Canada's 2002-03 Surplus Close to C$7 Billion-Source

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

Originally Posted by 2Pac Shakur

I guess TV commercials ARE better at prescribing medicine than doctors.
Good point Shekky.

My point was--and I am genuinely shocked that you didn't understand it--that socialistas like yourself often point to advertising cost as though it was a waste, which is BS. Advertising is a function of providing any service...yes, even gummint services. Advertising is merely communicating to potential consumers. It is part and parcel of free competition which is a good thing.

(Oh, there I go again with my "free market religionist" babble...)

[2pac Shakur]

Originally Posted by Shekky Tree

My point was--and I am genuinely shocked that you didn't understand it--that socialistas like yourself often point to advertising cost as though it was a waste, which is BS. Advertising is a function of providing any service...yes, even gummint services. Advertising is merely communicating to potential consumers. It is part and parcel of free competition which is a good thing.

(Oh, there I go again with my "free market religionist" babble...)

My point was - I'm not shocked you didn't understand it - that freemarketeers like yourself seem to think medicine needs advertising.
Medicine should be prescribed, not recommended by your favorite TV personality.

[Werewolf]

I wonder what Canada's unfunded social insurance liabilities per capita are?

[MountainHawk]

I thought I remembered reading it was in the $50-100billion range ... but I can't find anything online confirming that.

Originally Posted by E. Blackadder

Threaten them with Democrats. They'll cower before an invasion of what they consider the extreme right wing.

:P

You don't know what a democrat is. Up here, we call your democrats right wingers. .

I'm a bit surprised by a surplus. Don't know how that could have happened. Now if they would apply it to our debt, that would be a good thing. Remember, it's not like we don't have a huge debt, it's just that this year they took in more money than they paid out.

As for our social program, everything I've seen (consumer pablum stories, I admit) were that it will be broke before I see anything. In fact, if I remember correctly an actuary got fired by the gov't for suggesting that contributions to the plan needed to be increased to politically unacceptable levels. I stand to be corrected on the details, but that's the 10 word summary that I remember.

The Canadian economy has some potential problems as well. The weaker U.S. dollar means the Canadian dollar is stronger. This has two effects; if I sell a product for $1US, I now get $1.25 instead of $1.60. And if I convert my pricing from Canadian into US, my product now costs 0.80US instead of $0.60US, so it's a lot more expensive. With the amount of businesses up here that depend heavily on U.S. sales - mine included - this is likely to have a huge effect on the Canadian economy.

[E. Blackadder]

Originally Posted by glenn

You don't know what a democrat is. Up here, we call your democrats right wingers. .

But do you consider them to be right wingers? Always the imponderable distinctions...

[snarf]

Originally Posted by 2Pac Shakur

Gummint education = failure
but
Gummint national defense = success

Is that what you are saying?

us constitution gives specific authority and responsibility to provide defense.

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

us constitution does not address education, therefore,

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

the federal gummint has no constitutional role in education. the department of education is just another bureaucratic leech. note: there are many rights and responsibilities of the states that have been subjugated by the feds, but thanks for picking an easy target.

[fallout]

Getting a surplus is easy.

If the US collected at the same tax rates as Canada does the surplus would be gigantic.

I don't get the point of this exercise.

Canadians are more willing to be taxed?

[2pac Shakur]

Originally Posted by 2Pac a day Smokur

us constitution gives specific authority and responsibility to provide defense.

us constitution does not address education, therefore,

the federal gummint has no constitutional role in education. the department of education is just another bureaucratic leech. note: there are many rights and responsibilities of the states that have been subjugated by the feds, but thanks for picking an easy target.

A. Common defense <> pre-emptive warfare + nat'l missile defense + bases throughout REST of the world.

B. Constitution also calls for welfare. Just about any place it calls for defense. If you are going to use a loose interpretation of defense, you'd better be prepared to do the same with welfare...

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[snarf]

Originally Posted by 2Pac Shakur

A. Common defense <> pre-emptive warfare + nat'l missile defense + bases throughout REST of the world.

B. Constitution also calls for welfare. Just about any place it calls for defense. If you are going to use a loose interpretation of defense, you'd better be prepared to do the same with welfare...

i won't argue defense = pre-emptive war. it is not.
isn't nat'l missile defense by definition defensive?
bases around the world make more defensive sense than keeping the bulk of your navy in, say, pearl harbor. it also allows for the possibility of fighting an aggressor nation on other than american soil. you could argue (and i would agree) that we have too many of these bases.

one could expand the interpretation of "general welfare" (and many have) to include a myriad of pet projects. i'd prefer a much smaller federal bureaucracy, and a lot less meddling from washington in the rights of the states.