Talk:Comparison of Canadian and American economies

Unemployment
Is there anything to back up the notion that Canadian unemployment rates are recorded significantly differently than American ones? I have never seen anything concrete to back that up.

Median income
Median income is lower in Canada than in the United States.
 * Do you have evidence for this? I could not find any direct comparisons, but Statscan puts Canadian median income at CSD 55,016 in 2000.  The US census puts their median income at USD 43,527 over a three year average from 2001-03. In terms of purchasing power these numbers would make Canada's median income higher. Comparing these two raw numbers is not ideal, do you have any better numbers? - SimonP 08:57, Jan 31, 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, and I've seen several citations which mention that the US has a higher median income than Canada. Look at median earnings in terms of purchasing parity, the US is quite a bit higher. The margin is much less than if you simply compare per capita income averages but clearly the US is higher.


 * I don't know why this article is using median income for Red Deer, Alberta to represent all of Canada and then goes ahead to use US Census Bureau data for the United States. If we want to be fair here, Statscan has median family income at http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil108a.htm which shows that in 2005 (and in 2005 dollars) the Canadian median income is 60,600.  I'm not sure what the PPP conversion is which may bring it down by an amount. 18:49, 21 September 2007 (UTC)Breadloaf


 * There's literally no citation or numbers for the statement 'median income is higher in america', the later citation is for Average PPP values. And as of 2010 that's probably not accurate https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?hp&amp;_r=1  I'm going to add a 'needs citations' to that area.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.150.194.99 (talk) 09:46, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

Aboriginal peoples
"Aboriginal peoples in Canada, a comparatively smaller percentage of the population, have a far lower standard of living than the majority."

Maybe this should say "Most Aboriginals". I beleive that some of the *ahem* cheifs live rather well, even if they're only a small percentage of a small percentage of the population.

Talnova


 * I think the "on average" is implicit here. Why didn't you object to the generalization in the previous sentence?  HistoryBA 23:45, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Dubious
Most of the claims in the section are wrong, and appears to be original research.

Title of article
Shouldn't it be "economies" instead of "economics"?


 * Good point. On another issue, may I ask that you sign your contributions to the talk pages?  HistoryBA 00:11, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I'm new Tony


 * So I just discovered a tab to move the page. Should we change the title from 'Canadian and American economics compared' to 'Canadian and American economies compared'? If yes, do we need to fix every link that pointed to the old article? Tony the newbie
 * Moving it is a good idea, and I have done so. I am not sure what I was thinking when I named this page, probably trying to too closely parallel Canadian and American economics compared. No we don't have to fix all the incoming links, but since "economics compared" really is a pretty awkward phrasing, it might be a good idea.- SimonP 02:38, 22 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I fixed all the incoming links in actual articles. Should we delete this article? As you said, the title is wrong. Tony Bruguier

POV in opening
I think that the following opening is highly problematic: ''The comparison between the economies of Canada and the United States is generally far more of a concern to Canadians than to Americans.

''Canadians feel that they are under constant pressure to remain competitive with the United States. Otherwise, they fear that they will suffer brain drain, where highly skilled Canadians emigrate and/or corporations relocate to the United States. American citizens and corporations rarely emigrate. Frankly, it's unsourced crap. "Far more of a concern to Canadians than to Americans" - cite? "Canadians feel that they are under constant pressure to remain competitive with the United States" - cite? "American citizens and corporations rarely emigrate" - cite? (I seem to recall a lot of American corporations "emigrating" to the Bahamas, at least in name, for tax purposes.) All of this is crap and should be reworded, cited or removed. Firebug 04:51, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm American and that all on the top is a crock of bullshit lol --12.181.38.2 (talk) 21:47, 14 March 2013 (UTC)Amanda

POV/General Questions
"American citizens and corporations rarely emigrate"

Probably should be changed, specifically the corporations part. As already pointed out they've been moved to tax free areas, and new areas with a cheaper work force.

