I'm sure Canada didn't have their feelings hurt; but I'll send them a Christmas card anyway. Boogy; why do you seem to think all those who disagree are meaning to insult and offend? I'm merely stating a fact.

And how are you so sure Canada isn't close to bankruptcy. Half the World is up to it's ears in debt and so is Canada. Maybe it isn't the worse offender; but it doesn't have as big of a population so it is easier to spend big and not see negative consequences quickly.

Regardless; if the USA defaults and most of Europe defaults; which I think is almost a certainty; then I would except Canada to be in a very difficult situation; potentially defaulting themselves but who knows.

I'm not sure why you are unable to see this possibility. Let's use a simple example to illustrate. If you make 100k a year; wouldn't you consider 81k of debt a lot? I certainly would; especially when that isn't even all the debt that Canada has.

Counties routinely make commitments of payment in the future and then don't record that in their financial statements as debt. For example; all the money that is owed in social security and medicare is not included in the 92% figure I stated earlier for the USA. In fact those liabilities would increase the figure by 400% at least.

Canada also has a lot of these unfunded liabilities.

How do you reconcile these huge debts and then say default is not going to happen?

expect*

(1) Its insulting and condescending when you respond to my posts with statements like: "if you would bother to look things up". the fact that we disagree is not offensive to me.
(2) You are trying to correlate deficit spending with the existence of a universal health care system. If the US has similar debt problems as countries with universal health care, then no such correlation exists. Also before 2008 Canada had successfully eliminated its deficit for about a decade, while maintaining its universal health care system. The deficit was reopened only due to the shitty economy in the last three years -- not due to universal health care.

Boogy; I make those statements because many times you have stated something and after I look it up; it isn't true. So sorry; but it is frustrating to fact-check you; just fact check yourself first. Canada does have a lot of debt.

Second; I'm not the one who said that Canada's debt is linked to their healthcare. I just said that central planning type systems like universal health care will eventually cause bankruptcy. You replied by saying that Canada isn't in a debt crisis and I replied that they have a lot of debt. Then you somehow got the idea that I was arguing something else and this is where we are. I've cleared it up.

Ugly, I think that the USA is going to default; in fact it already is. Inflation of currency is a form of default; because you inflate the debt away and repay the debt with dollars that are worth less.

Europe is a different story. I'm not entirely certain what the EU bylaws allow them to do; but I do know that many counties in Europe especially the PIGS (portugal, italy, greece, spain) are very much so in debt. It is historically unfounded for countries to recover from that much debt without default.

Add all this with China's upcoming recession and you might have a scenario that pushes all the countries on the edge; like Canada; over the edge.

Canada isn't in a debt crisis. That's a fact. The existence of debt does not in itself constitute a debt crisis. Only the imminent possibility of default on debt counts as a debt crisis. Canada is not currently in or even remotely close to a debt crisis.

But where is the evidence that universal healthcare is causally related to defaults on sovereign debts? As I said, Canada eliminated its debt for about 10 years starting in the late 90s without sacrificing its universal healthcare system. When economic times are tough, deficit spending is sometimes unavoidable. When the economy turns around, so does the deficit. I really don't see how you can argue that the policy of universal healthcare necessarily leads all states all the time into unsustainable deficit spending.

I should add: Especially when your own country, which certainly does not have universal healthcare, is in precisely that very predicament.

One last clarification: Canada did not eliminate its debt in the late 1990s; it only eliminated its deficit. By running a surplus, the total sovereign debt in Canada decreased during this period. It has only increased since the onset of the 2008 recession. Its also interesting to note that the federal government of Canada ran a surplus while under Liberal (left of centre) rule; the Conservatives (right of centre) have overseen the reversal of that surplus in the past three years.

My point is that centrally planned systems such as universal health care inevitably break down and cost the economy dearly. Sure it is possible to shoulder a few programs if your income is great; but that still doesn't save you from other effects such as shortages, wait times, and eventually higher prices and increased taxation.

Central Planning doesn't work. You control markets.

The US government tries to control the market of drugs. It attempts to decreases the supply by making it illegal to produce drugs. It attempts to decrease demand by making it illegal to possess.

Neither of these things are possible to accomplish. And they haven't. Drugs are still plentiful and demand is still high.

You would agree with me on this point. However you would then turn around and say that although it is impossible to control the market in the drug example; it will be easier to control a market in the health care example.

I completely disagree; and the results will be equally as big a failure as the drug war.

"centrally planned systems such as universal health care inevitably break down and cost the economy dearly"

This is just not specific enough to make sense. Its an interesting hypothesis, but one that is certainly not demonstrated by historical evidence. Canada is the cogent counter-example; its health care system has not "broken down" and the Canadian economy has outperformed the US economy during this recession.

Also the prohibition on drugs is not analogous to universal health care. Universal health care is not a prohibition on health services but rather an alternative mechanism to the free market in distributing health services to the population. In Canada the government fixes the price of each specific medical service and establishes a set of rules to determine those eligible to receive a service and in what order.