What will it mean when I leave this country for Canada?

[truedelphi]

Actually it won't mean much.

It won't mean much just as it did not mean much when I spent a good deal of my youth parading around on city streets protesting a war.

What does mean something is when I turn out to decide on an activity that a whole lot of other people also are deciding on.

A great many of us parading around the streets of our youth and shutting down the universities and making it clear that "Hell No! We Won't Go!" altered the course of the nation.

And now, amid the rubble of the economic policies, amid the rubble of the health care "reform" efforts, and most of all, amid the rubble of a broken political system - many older Americans are thinking, "Why should I remain here?"

The dust and filth and blood of the two endless wars troubles us. And the continual funding of the wars, with much of the money going to fascist outfits such as DynCorp and Blackwater imperils the nation of ever having any economic recovery for the declining middle class.

War as permanent entrenched policy caused by a new breed of the Political Class that cannot, will not give up its sucking at the tit of the military/industrial spigot, is not something that I or any of my friends ever asked for, but instead spent a good deal of time trying to stop. "WAR! Good God, y'all. Just what is it Good For? (Refrain: Absolutely NOTHIN"!!)

For the trillions we have spent already in Afghanistan and Iraq, we could redeem the deficits of the thirty five or more Formerly Great States of the USA, and put the school teachers, fire fighters, social workers, department heads, et al, back on the payroll.

Or we could have Universal Health care, or perhaps solar and wind alt energy sources installed on fifty million Americans rooftops. Think of the jobs that would create.

But the Political Class in this country wants only more war.


And the Political Class brought about the most cost inflated solution to a problem that any group of Political hench people have ever brought about, and it will only get worse.

I speak now of Health Insurance.

When I read posts of what People Here At DU are going through, with their premiums
sky-rocketing, and then co pays and the deductibles also increasing out of sight, I then pick up the SF Chronicle to read that every consumer should expect that health insurance costs will again go up NEXT YEAR!!

Meanwhile I have yet to find out anything about the "subsidies" that we were promised if the health insurance costs are so high that they are not affordable...

But I did read this over at Firedoglake:

Imagine if all those healthcare dollars that we waste were instead used in a Canadian type healthcare system.

The greatest difference in social programs is in health care. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Government spends as much on health care, 7% of GDP, as the Canadian government does,<11> and total healthcare spending is much higher – 14.6% of GDP in the US vs. 10% in Canada.

I lived in Canada before, and think I will enjoy it again.

The business that is my bread and butter does not require me to live in the USA.

In fact, one quarter of our income now comes about through markets in China and Hong Kong. Books are too expensive for most Americans.