Texanadian

There's another side.

Those who been smoking for years and developed emphysema (lung cancer) have cost the gov't millions if not billions of dollars to pay for their medical cost. So, it's important that more people heed the FDA.

If we want to talk strictly on cost, I'd wager that it's cheaper doing the above than having the same people live longer and collect social security for another 14 years. Let's not forget the millions of people who smoke for a few years/decades and then quit. They have no long term effects but paid into the system through taxes all that time.....Besides, what about the alternative to cancer? People still die of old age in hospitals from natural causes every day.

The taxing smokers to pay for SCHIP was disgusting. That should have been paid for by parents. Something as simple as reducing the child tax credit would have made much more sense.

Vancouver already lost the Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire (massive fireworks display) because B&H wasn't allowed to sponsor it anymore. I can just imagine how much Formula 1 racing would lose if Marlboro wasn't allowed to sponsor teams. Better get the NHRA on board too. No more Budweiser sponsored drag racing teams. That would be promoting underaged drinking. *rolleyes*

Getting rid of cig packs less than 20 cigs was a mistake as well. When I was a kid, you could buy cigarettes out of a jar at the corner store. So people would buy one or two. Try them out. Maybe they'd like them. Maybe they wouldn't. But when you only make them available in a pack of 20, you have to smoke the entire pack. Because who is going to throw away the pack when they're $10/pack? By the time a person is through the pack, they're much more likely to buy another one.

I would have joined my wife's plan through her job. But to add me would have cost $725/month extra. I passed on the offer and bought my own instead.

Alaska

Florida

Nevada

New Hampshire

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Washington state

Wyoming

Life is easier this time of year when you don't have a state income tax.

That picture that Booyah posted of the inner city highway....there are hardly any lines between lanes.

Concrete is used (at least in Houston) due to the heat island effect. Concrete roads are much cooler than blacktop roads. Being as we have the ultra high humidity to deal with, ambient temperatures don't drop at night like they do in drier desert climates. I've stepped outside at 2AM in the morning and it feels just as hot and ugly as it did at 6PM the day before. It feels weird that it's been dark for that long and still hot/muggy outside.

Personally I prefer blacktop roads for the comfort, smoothness, quietness. A lot of it depends on the vehicle you drive though. If you have a sports car with heavy duty suspension, concrete roads can be brutal. Driving an SUV or truck, it's not that bad.

As far as gas tax funding, there are HUGE problems with doing it at the federal level. Where is the money going to go? Easy. It's going to go to DC, Massachusetts, New York, etc. The states with less pull will get less. I used to see this when I lived in Canada. In the early 2000's, I found out that in Canada only 5% of the federal gas tax was being used on roads. And of that 5%, 95% of it was spent east of Manitoba. Essentially Quebec and Ontario with some sent to the maritime provinces. I lived out west in British Columbia. We got jack squat for federal gas tax funding. In BC, we have been spending more on roads than our provincial gas tax brings in. Not only that, but the federal government makes more money on gas tax when the price goes up. The formula is as such:

[price of gas + provincial gas tax + federal gas tax] x GST.

So not only does the Canadian federal government charge you GST on top of federal gas tax, but as the per litre price at the pump goes up, so does the GST amount collected. (Provincial and federal gas taxes are charged by a flat per litre amount.)

On the US side of things, as has been mentioned. The Federal government makes all sorts of rules for federal gas funding. Montana used to have a daytime speed limit of "reasonable and prudent." If you're in a high performance car and the weather is good, you could drive 100+ mph. The federal government cracked down on them for not having a defined speed limit. So Montana put in a 70 mph speed limit. Montana's accident rate went UP after instituting a speed limit.

New Hampshire is famous for turning down federal funding in order to not have a seat belt law. No state income tax and no state sales tax in NH either. My kinda place.

Was anybody a fan of the national 55 mph speed limit? I didn't think so. We have 80 mph speed limits in west Texas. Utah has the same in a few areas. Generally the western states have higher speed limits, while the north-eastern states have the slowest speed limits.

The best roads in the US that I've driven on had to be Montana's. Smooth. The corners are angled for speed. Traffic is extremely courteous. They move over if you come up behind them rather than you having to change lanes. Nobody tailgates. The police didn't seem too concerned about people doing 80-85 mph. I even passed one going 90.

