At no point did I say that anyone was forcing anyone into labour. I said that your words brought those thoughts into my mind. That does not make it reality.


Companies do that now. Earning a profit is why they're in business. Employers don't keep employees on the books if they are surplus to requirements or they need to bring about cost-saving measures. Unless, of course, those employees belong to a Union. Unions bring your last line about "virtually no ability to fire them" into reality.



Let's look at this realistically. How much of a problem do you think Canada has with this perceived burden on the taxpayer? Do you think that Canadians would begin to complain and start a movement to have these policies overturned if there was solid statistical information proving this system is a detriment to the taxpayer, business, and society? Of course they would. Do you hear any whispers of a problem coming out of Canada? Of course you don't. The system works.



Yes, Canadians pay higher taxes than Americans. But they also receive acceptable compensatory benefits from those taxes. Yes, some items are more expensive. But, then again, the standard of living and the average income for comparable positions is much higher in Canada than in the US. That is why you have a cost of living factor. Just because some items are more expensive in Canada does not mean that there are not heavily inflated costs in the US. I find the US system of business much more costly than Canada for certain items and services. Canada and the US are not the same country and do not operate in the same manner. For instance, Canada can balance its budget. The US, however, continues to operate at a deficit year after year after year. Canada does not see imprisonment of its citizens as a revenue-generating business or allow prison placement and expansion to stimulate economy in economically-depressed areas.

*pause*

You know, I'm going to stop there. I generally don't engage in discussions such as this with unknown entities on a message board. VJ is where I come for information and to engage in light-hearted repartee with some of its members. I do not wish that to change.

Have a great weekend everyone.

PoolX.. I didn't wanted to be rude neither point to you directly but more to what was happening in the business industry.
I come from france (wich is awesome in term of maternity leave) and I live in Canada (Qc province) wich isn't bad either in this matter. True also we pay crazy taxes.

I think the US should just have something more acceptable for a developped country.

Well, of course, we'll see when it's gonna be my turn to be pregnant and how i'll cope with it.
(I might aswell go freelance and be able to take as much time as i want !)(well... watch out the income tho...)

If you were in Canada you would know that most retailers now sell at the U.S. price for books and greeting cards.

As for employment standards - you know, it doesn't hurt to be kind to those who are working with you, most Canadian employers accept this.

I've read only the last 2 pages or so of this thread, however, DP, your argument re U.S. companies going under if they are forced to give their employees a little time off - are they that more inefficient than Canadian companies?

I'm just going by what the price says on the book cover and my wife -- who is still in Canada, by the way -- says about the price differences between there and the United States. She's claimed some things are getting closer to even, but most areas are still more expensive. You're right; I don't live there, so I don't know, but my wife obviously does, so she probably would know.

Being nice to your employees is all well and good, so long as it doesn't adversely affect the bottom line. Remember, a business is there to make money; not to be a social community. It's great if your workplace can be enjoyable and the people are fun, nice and friendly, but that isn't always the case for numerous reasons (some of which deal with money and some of which don't). In the end, the most important factor is how much a company earns for their shareholders at the end of the year. If the company hasn't brought in enough, those shareholders will fire the CEO. The CEO knows this, so he or she will do whatever it takes within the law (or sometimes even outside of it) to earn them the funds they desire. If that means being a jerk to the employees or firing tons of people to recoup losses, the CEO will do it.

As for efficiency, I think you're viewing this from an employee standpoint. Try looking at it from an employer's view. Most employees are seen as "cogs in a larger machine." That "larger machine" is the company itself. When one of those "cogs" breaks down or burns out, the "cog" needs to be replaced so the "machine" can keep on running. It's really as simple as that.

So it's very efficient. It's also very cold and impersonal too. But that's why the very last place you really want to be is in an office cubicle somewhere, working until you're 65 and then getting laid off because you're "too old" and no longer "economically viable" anymore. The best thing you can do is work for yourself or start your own business. Otherwise, be prepared for a very dreary existence where you're considered nothing more than a replaceable part that can be tossed out with the garbage at a moment's notice.

we have started using cloth bags in the last couple of months.... they sell them at most of the stores that I have been too.... although I haven't noticed a lot of people using them...

I didn't see the cloth bag as much in Canada though....

yanno, no matter how long I'm here in the US, I will never never ever ever get used to (or like ) paying for health care services! I had to have an ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and my stupid crappy health insurance rejected the claim. So, here's a $436 bill that I don't have the money to pay for. And I have to go for a follow-up ultrasound next month. I think I may have to cancel the appointment.

I wanna go hoooooooooome!

Well... as much as I hate healthcare providers (and I really do; they're a bunch of cheapskate bastards), the problem with this complaint is that an ultrasound isn't a necessary thing. You've elected to do it when you're life isn't in danger. So your health insurance feels they don't need to pick up the tab.

