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In California you can end up making piles and piles of money. You can also spend piles and piles of money too. There are obvious opportunities. Yet if you work on the internet or some other investments it doesn't matter where you are.
Except for the taxes. Though the U.S. may have some specific advantages too
in being self employed. But you have crime, pollution and maybe a severe water shortage. Real big problems that money cannot fix.
The reason I ask is 2 fold:
1) I always hear that taxes are less in America compared to Canada. I don't know if that's really true.
2) I heard this one guy in California talk about how if you're in Canada, and you make a quarter mil you're considered very wealthy, but in America, no one would really care that much because so many people make that.
1. US income tax rates are generally lower than their Canadian counterparts. Gasoline is generally cheaper in the US, although the gap is closing rapidly due to the declining value of the US greenback. Some consumer goods are cheaper in the US.
On the other hand, Canadians have few worries about medical insurance premiums or co-payments. In the consumer good area, there are plenty of items which are actually cheaper in Canada. My father-in-law is currently visiting from Oregon and was quite surprised to see that a set of cordless tools made by a good quality US manufacturer could be purchased at Canadian Tire for $100 less than in Oregon.
2. In areas of California a guy making $250 K wouldn't raise eyebrows, but then again neither would he be a "rich guy" if he lived in a wealthy Toronto neighbourhood like Forest Hill.
On the flip side, if that guy was making $250 K in Klamath Falls, Oregon he'd be in the upper echelons, just as he'd be if he was located in Melville, Saskatchewan.
And don't forget that health insurance and medical expenses take a huge chunk out of an American's paycheck. I may make more money than the average Canadian, but I have to pay $7200 a year for insurance, plus co-pays, plus 20% of my total medical care, plus 100% of the stuff the health insurance does not pay. So deduct at least $10,000 from an American's salary before comparing it to a Canadian's salary. And if it's an American with lots of medical bills, deduct even more.
Americans do make more money than Canadians, and the difference is reasonably significant.
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