Where is the very best place in the world to live and prosper with your FSUW?

[el_guero]

After the latest terrorist strike?

I really think it will be more difficult for good people to get in . . . you know the old, "We gotta act like we are keeping someone out."

 

wayne

Chris,

While that is true, that data is terribly skewed.  

But, for you my special friend, today and tomorrow only, I have a very inexpensive condo ready for you to move into.  I can get you one on ocean front property if you want.  



wayne

Does it come with a visa for the good wife and daughter?

[WestCoast]

It seems that there really are Americans and American permanent residents that are willing to give up their citizenship or permanent residency status.  According to the Federal Register, the government publication that records such decisions, shows that 502 expatriates gave up their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status in the last quarter of 2009.  The reasons for renouncing citizenship seem to be mainly about taxation of world wide income by the US government.  However, before any American gets excited and thinks that this idea is for them they should read where these people are living.  The examples given in the article deal with individuals living in places like Switzerland or Belgium and even Canada. 

Belgium and Canada have tax rates at least as onerous as the US.  As for Switzerland it is not easy to get citizenship there unless you are rich or marry a Swiss citizen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26expat.html?src=me&ref=general

More American Expatriates Give Up Citizenship
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: April 25, 2010

WASHINGTON — Amid mounting frustration over taxation and banking problems, small but growing numbers of overseas Americans are taking the weighty step of renouncing their citizenship.

“What we have seen is a substantial change in mentality among the overseas community in the past two years,” said Jackie Bugnion, director of American Citizens Abroad, an advocacy group based in Geneva. “Before, no one would dare mention to other Americans that they were even thinking of renouncing their U.S. nationality. Now, it is an openly discussed issue.”

The Federal Register, the government publication that records such decisions, shows that 502 expatriates gave up their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status in the last quarter of 2009. That is a tiny portion of the 5.2 million Americans estimated by the State Department to be living abroad.

Still, 502 was the largest quarterly figure in years, more than twice the total for all of 2008, and it looms larger, given how agonizing the decision can be. There were 235 renunciations in 2008 and 743 last year. Waiting periods to meet with consular officers to formalize renunciations have grown.

Anecdotally, frustrations over tax and banking questions, not political considerations, appear to be the main drivers of the surge. Expat advocates say that as it becomes more difficult for Americans to live and work abroad, it will become harder for American companies to compete.

American expats have long complained that the United States is the only industrialized country to tax citizens on income earned abroad, even when they are taxed in their country of residence, though they are allowed to exclude their first $91,400 in foreign-earned income.

One Swiss-based business executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of sensitive family issues, said she weighed the decision for 10 years. She had lived abroad for years but had pleasant memories of service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Yet the notion of double taxation — and of future tax obligations for her children, who will receive few U.S. services — finally pushed her to renounce, she said.

“I loved my time in the Marines, and the U.S. is still a great country,” she said. “But having lived here 20 years and having to pay and file while seeing other countries’ nationals not having to do that, I just think it’s grossly unfair.”

“It’s taxation without representation,” she added.

Stringent new banking regulations — aimed both at curbing tax evasion and, under the Patriot Act, preventing money from flowing to terrorist groups — have inadvertently made it harder for some expats to keep bank accounts in the United States and in some cases abroad.

Some U.S.-based banks have closed expats’ accounts because of difficulty in certifying that the holders still maintain U.S. addresses, as required by a Patriot Act provision.

“It seems the new anti-terrorist rules are having unintended effects,” Daniel Flynn, who lives in Belgium, wrote in a letter quoted by the Americans Abroad Caucus in the U.S. Congress in correspondence with the Treasury Department.

“I was born in San Francisco in 1939, served my country as an army officer from 1961 to 1963, have been paying U.S. income taxes for 57 years, since 1952, have continually maintained federal voting residence, and hold a valid American passport.”

Mr. Flynn had held an account with a U.S. bank for 44 years. Still, he wrote, “they said that the new anti-terrorism rules required them to close our account because of our address outside the U.S.”

