General Politics Discussion

[bravado]

According to the Montreal Institute 44% of every dollar spent in Canada is spent by government

Ah, the magic of statistics! "Dollars spent" can be spent multiple times. For example, the Ontario government will pay health-care groups (typically of family doctors) for services provided. This will count as "government spending" and yet those groups will also spend the money, and then their employees will spend them, too. The total "spending" in Canada will be far higher than the GDP.

So, you can't just use "dollars spent" divided by GDP as a metric.

And, just FYI, the US estimate for the same ratio is 36%. And that's without universal healthcare--notably 16% of US GDP goes to healthcare.

One of the more eye-opening realizations of the early Trump presidency so far has been the idea that Canada isn't actually as indebted and high-spending as I generally understood - especially when compared to the US government. Every day it seems that we have to live in some semblance of financial reality, while the US government most certainly does not. We'll see if that spending stays sustainable if the US isn't #1 at trade anymore and the USD isn't what it used to be.