Texas seemed to have more state troopers than all the other 7 states combined that I drove across on the way down here. (WA, ID, MT, WY, CO, NM, TX)

The interesting thing about the middle class is that everybody considers themselves to be middle class. Rich is always somebody who makes more money than they do. If you make 30K a year, you think people making 75K a year are rich. If you make 75K, you think people making over 100K are rich. 100K people think they're middle class and that people making 150-200K are rich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

Some interesting stories.

I don't see how it couldn't be the responsibility of the producer to be responsible for pollution. The benefits of polluting industries (typically high paying jobs) comes with the price of localized pollution. Here in Houston, we produce 1/7th of the world's plastic. Plastic requires oil and all sorts of factory pollution. It's obviously going to pollute more than people who grow flowers for a living. But working someplace like the Goodyear tire plant will pay way more than a flower shop.

The majority of the pollution in Houston comes from the smaller incorporated cities of Baytown and Pasadena (think south-east Houston). The jobs there all pay really good. The real estate there is really cheap. But when you drive through there on the highway, you can see nothing but refineries and factories that go on and on seemingly forever. Driving 70 mph, you can see factories for 45 minutes. The air stinks out there. And when they release benzene at night, it feels like the air is burning.

I live in West Houston. The air here is much cleaner. But the EPA is constantly cracking down on our "city" for not being compliant. If you take away the factories and refineries, the city is actually quite clean from an energy/environmental point of view. Yearly emissions tests for cars keeps the old clunkers off the road. Lots of new cars where I live. Anything older than 15 years old seems rare. Cold start emissions from vehicles are always the worst polluting times....We don't have that here. You might see a day or two during the year where the exhaust pipe on the car in front of you has visible vapour coming off it. (only happens on cold days which we don't really get). Meanwhile Fairbanks Alaska has the same amount of carbon monoxide as Los Angeles. Carbon monoxide is a byproduct from cars when the engines are too cold (catalytic converters only turn that into CO2 when they're HOT)

Every home has central air here (heat pump technology). The air temperature at the peak of summer is 20-25° warmer than the indoor temperature. So your energy use is very low. Contrast that to living in the north-east of the US where the winter temps are 50-70° below indoor temp and coal is the major electricity producer there. (Natural gas is the main producer of electricity here although we do have nuclear, wind, and hydro)

China is essentially the same benefits (lots of jobs, albeit poorly paying jobs) but they don't take the same responsibility with their pollution that we do. If China wants to pollute less, they can shut down their polluting factories or downsize what they currently have. But they're not doing that. Heck, they're building 3 coal fired electricity plants a week in China.

I always find it sneaky when the CEO is also the chairman of the board.

Most traditional US health insurance companies want you to be a US resident for 6 months before they will cover you. Hence why we need to look for immigrant health insurance. I also used to have Seven Corners.

Good post.

56 weeks of benefits??? When I did it, the max was 36 weeks.

Hey Booyah, the definition you posted of Economic Freedom sounds exactly like Libertarianism. So you're saying Australia is more libertarian than the USA? If so, I say good for you. At least this shows you how it works in modern day society.

You're pushing it to say that 45,000 people are "dying" from not having medical care.

Economic Freedom

AUS: 4th

USA: 5th

How is this possible? The cleaners earning $20/hr make $40K/year. In Australia, that puts them in the 30% tax bracket. In the US that would be 15% (depends on married/single/head of house etc). Australia has 10% GST. USA has zero percent GST. Gas tax is $1.40/gallon in Australia. It's 18 cents in the USA. Payroll taxes are a few percent lower but have 6x the maximum taxable income in Australia. Your taxes make even a Canadian like myself cringe.

Sundrop, are you from United Kingdom or the United Kingdom?

There are aprox 90 different languages spoken here in Houston alone, nevermind the rest of the country. And if I'm in a country on the other side of the world, I'd practically expect to be thought of as an American. Why wouldn't I? And why would that bother me? People in the US don't even know I'm from Canada until I tell them. And I get the same answer every time. "Really? You don't have an accent."