"In its quest to appear to compete with the US, Canada starts at an immediate disadvantage."

Denotes Canada is just trying to look even, not be even.

"Differences between government intervention in the economies of the two countries is most closely examined in Canada, because some feel that policies that more closely emulate the US are preferable, while others disagree."

Source for first part? Last clause ("while others disagree") seems unnecessary.

"Canadian low-income earners are thus more burdened in this respect because a sales tax is regressive by nature."

G&S Tax Basic food is exempt.

"For instance, the British Times Higher Education Supplement ranked 7 US universities in the top 10 of the world, 11 in the top 20, and 16 in the top 30. Indeed, excepting only Oxford and Cambridge, each of the world's top 9 universities were in the United States. Zero Canadian universities were in the top 20, and only one Canadian university (McGill) made the top 30. Five government-funded American universities (and eleven private universities) were included in the top 30.

In another international study by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the difference was even more striking. It ranked 8 US universities in the top 10 of the world, 17 in the top 20, and 22 in the top 30. Again only with the exceptions of Oxford and Cambridge, the top 13 universities in the world were all in the United States. As in the British study, no Canadian universities made the top 20 and only one made the top 30 (this time it was the University of Toronto). Eight government-funded American universities (and fourteen private ones) were in the top 30."

Has no correlation to economics.

"Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Government spends far more on health care than does Canada."

Source?

"Canadians are forced to choose between small inefficient airlines that would be competitive, or monopolistic airlines that will generate its own inefficiency."

Opinion.

"Another example of this trade off is the book industry which has recently switched models. Until the 1990s Canada had many small and fairly inefficient book stores. Then Chapters entered the market and quickly created a near monopoly, eliminating the inefficiencies of smaller stores but potentially leading to a monopolistically set price and limited choice of books. This monopolizaton was aided by government policy in Canada that requires bookstores in Canada be Canadian owned."

Source?

"If Jim Carrey had remained in the Canadian entertainment industry, he would have made far less money and would not be world famous."

Opinion

Prices section needs to be updated with the rise in the Canadian dollar as well as higher gasoline prices in the United States.

"Canada has a higher unemployment rate than the United States. Canadian unemployment hovers around 7 to 8%(although is currently 6.4%) while the U.S. tends to be around 5%"

Source?

MiDra

Banking
The banking section seems disproportionatly long, especially in comparison to other sections (I have a hard time believing that banking deserves a longer section than, say, taxation). Is there any way to cut it down without losing something important? MiDra 17:35, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I added a lot of the banking material, but I also knew I was making it too long. Feel free to cut whatever you think are the least important or interesting parts. No offense will be taken. Deet 19:37, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Cool. I started taking out a few lines, but I'm hesitant to massively renovate sections, I'm not exactly the greatest banking afficionado. MiDra 20:05, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I actually think it is one of the best sections. I would instead say that subjects such as tax policy and productivity are much too short, and should be expanded by someone knowledgable. - SimonP 20:13, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

I think the banking section is a little American biased. "In real terms Canadian banks are much smaller". Considering that RBC would rank as the fifth largest bank by assets in the United states. I also think it needs some citations.--65.94.109.49 06:53, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I think this section needs to be updated significantly to reflect the fact that Canadian banks are considerably larger than stated in this section, and that they were much better equipped to weather the economic slowdown of 2008/2009 due to tighter regulations (that need to be described as well). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.175.167 (talk) 14:05, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Structure
Are the topics listed drawn from a particular source regarding economic comparisons? I just wonder about which topics should, should not be included here and whether it should be standardized for all of these types of articles. Effectively, this could be viewed as original research Canking 22:40, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Probably no one person picked the topics. With regards to you original research question, if an external example existed for every topic then we wouldn't need Wikipedia, would we? The original research concern applies only if we started some complex math calculations in this article to prove a new thesis regarding superiority of the economy of Nunavut relative to Florida, or something like that. Deet 18:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Idiotic article made less idiotic
You can thank me on my user talkpage.--Rotten 02:34, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * WP:CIV - SimonP 02:45, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:CAD50 Front.png
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Removed "vandalism"
this was added to the article:


