It's one thing to have anecdotal experiences that make you "feel" the US is losing ground to Canada. It's another thing to go and prove it so you "know" the US is losing ground to Canada (and thereby giving your Canadian friends reason to gloat and be proud).
Three charts below and translated thusly;
1. The US is no longer the "capitalist" country and Canada the "socialist" country. Government spending as a percent of GDP is now equal.
2. The US is lagging Canada in its socialist experiment. You enjoyed 100%+ government debt as a percent of GDP under Jean Chretien. We now are just achieving that under Barack Chretien.
3. But we're going to blow past you guys and show you how it's done right. Our deficits are consistently in double digits as a percentage of GDP. Your lousy socialist could only muster up 9% at his best/worst.
Again, you guys hiring?
ht to myself (yes, I am a greedy American)
This year, the Canadian Federal deficit will be in the $30 billion range.
Using the historical 10:1 conversion factor, the comparable US Federal deficit that Obozo should be running would be about $300 billion.
But Barry, with all his economic wisdom and because he is soooooooooooooo smart, will be running a deficit five times that amount- around $1.57 Trillion.
Trillion.
With a "T".
The man is a complete moron.
If there are any Canadians who have a self-congratulatory smirk on their face they should wipe it off right now.
With the growth in Canada's public-sector outstripping the growth in the private-sector year after year for decades we are in no position to gloat about our economic performance.
There is the very real prospect that Canada will face the same fate as every other western democracy that has allowed its political class to spend with reckless abandon.
The public-sector has effectively “crowded out” the private-sector to the extent that any real economic recovery is unachievable in the near future.
Its time to be realistic about our prospects.
The US Embassy I went to said they used to have 1 or 2 people a year come in to discuss renouncing American citizenship. Now it's about 1 a month. It's not a mass exodus but still...
Damn racists...
And it used to be free to get the papers to renounce citizenship. Now it's $450 US to sever ties.
I have worked for two US companies and have spent quite a bit of time at their US operations. I believe our Canadian business practices and productivity are substantially behind the US. I was always impressed by their business attitute and acumen. We, Canadians, are fortunate that we have a whole bunch of valuable stuff we can dig up and sell.
If the global economy tanks it won't matter if a country is 10 feet underwater or 1000.
Underwater still means we drown in debt.
looking at those graphs makes me think BOTH countries are doomed....sigh
Just to put it in perspective.
"The proportions and the nations change, but the question remains the same. How did a US government “govern” a nation of 92 million people with an annual budget of $US 0.7 Billion and a TOTAL (funded and unfunded) debt of $US 2.7 BILLION one hundred years ago? The answer is very simple. For the most part, they didn’t. And because they didn’t, they didn’t indulge in economic make believe. They had no income tax to “fund” them and no central bank to print more money - if necessary.
Today, the US government “GOVERNS” 310 million people with an annual budget of nearly $4,000
Billion and a TOTAL (funded and unfunded) debt approaching $US 100,000 Billion. It takes about 5,400 times as many Dollars and about 37,000 times more debt to “govern” about 3.35 times as many people as it did a century ago. Why? The answer is equally simple. Today, the US government “governs” everything. It is all pervasive. It has taken over the economy from its people."
We must be diligent and hold the Government to their mandate of fiscal responsibility if we are going the survive the remaining years of Barak Obama reign. We also need to convince the citizens that they must practice fiscal responsibility in terms of personal debt. Removing monopolies and regulations such as the CWB will encourage new investment in value added manufacturing instead of just supplying raw materials to countries that helps create jobs outside of Canada. With our resources, people and spirit Canada can become an economic leader and inspiration to the rest of the world.
That 2nd graph sure makes Jean Chretien and Clinton look good.
The US has some issues but Canada is in pretty good shape, despite what some doom and gloomers want to to believe.
Oh great. Does this mean we will soon have the same problem with illegal Yanks as they
have with Mexicans?
Some observations from the Captain's graph.
Government spending as a % of GDP declines with the beginning of the Chretien administration in Canada. It only rises with the one-time recession spending programs of 2009-10. Government spending in the US starts rising in 2002, primarily as a result of war, and leveling off until 2008 with the onset of the recession.
