[QUOTE]I made 130k last year and took home a hair under 85k[/QUOTE

Counting 401k contributions and anything else that comes out post tax/pre pocket?

Nope.

29.3k Federal withholding
4.6k Social security
1.9k Medicare
9.1k state tax
---------------
45k

Man I don't get the US. You pay all these taxes, and then you extra for the things tax dollars are supposed to go to. Silly america. Taxes are supposed to be used for social security/medicare like things.

IRD: You gotta pay us 30% taxes.
Person: Why?
IRD: For things like healthcare, roads, retirement.
Person: Oh that sounds reasonable, OK.
...
IRD: You gotta pay us for roads, healthcare and retirement.
Person: Wait I thought that's what my taxes were for?
IRD: Nope, taxes are for taxes, this is healthcare/roads/retirement.
Person:

Keep in mind I know little about all of the above, but at first glance it seems ridiculous from an outside perspective.

SS is the worst. Its like you gotta wait 35-40 years to see any benefits and you pay 5% of your salary towards it.

Although I'd imagine programs like that tax you pretty heavily in other countries too.

I don't imagine that SS is worse than CPP here. I did the math on it and it is a complete scam. People would be much better off keeping their money and saving for retirement themselves but the government knows most people won't.

With respect to health care -- socialized health care is not all it is cracked out to be. The level of care in Canada is horrible. I wouldn't have an issue with it if they allowed a parallel private system. Keep the current system as the universal but allow people who wish to buy better care the opportunity to spend their money to do so. I think Americans would freak out if they were stuck with Canadian medicine as their only option.

Why do you think so many people just want to pay less taxes? There are some valid concerns. We get taxed, then we get taxed again when we spend, then we get taxed again if we invest it and make money off it. It gets annoying.

I don't mind taxes, it's not something I try to think about or I'd simply get upset about something I can't do. The really annoying taxes are the ones you get stuck with that others don't. I pay the Philadelphia wage tax, it's 3% flat, since I live there. That's like 200 a month, for NOTHING. Some municipalities charge a flat 1%, but 3% sucks.

My friend lives in NYC he pays the NYC tax. His is like 5% or something. It's awful. Philadelphia was thinking about charging 100 dollars a year or something on top of the wage tax to help close the gap on the city deficit last year, but nixed it after the straight uproar by the people here. I had to agree, I was super-pissed they had the balls to try to suck more money out of me just because they are inefficient. We hand over 5k a year to the city just for the priveledge of living here.

Where the schools suck.

Henry - help out an ignoramus here - how does the bolded above work? Are you saying that in Canada, you can't buy your way into an appointment with the top specialist in the field you might be needing?

Basically yes.

Henry - thanks, that's crazy imo. Thankfully you're close enough to the good old USofA so you can head down and see the specialist of your choosing!

That is what makes the whole thing so ****ed. We have politicians who are strong supporters of the system and then when they get sick they are on their private jets to the States to get medical care.

probably deserves another lolcanada imo

agree totally and it's worse here in canada.... we have high taxes and now we have fairly expensive post-secondary education and user health fees in BC (although BC has lower taxes than many other provinces).

but i agree totally on your take. taxes seem to be mostly for completely shared services like roads, admin, pre-secondary school. when gore or obama want to change government, they never seem to look at private sector vs. public sector pay for the same work. with benefits it must be at least 2.5X as high

Canadian university is very reasonable. Simon Fraser University: $4,914. UBC is $4608.

/in b4 books tho

Tuition in Canada is a joke. I paid less for ALL of law school than a US student at a comparably ranked school would pay for year 1.

That Quebec students are rioting and on strike over tuition increases when they pay what is basically a rounding error for a US student's tuition is pathetic.

Color me jealous, I like to think of my student loan debt as a really high end sports car sitting some place in a garage and that I have so much emotional capital in it that I refuse to ever drive it outside.