Kathleen Rittenhouse, who lives in Canada, wrote that until she encountered a similar problem, “I did not know that the Patriot Act placed me in the same category as terrorists, arms dealers and money launderers.”

Andy Sundberg, another director of American Citizens Abroad, said, “These banks are closing our accounts as acts of prudent self-defense.” But the result, he said, is that expats have become “toxic citizens.”

The Americans Abroad Caucus, headed by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, and Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, has made repeated entreaties to the Treasury Department.

In response, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner wrote Ms. Maloney on Feb. 24 that “nothing in U.S. financial law and regulation should make it impossible for Americans living abroad to access financial services here in the United States.”

But banks, Treasury officials note, are free to ignore that advice.

“That Americans living overseas are being denied banking services in U.S. banks, and increasingly in foreign banks, is unacceptable,” Ms. Maloney said in a letter Friday to leaders of the House Financial Services Committee, requesting a hearing on the question.

Mr. Wilson, joining her request, said that pleas from expats for relief “continue to come in at a startling rate.”

Relinquishing citizenship is relatively simple. The person must appear before a U.S. consular or diplomatic official in a foreign country and sign a renunciation oath. This does not allow a person to escape old tax bills or military obligations.

Now, expats’ representatives fear renunciations will become more common.

“It is a sad outcome,” Ms. Bugnion said, “but I personally feel that we are now seeing only the tip of the iceberg.”

[cufflinks]

Why America is Still Great:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/richardblackden/100014589/why-facebooks-ipo-is-a-bitter-sweet-moment-for-america/

Facebook's IPO is a bittersweet moment for America:

The promise of prosperity is central to America's self-image. It's one of the reasons that the country's fitful economic recovery is causing such angst. And it's why the long-awaited announcement of Facebook's intention to list shares on Wall Street is a bittersweet moment for the US.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, last night appeared to compare the social networking site to epoch-changing inventions such as the printing press and the television. If that was the comparison that the 27-year-old intended, it's misplaced. A more accurate parallel is with the long list of US companies that have taken a fundamentally new invention - the internet in Facebook's case – and used it to radically reshape people's lives.

And, just as critically, make money. Whether Facebook eventually commands the $100bn valuation that its small army of  bankers will be hoping for is less interesting than the speed at which cash is now filling the coffers at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Having lost money in 2007 and 2008, Zuckerberg's start-up made profits of $229m in 2009. That more than doubled to $606m in 2010. Last year, profits hit $1bn.

America should wake up this morning and give itself a pat on the back for that. Despite China's growing economic muscle, America's mix of entrepreneuralism, innovation and a sound legal system still produces more world-changing companies than anywhere else in the world.

Anyone dipping into Facebook's prospectus will be bombarded with evidence of the meteoric growth that Facebook has achieved over the last three years. It's an echo of the early years of other US companies, such as Ford and General Electric, that reshaped the world. But there's one important way in which Facebook differs from its predecessors: it's not creating as many jobs.

For a country battling almost 9pc unemployment, the most worrying statistic in the prospectus is that Facebook employs just 3,200 people. It is, of course, hiring, and staff numbers did double last year. But it's far-fetched to imagine that Facebook will ever provide employment on the scale that companies like GE, Ford or, more recently, Microsoft did. Like other web-based companies such as Zynga and LinkedIn, Facebook is a business that just doesn't need as many people.

It's a sobering thought on what should otherwise be a day of some pride for the US.

<CUFFLINKS EDITORIAL MODE ON:>

Curious our intrepid T2 Reporter Richard Blackden did not do a bit more digging and Google or Bing total facebook jobs and economic impact.

As with Microsoft which provides work for about 7 million world wide independent software vendors and certified integrators and VARs or value added reseller - the real impact of FB has been about 200,000 plus jobs and over %15 Billion in additional economic activity. 

It is said that for every $1 spent on Microsoft licenses and other $7 in services revenue is generated in the greater Microsoft Channel, FB seems to have joined raks with the mega companies like IBM, ORALCLE/SUN, MICROSOFT, AMAZON and to some extent APPLE with their APIs and platform and apps integration and ginat developers conferences.