The Liberal administrations and the Harper government halved government debt as a per cent of GDP with the largest reductions taking place in the late 1990s.
At less than 6% annual deficit, Canada has by far the lowest increase in debt burden of any OECD nation.
Also, it should be observed that all the indicators for Canada are positive ones. Jim's comment above about crowding out is thus entirely unfounded by actual economic share over the last 20 years. Try to learn how to read a graph, Jim, and what it actually is saying. Soccermom's alarmism about "doomed" is simply nonsense.
Oz, which global economy? The one for the OECD, or the one for China, India, Brazil, South Korea? Because those countries all did well through the last five years and will continue to do so. And we will do well because we have what they need. Try to become numerate while you are at it. A debt of $5 is meaningless; a debt of $5 trillion sinks you. Numbers matter, big guy, not meaningless sweeping statements.
Gray, all three graphs make Chretien look good. It's the one great achievement of his time in office.
Justthinkin: we had that problem in the '60s. Then they were called draft dodgers.
D.Krupski: quite right, we do need to roll back regulation, and nowhere so much as environmental regulation. Canada has the least efficient environmental legislation in the world. The process itself is an impediment to development. We all want strong environmental protection but not because of process delays which drags things out for decades.
Free Market Jobs...
http://talentmarket.org/openings/
There is also the IEDM (Institute Economic Du Montreal) and Fraser Institute...
With only 33 million people with most of our economy attached to the US. Where the U haul on the back of the American bus. When it goes over the cliff, so will we.
The only saving grace we have is Natural resources & oil. Its not enough.
Only when Haper atomises the HRC's will I believ where makingprogress. So far where just hanging on hoping Obama becomes a distant bad dream.
From a greedy Albertan.
It's time Canada brought out its secret weapon: Justin, Son of Pierre!
That should show those American faux-leftists how it's done. No one does socialism like us Canadians.
Try to become numerate while you are at it. A debt of $5 is meaningless; a debt of $5 trillion sinks you
~cgh
Straw man. Your words not mine.
Try to become literate.
Underwater is underwater.
Canada doesn't have the money to pay off the national debt, the provinces don't have the money to pay off their provincial debts, Canadian household debt is running at or above 120% on average, and Canadians won't be making money to pay off their debts if the U.S., where 80% of our exports are sold, goes under.
Re: CHINA
The London-based Financial Times warned on Monday: “The violent riot in northeast China late last week involved up to 30,000 workers, a reminder of the ongoing sensitivity about lay-offs from state companies in industries targeted for consolidation. The government laid off about 50 million workers in state enterprises in the 1990s, equal to the combined workforces of Italy and France at the time, but many companies still retain bloated staffing rosters.”
The restructured state-owned firms have kept redundant workers on their payrolls, but only on poverty-level allowances, making them the new urban poor in China. When private owners completely take over state enterprises, however, they cut off even the last lingering support to redundant workers, which was a major factor behind the angry eruption at Tonghua last week.
The violent protest was driven by the same underlying processes that sparked the riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi on July 5 after two Uighur workers were killed in a Guangdong toy factory. Uighurs and other oppressed minorities are being used as cheap labour under conditions where plunging export orders have eliminated some 20 million jobs, even as 20 million job seekers and 7 million college graduates try to find work this year.
From-
http://tinyurl.com/mjozlt
I wouldn't be invested in China, cgh.
There is major unrest there and it won't be the like the peaceful protests of '89 this time.
India, well India got nuclear weapons to protect themselves against China.
Pakistan is cozying up to China right now and is preparing to blow the U.S. off as an "ally".
India is between a rock and a hard place.
When the U.S. economy slides in oblivion there are few places that won't be adversely affected.
Oz, Canada's economy is growing at 3%. That's a lot more than the deficit is growing. This means that the debt shrinks relative to the size of the economy even if no action is taken on reducing the deficit.
And if you want to be precise, water is water and debt is debt, and the two have nothing in common. There is no magical level of debt where suddenly you become insolvent. So your original metaphor is simply wrong.
30,000 rioting workers in China? Remember the scale of things. That's like a riot of 600 here. Even G-20 got more than that and no one was claiming it was the end of the world for Canada.
