(11-23-2011, 04:30 PM)Jester Wrote:Right, but our government borrows half of what we spend. Our public services costs, (e.g. healthcare, education) are much higher. I think Canada does socialism correctly, whereas, the US handles it as "programs" which get muddled with special interests.(11-23-2011, 02:33 PM)kandrathe Wrote: In the US, ~50% of income is derived from wages, and the corresponding Canadian number is 78%. 11.2% of Canadian income is derived from government transfers, while in the US it is about 19%. In the US, the government spends $7,427 per citizen on handouts, while Canada spends $2,029 per citizen.
Source? Are you sure you're not missing some Federal/Provincial distinction? I would be shocked if the US and Canadian figures were anywhere near that divergent. Canada has higher taxes, and a fraction of the military budget. The money must go somewhere...
-Jester
Edit: For sources (summary here), wages as a % income, and (welfare) transfer payment outlays per capita for the US corroborated with the BLS. For Canada, I was able to google the Wages as a % of income, but had to calculate the transfer per capita by adding up the ~70 billion spent on transfer payments over the population of Canada.