And young Mr. Z wants to follow in Steve Jobs footsteps with his 37% of shares and 57% voting rights and $1 a year salary to see just how big he can build and grow FB over the next 20 plus years.  A stakeholders dream come true... a CEO founder who only benefits financially when YOU benefit as well.

Ain't America Great!

[curiogeo7]

IMHO, the USA is the best country to live, love and prosper in.
 Yeah there are opportunity's all over the world, but if we all run off and chase them, well what have you got?
 It is like the illegals from Mexico coming into the US, why do they leave their country, when what they really need to do is make it as great as the US.
 As for the Americans that bail,(no matter what they did in the past), I say yeah run, the rest of us will turn this boat away from the rocks.
 My answer to your question, My thought about your question and My opinion.

[cufflinks]

To be fair and balanced and see the big picture:

http://sovereign-investor.com/2012/01/31/off-the-grid-luxury-living-in-cafayate/

Off-the-Grid Luxury Living in Cafayate

Jeff Opdyke (January 31, 2012)

The roads I have traveled in search of global lifestyle and investment opportunities in places where you’d least expect them have been many. But none has been more beautiful than the road to Cafayate, in northwestern Argentina.

The gorgeous and remote wine-growing community wedged deep into the Andes, some 5000 feet above sea level, is barely known to the outside world. This is both an injustice and a blessing.

The road between Cafayate and the province’s eponymous capital, Salta, wasn’t even paved until the late 1990s. 

It is a route of breathtaking beauty, a tree-lined, two-lane road, passing through tranquil villages with buildings of iron-red earth and dramatic red-rock canyons. For Sovereign-minded individuals, it’s a remote corner of peaceful solitude, in one of the most-beautiful landscapes in the world, well away from the trials and tribulations that could rock global society in the years to come.

In simple terms, Cafayate and a new community of newly built stone homes set in a working vineyard, is a place to comfortably and contentedly hide from the rest of the world. If you’ve thought about getting off the grid, as I have, this could be what you’ve been looking for.

Vineyards in Cafayate with the Andres Mountains in the background
Self-Reliant Luxury Living

Cafayate is a place of self-reliant, luxury living. And the way I see it, Americans with even a modest amount of wealth must protect themselves and their families from the social and financial upheaval that threatens the way of life we have built.

The dollar’s most recent tumble on the back of the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates close to their near-zero historic lows at least until late-2014 is just one example of the ways in which we face the destruction of our wealth. With each passing mandate, U.S. fiscal and monetary policies undermine our very way of life even more.

At the same time, we face the potential of forced repatriation of assets if politicians desperate to put their hands on our money continue to demand that all overseas assets return to American shores.

If the time ever comes for us to find refuge outside of America, it is critical to have a Plan B already in place.

But I certainly don’t want to subsist in a sub-standard lifestyle abroad. I want first-class amenities, as do my wife and kids. I want to know my community is safe, self-reliant and insulated from the shockwaves that may rip across the globe when the dismal culture of debt to envelopes the U.S. and Europe finally collapses. It could unleash a wave of bottled anger that creates havoc in civil society.

Don’t think that’s possible in modern, Western cultures? Just consider the riots that have ripped through London and many American cities in the last year. Angry people, no matter how advanced their culture, revert to animal instincts when cornered by an oppressive political regime … violence.

But beyond a safe refuge, I want to be in a place where I can share my beliefs in independence, personal and financial responsibility, and social liberties with a like-minded group of neighbors.

I realize that a place like Cafayate, out in the remote northwest of Argentina, is not where most people consider when looking for sovereign-living opportunities outside America. But it fits the bill perfectly.

So don’t let the preconceived notions of ill-advised commentators distract you from the reality of this charming corner of the world, where the land of tango nudges into Bolivia and Chile.

Part of our job at the Sovereign Society is to search and identify opportunities in places you’d least expect to find them. Doubtless, some folks will shudder reflexively at the thought of investing in Argentina, given the country’s dysfunctional history over the past decade and a half.

