Some ramblings on America

I've lived here in the US for 8 years now. I'm one of them even, getting to say US Citizen when I cross the border, and I still don't get this country.

Especially taxes. To me, taxes are fees.

We can debate where fees should go, but they are fees to pay for things. The fees that come of my paycheck each check for health insurance is no different from the fees that came off my Canadian paycheck to pay for health care.

One was a tax, one is a fee. I guess the difference is choice. In Canada, I didn't get to choose to get access to a doctor, it was part of the deal. In the US, one can choose to pay as they go, but it's rather expensive.

But the big difference is that in the US, there are fees we don't see because people don't have access to 'health insurance", so they go to the ER for headaches, and sore throats, and create a cog in the system that increases fees.

In the US, I pay a garbage fee. It comes out of my pocket and not my paycheck, so it's not a "tax".

I pay school taxes, but they are only for my area.

So I pay a fee because the school on the east side is a 'bad school' with 'no money', and thus doesn't generally graduate students who go onto college and contribute more to the system. That fee doesn't exist in the system in Ontario, because of the manner of collecting taxes. It's Province wide, and money is paid out based on the kid.

In the US, we perversely hold kids responsible for the income of their parents. And we USAers don't consider this fee associated with that policy decision.

We just argue about school taxes, and how they have to be cut. I'll concede, when I moved to this country, I was amazed at how little taxes I paid. I still am. But I'm not amazed at my fees, both real and societal.

This is a strange country. With strange people. (note: Canada is strange, with strangely polite and insecure people).

And the anger from the tea parties is equally strange to me, so I refrain from getting in political arguments and prefer to talk about why Arsenal will win a trophy this year.