I grow up in a poor family in China, I know what's it's like to only eat cheap food, or choose to walk instead of bus to save money. I'm not going to make comparison though, as being poor in China is probably very different from being poor in America.
I've also met a fare share of poor people here in Canada. And most of them choose to be so, by choosing work in arts and music, spending money on parties and drinks, or not follow the worker bee lifestyle and work as little as possible. I don't look down upon them, as they seem to enjoy their chosen lifestyles. Although I have a feeling that the poor you are talking about might be different from what I see.
I've also met many poor immigrants who are not as fortunate as I am, working as taxi drivers, manual labours and/or minimum wage jobs. But most of them don't seem to be seriously stuck, as in that they could afford to move to a different city if there is no job locally.
So I'm sorry that my question smacks contempt, which is half-true (for people who don't work hard and blame others for their misfortunes). But I am also ignorant about what it's like to be poor in America. Is it really that much worse than Canada?
For the poor, the United States is a far, far worse place to live than Canada.
Canada has a comparatively large welfare state, and far better public schools. In the United States, public schools receive the majority of their funding from the local town/county taxes. This means that a poor person who lives in a poor area will attend a bad school.
I could go on, but take a look at the data. On basically any metric, the US is a much worse place to be poor than Canada.
> In the United States, public schools receive the majority of their funding from the local town/county taxes. This means that a poor person who lives in a poor area will attend a bad school.
The conclusion is true, but the reason given is not true in many parts of the United States: e.g., California (and I don't think California is the only state with similar rules) requires equal per-pupil public spending statewide, so difference in local tax bases within the state do not affect spending (but schools in poor areas have unique challenges that increase costs, and often get less additional support from outside sources to supplement their equalized funding, so they still end up disadvantaged.)
I've also met a fare share of poor people here in Canada. And most of them choose to be so, by choosing work in arts and music, spending money on parties and drinks, or not follow the worker bee lifestyle and work as little as possible. I don't look down upon them, as they seem to enjoy their chosen lifestyles. Although I have a feeling that the poor you are talking about might be different from what I see.
I've also met many poor immigrants who are not as fortunate as I am, working as taxi drivers, manual labours and/or minimum wage jobs. But most of them don't seem to be seriously stuck, as in that they could afford to move to a different city if there is no job locally.
So I'm sorry that my question smacks contempt, which is half-true (for people who don't work hard and blame others for their misfortunes). But I am also ignorant about what it's like to be poor in America. Is it really that much worse than Canada?