 * It is not reasonable to use data for countries which are taken at different times - there is a four year spread of data. It leads to a grossly misleading analysis.

whilst it's true it should have been raised on a talk page. i know nowhere near enough to be able to remedy this, though - so hence i've noted it here. cheers! Onesecondglance (talk) 12:49, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Sources?
Most of the article is unsourced and highly biased, especially the social programs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.148.212.200 (talk) 09:51, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Taxation
For the taxation comparison, there is an article http://slumbuddy.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/comparison-of-canadian-and-us-federal-tax-rates-for-2011/ comparing the federal tax rates and the conclusion is that Canadians pay less federal taxes in general using 2011 data. I added a dispute tag for the taxation section EndoplasmicR (talk) 05:35, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

This section actually compares government revenues rather than taxes, which is misleading. A substantial amount of Canadian government revenue comes from government-owned enterprises. When this is removed the figures are much closer. In fact, with the recent bail-outs, US government revenue (as a % of GDP) probably now far exceeds that of Canada, as banking, insurance and car sales revenues are added.

The government spending figures also need to be explained. One major program, the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) collects and invests money on behalf of taxpayers, including in the Stock Market, then pays pensions to them when they retire, much like a 401K. But Social Security pays out retirees from current revenue.

Also, the "brain drain" theory is speculation and is not supported by any studies. The Four Deuces (talk) 22:06, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Written by Canadians
It's apparent that this article was written by Canadians and has a very Canada-centric view. It should be deleted and re-written. G. Csikos, 22 September 2009.

It is apparent that the above poster is a butthurt american. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.227.179.2 (talk) 03:08, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Name calling? I'm American and I'm not as you say "butthurt" lol I'm not even sure what that means but hey this article is on Wikipedia so y'all I wouldn't trust it much honestly... --12.181.38.2 (talk) 21:36, 14 March 2013 (UTC)Amanda

Also Inaccurate and out of date
This whole article is rubbish. Most statistics are over 10 years old or more out of date. The whole banking section reads like a sad joke given current information.

It either needs a VERY through editing, or deletion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.251.200.39 (talk) 02:31, 1 February 2010 (UTC) I didn't even read all the information on here but it's Wikipedia...I wouldn't put a lot of trust in it.--12.181.38.2 (talk) 21:36, 14 March 2013 (UTC)Amanda

Definition of "Household" varies by country. Reasons for table removal.
In the US, a household is "A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated people, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated people sharing a housing unit such as partners or roomers, is also counted as a household." http://www.census.gov/cps/about/cpsdef.html

In Canada, the term used in the statistics is "family" which is defined as "A census couple family consists of a couple living together (married or common-law, including same-sex couples) living at the same address with or without children."

The huge difference here is the US figures includes a single person as "household" whereas the Canadian statistics does not. For the Canadian statistics a "family" only includes 2+ people. Some of these countries also appear to be using average income rather than median as well. All this leads to incredibly misleading and inaccurate statistics and odd comparisons. The entire income table is a complete mess and it should not exist here in this form. BlackHades (talk) 19:43, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Wikiproject Economics
Also see wikiproject economics discussion Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Economics Jonpatterns (talk) 18:07, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I am concerned that unsourced content and synthesis is repeatedly added to this page. That's got to stop. It would be better to have a small, well-sourced, and up-to-date article rather than a large, cherrypicked, and outdated pile of text. bobrayner (talk) 18:09, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Military Expenditure
No mention of greater U.S. military expenditure. Poor Article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.71.19.172 (talk) 14:42, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

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Taxation
I removed this outdated text and in some cases unsourced content from article to talk page for discussion. I updated with content from the 2018 OECD report.Oceanflynn (talk) 19:14, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * "In 2009, Canada's total tax and non-tax revenue for every level of government equaled about 38.4% of GDP, compared to the U.S. rate of 28.2%.


