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ficbot · 02-13-2010, 10:56 PM

My little brother was born here in Canada, moved to the US as a toddler and moved back here as a teenager. We were chatting today because he has been away at university and is back in town for the weekend, and our other sister has major wanderlust and wants to travel all over, so I asked him if he thought he would do the same when he finished school. He said no, he would probably live here. I asked him if he felt a great calling to go back to his American hometown and he emphatically said no. I asked why and he said he just felt like it was 'harder' to live in America---not in any specific sense, I suppose, but in the sense of a young, healthy, single working person trying to start a life and make his way in the world, he felt like America was 'harder' than Canada.

I was very surprised to hear this. Canada (in urban centres, anyway) feels very similar to 'America' to me. On the one hand, we have the socialized healthcare (such as it is) and a bit less religion. On the minus, our government is a little more despotic, it's very socialist so nothing ever gets done because they have to talk about everything forever so everybody has their say, and it's pretty expensive. I don't perceive that we have large urban centres where housing is affordable the way you might in the American midwest, certainly I don't feel like I will ever be able to afford a house in my city unless I marry a rich person. We have much less choice for obtaining goods and services (my Californian sister can buy actual groceries at a dollar store!), and much more government interference in many aspects of life. Our infrastructure (for example, public transit) is decades behind that of comparable American cities. We don't have wide choices for living environments, either---it's 'cold-ish' or 'very cold' or 'more cold' and America in contrast has Alaska on the one hand and Hawaii on the other.

So I was surprised to hear my Canadian-born, American-raised brother express this sentiment and I am curious what the larger population thinks. Say you are a young, healthy, educated person starting your adult life with degree in hand and not much else, willing to go wherever the opportunities take you. Is it 'hard' in America? Is it harder there than anywhere else, particularly?

02-13-2010, 10:56 PM	#1
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	'Harder' to live in America? My little brother was born here in Canada, moved to the US as a toddler and moved back here as a teenager. We were chatting today because he has been away at university and is back in town for the weekend, and our other sister has major wanderlust and wants to travel all over, so I asked him if he thought he would do the same when he finished school. He said no, he would probably live here. I asked him if he felt a great calling to go back to his American hometown and he emphatically said no. I asked why and he said he just felt like it was 'harder' to live in America---not in any specific sense, I suppose, but in the sense of a young, healthy, single working person trying to start a life and make his way in the world, he felt like America was 'harder' than Canada. I was very surprised to hear this. Canada (in urban centres, anyway) feels very similar to 'America' to me. On the one hand, we have the socialized healthcare (such as it is) and a bit less religion. On the minus, our government is a little more despotic, it's very socialist so nothing ever gets done because they have to talk about everything forever so everybody has their say, and it's pretty expensive. I don't perceive that we have large urban centres where housing is affordable the way you might in the American midwest, certainly I don't feel like I will ever be able to afford a house in my city unless I marry a rich person. We have much less choice for obtaining goods and services (my Californian sister can buy actual groceries at a dollar store!), and much more government interference in many aspects of life. Our infrastructure (for example, public transit) is decades behind that of comparable American cities. We don't have wide choices for living environments, either---it's 'cold-ish' or 'very cold' or 'more cold' and America in contrast has Alaska on the one hand and Hawaii on the other. So I was surprised to hear my Canadian-born, American-raised brother express this sentiment and I am curious what the larger population thinks. Say you are a young, healthy, educated person starting your adult life with degree in hand and not much else, willing to go wherever the opportunities take you. Is it 'hard' in America? Is it harder there than anywhere else, particularly?