My apologies for not getting to this blog entry on the actual Fourth of July (and what could be more Canadian than an apology?)...but I needed additional material to finish the Canada Day entry, and lacked it until today.
I picked up the double issue of Macleans, our national newsmagazine (the American equivalent would be Time) and settled down for an eye-opening read on Canada vs. America. The Canadian in me doesn't even like that vs....it sounds so confrontational, doesn't it?...but that cover piece was a revelation.
For one thing, Canadians are now richer than Americans on average...by at least thirty percent. That goes so against everything we've heard for about a generation that I found it impossible to credit at first. After all, it's well known that Yanks drive bigger cars, live in bigger houses, do just about everything bigger, than we Canucks.
It all became clear when I read how Macleans determined wealth. They're going by "net wealth", as in "what you own minus what you owe." And Americans, again on average, owe more than us. A lot more. Per capita personal debt in Canada is US$23,460; in the United States, it's $40,250.
Another figure that leaped out: Canadians spend an average of 19% of their annual income on housing. In the U.S., it's 34%.
This accords with anecdotal evidence I've collected from colleagues who travel frequently to the United States as well as my closest friend who has lived there for more than a decade and is now a citizen. The culture is just plain different, they report. Most people in America think nothing of going deeper into debt, whatever the reason. It may not be something so crass as keeping up with the neighbo(u)rs; owning and consuming is deeply rooted in what it means to be American. Recall that almost the first thing out of President Bush's mouth in the wake of 9/11 was an exhortation to get out there and spend, spend, spend, "or the terrorists win". Whenever our 9/11 happens (and trust me, it will eventually), that'll likely be the last thing you hear from our sitting PM.
There are many other aspects to the Macleans piece, some of them illuminating. Contrary to extremely popular (Canadian) belief, we actually have just as much crime--in some cases more--in Canada. We have more break-and-enters per 100,000 population and significantly more arson and auto theft. But you're almost three times more likely to be murdered in America...
The article makes the point that "[t]he U.S. aggressively pursues happiness, but Canada seems to have just stumbled upon it". That perhaps explains why we're the happier nation: you can't "do" happy, you can only "be" happy.
Believe it or not, this blog entry is supposed to be in praise of America. If it sounds like I'm blowing Canada's horn, well, just consider me the little brother tagging along in Big Bro's shadow, occasionally wanting to steal a little of his limelight and say "hey, look at me!"
Because there's no doubt the limelight is on America 24/7. America invented the limelight, and a lot of other things besides. When we Canadians turn our eyes southward, we do so with envy, jealousy and all its attendant insecurities. You have the dominant global culture, so dominant that it's almost impossible to tell a random Canadian city from a random American one. It chafes us, sometimes, is all...especially because we're just as drawn to it as anyone else.
So what does America do better than Canada, besides produce television that's actually worth watching? Well, you do business much better than we do. You're much more independent and entrepreneurial. "Making money" in Canada is kind of like masturbation: everybody does it, but it's nothing you want to talk about and you wash your hands afterwards. We regard rich people the way you'd think of somebody masturbating in public.
Much as we denigrate your expansionist attempts to globalize the American Dream, there's much about that dream to admire. It has kept America on top of the planetary heap for more than a century.
As the economy disintegrates, Americans will look to themselves and each other to make do and get by. Canadians will whine for the government to do something, anything. Since it's a truism in both countries that government only exists to perpetuate itself, I suspect you'll fare better than us.
I, personally, admire your government. Not the current one, I hasten to amend: I mean your governmental system. Your Constitution is a marvel of checks and balances that has kept your politics on, more or less, an even keel through a longer and far more tumultuous history than we've had to deal with. Your President, Congress and Supreme Court all have power, but not too much of it; you're deeply uneasy whenever one or the other branch of government threatens to grow too big for its britches. Up here, we've had a low-grade war going on for years between our executive, legislative and judicial branches. Our tree's not in danger of coming down, but I for one could do without some of the hot air coming out of Ottawa.
And I admire the American spirit. You are a nation of individuals that pull together for the common cause of being American. We're a nation of collectivists pulling in every direction under the sun and still, somehow, cohering as Canadians. I do think you could learn from our approach to the world...but I also wish more Canadians understood that we have much to learn from you, as well.
Happy Fourth to my American friends, even if it comes on the Fifth.
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