On "Socialism" hysteria and universal health care
A friend recently posted this on Facebook:

Socialism doesn't work!!!!and neither does national health care just ask someone frome a country that has it....like a Canadian

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My response:

You don't have to ask a Canadian. Just check out the CIA World Fact Book, 2008.

The US is ranked 45th in the world in life expectancy at birth. Lower than Jordan and Malta, and lower than almost all industrialized nations, most of which have universal health care. But we do just beat out Albania and Cyprus, so all is not lost. Canada is 14th, 20% above the world average. Canadians live on the average over two years longer than Americans. (http://sn.im/life-exp)

The US is also ranked 45th in infant survival (inverse 5-year mortality), ten places below Canada, at 35th, and just below Cuba and Guam.

All this despite Americans spending on average just under twice (192%) what Canadians do on health care (http://sn.im/hc-costs).

So maybe a Canadian isn't the best person to ask if you want to brag about how well our "system" works.

Next up: Canadian banks, American banks, and securities and banking regulation.