From my wife has told me, Canadian healthcare works similarly too. When she had foot surgery, provincial healthcare didn't pay for it since they felt it was "elective" and wasn't necessary to her health. So I fail to see how it's really all that different in Canada than in the U.S.

The difference is that ultrasounds are standard diagnostic tools which are fully covered under provincial healthcare. Canadians do not need to be at death's door in order to receive "unnecessary" diagnostics. And I can guarantee you that your wife did not pay the entire medical bill for her elective surgery. Provincial healthcare would have covered her expenses to a certain point. Anything beyond that is billable to the patient, which is recovered under work healthplans if she is employed by a typical company. Unless, of course, her surgery was purely for cosmetic reasons.

Um... actually, no. Her surgery wasn't covered at all. I think I'd know a little more about this than you, considering I've been told this story a million times over. She had foot surgery to remove a bunion. None of it was covered under provincial healthcare, since it was considered "elective." She had to pay for it entirely herself.

She's still quite annoyed at the fact that Alberta Healthcare would consider something like that "elective" when she needed to get it done in order to easily walk and forced her to pay. But that was the deal. Fortunately, she had the funds. Otherwise, she would've had some problems.

*sigh*

this used to be such a fun thread...

Now of course by saying something like that you are just asking for trouble. Besides - who are you to spoil the fun of those who like to take a more serious view on life? I mean come on - you can't just come in here trying to have fun all the time like there isn't important stuff going on outside your own little bubble. OMG it's like you're messing wif my LIFE.

Jeraly, I have asked you MANY TIMES to please just use this thread to add useful comments instead of trying to show how clever you are; I am sure there will be people reading this later on who will be looking for useful information rather than attempts of witty banter, but do you listen? no you do not... I think it might be time to bring in the mods, and perhaps Captain Ewok, and maybe even God, to adjudicate on this matter

"Um.... no", actually you are the one who is completely misinformed. The majority of your wife's surgery would have been covered by Provincial healthcare and the remainder.... for specialist fees.... would have been billable to herself..... the costs of which she can recover from submitting an expense claim through her employee health plan, should she have one.

DP, you have absolutely no claim on knowing something more than I do. I have, in fact, had elective bunion surgery. I know exactly what I am talking about. I will say this and then I will say no more about it..... you are making yourself look like a fool when you talk about things which you have not bothered to educate yourself on. Your wife is obviously uninformed/misinformed and you are regurgitating hearsay which is completely erroneous. Either that, or you are misunderstanding what she is telling you. Every single Canadian on this board knows that. You may want to stop embarrassing yourself.






Back to fun!

OMGWTFBBQ??!!!!!??!?!!!1111!!1!1? How dare you even insinuate that I am not funny - I notice that you conveniently ignore the fact that you are messin wif my LIFE - you obviously don't have the intelligence or wit to address this very important issue. As for people wanting to look this thread up in future - I am sure they will but they will come to realise that not all people are helpful here. And yes - I hope you get smited as well

On another note - am listening to "Down Under" by Men at Work and it reminds me of you

oh, far from overlooking, I mess with your LIFE on purpose

I like 'Down Under'
it's so bad, it's good

been listening to the best of INXS a bit recently... reminds me of my yoof

I'm just trying to rip the songs I like from CDs so I can sell them - is taking AGES

I did that before I left Aus and then my laptop was stolen and I lost the lot

about six months after though, I found a random selection backed up somewhere I hadn't known they were - SUCH a surprise

and of course I have all the CDs at home in Sydney... I don't believe in illegal downloading

Actually I didn't choose to have the ultrasound, my doctor sent me to have it to diagnose a rather large ovarian cyst. And I'd like to see you say it is not a necessary diagnostic tool if heaven forbid your wife were to ever get a similar cyst, because let me tell you, they're bloody painful! And an ultrasound for the exact same thing would be fully covered by Canadian healthcare plans. Up to 4 per year actually in Ontario. No idea of other provinces, I've only ever lived in Ontario. And every province is different in what is covered and what is not.

And, as any ovarian cyst well be cancerous, my life could be in danger, so yes, it is a necessary diagnostic tool. Spank you berry fudge for your contribution.

"super cells"

We just got hit by a pretty bad storm and Justin was telling me about this "super cells", that are short but extremely heavy storms...yikes

Saludos,
Caro

Krikit,

Have you ever been to Alberta? Have you ever lived there? Have you ever used their provincial health plan? If not, then don't by presume to think you know everything about Canada or even more importantly, our lives.

My wife's costs were not paid at all -- she had to pay for the consultation fee and the actual surgery. My wife's doctor couldn't recommend her to a podiatrist since this type of surgery was done in a private clinic. My wife had to do the leg work herself.