Indeed, Argentina was a terrible place during its last crisis between 1999 and 2002. Bank accounts were frozen, the Argentine peso plunged, unemployment soared, and the economy flat-lined.

And yet Argentine real estate generally held its value in dollar terms.
Home Purchases are Largely Cash Deals

A large part of the reason real estate held up so well amid Argentina’s fiscal and financial mess is because the country doesn’t have a significant mortgage market, so home purchases are largely all-cash deals.

That keeps speculation at bay and prices rational. In addition, since Argentines have little faith in their banking system, they store their wealth in bricks and mortar.

While I was tooling around in Cafayate, I discovered the 1,500-acre community La Estancia de Cafayate, a high-end residential development just outside the town of Cafayete itself. The new community of gorgeous stone, stucco and tile-roofed homes is enveloped by a working vineyard and bisected by a heath-style golf course fashioned by an architect who spent 15 years with golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.

It also has a polo field, a boutique hotel on the way and a market where fresh, locally grown produce is available. The Spanish-Colonial-style homes would complement any multimillion-dollar neighborhood in Napa or Santa Fe.

In fact, think Napa Valley and you will have the perfect image of what this corner of Argentina mirrors in many ways.

Yet here, you can buy a designer home for as little as $300,000. Construction quality (double-bricked walls throughout, plaster and stonework) exceeds the lumber-and-drywall approach commonplace in America today. The homes here are built to hand down through the generations.

Almost all of La Estancia’s 360 home sites front either a vineyard, one of two polo fields, or the golf course. Property taxes are generally below $1,000 a year

Nearby Cafayate – which is close enough to walk or ride a bike or golf cart – is built around a picturesque public square lined with bodegas, art shops, fantastic restaurants, an old Spanish Colonial church and fine-wine stores that specialize in excellent Malbec and Torrontes wines produced locally.

Demand has already pushed up lot prices by between 30% and 50%. So if you have any interest in structuring your own self-reliant lifestyle in this beautiful pocket of the Andes, I encourage you to get down to Cafayate and take a look around, and decide for yourself if this is a place you could comfortably escape everyday life for a few days or weeks a year – or a place to simple escape to if the world goes all pear shaped..

I recommend getting in touch with David Norden (svs@lec.com.ar), who can send you all sorts of useful information about La Estancia de Cafayate.
Your Own Slice of Sovereignty

The newcomers I met while I was at La Estancia all spoke of finding their spiritual home in the northwestern corner of Argentina. They are a like-minded bunch seeking their own slice of sovereignty.

They’re mostly entrepreneurs – the doers and thinkers who subscribe to the belief that independence, individual achievement and self-determination is the road to prosperity.

The Americans who are already here talked of an easy life in a place they feel safe and insulated from the world’s problems.

For my money, this is a place that defines the very meaning of “off the grid.”

Until next time, stay sovereign…

Jeff D. Opdyke

P.S. While America falters, our continued investigations have led us to countries where economic growth, profit and freedom all share the same side of the same coin. The Sovereign Society’s Executive Director, Erika Nolan, and I are planning a tour to one of those places, Uruguay, from February 27, 2012 to March 3, 2012. We’re taking a handful of sovereign-thinking individuals with us to wine and dine with hand-picked experts, who will share secrets most Americans will never discover. This is a unique opportunity to visit this fascinating South American nation and, at the same time, learn how to secure your wealth in the future. Places are limited, so please get in touch a s soon as possible to make your reservation.

[cufflinks]

A Ray of Sunshine back on the USA:

The Great Comeback No One Will Believe
By Chris Mayer

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-great-comeback-no-one-will-believe/

02/29/12 Gaithersburg, Maryland – Something surprising stirs in the US economy. Something no mainstream pundit would’ve dared predict. Something most people probably won’t believe.

