Vancouver BC

All cities have problems. Big cities have big problems. Yet if an alien and was allowed to view , Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, and Vancouver British Columbia, the alien would probably say that Vancouver BC was the wealthiest city. I don't want to sound like a "grass is always greener" person, but it does infact appear noticably greener north of the boarder. When entering Vancouver from the US I sort of felt like coming to the new world from the old. New America versus Old America, to steal a Bush administration phrase. Of course this is not an accurate assesment. Canada has a population of 32,000,000. The United States has a population of 295,000,000.
The USA has a GDP of $ 13,000,000,000,000 while Canada has a GDP of 1,023,000,000,000. So why the disparity? Why should a nation that is one tenth the size of the US in population and has less than a 10th the GDP, come out looking so well? The answer, to a certain extent, can be found in what Canada has to spend its money on versus what the USA has to spend its money on.
As a red blooded American I get to support 10 active, Aircraft Carrier battle groups. A 600 ship navy. An airforce with thousands of aircraft. An army with 1.5 million soldiers on active duty on hundreds of military bases all over the world. I need, for some reason I am not quite sure of, be able to fight two hemespheric wars at the same time. Never mind that such wars are highly unlikely in this world of interdependant economies. I send billions a year to Exxon and Arco to subsidize oil prices. I spend billions on defense contracts. I spend billions on all sorts of stuff that countries like Canada just don't worry about. So while nations like Canada can spend the vast majority of their tax income on people, the US has to split its tax income between arms and people.
Would I like to live in another country that did not spend sooooooo much money on arms and war fighting? No I would like to live in America that did not spend sooooo much money on arms and war fighting.