I don't what part of Canada you were from, but in Alberta foot surgery (bunion removal) was not considered "necessary" and therefore, not covered by Alberta Healthcare. Every province handles healthcare differently. The level of coverage in Alberta is extremely low -- they do the lowest they can get away with, unlike some other provinces, such as Ontario. If your province's healthcare system covered you, then that's great. But it wasn't that case for my wife nearly ten years ago in Alberta.

So no... I am not spitting out inaccurate information nor is my wife uninformed/misinformed. Our circumstances merely happened to be that which differ from yours. Maybe you don't like that or think it's weird. That's fine, but this is what happened, whether or not you want to believe it.

I've wasted enough time on this -- and you -- so I'll spend no more time attempting to argue my point. You'll either believe it or you won't.

hooray!!!!

Yes, actually, I have. In fact, my cousin is currently undergoing cancer and rehab treatment there. I presume nothing.

hmmm, let me see, strange things i'm not used to......

being the other side of the atlantic. being in the same country as New York. Dollar notes. Green money. people saying where are you from, and when i respond 'I'm Irish' they say 'ya, but where are you from'

Well now that i'm here I can post what i find strange/weird. On top of the stuff already mentioned.

First off I been having a hard time with the system in Kroger to just push your shopping cart up the the cash near the cashier and have them take out your stuff and scan them then they send it down the belt for you to pack, thats if you dont get someone rushing over to pack it for you. The thing is i usually load the items in a certain order to pack them like all the heavy stuff together so i can place them at the bottom of the pile. Its just weird.

And Wal-mart has me messed up being open 24h, i'm not used to being able to take my time get stuff i dont need and not rush out the door to get home. But at least i can get things out of my buggy on my own. But i dont like the way they put them in bags and have the turn style thingy for you to collect your stuff i always feel like i'm fogeting something there.

The way they list ground meat with the 20/80 stuf and how they have ground chuck or ground beef all that 30/70 ect stuff on the package is got me confused why cant they just say regular meadium lean or extra lean hahaha.

Now i do like some of the prices they have and love how you can get the big bags of cereal and a large variety not just 3 kinds. I'm talking about no name stuff. And then the kool-aid who would of thought that would be different (i'm a kool-aid junky).

Ok thats it for now.

Danielle

Oh - the weird thing that took me surprise when grocery shopping was the conveyer belt at the end. I pack all my own stuff which is fine, but I was packing and the stupid clerk didn't move the stuff further up the belt closer to me. So I'm there making this big issue of leaning right over and getting everything, eying them as if to say "omg why are you being so lame"...


It was only after we left that Jeremy informed me there is actually a pad you can push that moves the conveyer belt yourself Oh dear

oh i will have to make sure i look for that too that can be annoying

Hehehe, I don't like those turn-style bag holders either - and I have left things behind even after I've asked the clerk if that was all the bags, Grr! Our Kroegers uses bagboys to pack your groceries. While it is nice that are providing jobs for individuals who would have a hard time working otherwise, it takes FOREVER for them to put the groceries in the bags and they tend to put only 2 items in a bag and then start a new bag. I end up 'helping' just so I can get out of the way of the shopper whose groceries are already on the conveyer belt behind mine. Actually, I have also ended up with someone else's groceries mixed in with mine because of the two grocery orders getting mixed up while waiting to be packed - discovered two bags that weren't mine when loading them in the car. Fortunately, the bagboy was still loading that customers groceries so they got back to the right person.

I noticed they like to double bag just about everything, I have so many bags its crazzy. Thank God Charles can take them to work for the recycle bin. I havent been here that long and I must have a houndred of them already.

The 80/20 tells you the percentage of meat to fat in your ground beef. So 80/20 is 80% meat and 20% fat. 90/10 would be 90% meat and 10% fat.

get yourself some canvas re-usable bags. You can stuff more in them, and they're environmentally friendly.

we have an odd assortment of those.. I love using them...

Me too. The software company I used to work for usually gave them out at conferences and stuff. Over the 13 years that I worked for them, I amassed quite a few

Thanks! Now all we need to do is figure out how that translates into regular, lean, and extra lean.

Ontarkie, I'm going to take a guess:

70/30 = Regular
80/20 = Lean
90/10 = Extra Lean

Thats what i'm thinking too.

resurrecting this thread

first to say that I've been using my calico shopping bags since day one (including my favourite German bag which fits about five regular plastic bags' worth, and which I've been using for 15 years now ) and mostly packing my shopping myself, and no one has given me a hard time about it yet

and then to add some strange things I'm not used to:

eg how farking difficult it is to recycle
in this enlightened age, you'd think that recycling services would be EVERYWHERE in the developed world, but no; service was withdrawn from our area in April... so I'm stacking plastic bottles and tins and glass jars and paper etc in the garage, and when we have enough to warrant a trip we'll take it to the drop-off
pretty silly though...

another thing that makes me laugh is when Americans go on about 'OMG such high gas prices!!!'
I just think about Australia, and then I think about the UK...


sort of getting used to the huge big flags everywhere, and EVERYTHING being red, white and blue, and decorated with Lone Stars, etc, but occasionally I have to be a smartarse, and out of the blue just gasp, and point at some big-arse flag, and say to Dave, 'look! we must be in America!!' and then he hits me

there's more... can't think of everything right now

I've noticed the flag thing too.