US manufacturing is staging a comeback.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of earth-moving equipment, gave us some tangible confirmation in the latest earnings roundup. Based on the business it sees, Cat expects US construction spending will increase in 2012 for the first time since 2004. And Eaton, another large industrial, followed that up by saying it expects its markets to grow faster in the US in 2012 than anywhere else. If it plays out that way, it would be the first time since the mid-2000s that the US led the way.

These are the first robins of spring. Forget the official data. This is real economics. As hard as it may be to believe, US manufacturing is coming back. There are other clues.

A new report by Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services firm, points out that new leases for industrial property “returned to levels not seen since prior to the 2008-09 recession.” Tenants signed new leases for 306 million square feet, up 14% from a year ago and the most space signed since 2007.

What drives leases for industrial space? Let Jim Dieter, an EVP at Cushman & Wakefield answer: “Manufacturing is the main driver within the industrial landscape.” Busy factories mean more rail and truck flow. It means fuller warehouses. It means looking for more space.

How to explain this? Isn’t China eating America’s lunch?

I found a recent paper by Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management that points to a few reasons for the sudden revival that jibe with what I’ve heard from the companies themselves. The report is called “Workforce Rising: Why US Manufacturing Is Poised for a Comeback.”

One is that the wage gap is shrinking. It isn’t that much cheaper to move to, say, China anymore. The nearby chart nicely sums up what’s happening. As wages have gone gonzo in China, its wage edge melts away. US manufacturing wages were 22 times that of China’s in 2005. Today, that wage gap is under 10 times and likely will be under five by 2015. (See the chart below.)



Transportation costs figure into this too and cut further into China’s advantage. As the price of oil has stayed north of $100 a barrel, the cost to ship anything is high. As author Jeff Rubin says, “With every dollar increase in the price of the bunker fuel that powers the containerships that ply the Pacific, China’s wage advantage becomes less and less important.”

So those are two reasons for the manufacturing revival in the US. There are two more compelling reasons that have to do with what’s in the ground. Let’s start with one of my favorites: water.

In a world where fresh water is scarce, such as in China and India, the US remains water-rich by comparison. Around the world, “Many regions are already approaching ‘peak water,’ a condition under which usage rates surpass the natural rate of replenishment,” the authors write. “Importantly for the manufacturing sector, the US is home to the largest reserves of water on the planet.”

People in the US tend to ignore this lucky circumstance. Manufacturers don’t. They use lots of water to make everything from jet engines to minivans.

In addition to water, the US has plenty of cheap natural gas. As we’ve talked about before, this is bringing back firms that use natural gas to make things. The McVeigh report notes how Nucor began building a $750-million plant in Louisiana. It plans to superheat natural gas and mix it with scrap iron and iron ore pellets to make steel. If you burn natural gas, you want to be in the US.

Even the automakers are coming back. GM will invest $2.5 billion in US factories. Until recently, that money was going to Mexico. Ford signed a new contract that calls for $16 billion in US investments and 12,000 new jobs by 2015. The foreign automakers are coming too. Mercedes plans to spend $2.4 billion by 2014 to expand an Alabama plant that will add 1,400 jobs. You get the idea.

I like this whole story because it will surprise a lot of people and, hence, has some value as a contrarian observation. In September 2010 (letter No. 79), I wrote a letter with the headline “The USA — Still a Nation of Builders.” The main point, as I wrote then, was “to leave you with a different perception of American manufacturers. They are not like dinosaurs on their way to extinction. In fact, some of them are great investments.” I showed a number of ways in which US manufacturers were doing quite well.

The thesis landed with a thud. It was mostly ignored. If anything, I heard people tell me how it couldn’t be so. Nevertheless, I urged my subscribers at Capital & Crisis to buy Globe (NASDAQ:GSM), a low-cost US manufacturer, which went on to double.

A lot of investors will miss the opportunity to cash in on this rebound in American manufacturing, simply because the idea is so counter to what they think they know. When it’s obvious to everyone what’s going on, of course, it will no longer be a worthwhile investment theme. But for now, US manufacturers get little respect and offer a good pool of potential investment ideas.



