The dollar thing is kind of funny. Pricing takes a while to catch up to currency valuation; just look at Zimbabwe, I think they make price tags with little sliders to add zeroes. The other problem is that Canada's inefficient infrastructure and prohibitive trade policy structure prevents its dollars from being as valuable as ours in terms of purchasing power.

Regina can suck my Saskatoon and my Winnipeg.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: LOL. MUST spread the wonders of laissez-faire capitalism at all costs!

Investment tip of the day: buy coastal property in Greenland. By the time you retire, it will be the next Caribbean and you'll sell it to a hotel chain to build a resort.

Ka-ching!

@SinisterRouge:

Okay, then YOU explain why a bagel in Canada costs 4 dollars. Please, blame evil corporations, you still little Marxist retard.

So basically, thanks to Global Warming, their balls have been released from their icy cocoons and they're swinging 'em everywhere.

That's hot.

That graphic scared the shit outta me - I just got a basal cell carcinoma (the very common pesky kind of skin cancer, not the killing kind) removed last week, and I'm feeling my scar and looking at the picture of the shrinking ice and it really hit home how this affects not just polar bears...Does no one in the Bush administration know anyone who has to get these things excised periodically? Or does skin cancer only happen to liberals?

And does this mean I can actually spend all the Canadian quarters I get from vending machines?

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Ooooh....burn!! You're a fucking asshole. Che and me are so offended! Keep spreading the good word is all I'm sayin'!

@SinisterRouge:

That doesn't read like much economic analysis. Shut up, college.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: For a more meaningful analysis of price vs. value in the context of sustainability, please read Robert Solow's "An Almost Practicle Step Towards Sustainability", which basically says that we must take into account in pricing the depletion of not only our plant capital but also our environmental and natural resources... you slash and burn capitalist pig!

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: inefficient infrastructure? Trade protectionism? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the noise of your bridges falling down. Perhaps they're weighed down by the truckloads of money carted in from the border, from tariffs on Canadian resources put in place so a fat old white man can keep his Congressional seat?

Canada's prices are higher because when we devalued the dollar back in the late 70s (I think), we ganked up our prices so that Canadian industrial profits would remain the same. Up until 2002, our dollar was maybe 65c U.S. Now that we're at parity, we're realizing just how fucking rotten and capitalist industry fucking is. There's a HUGE uproar over here about unfair prices. Including class action law suits, people refusing to pay anything but American prices on goods. It's so bad that even Canadian news has noticed it. And they only notice people getting set on fire, and kittens.

All that being said, a doughnut is like... 70 cents at Tim's. And a bagel with cream cheese is still about a buck.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
I can fight master villains with my purchasing power.

What's the exchange rate for ice these days?

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
People in glass houses should not be throwing ice balls, erm, or slushy balls. See: retard for reference.

Russia, a "left-leaning country"? Are you fo' real?

@Pope John Peeps II: Yeah, I'd like to see these mythical $4 bagels he refers to. I'm guessing they're for sexual purposes and not actual consumption as a food product.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Perhaps prices in Canada are higher because they tax their manufacturing and raw materials higher, making goods cost more. But then again, you can go to the doctor there and not pay through the nose....because their services cost much much less. Oh, but that wouldn't give assholes like you that extra 100K at the end of the year would it? Let's kick out the illegal immigrant underclass that we've got to keep labor costs nice and low. and see how quickly the price of a bagel here shoots up to $4. Fuck you. You encapsulate everything that's wrong with America.

@Pope John Peeps II:

Touche' - and you're right, it was in the 70's.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: They can afford it, with all the money they save on health care!

@Mariallena: Investment tip. Don't ever, ever, ever buy coastal land. At the rate ice is melting, it will be a coral reef in 10 years. Why do you think this shit scares the crap out of icy countries? We're losing glaciers, losing permanent icecaps, losing permafrost! It's fucking nuts!

What's wrong with being a Marxist?

@Pope John Peeps II: Are you Canuck or just standing on guard for thee? I loves you regardless.
And if Montreal is gonna be the new Seoul, someone better start a few good Korean restaurants, 'cause I can't get a kimchi chigae or haemul pajeon worth its 소금.

