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Old Posted Sep 22, 2014, 3:46 PM
big W big W is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet View Post
I think life in the UK can be rough, and even rougher than in North America. Life expectancy in Glasgow would be of 59, I heard recently. I could hardly believe it. That is rough like some of the poorest areas of Africa. Otherwise, the single figure of GDP per capita is definitely too short to assess the overall quality of life of a given place. Do you seriously think Canada would be so much more comfy than say Italy, especially northern Italy? Honestly, I wouldn't bet on that when North America is known for being a bit too harsh to their poor yet, which doesn't help to make them so enviable.
I cannot say on Italy as I have not spent a great deal of time there. But in Canada vs the US there is a huge difference on social spending. In addition it depends on where in Canada as most such programs are provincial jurisidction in Canada and not Federal. The main being Health Care (all provinces have full publicly administered health care systems), education and social services.

One example would be post secondary tuition rates. For example Quebec has a model of maintaining the lowest university tuition rates in Canada ($2,700 per year).

In Alberta for example where I grew up, university tuition at top universities is $6,000 per year, however any loans over $20,000 are forgiven by the Province. In addtion, depending on the financial situation of students families, the addtional money is forgiven by the Province. So in my brothers case he ended up with $35,000 of student debt by the time he finished his masters degree but only had to pay back $16,000 as anything over $20,000 is automatically forgiven and then he recived an addtional 20% or $4,000 also forgiven due to family situation. In addtion, the loans were intrest free until 1 year after he graduated and started his job with the interest also being a tax write off. So for 6 years of university he ended up paying about $2,500 per year. While someone with rich parents would have to pay the full $35,000.
Manitoba for example has tuition rates for doctors for example are of $20,000 per year but will forgive up to 100% of the student loans if you stay in Manitoba. For each year after you graduate and stay in Manitoba you get 10% forgiven and once you hit 10 years the entire tuition is written off. Each has is focusing on the needs of the local population and tending to the poor in a different way.
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