 * Prior to 2010, in addition to the 5% GST levied on most purchases, some Canadians also paid a provincial sales tax at a rate that varied by province from 0-10%. There are some purchases which were PST exempt, such as children's clothing. In the U.S., most states impose a sales tax, and cities and counties are often permitted to levy taxes as well, which can exceed 10% on purchases but realistically averaged at about 6-8% in 2009. Five U.S. states did not have any sales tax imposed in 2010. The Canadian province of Alberta and all three territories have no provincial or territorial sales tax on top of the GST.

Prices
I removed this outdated text and in some cases unsourced content from article to talk page for discussion.Oceanflynn (talk) 19:34, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * In Canada prices have long tended, on average, to be higher than in the US. While some items are as much as 40% higher, others are similar in price or even cheaper in Canada.  (For example, the Big Mac Index shows that in January 2006 a Big Mac cost $3.15 in the States and only $3.01 in Canada (both figures in USD)).  There are numerous reasons given for the price disparity, which were reported on in early 2013 by the Canadian Senate Committee on National Finance. including:


 * different tariff rates on imported items.  Examples of such consumer products include cotton T-shirts and cotton trousers and shorts, sports footwear, bed linen and ice skates, which carry an 18% tariff in Canada.
 * Canadian retailers may import smaller number of goods, due to smaller market size, which means they do not have the same discounts as large US orders,
 * American retailers are often much larger than Canadian retailers, and thus benefit from economies of scale,
 * the costs of starting and running a business in Canada may be higher,
 * "country pricing" — the practice of some large multinational suppliers of charging Canadian retailers more than U.S. merchants,
 * higher fuel prices in Canada, due to higher taxes on gasoline and diesel, increase delivery charges to a more widely dispersed population,
 * a tendency for Canadian shoppers to not press for lower prices,
 * greater competition among retailers, and a wider selection of goods in the US which tends to keep prices lower,
 * fluctuations in the exchange rate between the two currencies which are not immediately reflected with price adjustments,
 * Different product safety standards between the two countries, where the cost for Canadians are spread out over fewer consumers.

Another factor is Canada's supply management system for certain food items such as chicken and milk which ensures farmers are paid fairly but results in higher retail prices, When asked about "Country Pricing", members of the Retail Council of Canada were told by manufacturers that there are three main reasons for these discrepancies: 1) Canadians are used to paying more for products in Canada; 2) the higher prices charged to retailers in Canada subsidize the costs of maintaining suppliers offices and operations in Canada; and 3) the higher prices are necessary to compensate Canadian distributors which face higher costs in Canada.

One area of particular concern for Canadians is the price of vehicles, even those built in Canada, which often cost thousands of dollars more. Even the "Freight and PDI" charge in Canada is usually twice as much for a Canadian living within view of the car factory, as it is for an American living in Hawaii, buying the same Canadian-built vehicle. In an effort to disguise the price difference, many manufacturers will have a similar price for their lowest-priced trim-level of a particular vehicle model, but that trim-level will have less content. For example, in 2015, the lowest price Honda Fit in Canada was C$16,126 (2015-08 = US$12,215), while the lowest in the US was US$15,790 (2015-08 = C$20,845). However, the Canadian trim-level was "DX" which did not include automatic transmission, air conditioning, cruise control or one-step electric windows. This trim-level was not available in the US.

Organized labor
Moved this section which had a to talk page for potential move to another section, revision, rewrite, referencing, long term removal.Oceanflynn (talk) 19:36, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Both Canada and the U.S. follow the Wagner Act model of regulating trade unions and collective bargaining, though legislation regulating organized labor principally falls under provincial jurisdiction in Canada. That North American model differs significantly from patterns of organized labor found in other developed countries.