When we can start getting $30-100 international flights like Ryanair does in Europe and also at Concord speed in order to get to other countries, Americans will start traveling more. Canadians aren't any different in that regard. Some travel around the world. But the majority don't. It's expensive and far. Heck, I remember seeing flights from Vancouver to Seattle that cost more than flights from Seattle to Miami.

If you take away the country aspect and think of traveling in continents, Europeans tend to travel around Europe while North Americans tend to travel around North America. I'd guess that South Americans travel around South America the most too.

Besides, flying isn't any fun. Driving is where you get to see the most interesting things.

Interesting thread. I didn't know it was 3 hours to fly from New Zealand to Australia. Why is it that both countries don't like being referred to as the other by foreigners? You seem to be way out by yourselves out there. Obviously you sound very similar to a non NZ/AUS person.

Ukraine vs the Ukraine. I see this as sweating the small stuff. If I ask where you're from and you answer "I'm from Ukraine." It sounds like broken English. An American wouldn't answer I'm from USA. They'd say I'm from the USA. Somebody from the British Virgin Islands wouldn't answer "I'm from British Virgin Islands." They would say the first.

As far as international travel goes, it's already been mentioned that with 50 US states and most of them being different, that in itself is essentially the same as traveling. Compare it to the EU. It's really the same. One currency in either area. Different accents. Different climates. Different population sizes. Different state sizes.

Bums pay alcohol taxes.

It's the darned green movement that is anti-build new highways and/or expand on the old ones. Insisting instead on the use of buses, rail, etc. I personally don't have an issue with public transportation. I DO have an issue with inefficient public transportation. What good is a bus that drives around all day that has 5 people on it?

If gas tax is going 100% to roads, I have no problems with raising it. Particularly when it's state gas tax rather than Federal gas tax. (Because who knows where the fed. gas tax is going to go.)

After using the skytrain in Vancouver (above ground rail on it's own set of tracks), I have to give ground rail in Houston a thumbs down. Why? Well for starters, the skytrain MOVES when it's operating. You can see the traffic below stopped or driving slow during rush hour. Meanwhile you're doing 50 mph in the skytrain. As a vehicle driver in Houston, the rail is a nuisance. It takes up a whole lane of traffic. Causes vehicles to wait at red lights when there is no cross traffic. The amount of car accidents colliding with the rail is huge. In fact just a week or so ago a bus ran a red light and got T-boned by the rail car. And of course there is the factor that the Houston metro rail doesn't go anywhere.

I like that my job in the medical center has all sorts of emphasis on helping the workers get to work. For me, I get free parking. A nice fact considering there are over 70,000 people who work there. They have shuttle buses and rail that take you from various free parking spots. Weekend parking is free right next door to the hospitals. If you want to take the bus to work from near your home, they give you pre-loaded free bus cards that automatically re-load at the end of the month. You get free taxis home for emergency situations (kid got sick etc) if you're a bus rider. They also will pay for your park 'n ride parking pass if you come to work that way......Me? I'd love to take the bus to work and leave my car at home. But unfortunately, the earliest bus on my route that would get me there would mean I'd be half an hour late for work every day.

I see Houston metro rail is in hot water right now for destroying documents related to some sort of internal investigation. What can you do though? At least in my situation (driving every day), I leave early enough going to work and coming home that I avoid rush hour either way. People are in a hurry to get places in this giant city (a fact that I like). As such, it's common to be doing 80 mph on the highway every day. People enjoy the opportunity to get somewhere fast when they have the chance.

Actually now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if the Houston metro rail was built as some way of satisfying the EPA in regards to clean air regulations. The majority of cars on the roads here are actually pretty good in that regard. Yearly emissions testing. The state pays a certain amount for you to scrap an old car if it won't pass and you choose to dispose of it. And car prices are lower here than Canada. So you tend to see more new cars and less old cars on the roads anyways.

I worked for Germans for nearly a decade. Primarily German customers too. They're hard workers who are thrifty with their spending. Had a do it right the first time attitude. It doesn't surprise me that Germany is at the top of the EU's economy.

There isn't a public transit system in the US that isn't subsidized.

