boscopup Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Anyway, not that long ago it was 14% -- 7% of each. Taxes have been going down in Canada. I was going to say... "GST is 5% now?!?!?" I lived in Alberta for 2 years, and I well remember GST being 7%. Very cool that the taxes are going down somewhat! :D I liked Canada. Honestly, I felt like I was living in the US still, for the most part. The main difference was no stand-alone post offices. :lol: I didn't get to enjoy the "free healthcare" since I was a student, but the health care was cheap enough that I was able to pay out of pocket no problem, even as a student without a job (unless you count dog walking, which I could do because it was on campus... wasn't allowed to get a real job). That was at a time when the US/Canada exchange rate was so good for me that even though I had to pay double the tuition at U of A, it was still cheaper than schools in the US that I would have gone to, and my student loans in US$ gave me plenty of money to live on when it converted to a lot more CDN$. :) (and as an engineer, I paid off my student loans fairly quickly - I don't recommend living completely off student loans these days!) If I had to move somewhere outside the US, Alberta would definitely be on my short list. I really loved it there (Edmonton, specifically). I'm still :lol: at the thought of Walmart having good customer service though. IF you can hunt someone down, they're reasonably helpful. Target is better in that arena, but not by a huge amount. Now Publix (grocery store)... That is good customer service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Besides if I lived in the US, I wouldn't get anymore people from overseas asking me if I (in all seriousness)regularly ride kangaroos around, use emus to fly, and if we genetically altered two species to make the platypus. :lol: :lol: Do like we do, "Absolutely mate!" I left my bil & hubs in the petrol station in the US once while I went to change a nappy, came back and they were rolling with laughter. The umpteenth person asked if they had roos hopping all over all the time. They made up a whopper that the roos do this so regularly there's often trafic delays in downtown Sydney. She was in absolute awe. No joke! pffffft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Yes, that's it. :) I bought that set on CDs years ago (long before I really thought about homeschooling). It really is an awesome set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BinahYeteirah Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Well I'm probably one of the few Australians who thinks our health care system is bogus. :glare: It's great if you're poor and have a health care card but if you're actually earning your own money it's not so great. I broke my toe this week and couldn't afford to go to the doctor to have it looked at. $60 for the doctor visit and then $150 for the x-ray -just didn't have it spare. Every time I need to pick up a repeat prscription it costs me $60 -just to have the doctor fill out a piece of paper for me :glare: Nothing is bulk-billed in my area because our clinic is "private" (we live rural so there is no other choice to go to). If you go to the doctor on the weekend you have to go to the hospital and they charge you after hours fees - so basically - if you are sick on the weekend and don't have $150 spare you are screwed because they won't see you. The last time I took my DS to the doctor because he has really sick with flu they told me unless I paid the money up front they would refuse to see him :001_huh: Who refuses treatment to a very sick 4yo because of $60 in a country where medical care is supposed to be free That sounds horrible. I've heard that access to services can be quite spotty in rural areas. I've only even lived in Melbourne, so we had our pick of bulk-billing clinics. Interestingly enough, we actually traveled to a more affluent area to go to our preferred clinic. I had assumed private clinics would be more popular in more affluent areas. We were definitely working for a living, but I don't think we ever paid a cent out of pocket for healthcare, except for the few times we went to alternative practitioners who were not available in the bulk-billing clinics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 That sounds horrible. I've heard that access to services can be quite spotty in rural areas. I've only even lived in Melbourne, so we had our pick of bulk-billing clinics. Interestingly enough, we actually traveled to a more affluent area to go to our preferred clinic. I had assumed private clinics would be more popular in more affluent areas. We were definitely working for a living, but I don't think we ever paid a cent out of pocket for healthcare, except for the few times we went to alternative practitioners who were not available in the bulk-billing clinics. We've been lucky enough most of the time to get bulk-bill places, and of course, if we go to the