Read more: The Great Comeback No One Will Believe http://dailyreckoning.com/the-great-comeback-no-one-will-believe/#ixzz1nt5H8VSZ

[NS1]

The only thing, I would argue about that is the water!
It has been a few years, but i read article stating some of the states has water problems now.
Actually the US has been in talks with Canada regarding water.

I am not sure of the numbers or where, so I can't say any of this factual, but interesting story.
I hope its true, Canada has been e comically strong through all of this, but we do even better when the
US is doing well.

[WestCoast]

The only thing, I would argue about that is the water!
It has been a few years, but i read article stating some of the states has water problems now.
Actually the US has been in talks with Canada regarding water.

I am not sure of the numbers or where, so I can't say any of this factual, but interesting story.
I hope its true, Canada has been e comically strong through all of this, but we do even better when the
US is doing well.

One of the few countries that has at least as much fresh water and probably more than the USA is Canada. In the 1990's there was a big debate in Canada over exporting bulk water to the USA, the debate faded after substantial backlash from the public.  In BC there was several ideas to load up ships with fresh water from several glacial fed lakes north of Vancouver and ship the water to US customers.  The backlash occurred because of the US-Canada free trade agreement and language in the agreement that could be interpretted as saying that once the shipping of water began as long as the US wanted the water the amount shipped could never decrease only increase even if the water was needed in Canada.   

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/chrtiens-call-to-canada-dont-be-afraid-of-water-exporting-debate/article1952297/
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/08/world/free-trade-in-fresh-water-canada-says-no-and-halts-exports.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

The real irony here of course is that the country with by far the most fresh water in the world is Russia yet they have no chance at all of capitalizing of their water advantage.

[cufflinks]

The only thing, I would argue about that is the water!
It has been a few years, but i read article stating some of the states has water problems now.
Actually the US has been in talks with Canada regarding water.

I am not sure of the numbers or where, so I can't say any of this factual, but interesting story.
I hope its true, Canada has been e comically strong through all of this, but we do even better when the
US is doing well.

This Manufacturing Recovery in the USA has to be great news for Canada too as the Canadian Dollar for all intents and purposes is now on Par with the US Dollar this same advantage regarding China also extends to Canada except that Canada being a Monetarily Sovereign nation has decided not to build Nuclear Aircraft Carriers and Submarines or a massive military industrial complex and -  that the cost per employee for health care in Canada with a single payer plan is about $2,500.00 per year per person whereas the USA it is at least $5000.00 per person - along with the many manufacturing plant tax incentives the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments offer - a growing manufacturing revival in the USA should equal an outright manufacturing BOOM in Canada. 

[cufflinks]

IMHO, the USA is the best country to live, love and prosper in.
 Yeah there are opportunity's all over the world, but if we all run off and chase them, well what have you got?
 It is like the illegals from Mexico coming into the US, why do they leave their country, when what they really need to do is make it as great as the US.
 As for the Americans that bail,(no matter what they did in the past), I say yeah run, the rest of us will turn this boat away from the rocks.
 My answer to your question, My thought about your question and My opinion.

Can we spell XENOPHOBIA?

The whole purpose of this site is the hunt, chase, catch, nurture and domestication of the wild and wily FSUW 

The purpose of this topic and thread was to compare the best places in the world to live with a FSUW with the understanding that the Obamunists are turning the good old USA into an Obamanation socialist "utopia" and that has dire consequences for anyone with capitalist sensibilities.  The entire Fortune 1,000 now earns more that 51% of their profits from outside the USA - sort of makes sense as that's where most of the Globes nearly 7 Billion people live.

For example Manny has discovered Tallinn Estonia to be a new EU paradise compared to the rest of EUrabia and UKrabia...  Many FSUW in the Sunny Mediterranean and Dubai as well as India and Southeast Asia including OZ - not too many in NZ for some reason and tons in NYC and LaLa Land aka Hollywood.  Quite a few in Latin America as well.  So idea was to have a global view in the thread and not take the old USA love it or leave it mentality to the typical extremes.