One of the cutest things about Canada is that tense little game-show moment at the cash register when you're not quite sure how much the total price, with tax, will be. So, that $4 bagel is really more like $4.58. All kidding aside, when I was up there last month for TIFF, I was very impressed, so much so I was thinking, "Yeah, fuck New York, I could do Canada." But this was September; I had visited before in December, and it was wickedly, obscenely cold. How do you do it?

here in buffalo, my malls are being invaded by the fleets of ontario license plates thanks to the whole canadian exchange thing. oh, and i have a tim hortons in my building and doughtnuts are like 10 cents...ok i'm exaggerating, but their coffee is my anti-drug.

@mindbling: It's kinda like being a goth--acceptable until your early twenties, then kind of embarrasing after that. Also, you have to hand out newspapers and hang out with people who won't ever shut the fuck up about the struggle and the revolution and shit.

@etconsumimurigni: the "left-leaning" thing makes sense when you're at the north pole.

Sure we get a Northwest Passage but everyone on the gulf coast of the US will be underwater. It's not just us that should care about the shrinking icecap. Also: Do you know how much oil "the experts" think is under the North Pole? Shit loads. Us fringy countries are about to rule the world, people. Forget China and India. It's gonna be Canada and Denmark. The whole world is gonna be sucking up to..uh...hockey players and cheese makers.

Speaking of IceCaps: I have to question your stats on Tim Horton's. There is actually one Tims for every two Canadians. That's 16 million Tims. That's a fact.

@hamburgerhotdog: Ahhhh. Good to know. What do they morph into at 25? Socialist hipsters?

@tammyfey: You get sort of acclimatized to it, actually. It's weird. The longer you spend outdoors, the better you are at dealing with cold. If you go camping around fall/winter, you really get to know cold intimately. Then you start to think shit like "okay, my skin skill hurts, so I'm still a while away from frostbite. good!".

I went to Florida when I was about 17, and I felt like I was going to die every single goddamn day. It was the worst week of my life. It was like living in a food steamer.

@gonzosmom: I am more interested in the current price of Mounties. Is the ice loss gonna make them an endangered species due to habitat loss? Oh God-Save The Mounties..

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: WE'RE WAITING...

@mindbling: Yeah, pretty much. You've seen that doctor guy in Williamsburg? Something like that.

@hamburgerhotdog: Oh ick. Less Che, more pay. That's my new motto!!

@Pope John Peeps II:

Pope, tell the nice people how hard it is to get basic health care. You basically can't see a doctor unless you need surgery, correct? No lying, either. Also, I wonder if the cost is being rolled up into, say, taxes? Taxes that cause prices to stay high?

Are you referring to the lumber tariffs in the rest of that? Perhaps if your trade policy was more accommodating in other areas, yes? Stop fucking NAFTA in the eye and maybe we'll talk. It has nothing to do with American fatcats and everything to do with protectionism and taxes; keep in mind, Canada is the US's biggest trade partner and we disproportionately import from your country, which means that our trade activities are beneficial to your currency and quality of life. Don't blame the unbelievably higher prices on your goods on anything but your corrupt liberal bureaucracy. Lumber tariffs have not made your coffee as expensive as it is; your government has.

@SinisterRouge:

What are you even talking about? You're conflating like 5 seperate issues there.

Simple economics lesson:

Higher taxes, past efficient thresholds, cause higher prices.

Stronger currency causes lower prices, provided that the currency is not being manipulated by unnatural forces.

If the stronger currency can't beat the prices down, taxes are too high.

Therefore, if Canadians have it so bad at the grocery store, why don't they cut taxes? That's the most effective way to introduce liquidity to companies who will buy product and soothe the supply curve.

The answer? Health care is a big reason. Corruption is another. Restrictions on trade don't help. And then there's the assumption that a planned economy will outperform a free one, which has never borne out in human history.

So either all of my former 7th grade friends' girlfriends are finally going to materialize, or all my friends were liars.