hospital, its paid through medicare so we don't pay for that. But now we live in another state and out in a "smaller" country town, no bulk billing everytime we see a doctor here, so $60 a pop, and of course, if the kids are sick, they usually all have it, so $180. Due to Atlas having t1 diabetes, she constantly has a whole medical team, i.e. $$$, plus prescriptions, needles, containers, glucose strips etc. And the hospital in the local town charges....I have had to go there a number of times (weak chest, so whenever I end up catching something, I get hit with it 10x worse than the others) and each time I say I won't go back to the hospital LOL. Last time I ended up with gosh only knows what, I am guessing gastro mixed with flu? Anyway, it was that shocking, I was projectile vomiting, and ended up with severe pain to my chest from all the vomiting, like literally in agony, worse than childbirth. I had to endure the 15 minute ride to the hospital, then an hours wait in the rural hospital (i.e. 4 others there, obviously all extremely minor stuff, and I was sweating, twitching, crying, and literally could not stay still in the chair. I was thinking of going to the bathroom there, but even the though of the 5 steps had me slumped. Still it wasn't triage, but first come first served, so the 15yo boy with a superficial graze on his knee, the elderly lady who needed a new prescription for her foot rub, the lady with a "cold" and the baby for his immunizations were all seen before me. DH was having major empathy pains and trying to control all 3 kids, and I was trying to hold with dear life onto my chair and not fll headfirst onto the floor. Finally we get in there, the nurse asks me stupid questions, then says she has to call the "on call" doctor, another hours wait. The on-call doctor gets there, nurse gives information, then doctor asks exactly the same questions again, by then I could barely speak (thinest whisper) according to my husband my face was turning an alarming shade of white/blue, and the doctor left for another 30 minutes whilst I used that time to finally get DH to understand I needed water. She came back and gave me.....what amounts to Mylanta.....stomach settler. Thats it. And I get charged a whopping fee, to get two free pink pills, which I couldn't keep down, a "note" about what they are called, and a never-ending trip back home where I started vomiting again. Apparently I was out for about 5 days after coming back from the doctors (in and out of consciousness, always hugging a bottle of water) meanwhile DH called my mother (on the 4th day) (a nurse with further medical training) and she was livid. He only called because he was getting seriously scared. She obvised him of some "homeopathic"/home remedies, since obviously the doctors were "fools" :tongue_smilie: and 24 hours later I was much improved. According to my mother, I shouldn't of left the hospital, but apparently (whilst still on the phone with my mum) DH told me we were going back to the hospital and I had quite a reaction lol. And thats only one of the many incidents (you don't want to here all 3 birth stories) basically I don't like hospitals, I have never found anyone to be of any use, some actually causing more harm than good. It would be nice to find a good doctor & hospital. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Maybe the non dairy margarine is a Washington thing. When we go over the border there's stick margarine with no dairy. Here we need to get it from the kosher supplier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 You'll be happy to know there was a thread about this in 2010! http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=167501 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 We have 7% PST (provincial sales tax) and 5% GST (goods and services tax). They were going to combine it into HST (harmonized sales tax) but gave up because of public outcry, because HST would apply to a bunch of stuff that PST exempted . . . or GST does . . . oh, nevermind. I forget which. Anyway, not that long ago it was 14% -- 7% of each. Taxes have been going down in Canada. And if you think your Wal Mart is bad, come to Canadian Wal Mart. Wow!! That must have hurt! I'm glad the taxes are going down for you now. :) I don't think I would want to go to a Walmart anywhere if I didn't have to. :p hehe Amen. If it's your every day chocolate though, American chocolate seems exotic. It's far sweeter. We had movers come in during the winter one time and they go so excited when I made them American hot chocolate. hehehe That's so cute. I think European chocolate (esp. Belgian) is much more refined than our American chocolate, but I have to say, I love me some Hershey's. Even if it's more rustic, it's still good. :) If I couldn't get Hershey's I know I would definitely miss it. Especially the nuggets w/almonds. YUM! In Germany we pay 19% sales tax. As Americans, we can turn in VAT forms (which we have to buy) to get the tax