From Car & Driver

The New York subway system, popularly called the “electric sewer” in my 19 years as a Manhattan cliff dweller, hauls the masses and is arguably the most cost-efficient transit system in the country. Passengers pay 68 percent of operating costs. The numbers drop from there, as does ridership. Around the country, San Francisco is next best at 57 percent, then Washington, D.C., at 48 percent, followed by Boston riders who pay 41 percent, 36 percent in Chicago, 31 percent in Atlanta, 28 percent in Los Angeles, and 20 percent in Denver.

Think of it this way. Every time a Los Angelino gets on the Metro Rail, he lays out a buck and a quarter, more or less, depending on his destination, and the taxpayers kick in about three and a half bucks. Next time you ding your credit card for gas at $4 per gallon, imagine getting back a check from the government for almost $3 a gallon. Not gonna happen. Frequent fliers and UPS shippers don’t get this kind of deal either. But mass transit exists in that wishful world in which my happiness and yours depends upon everyone else hopping on the train or bus so we don’t have to.

Not only that, mass transit isn't that "green" either.

“Light rail” is the darling of transit boosters these days, operating or under construction in 26 American cities, including sprawling Phoenix and scattered Seattle-Tacoma. This is a system of self-powered cars. Depending on the design, it may run on its own exclusive right of way or on tracks through the streets. “Heavy rail,” either subways or elevated, always runs on its own right of way. “Commuter rail” uses passenger coaches pulled by locomotives, often on tracks shared with freight lines.

“Most light-rail systems use as much or more energy per passenger mile as the average passenger car, several are worse than the average light truck, and none is as efficient as a Prius,” writes Randal O’Toole in a new study from the Cato Institute titled “Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?”

From several federal sources, O’Toole calculated the average energy used per passenger mile for various transportation methods. Ferry boats came out worst, sucking up 10,744 BTUs per passenger mile. A Toyota Prius was best at 1659 BTUs per mile. The average of all automobiles, which includes SUVs, vans, and cars together, is 3885 BTUs per mile, whereas passenger cars alone average 3445. The average light-rail system is slightly worse at 3465. Buses, at 4365 BTUs, are much worse; commuter rail and heavy rail are better at about 2600 but still no match for the Prius.

It turns out that light-rail cars aren’t light, weighing in at about 100,000 pounds, roughly four times the weight of a bus and 34 times the weight of a Prius. Another problem: With electrical power, there’s major shrinkage between the energy of the fuel going into a generating plant and the actual power out the far end of the transmission system to the railway—10,300 BTUs in for 3400 BTUs out, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Yet another problem: To justify the political demands that come with the huge investment, light rail runs at a greater frequency than buses, and the trains are largely empty at off-peak travel times and toward the ends of the lines. Fully loaded rail cars are very energy efficient, but every mile traveled by a nearly empty car pulls down the average.

Finally, all kilowatt-hours aren’t created equally: Washington state, Oregon, and California rely heavily on hydro power, whereas Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia depend on fossil fuel. And this, in turn, leads to differing global-warming implications. If the electricity comes from nuclear or hydro, some rail systems surpass the Prius on CO2 emissions (0.26 pound per passenger mile), as they do in Portland (0.08) and Los Angeles (0.18). Washington, D.C., and Baltimore have heavy-rail systems at 0.62 and 0.50, respectively; light rail in Philadelphia is 0.69, two-and-a-half times dirtier than the Prius.

Transit systems produce good numbers in New York City and nowhere else. The reason: New York’s system (rail and buses) attracted 30.8 percent of commuters in 2006. San Francisco-Oakland, Boston, and Chicago were next in line but way back with 13.1 percent, 12.3 percent, and 12.2 percent. Dallas-Fort Worth brings up the why-bother end, attracting 2.1 percent of commuters. New Orleans and Sacramento, both at 2.9 percent, are little better.

Texanadian: So public transportation was already being highly subsidized before this whole fiscal mess happened. I see no problem with cutting back on the subsidies. People who use this instead of a car save lots on gas, insurance, risk of car accidents, wear and tear, and in many cases parking fees.

I actually find highways here to be rather easy to navigate. Because instead of missing your exit, taking the next one and then trying to find a way to turn around.... every exit goes to a frontage road which will have a U-turn that runs underneath the main highway.