Measuring unemployment
Moved this section which had a to talk page for potential move to another section, revision, rewrite, referencing, long term removal.Oceanflynn (talk) 01:55, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Prior to the identification of the difference in methodologies, some politicians claimed that higher income taxes, restrictive labour laws, unions, universal healthcare, and greater unemployment benefits in Canada were causing a higher actual unemployment rate. However, when unemployment insurance and welfare were sharply cut in many parts of Canada during the 1990s there was little gain in employment relative to the Americans. Others attempted to explain the reported difference in terms of the large number of seasonal workers in trades such as fishing and logging who are unemployed for a portion of the year.

Anti-trust
Moved this section which had a "unreferenced section|date=January 2014" to talk page for potential move to another section, revision, rewrite, referencing, long term removal.Oceanflynn (talk) 02:17, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
 * The United States has since the Sherman Anti-Trust Act been strongly opposed to monopolies. In Canada this has been far less of an issue, and Canada has never had rigorously enforced rules against monopolization, and in certain situations the government has even encouraged monopolies. However, the Canadian government is more willing to interfere in the operations of large, integrated firms where they appear to be acting against the public interest, offsetting in part one reason that American law prevents large-scale monopolization. Historical transport policy led to the promotion of one railway operator & one dominant flag carrier and the promotion of bus carriers through the suppression of other bus-like services. In telecommunications policy, oligopoly conditions are reinforced through the actions of the Canada Radio and Telecommunications (CRTC). Foreign ownership has been banned in Canada's cell phone market (Though one Egyptian-owned entrant, WIND mobile, has led to a possibility of a liberalization of telecommunications) Banking policy has been regulated through Bank Acts passed by Parliament.

Human development index
Moved outdate content to talk page for discussion, updates and improvements.Oceanflynn (talk) 02:28, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Canada ranks higher than the U.S. in statistics such as life expectancy (79.9 years in Canada versus 77.5 in the U.S.) and lower regarding infant mortality (4.75 Canadian deaths per 1000 versus 6.50 in the States). Both countries rank highly with 99% literacy rates. The United States has more major consumer goods per capita than Canada. For instance, while Canada had only 297 computers per 1000 people in 1996, the United States had 403.


 * Average income is slightly higher in the United States. However, as of 2009, Canada's median family income surpassed that of the USA by approximately 10%[citation needed].  In terms of racial disparity, United States African-Americans and Hispanics have a lower standard of living than the rest of the population; in Canada, Aboriginal peoples and Black Canadians are disproportionately likely to live in poverty, although these groups represent 25% of the US population and only 6% of Canada's. In both countries, recent immigrants tend to have lower earnings than more established residents. Canada's French-Canadians also used to be a poorer group, but since the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s this has been partially remedied.


 * The United States measures poverty, while Canada does not have an official measure (see Poverty in Canada), although Statistics Canada measures something called the Low-Income Cutoffs, the statistical agency repeatedly states that this is not a poverty measure (it is an income dispersion measure like the Gini coefficient). In the United States the poverty line is set at triple the "minimum adequate food budget." When a common measure is used, such as that of the Luxembourg Income Study, the United States has higher rates. The LIS reports that Canada has a poverty rate of 15.4% and the United States 18.7%. In both countries lower incomes are found in those most affected by poverty include single-parent families and single elderly people.


 * It may be said the cost of absorbing lower skilled, poorer workers in the US skews comparison studies downward for the United States (see also Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the United States). In recent years, what otherwise would have been a reduction in the low-income cutoff, was more than offset by the impact of immigration.  According to a 2003 study by Statistics Canada "The rise in the low-income rates in the three major Canadian cities, and in Ontario and B.C. during the 1990s in particular, was largely concentrated among the immigrant population. Basically, low-income rates have been falling over the past two decades among the Canadian born, and rising among immigrants." A more recent January 2007 study by Statistics Canada explains that the low-income rates of new immigrants has deteriorated by yet another significant amount from 2000 to 2004 (see also Economic impact of immigration to Canada).