@hamburgerhotdog: Funny, I feel more embarrassed for the people who have given up.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: You, an American, are telling a Canadian about corruption? Get the fuck outta here!

And believe it or not, I would be more than willing to pay more taxes if that meant health care and education for all. Does that make me a filthy commie?

Regina, vagina. One cannnot say the first without immediately thinking of the second.

@etconsumimurigni:

Given up on what? I'm pretty sure that socioeconomic consensus was reached that neither planned nor completely free economies were desirable like, 30 years ago. I'm just catching up all the college freshmen in here.

Also:

"Six Californias of open water appeared in the Arctic."

Right about now, some mildly annoyed Canadian polar bear is muttering, "Well fuck, there goes the neighborhood." And his buddy is thinking, "Yeah, bro, I mean, like, whatever."

@tammyfey:

Canadian political corruption would curl your hair. Read a newspaper!

You're not a filthy commie for wanting people to have health care or education. However, keep in mind that both of those products have unlimited, inelastic demand and constrained supply with high barriers to entry. You have to manage capacity. Private systems are usually better at managing capacity than government ones. For all the love for Canada's health care system, it's extremely dissatisfying to Canadians.

The grass is always greener under the permafrost I guess.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: How in the fuck did I confuse anything? I never said they had it bad at the grocery store, YOU claimed the $4 bagel. I explained to your stupid fucking ass that their taxes are high because of social programs, like healthcare. You just re-iterated everything I said. And maybe they like having healthcare.
Restrictions on trade will make it easier for us to go into Canada, flood them with our goods, devalue their currency and make them just like Mexico! Yay!

Simple lesson: You're a fucking uber-capitalist asshole who believes in privatization of everything (how's that private army Blackwater doing, BTW? Kill anyone else lately?) to the detriment of the BASIC needs of a population.

Healthcare here is better for those who can afford it...which is becoming less and less. If you're poor here, you can't get in to see a GENERAL doctor, never mind a specialist or a surgeon.

People like YOU are the ones that spread the notion that you'll wait in line for months for healthcare, when in fact, you wait longer for specailists (just like here!) and for ELECTIVE surgery.

@tammyfey: Yes it does. That's the issue that all of these people don't seem to get. WE KNOW our taxes will go up. WE are OK with that if it means that kids in non-gentrified Brooklyn get to see a doctor.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: What about me, brah? Oh, and US currency is NEVER "manipulated by unnatural forces", right?

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
Private systems are usually better at managing capacity than government ones

Like which ones?? Please tell me more about these private Saviors!

@ljnd2: it must have been scary to find a carcinoma, and I'm sorry that hapened to you and glad to hear you had it excised in a timely way, but... since your comment appears to link skin cancer to global warming, I fear you are under a (total) misunderstanding about what global warming is and what causes it. I believe you may be confusing global warming, caused by excessive greenhouse gasses including CO2 in the atmosphere, and loss of the ozone layer, caused by chloro-fluorocarbons and hydro-flourocarbons interacting with gasses in the outer atsmosphere. Ozone in the upper-atmosphere protects the planet against UV rays and diminution of the layer may have some role in skin cancer. Loss of the ozone layer has no role at all in global warming. The two problems are totally unrelated.

@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Holy Jesus. I don't know where you went to school, but if you're under the impression that there has ever been a successful "free" economy, you are shit out of luck. In fact, it's irresponsible to even claim that any economy in the history of the world has been "free". What does that even mean? The very existence of an economy is so heavily regulated by various bodies that claiming it as "free" is crazy-talk.

You want to know where the "free-est" economies are? Just look for the highest unemployment rates. And the starving-est people. Iraq in 2002. Argentina in 2001. Pinochet's Chile in 1976. Basically anywhere the Friedman school of bullshit magical fairy dust rainbow unicorn economics has laid a finger has been a fucking disaster. Not since new age crystal healing has a theory failed so consistently and still been believed so fully by its adherents.

Listen, any cut in taxes is NOT coming out of prices of items on the shelf. That's the one thing you can take to the bank.