And when Wal-Mart owns a controlling interest in the government?

Do as Walmart does.

Who needs to pay for national security when you can sit a half-conscious 80 year old woman at the border with a sharpie and a price scanner?

Walmart has $4 prescriptions, so that takes care of health care.

I don't see a downside.

oojay, people already get a say in how the government is run. It's called voting. I fail to see how allowing a few people to have massive sway over the government would be a good thing, especially when that'd mean non-citizens and foreign governments would be able to vote.

Anyways, look at how the market is responding to the American national debt; interest on bonds remain insanely low. This is a good barometer, people.

Yeah, it's like Canada is the USAs #1 source of oil (thanks, tar sands!), which causes this thing called a "trade deficit" to be created, hence.....

I find it funny that gas is more expensive here than it is in the US, even though we have bigger oil reserves.

Actually, the USA has more oil than Canada; the problem is it's in a form of tar sands that's more difficult - that is, economically less cost effective - to develop. Further, our tar sands are in an area that's more population dense, which results (rightfully so) in a NIMBY attitude. (this is kinda of like how Venezuela just passed Saudi Arabia as the nation having the highest amount of proven oil reserves; what these statistics don't take into account is the economic viability of extraction & refining).......

But, yeah - why is oil more expensive in Canada than the USA? Well, it boils down to several things, but the primary one is that which I mentioned earlier - the USA's deficit fueling inflation. The idea being, you see, that it after inflation reaches point (X), it will be cheaper to buy American goods rather than foreign, resulting in a decrease in the trade deficit. So, for our current example, it'd make the green river tar sands more economically viable. It also makes our exports cheaper for foreign nations, and reduces the cost of our deficit, etc....

Forgive me if my post is a bit topsy-turvy, but Mr. Beam came over for a visit.

No that all kind of makes sense. Jim is chilling with me right now, too. Oddly, he tells me very different things. He says political borders don't really exist and that global economics are generally irritating machinations that distract humanity from reality. He'll never get me to vote for Ron Paul though.

Also, to the OP: I'm an American shopping for a shiny new MacBook currently. And a new case for my old iPhone.

Hmmm... time to move to Canada.

Or maybe to China.

We have cookies. And free healthcare.

Yeah, but you also have ketchup flavored potato chips. *shudders*