Imagine taking your kids to the local park and seeing a sign that said no guns allowed in this park. Wait, guns are allowed in some parks? WTF. That was just a head scratcher. I found it genuinely hard to be in a place where I was decidedly middle class and so many people were so poor and with no benefits at all.
I remember once chatting with a cashier at the grocery store over the weeks as she was pregnant. One day I stopped seeing her and figured she had her baby. Two weeks later she was back. No maternity leave. She took her full two weeks of vacation and that was it. Shit.
Or the conversation I had with a cab driver who talked about still being in debt because his FIL was sick and avoided getting medical attention because none of the family had medical coverage until he had to be admitted.
The medical system is a confusing shambles of insanity. That’s if you have good coverage. Once our daughter was sick and the childrens hospital directed us to a closer clinic. We went. There was a discussion about possibly admitting her but in the end she went home. A few days later she was worse so we ended up going to the children’s hospital and she was admitted. Turns out the near by clinic was not in our medical coverage group and it cost us nearly $1000 out of pocket. Not fun but doable. The thing is, she was two nights in the hospital where we were covered. If we had admitted her the first day at the wrong hospital it would have cost us at least $10 000.
The whole system is a fucking nightmare of land mines and no one has any clue what any particular thing will cost you.
I just couldn’t be happy under those conditions. Side note I’m not happy with the slide in equality here in Canada either BTW.
My job is in high tech and they pay was no better, just even. We lost money on selling buying houses, but that’s just timing. I kept track of taxes paid. After medical expenses it was only a 5 percent savings and one medical emergency would too that the other way. Yes, I had great medical coverage.
Yeah, I was in Oregon and had really good health insurance, but was always a bit terrified of actually ever using any medical services. It’s so much less worrying to know that the emergency room won’t ever cost you anything in Canada. That said, I’m sure if I did ever need it, it would have been fine.
always a bit terrified of actually ever using any medical services.
That’s kinda the problem: in America, ‘preventative’ care is only talked about in past tense, like “wish he’d’ve gotten looked-at before it cost him his 401k AND house as well”.
No one goes for testing, no early warning.
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Hell no. Alberta is already too conservative/religious for me, I’m not going to go down to some theocratic hellscape to make more money.
No. Their cost of living is insane, plus I have T1D, which would be a pre-existing condition under their insurance schemes. Not insurmountable, but would be an ongoing issue. Plus their culture is intolerable.
Nope, I’m happy to sit up here in ol’ Canada, living high on the hog, taking advantage of a 1.32 USD/CAD exchange rate.
US health insurance is no longer allowed to consider pre-existing conditions. That was made illegal by the Affordable Care Act about 10 years ago.
Of course, depending on who gets elected, that may change in the future…
No way. I moved here from there (I’m Canadian now!) and every day I’m gladder I got out.
I’d probably make more money there, but there are things I value more than money and my life is significantly better in Toronto than it ever was in any of the three states I lived in.
Exact same boat. US -> Canada. USA scares the shit out of me. Infinitely happier, even with the reduced buying power.
What do you value more specifically about Canada?
I’m not sure how to describe it beyond saying life feels a lot less confrontational here in Canada, even living in the largest city in the country.
Obviously there are problems here, but it feels much more like an actual society than a collection of people who happen to live near each other.
It’s not even about healthcare or anything specific, those are just symptoms IMO. It’s a larger philosophical difference between the countries
No. The risks outweigh any possible benefits. If it’s a red state then the risks are even higher in terms of quality of education, healthcare and employment.
nope. lol. Not unless my salary doubles, at minimum, and that’s just to make sure I don’t go bankrupt from healthcare. Actually fuck that, because if I get an injury that prevents me from working I’m still completely fucked. They’re also notoriously anti union and worker rights are eroding day by day
That place is a shit show. Let’s not even talk about Republicans…
So background - Civil engineer with ~5Years of experience. Now fully licensed in Ontario. Have a wife and expecting our first child this year.
My FIL is dual and has been harping on me to move there since I graduated. Pay is, on average, much higher. Current 85k CAD, likely 100-120k USD if I moved.
However as a P. eng I’d need to rewrite two massive technical exams before I’d be able to be licensed there, and not all states have reciprocal licenses, meaning if we moved in the states I may have to rewrite them again. Additionally, with a family, average insurance costs eat up all/most of the difference in salary - my FIL is C-suite executive and that’s roughly what he paid for his insurance yearly between co-pays and premiums.
Then add on more tribalism, high prevalence of guns, and the generally huge wealthy disparity they get, and Ive decided it’s not worth the move.
But weigh the factors for yourself. If you can, try to go work somewhere for a month or so to see how it feels
I considered it and did an 8mo internship in Calafornia in 2016. While I would make about 2x what I make here (literally, I made 25CAD/hr in canada and 50CAD/hr in the states doing the same job with the same manager.) I don’t think it’s worth it for me at least. For one, the medical insurance is kinda insanely expensive, it ate up a huge chunk of the difference in costs while also not being nearly as good and making every trip to the doctors a huge worry and also a cost benefit analysis (and this was with very good, subsidized by my company insurance). I dislocated my shoulder in a biking accident while in Cali, I didn’t go to the doctor because I thought it was just a sprain and the doctors would not be able to do anything (while costing me like 200 bucks). When I got back to Canada I got it checked out and they said it was too late to do anything but that it could have benefited from physio when it was fresh.
The healthcare as well as a hundred other factors has knock on effects where poorer folks are very noticeably worse off. Toronto has a lot of homeslessness, but I don’t think Ive ever seen a homeless guy using a ruler as a splint on a leg bent the wrong way in Toronto. I don’t want to live in a place that does that to people.
Lastly I found public transit to be even more of a joke than it is in Toronto, and as someone that never wants to drive daily that was kinda awful.
While I would probably be marginally more wealthy in the US, I would definitely be less happy, and have a dirtier conscious. I am pretty well off regardless and that was a while ago before the housing crisis in Canada really kicked off so maybe you’ll reach a difference conclusion.
Nope, double nope and, while we’re at it, triple nope. Too much hate, guns, racism, inequality and I don’t want to raise my kids there. If we had to relocate internationally, I’d rather go to New Zealand.