China laid off 50 million government workers in the 1990s? That's like us laying off a million government workers. Most of us economic conservatives would say that's a large step in the right direction. With a large, educated workforce leaving government for the private sector, that makes China even better for commercial startups. These layoffs into productive sectors of the private economy are part of what is fueling China's economic growth. Point is, it's all rather small scale given the size of China's population and economic size.
The comment in the Times about plunging export orders is also somewhat misleading. Ten years ago that would have been very serious. But today, China's internal economy is vastly larger than back then.
Re. unrest overall. All rapidly growing economies always experience extensive unrest. That doesn't make them bad places to invest. On the contrary, it makes them the only places to invest where you can get 10% or better returns. Certainly the massive unrest in the US in the 19th century didn't by any means discourage investment.
As for Pakistan, it may be trying to continue to cozy up to China, but it's clear that the favours are not being much returned. China was just as annoyed as every other large nation that Pakistan went around shopping its weapons technology.
Signs of recent hostility between China and India? Zero. Some hard place. It should be obvious now that India is a country everyone wants to be friends with. Except poor benighted Pakistan.
Paul Martin sure did an awesome job. Too bad Harper and the CPC came to stink the place up.
When we take a sober look at all this we need to understand that we, in North America, are headed down a dangereous path. At least in Canada, we have elected a government that, hopefully, will take us down the path of fiscal responsibility. Our American cousins need to get rid of the fiasco that is Obummer and get back on the path to recovery.
America can only be great again if folks can come to realize that the false promises of socialism is what got us to where we're at and we need to go in the opposite direction.
30,000 rioting workers in China? Remember the scale of things.
~cgh
Remember that China is still essentially a closed society.
We know about his riot, how many more do we not know about?
India and China border disputes over 90,000square kilometers of land and a border over 4,000km long.
..................................................
Aug 17, 2010 – Despite increased political and economic relationship between India and China, tensions remains along their border with rising instances of border violation and aggressive border patrolling by Chinese soldiers, the Pentagon has informed the United States Congress.
However, a senior defense department official told reporters on condition of anonymity that the US has not observed any anomalous increase in military capabilities along the Indo-China border.
Noting that China continues to maintain its position on what its territorial claim is, the official said, the two capitals Beijing and New Delhi have been able to manage this dispute, in a way, using confidence-building measures and diplomatic mechanisms to be able to maintain relative stability in the border area.
China claims its stake over Arunachal Pradesh
It's something that China's paying very careful attention to. It's obviously something that India is paying careful attention to as well," a senior defense department official said.
In its annual report to the Congress, the Pentagon said despite increased political and economic relations over the years between China and India, tensions remain along their shared 4,057 km border, most notably over Arunachal Pradesh.
China claims its stake over Arunachal Pradesh, saying it is part of Tibet, and over the Askai Chin region at the western end of the Tibetan Plateau.
China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan to India
Both countries, in 2009, stepped up efforts to assert their claims. China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank, claiming part of the loan would have been used for water projects in Arunachal Pradesh. This represented the first time China sought to influence this dispute through a multilateral institution," the Pentagon said.
"The then governor of Arunachal Pradesh announced that India would deploy more troops and fighter jets to the area. An Indian academic also noted that, in 2008, the Indian Army had recorded 270 border violations and nearly 2,300 cases of 'aggressive border patrolling' by Chinese soldiers," it said.
The Pentagon said the history of modern Chinese warfare provides numerous case studies in which China's leaders have claimed military pre-emption as a strategically defensive act.
http://tinyurl.com/3vo4ljo
See video
http://tinyurl.com/688hcya
To our American friends:
No Canada is not the capitalist hotbed that you might think. Even our current government which you might think would be fiscally responsible is not. Canada is simply riding a bull market in commodities which will end when the world economy's credit card comes due. There is very little value added wealth being created in this country. The truly sad aspect is that our government makes little or no effort to inform the citizens about the path we're all headed down.
USA productivity by worker is much higher than Canada's. Level of investment per worker is lower in Canada. An interesting stat I read a few years ago were the ratio of micro circuits to $ invested in the world. The USA led all major economies. Sorry I cannot be more specific.
Jim at post#2 .... your comment makes all subsequent words unnecessary.