Measuring unemployment
I moved this section, which is based mainly on a 2003 article to talk page for discussion. There could eventually be an historical overview covering the 20th century, comparing the two countries ?Oceanflynn (talk) 17:43, 5 November 2018 (UTC) According to a 2003 article by Craig Riddell, a University of British Columbia economist, Canada and the United States used different measuring systems which led to a 0.9% difference. Since the early 1980s, Canada typically had reported its unemployment rate as somewhat higher than the US rate. Statistics Canada has also acknowledged this, and it now publishes a second unemployment rate using the same methodology as the Americans. Using the American methodology, the June 2008 Canadian unemployment rate was 5.3%, which was 0.2% lower than the American rate.

Comparison of government spending
I moved this unreferenced paragraph from the article space to the talk page. It requires further research to find RS and contextualization.Oceanflynn (talk) 23:38, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
 * This includes having a national broadcaster in the CBC, a largely government-funded health care system, and having all major universities receive partial government funding. The United States, however, does have most of its major universities subsidized by state government. The US also has two national public broadcasters which receive partial government funding, PBS (television) and NPR (radio).

More unreferenced content
I moved this to talk page for discussion.Oceanflynn (talk) 00:42, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Canada is generally forced to follow American monetary policy quite closely, any large difference in interest rates could quickly lead to large problems for the Canadian economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada both staunchly believe in fighting inflation while neither aggressively pursue policies of full employment.

Moved outdated content from 2005
I moved this to talk page for discussion and removed maintenance outdated templateOceanflynn (talk) 19:14, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
 * In 2005, Canada exported about $109 billion worth of goods more than they imported from the U.S. With the rest of the world, Canada had a trade deficit of $47 billion creating an overall surplus of some $62 billion. Canada's trade surplus turned to a deficit in 2006. The United States had a large trade deficit The Canadian surplus had been almost entirely due to trade with the United States. Canada has trade deficits with Europe and Asia, just as the Americans do.

Moved outdated content, etc from 1990s, early 2000s
I moved content to talk page for discussion. It would be very interesting to have a broad overview comparing the two countries' economies historically. This would mean finding scholarly texts that have already summarized it rather than a collage of unsourced statements. Some statements can be used in the article but needs to be contextualized first with further research and more RS? Oceanflynn (talk) 20:11, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Canada hews closely to the balanced budgets policies of the 1990s, the United States has moved into a heavy deficit, a policy both countries followed in the 1970s and 1980s.


 * In the late 1990s, the GDP gap widened. In this period, GDP increased by 5% annually in the United States, and 2% in Canada. Earlier, it had been narrowing between 1961 and 1995. However, it was closing at a much faster rate in the 1960s than the early 1990s. From 1961 to 1973, real GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% in Canada and 4.0% in the United States. From 1973 to 1995 it was 2.6% in Canada and 2.3% in the USA. Canada was not hit as hard by the economic downturn in 2001, however, so cumulative growth in real GDP has been almost exactly the same amount in each country over the last 15 years.


 * In 2004, a significant portion of this tax differential was due to spending differences between the two countries. While the US was running deficits of about 4% of GDP in 2004, Canada's Federal government posted a budget surplus of around 1% of GDP per year from the mid-1990s until 2008, and under Stephen Harper's Conservative Party reached surplus again in 2015.


 * According to a 2016 CBC article, during the 2015 election now incumbent Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party of Canada pledged to run CDN$40,000,000,000 in deficits over the next four years of his leadership, although after three months in office he has predicted his government will exceed this amount and won't reach surplus by 2019.