Well not sure how many ppl noticed this, but me comming from Northern Ontario then moving to Arkansas. I've noticed that no matter how long you let the water run it only gets hotter not colder. I'm used to turning on the tap waiting a min or so and getting ice cold water so cold the tap would sweat from the heat in the air. Now here i tend to forget and one day i let the tap run a few minutes and it actually got hotter not colder and that really sucks cause now i have to make room in the fridge for water. I still tend to forget cold water does not come out of the tap and i get a mouthfull of yukky warm water. EWWWW

I just know I'm going to do that too!

TRUE TRUE ...................... PRICES ARE SO SO HIGH HERE ................ I am from India and its so so different here ............I dnt think people live in that peace as we live there.

a) No socialization between neighbours
NO significant evening life apart from movies & drinking
c) Always fear of police , wd they stop you for something.
d) Same medicine , same company in usa costs almost 20 times..............
e) Without health insurance you are a beggar...........
f) Doctors see you only in appointments ..... one doctor doesnt even look if any other part of the body is crating that problem or not. You urself have to ask the doctor and then he may recommend you to someone else.........who again wd extract some good money from you.
g)If someone gives you a cheque and that bopunces then irrespective of what happens to that person, you get a good fine ..... never heard of such a thing in india.
h) Next door neighbor doesnt know me ...................... I am shocked to see if I am alone at home and I fall considerably sick then theres no one to help me .I may die alone .....
i) You have to pay taxes based on how much water u have spent !! In India we give taxes ...omne fixed ...irrespective of how much you have spent.
j) My fiance says walking on streets is dangerous ........ thats the main thing of India ...you can walk and talk to people on streets and its fine.
k) everything is so so costly here !!!

I really miss India and my after work gossips with friends before going back to home.

wow, I guess it's all relative; I think things are amazingly cheap here

and I've met loads of my neighbours... they've been really friendly


I'm with you on the health insurance; that's been a bit of a stress, specially when I needed some emergency dental work done

Yeah, the lack of recycling here makes me mad. And I hear ya on the hot water out of the cold water tap. I was back home visiting this past winter and was in the ladies room of a pub we were at. I turned on the cold water tap because I'm so used to the warmth of the water here, stuck my hands in it, then yelled out "Whooo! That's cold!" The lady next to me looked at me as if I was from another planet.

You mean you aren't????

And why aren't there any REAL bakerys making yummy fresh bread????

If anyone is from south west michigan please prove me wrong.

I can't agree more on the quality of bread - those squares of toast bread are not only tasteless but remind me of sponges Publix stores have excellent bakeries, I usually buy French bagets or Italian loafs there. Oh, and theire Tiramissu is out of this world, especially if you keep in the freezer for a little bit Unfortunatelly they don't have any locations in MI . Maybe try other local supermarkets? Many do have bakeries.

I like Panera Bread pastries. They have some good stuff. I also love Dessert Lady here in Orlando. It's a small coffee-shop/bakery. The cakes they make are nothing like that boxed American stuff

One thing that is so weird to me is the fact that cottage cheese is so different. Very salty and the crumbs are just so huge. Anybody had any luck finding normal variations?

Tiramisu - Oh, how I adore thee

Cottage cheese - I wish I could remember the brand I use, I had to use trial and error though until I found one I liked.

They're pretty few and far between here. I find the Fresh Market has great bread. And I've also found a lovely German bakery about 40 minutes away. Yay. I really really miss a proper fruit and veg market, though.

I love Panera Bread too - I miss that from when I used to visit Michigan. Grocery store bread is not great - pretty mediocre. There is a restaurant near by called the Atlanta Bread Company, however, that does make some great fresh variety breads so I will treat ourselves now and then to some of their loaves. I make our own a lot - yay for breadmakers.

Maybe I have just found an opening for a business. I love to bake, maybe I will open a bakery / cafe / bookstore in Bangor Michigan.

Garlic Bread, Sour Dough, Rye loaves, Pumpkin Bread, Cupcakes, Cakes, Scones, biscuits (sorry cookies), vanilla slice, Pull Aparts etc

I miss a good chinese place for eating. Well I am used to Ontario fake chinese food, and the stuff in TN is YEACK!