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Absence of rain does not mean it's sunny ;) Most Democrats in the US aren't remotely close to social-democrats in Canada or Europe. Politicians such as Bernie
by mgbmtl 9y ago
Absence of rain does not mean it's sunny ;)
Most Democrats in the US aren't remotely close to social-democrats in Canada or Europe. Politicians such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are considered centrists in Canada.
- rayiner 9y agoDemocrats in the US spend more money than social democrats in Canada.
- guelo 9y agoWhat does "Democrats" in this sentence mean? Democrats have had much less say in DC over the last 30 years than Republicans. If you're talking about the state level which state? When comparing a state to a country how do you account for military?
- rayiner 9y agoDemocrats in Democratic states like California and New York. You can account for military simply by removing military expenditures from both sides of the equation (us and Canada).
- guelo 9y agoI did the calculation using quick Google search numbers. for California's state budget $183 billion/ 39.5 million people = $4,600 per capita Canada ($330 billion - $14 billion in defense) / 35 million people = $9,028 per capita So Canada spends more. But a lot of US government health care spending is at the federal level. And the differences how, for example, education is funded with a complicated mix of state and federal dollars makes it just too hard to make an apple to apple comparison.
- rayiner 9y agoYou have to include both state and local spending for California: https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/california_state_spending.html https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/california_state_spendi.... $580 billion / 39.5 million people = $14,680. Also got to add California's share of federal spending. The U.S. Federal Government spends $3.8 trillion - $600 billion defense = $3.2 trillion / 324 million = $9,900 per person. For Canada you need to look at federal + provincial. Ontario spends a further $12,600 per person: http://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/Relative%20Fiscal%20Performance http://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/Relative%20Fiscal.... Ontario federal + provincial = ~$21,600 per person. California local + state + federal share = ~$24,500 per person.
- komali2 9y agoI'm glad you did the math to demonstrate this - now that we have this information, what was the purpose of your original comparative statement between democrats in the States and Social Democrats in Canada?
- rayiner 9y agoI complained that my (D) state has crappy government services. Someone said that is because our Democrats are like centrists elsewhere. But Democratic states are certainly left enough to spend more money than Canada. That doesn’t explain why they get so little in return.
- mgbmtl 9y agoI'm not sure what money has to do with this? They can spend as much as they want, but it doesn't mean it's going to the right places. Universal healthcare, for example, is much most efficient and cost-effective.