In 2010 I visited Moscow on business.  I had occurred to me driving by the Kremlin with its now Red White and Royal Blue flag flying that 30 years ago during the Hammer and Sickle days I would have probably been shot - by both the Soviets and the USA - it is a different world today with Global opportunities and that is the purpose of this thread.  If anyone wishes to be a xenophobe - fine - start another thread perhaps America Love it or Leave it might do for the title.  This thread has a Global perspective on purpose.

[RG]

The only thing, I would argue about that is the water!
It has been a few years, but i read article stating some of the states has water problems now.
Actually the US has been in talks with Canada regarding water.

I am not sure of the numbers or where, so I can't say any of this factual, but interesting story.
I hope its true, Canada has been e comically strong through all of this, but we do even better when the
US is doing well.

This Manufacturing Recovery in the USA has to be great news for Canada too as the Canadian Dollar for all intents and purposes is now on Par with the US Dollar this same advantage regarding China also extends to Canada except that Canada being a Monetarily Sovereign nation has decided not to build Nuclear Aircraft Carriers and Submarines or a massive military industrial complex and -  that the cost per employee for health care in Canada with a single payer plan is about $2,500.00 per year per person whereas the USA it is at least $5000.00 per person - along with the many manufacturing plant tax incentives the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments offer - a growing manufacturing revival in the USA should equal an outright manufacturing BOOM in Canada. 

So, in other words, RE: bolded text, "We're doing it wrong." ?
So de-regulation and the (sic) "free market" didn't work to contain healthcare costs to compare favorably to a neighboring country with similar quality of living (if not higher) and currency on par with the USD? 

[cufflinks]

The only thing, I would argue about that is the water!
It has been a few years, but i read article stating some of the states has water problems now.
Actually the US has been in talks with Canada regarding water.

I am not sure of the numbers or where, so I can't say any of this factual, but interesting story.
I hope its true, Canada has been e comically strong through all of this, but we do even better when the
US is doing well.

This Manufacturing Recovery in the USA has to be great news for Canada too as the Canadian Dollar for all intents and purposes is now on Par with the US Dollar this same advantage regarding China also extends to Canada except that Canada being a Monetarily Sovereign nation has decided not to build Nuclear Aircraft Carriers and Submarines or a massive military industrial complex and -  that the cost per employee for health care in Canada with a single payer plan is about $2,500.00 per year per person whereas the USA it is at least $5000.00 per person - along with the many manufacturing plant tax incentives the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments offer - a growing manufacturing revival in the USA should equal an outright manufacturing BOOM in Canada. 

So, in other words, RE: bolded text, "We're doing it wrong." ?
So de-regulation and the (sic) "free market" didn't work to contain healthcare costs to compare favorably to a neighboring country with similar quality of living (if not higher) and currency on par with the USD?

RG not quite sure what your point is?

The point I was making was to toast our neighbors to the north because their system makes them much more competitive on the global stage (except for their frigid winters i.e. Mercedes is expanding in Alabama - nice hot summers and mild winters) than the USofA and that good news for the revival of USA manufacturing has to be fantastic news to our NAFTA partners to the North

[cufflinks]

Super Hero Hideout for sale in Norway:

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/own-a-secret-submarine-base-in-norway-for-173-million.html

Own a secret submarine base in Norway for $17.3 million

Former US NATO base in Norway could be a great high tech complex - with all the James Bond toys included.

[cufflinks]

Super Hero Hideout for sale in Norway:

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/own-a-secret-submarine-base-in-norway-for-173-million.html

Own a secret submarine base in Norway for $17.3 million

Former US NATO base in Norway could be a great high tech complex - with all the James Bond toys included.

Whoa not too far away Google Earth zooms in on Real Red October:

Monster Sub is nearly as long as the Russian Jump Jet Carrier being outfitted behind it!

[cufflinks]

Had more of the Atlantis Honolulu Version in mind for the Super Hero ultimate hideout at the time this Atlantis XIV was the world's biggest passenger submarine (Dwarfed by Real Red October):