Not only that, but the U-turns (Texas turnarounds as they're called here) are extremely fast. You get to skip two sets of lights because it bypasses them.

In actuality, the main highway will be above everything.

City streets have U-turns absolutely everywhere too. None of this driving around the block stuff.

El Salvador is in Central America. Not South.

Looks like Australia has a min wage of around $14/hr USD. So roughly twice what the min wage in the US is. No wonder they can afford to buy houses in the US. But those US rents would then be worth about half as much in Australia due to the cost of living.

Besides, what's the point of buying foreign houses but not being able to afford a local house? I could buy a house in Nigeria if I wanted. But why? I'd rather own a home where I'm living.

What does it cost to have your house cleaned in Australia anyways? $1000?

I can't comment on cell phones as I don't have one.

I never particularly minded paying GST/PST on locally bought goods in BC. But I sure did hate paying it on stuff I bought from foreign countries. I like that in the USA, they have competition between the states. You don't pay sales tax on stuff bought from another state or country.

Only 1 toll road in BC. I've never been on it. Lots of toll roads in Texas. But I avoid them pretty much all the time.

I lived on the west coast of BC. Nicest weather in the country. Having said that, spring and fall were long, dull, rainy, and boring. Down in south Texas we have summer for 10 months. 1 month of winter. And one month where it's winter and summer. (70° one day, 45° the next day). There is no spring or fall. Our leaves changed colour AFTER the Christmas decorations went up. If it snows, it melts in a day. Because the next day the weather will be 60°.

I walked to the grocery store one night here. Bought a 6 pack of beer. They wouldn't sell it to me because it was 12:03AM. Nothing allowed after midnight. Why???....The way I figure it, if you're starting to drink at midnight, you're not going to go anywhere. Should be safer for drunk driving.

I like that I can buy car insurance on the internet here. I've never seen an agent or been inside an office in the US. Had to go to an ICBC office when I lived in Canada. Texas has over 100 different license plate designs to choose from. BC has 3 different plates to choose from. And there are no license plate stickers in Texas either.

Friendliness is close in either area.

Canada sucks in that unless you live in south Ontario or in a few certain areas in Vancouver, you can't get antenna TV. I get over 50 channels in Houston with my antenna. With the US being all digital now, the picture is perfect. The HD channels look better than the HD on cable TV. In Ontario, you can pick up some of the Detroit stations if you're close enough. In Vancouver, the main network channels are in Seattle. So unless you're close to the border and not blocked by mountains, you're not going to get much other than CBC and CTV.

There is no reason why Best Buy Canada should sell the same TV they sell at Best Buy USA for 30% higher prices.

Credit cards in Canada don't have nearly the same amount of cash rebates, good airline mile plans as the USA. And if they do, the annual fee negates the deal. No annual in the US, $120 in Canada for example.

Canada has a more national feel. I prefer the state's rights outlook. I always felt more British Columbian than I did Canadian. Some place like Labrador or Quebec or even Saskatchewan seemed like another country to me. I feel like I live in Texas rather than the USA now. They even sell Texas edition pickup trucks here.

I rarely saw a BC flag back then. The Maple Leaf would be the more popular flag. Down here, the Texas flag is everywhere. The Stars and Stripes not so much.

Moving expenses.....I believe that's only for people moving to the USA to start work. For me (K-1) that wasn't possible.

The Make Work credit, you should be able to take. Filing Married-Joint will allow them to use your spouse's income (made over 6K last year? I'd hope so) as a basis for taking the credit. That's how it worked when they were giving out those $1200 stimulus checks a few years back.

I can also vouch for Chase. Say you depost a $100 cheque. They will add $100 to your bank account. A week later you'll get a piece of paper in the mail stating they are charging the exchange rate. So they'll deduct about $4.32 or whatever the heck the exchange rate is between USA and Canada.

No big deal.

So he's saying that in the future we will be using less energy, thus nuclear reactors will be oversized? If anything, we use more electricity per household every year. People own more "stuff" now. Everybody has 3 cell phone chargers, 6 different boxes attached to their TV. Multiple TV's. Multiple computers. More kitchen gadgets. Houses are bigger. Apartments are bigger.