back, but unless you're spending a minimum of €75-100, it's not worth the cost of the VAT form or the hassle of waiting to get it filled out. I do use them at IKEA though!As for customer service, WM is hardly the gold standard. In fact, I wouldn't even give it bronze. Or brass. Target is *slightly* better, IMO, but not by much. :eek: That's crazy! I know when I was in Europe (in 1995) I was choking at how expensive everything was. I got a coffee and a piece of cake in Holland and it cost me $30.00 USD!! :eek: We're so spoiled over here that's for sure! Yeah, I had no problem with WM being booted, but if the Germans would just give Target a chance! yeah, Target is so much better than Walmart! Their service is definitely better and their merchandise is head and shoulders better! They have such weird and cute stuff in Target. hehe So, after reading this thread, I have come to a decision. I am going to team up with RR to set up a satellite company and move to Australia where I will make my fortune selling and shipping to hsers. LOL That sounds like a brilliant plan! :thumbup: Now Publix (grocery store)... That is good customer service. Publix is great!! Every time we go they give my kids free cookies and balloons. hehe They love going to Publix. When I was a college student, I used to work at Jordan Marsh (department store in the mall) and they had great customer service too. I was a sales associate in the Young Men's department (or the men's area in general if they were short handed elsewhere) and in those days, we had an actual tailor on site that would do alterations if your suit or whatever didn't fit perfectly to your frame, they had free gift wrap in the Customer Relations dept. and you could return anything to any register in the store whether you had a receipt or not. We had to accept any return no matter what. People used to return stuff that was years old and so worn out and used, and we had to take it back and give them their money back per company policy! They were a really nice store and had the best service I'd ever seen anywhere, it's a shame they and Burdines (also owned by the same parent company) went under. They were a throw back to the old days and you just don't see places like that anymore. I never saw another tailor in any other retail clothing store I ever worked. :lol: Do like we do, "Absolutely mate!" I left my bil & hubs in the petrol station in the US once while I went to change a nappy, came back and they were rolling with laughter. The umpteenth person asked if they had roos hopping all over all the time. They made up a whopper that the roos do this so regularly there's often trafic delays in downtown Sydney. She was in absolute awe. No joke! pffffft! :lol: That's too funny! hehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 That sounds horrible. I've heard that access to services can be quite spotty in rural areas. I've only even lived in Melbourne, so we had our pick of bulk-billing clinics. Interestingly enough, we actually traveled to a more affluent area to go to our preferred clinic. I had assumed private clinics would be more popular in more affluent areas. We were definitely working for a living, but I don't think we ever paid a cent out of pocket for healthcare, except for the few times we went to alternative practitioners who were not available in the bulk-billing clinics. Yeah and the sad thing is - we aren't THAT rural -40 minutes from Adelaide. We live in a "bogan" town where half the population are single mothers on welfare and yet they set up a private clinic that only bulk bills to the healthcard holders.:glare: If we drove into the city we could get it all for free but that's the same price in petrol so why bother? Plus I'd rather see my doctor who knows my history KWIM. We've been lucky enough most of the time to get bulk-bill places, and of course, if we go to the hospital, its paid through medicare so we don't pay for that. But now we live in another state and out in a "smaller" country town, no bulk billing everytime we see a doctor here, so $60 a pop, and of course, if the kids are sick, they usually all have it, so $180. Due to Atlas having t1 diabetes, she constantly has a whole medical team, i.e. $$$, plus prescriptions, needles, containers, glucose strips etc. And the hospital in the local town charges....I have had to go there a number of times (weak chest, so whenever I end up catching something, I get hit with it 10x worse than the others) and each time I say I won't go back to the hospital LOL. Last time I ended up with gosh only knows what, I am guessing gastro mixed with flu? Anyway, it was that shocking, I was projectile vomiting, and ended up with severe pain to my chest from all the vomiting, like literally in agony, worse than childbirth. I had to endure the 15 minute ride to the hospital, then an hours wait in the rural hospital (i.e. 4 others there, obviously all extremely minor stuff, and I was sweating, twitching, crying, and literally