What is the best country in the world?
The great debate of choosing your next home.
My sister in law is visiting from the Great White North this week. She and her husband are eyeing ‘Murika as a potential new home. They wanted to know which country I prefer. Given that I am immensely qualified to answer this question - I am a dual citizen of both the United States and Canada - I figured I should share my wisdom with the world.
Before I answer, allow me to set some ground rules. When you are considering this question, we have to make some assumptions. First, you are choosing to move to a new country. You don’t know anyone there. Second, your friends and parents are all staying behind. Third, you are somewhere between the ages of 20 - 45. In other words, reasonably far from retirement. This gives us a level playing field.
The conversation went along a familiar path. First, everyone complained about the weather on the Canadian side. Admittedly, Canadian winters aren’t for the faint of heart. Next, we talked about crime. Here, the U.S. is in a tougher spot - though lately Canada is giving it a run for its money. Then, we moved to the good stuff: child care, parental benefits, elder care, taxes, and of course health care. In short, who gets more freebies from the government.
Now, I could tell you how Canadian health care isn’t living up to its promise. How it is slow, rationed and bankrupting the government. But Canadians are real proud of it. God help you if you even mention thinking of considering privatizing a single ounce of it.
Or I could tell you that parental leave only pays out 33% of your salary up to about $400 per week. Considering the cost of living in major Canadian cities, this might be enough for a dozen eggs.
At the same time, parental leave is 18 months long. Health care isn’t forcing anyone into bankruptcy. There’s a mishmash of programs to care for your aging parents. Sure, taxes are high, but comparable to high tax states like New York and California.
But is the greatness of a country really determined by how many goodies it hands out? Do we really want to measure how much Joe can take from Jill? I think there’s a lot more to it. What about opportunities? What place will allow you to reach your highest potential? Where can you live your life’s purpose? Where will your children have the most freedom to succeed. These are the important questions. The rest is just accounting.
As for me, I believe in looking at what we do, not what we say. It’s the only way to know what we truly believe deep down inside. I am living in the United States. It offers me, my spouse and my children unparalleled opportunities. I get compensated fairly well. I pay more taxes than I would like. And most importantly, I even have that precious, dearest, elusive, health care.
There’s no one right answer here. Both Canada and the United States offers amazing opportunities. If you get to choose between the two, consider yourself extremely lucky. Millions of people around the world would (and do) sacrifice everything to allow their children to have a chance at the same opportunities as you.