According to a 2006 Statistics Canada report, the deficit patterns and indebtedness of Canada's individual provinces vary as they do in the US among different states. Considered in a revenue-neutral context, the differential is much smaller - Canada's total governmental spending was about 36% of GDP in 2005 vs. 31% in the US. In addition, caution must be used when comparing taxes across countries, due to the different services each offers. Whereas the Canadian healthcare system is 70% government-funded, the US system is just under 50% government-funded (mostly via Medicare and Medicaid); adding the additional healthcare-spending burden to the above figures to obtain comparable numbers (+3% for Canada, +7% for the US) gives adjusted expenditures of 38–39% of GDP for each of the two nations.


 * The taxes are applied the same as well. Canada's income tax system is more heavily biased against the highest income earners, thus while Canada's income tax rate is higher on average, the bottom fifty percent of the population is roughly taxed the same on income as in the United States. However, Canada has a national goods and services tax (GST) of 5% on most purchases, while the U.S. federal government does not, increasing the tax burden on Canadian low-income earners due to the proportional nature of a sales tax. According to Michael C. Fellows 1997 book Economic Issues: A Canadian Perspective, Canadian GST does not tax food and other essentials and a GST rebate for low-income earners mitigates regressiveness.

In a 2009 National Post article by Niels Veldhuis and Jason Clemens, the authors reiterated claims by the Vancouver-based think tank, the Fraser Institute, that economic growth is tied to smaller government. They measure the size of government based on "total spending at all levels of government as a share of gross domestic product." Veldhuis and Clemens noted that the size of government in Canada peaked in 1992 to 53% of GDP the declined to 40% in 2008.

Spending in the United States fluctuated narrowly around 34-38 percent of GDP between 1992 and 2008. However, starting in 2008 US spending has turned sharply upwards to reach an estimated 42.7% of GDP in 2009 and stabilize at that level.

While home ownership rates in both countries are very high compared to worldwide (or even developed countries), Canada has a slightly higher level of home ownership at 69.0% versus 65.3% for the United States

Background
Moved subsection Background to talk page. The content needs to be update with more recent research that provides a reliable overview.Oceanflynn (talk) 21:35, 10 November 2018 (UTC)


 * According to a 2004 article, Canadian workers were estimated to be 82% as productive per hour as their American counterparts. The industries with the largest productivity advantages for the US are the manufacturing (particularly electronics and computer), finance, and service sectors. Industries where Canada is more productive than the US are the construction and natural resources sectors with Canadian workers achieving 129% relative productivity.


 * The productivity gap was even larger in the 1950s but the difference narrowed, aided by the elimination of the smaller market problem through free trade. The gap closed somewhat in the 1980s but at a much slower pace than in the 1960s. From 1961 to 1973 labour productivity rose annually by 3.3 percent in Canada and 1.7 percent in the United States. According to a 1997 IMF report, from 1973 to 1995 productivity growth was 1.1% in Canada and 0.8% in the United States.


 * The productivity gap began to widen again in the 1990s, particularly in the manufacturing sector. According to a 2005 article, by 2000, this was called Canada's "Excellence Gap" by the Chief Economist of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. The United States has the second-highest productivity of the G8 countries, while Canada's is 5th based on the 1997 estimate.


 * Five main reasons for the productivity gap: the lower capital intensity of economic activity in Canada; an innovation gap in Canada relative to the United States; Canada's relatively underdeveloped high-tech sector; less developed human capital in Canada in terms of proportionately fewer university graduates and scientists and engineers in research and development; and more limited economies of scale and scope in Canada.

Very biased article.
It seems like the author went to the trouble to only cherry pick indicators that made Canada look good versus the USA. What does life expectancy have to do with economic comparisons? And why is there such a focus on things like debt to GDP, versus other macroeconomic indicators like real GDP growth, innovation, R&D spending, Global 2000 companies, stock market performance, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.36.211.215 (talk) 05:12, 14 February 2022 (UTC)