could not stay still in the chair. I was thinking of going to the bathroom there, but even the though of the 5 steps had me slumped. Still it wasn't triage, but first come first served, so the 15yo boy with a superficial graze on his knee, the elderly lady who needed a new prescription for her foot rub, the lady with a "cold" and the baby for his immunizations were all seen before me. DH was having major empathy pains and trying to control all 3 kids, and I was trying to hold with dear life onto my chair and not fll headfirst onto the floor. Finally we get in there, the nurse asks me stupid questions, then says she has to call the "on call" doctor, another hours wait. The on-call doctor gets there, nurse gives information, then doctor asks exactly the same questions again, by then I could barely speak (thinest whisper) according to my husband my face was turning an alarming shade of white/blue, and the doctor left for another 30 minutes whilst I used that time to finally get DH to understand I needed water. She came back and gave me.....what amounts to Mylanta.....stomach settler. Thats it. And I get charged a whopping fee, to get two free pink pills, which I couldn't keep down, a "note" about what they are called, and a never-ending trip back home where I started vomiting again. Apparently I was out for about 5 days after coming back from the doctors (in and out of consciousness, always hugging a bottle of water) meanwhile DH called my mother (on the 4th day) (a nurse with further medical training) and she was livid. He only called because he was getting seriously scared. She obvised him of some "homeopathic"/home remedies, since obviously the doctors were "fools" :tongue_smilie: and 24 hours later I was much improved. According to my mother, I shouldn't of left the hospital, but apparently (whilst still on the phone with my mum) DH told me we were going back to the hospital and I had quite a reaction lol. And thats only one of the many incidents (you don't want to here all 3 birth stories) basically I don't like hospitals, I have never found anyone to be of any use, some actually causing more harm than good. It would be nice to find a good doctor & hospital. :glare: :grouphug: So been there and done that. :glare: Apparently I must look like a druggie to my doctor because I have to be practically dying before he'll give me antibiotics. I have asthma and a weak chest too and the last time that happened to me I ended up with a week stay in the hospital with atypical pneumonia. I was in Alice Springs at the time -they were weighing up sending me via the RFDS to Adelaide but fortunately I quickly responded to massive doses of antibiotics via IV (which could have so been avoided if they had just given me the pills in the first place before I got so sick). I remember WANTING to die I was so ill - couldn't take a full breath - DH had to virtually carry me to the hospital (it was "just down the street" so why would they call an ambulance) :glare: The hospital sucked too - I gave birth there the year before and after it they sent people down from legal and admin to try to convince me NOT to sue the hospital -they knew I had a case believe me :cursing: All I can say about that is my daughter was alive and I just wanted to get the heck out of there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 So been there and done that. :glare: Apparently I must look like a druggie to my doctor because I have to be practically dying before he'll give me antibiotics. I have asthma and a weak chest too and the last time that happened to me I ended up with a week stay in the hospital with atypical pneumonia. I was in Alice Springs at the time -they were weighing up sending me via the RFDS to Adelaide but fortunately I quickly responded to massive doses of antibiotics via IV (which could have so been avoided if they had just given me the pills in the first place before I got so sick). I remember WANTING to die I was so ill - couldn't take a full breath - DH had to virtually carry me to the hospital (it was "just down the street" so why would they call an ambulance) :glare: The hospital sucked too - I gave birth there the year before and after it they sent people down from legal and admin to try to convince me NOT to sue the hospital -they knew I had a case believe me :cursing: All I can say about that is my daughter was alive and I just wanted to get the heck out of there. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: That's terrible! :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 I would just love to go online and place an order and actually recieve the promotional "free shipping" offer, as opposed to getting all the way to the checkout only to find out that my $50 order will cost $150 to ship. (slight exageration, but still!) But I want to keep my free health care and homeschool funding. Ah, in a perfect world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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