Let’s just get the main course on the table right away: If you want to get rich, or just richer, you don’t head north. You stay home.
The latest data confirms what every American chasing the dream already knows: The U.S. absolutely smokes Canada when it comes to per capita income. In simple terms, Americans, on average, are pulling in significantly more cash than their northern neighbors.
Canada’s GDP per adult has been stuck in a perpetual state of “almost” for decades, fluctuating between 70% and 90% of the U.S. figure. The gap is getting wider, and it’s particularly damning at the top end. The average income of the top 10% in Canada is a shadow of their American counterparts, with that difference accounting for the majority of the overall gap. This isn’t just a rounding error; it’s a structural failure. The engine of wealth creation in the Great White North is sputtering, and the high-achievers—the people who create jobs—are the ones getting clipped hardest. If you’re an entrepreneur or a university-educated professional, the ceiling is a lot lower up there.
The ‘Free Stuff’ Mirage: Benefits and Bureaucracy
Now, the Canadian apologists will start squawking about “free” healthcare and other social benefits. Sure, they have government-run medicine, but here’s the reality: nothing is truly free. You pay for it in higher taxes and lower efficiency.
Canadians are subjected to higher combined federal and provincial income taxes, especially for high earners. For the top bracket, the total marginal tax rate can exceed 50%. Compare that to the U.S. federal and state rates. In many provinces, your total tax bill is simply higher than in most places in the U.S. This isn’t just about income, either. Canada’s sales taxes are significantly higher than anything you’ll see south of the border, with combined rates hitting up to 15% in some provinces. That’s money yanked directly out of the pockets of working families, day in and day out, to pay for the great experiment in central planning.
And what do they get for that forced contribution? A health system that, while universally funded, delivers mediocre results and infamous wait times. Recent comparisons of healthcare systems in high-income countries placed Canada just one spot ahead of the U.S. in overall performance, but that’s a classic case of low expectations. You might not see a bill, but a 13-week average wait for specialist treatment is a price tag all its own. They sacrifice access to modern technology and timely care for the “comfort” of having the government manage the whole broken enterprise. It’s the ultimate big-government bait-and-switch: they take more, and you wait longer.
The Heavy Hand of Regulation and Loss of Freedom
The numbers don’t lie about who has the heavier regulatory shackles. The Canadian system is notorious for red tape, and the cost of regulatory compliance for Canadian businesses is astronomical. Studies have shown that small businesses—the backbone of any healthy economy—pay up to five times more per employee in regulatory compliance than larger firms. That’s a massive, invisible tax on job creation and innovation.
But the real, chilling difference is the erosion of personal liberty and government intrusion into everyday life.
We’ve seen recent, disturbing revelations that should alarm any freedom-loving individual. The heavy-handed invoking of the Emergencies Act against political dissent—like the 2022 “Freedom Convoy”—was a shot across the bow for civil liberties. A Federal Court even ruled that the government’s action was unreasonable and violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This move, which led to the freezing of bank accounts and large-scale censorship, showed a willingness by the government to wield unprecedented, crushing power against its own citizens for daring to protest draconian policies.
Furthermore, recent legislative pushes have gone after core freedoms, not just economic ones. The government’s moves to regulate digital platforms via the Online News Act have been slammed, with some platforms completely pulling news content from Canadian users—a direct hit on the free flow of information and a clear case of government overreach leading to censorship. Then there is the use of the law to criminalize so-called “hate speech,” a vague, subjective term that gives the state immense power to decide what is acceptable public discourse.
In the U.S., we debate what kind of government we want; in Canada, they seem to be debating how much government they can tolerate before their fundamental rights disappear.
The choice is stark: You can have a lower income, higher taxes, a bloated and inefficient healthcare system, and a government that’s happy to shut down dissent and police your speech—or you can live in the United States, where the money is better, the taxes are lower, and the fight for freedom is still taken seriously. I’ll take freedom and a thicker wallet any day.