Government is shit...

@RivenMain "If your remarking its a immagrant then they weren't screened properly enough to identify them as a threat."

The problem is, that literally can't work. If you're a terrorist cell, you send several people through, possibly multiple times, and monitor which get checked/stopped. Those that make it, make it. Those that don't, don't. Send enough people through and you have another 9/11*. I'm not saying we shouldn't try, but the idea that a wall will stop another 9/11 is absurd.

Terrorist attacks of any substantial magnitude are incredibly rare and the amount of people involved are very few. Clearly intelligence isn't enough or we would have known the people and stopped them at many places where they could be identified; it's not like pre-9/11 we just let known terrorist associates wonder around in the US nor did the NSA/CIA just start spying on them after 9/11. Pervasive spying on electronic communication does nothing if, like the mob, terrorists that don't get caught realize that in person communication is the only safe way.

In short, the fundamental issue is you're looking for a needle in a haystack. A wall does little because it only takes one false negative to get through the border either on foot, car, or plane. The place to stop people is either when they're demonstrating they want to do dangerous things or to wait until they attack and hope they can be stopped in time. But as uncommon as it is, odds are good terrorists will succeed. The ones that are from the US are no less dangerous in principle, but admittedly they're less likely to get foreign-state backing (unless they're anarchists/communists and it's the early 1900s).

So, as off-topic as this is, all I see is a massive waste of time and effort trying to take impractical steps to protect ourselves instead of focusing on real, less-sensational acts like spending more money on providing medication, more car safety features, stricter standards on road construction, etc. Oh, and of course we could do wonders if we turn from a drug war into a voluntary drug rehabilitation without social stigma program.

A wall between Mexico and the US for security makes about as much sense as Canada building a wall to prevent counterfeit usage of their medical system by people of the US which could indirectly lead to the death of Canadians through lack of funding or resources.

* It's unlikely another 9/11 will occur for a number of reasons: less complacent passengers, a reinforced cockpit door, and generally that per se ihis being known other methods would be chosen. But I mean another 9/11 scale event.

"A wall between Mexico and the US for security makes about as much sense as Canada building a wall to prevent counterfeit usage of their medical system by people of the US which could indirectly lead to the death of Canadians through lack of funding or resources."

Canadian healthcare is some of the worst healthcare in the modern world. If you're coming to Canada, get private health insurance.

@Fugelmir Nonsense, that's just the argument people use to convince themselves that it's worth putting themselves in debt for life over one illness or surgery. There's no excuse for how shitty the US healthcare system is, it's at least ten times worse than Canada's.

kuwanger
I really dont think you would like 70% of your hard working going to the government. You can never better yourself that way.

I'm not saying your wrong, We can only delay what is inevitable. I'm not saying a wall can stop an attack on America either, it will certainly slow anyone trying to get through. So long as those that protect the border are doing their job. Castles sound pretty dorky in the idea of ramming one down, but it doesn't stop them from getting shot doing it. Plane just doesn't happen for no fly zone reasons. There's plenty of thieves that live along the border as well. So any jewelry or cash you have their stealing from you if they don't kill you. I don't care of Canada having a wall because most Americans just buy a green card. I know kinda cringey linking a video game message, but it's a game forum. Building a wall won't fix things forever "Jurassic park: life finds a way."
Perhaps if Mexico did shit and made their country more viable we wouldn't even have to deal with illegal issues, but hey Canada has a wall why can't we?

Ever been to Canada? Because unless you have you can't talk shit comparing the two.

@Captain_N That's not how a progressive, marginal tax rate works. Only what you make over ten million in a year would be taxed at 70%. None of us are likely to ever make that much money in any year of our lives.

And there's no way anyone is "earning" over ten million. Those are the people sitting on their asses collecting checks while the low-level workers do all the actual earning for the company.

FYI the biggest booms for the economy have occurred under even higher marginal tax rates. In the 1950s, the top marginal rate was 90%.

@Captain_N "I really dont think you would like 70% of your hard working going to the government. You can never better yourself that way."

Uh, what? If I'm making $10,000,000/year, I'm already "better [myself]" to the tune of $3,000,000 after that proverbial 70% effective tax rate. The real truth is that when the top tax bracket is even 91%, most people in that bracket who are making millions of dollars have an effective tax rate of ~45-50%. If the top tax bracket was 70%, it'd be more like ~40-45% effective tax rate.

Regardless, $3,000,000/year net is a lot of money. If you would like to complain about taxes against the "hard working", look at the people who make a measly $15,080 working 40 hrs/day, 52 weeks/year. Even if they paid a sliver of taxes, the proportion of money they paid vs their hard work overshadows what virtually anyone making $3 million/year net and paying $7 million/year taxes suffers. Which of the two is more harmed by what the government takes and which is worse off at the chance of bettering themselves?

@Fugelmir "Canadian healthcare is some of the worst healthcare in the modern world. If you're coming to Canada, get private health insurance."

So, slightly better than the US system? Seriously, I got as far as the person trying to get a private blood test and they don't have doctors for $900 checkups+blood tests? You want to argue "I can always pay for better care", well apparently not. Some of the stuff is the same bullshit in the US, you basically need a family doctor or the system treats you like crap for anything that's not emergency.

It's hard to get a family doctor (or a family dentist), and if you have to wait days or weeks or how much you have to pay out of pocket varies. Seriously, one of the regional hospitals near where I live has a big billboard "proudly" proclaiming the average emergency wait time in minutes for care. The number rarely gets into the single digits. Doctors and hospitals can charge you whatever they want and without insurance you have virtually no negotiating power. Most plans that are "affordable" have upfront deductibles of the $4,500-$6,000 range before the plan will pay anything--short of I think one free doctor visit a year (which doesn't, AFAIK, include blood tests or the like) and a few minor things. And of course then there's employee sponsored plans that don't cover any hospital stays at all, which being a "valid" plan prevents you from refusing that and seeking outside "valid" plans without being fined*.

I'm not saying, "Woo, Canada is better because the US is crap!" It's clear that if you have money and it's non-emergency, you can travel (even all the way to Canada, possibly) to try to get better treatment. It's also clear that the area they went was overworked. Maybe that really is the norm in Canada, but one anecdote doesn't make data, and non-emergency care is treated very differently than emergency care. I mean, we see the guy readily using his wrist and shows no sign of pain; maybe they thought it was a sham going for pain medicine? The story of the guy with the broken clavicle, though, it sounds like that's probably not wholly it.

*sigh* Anyways, enough with my ramblings. Where I live, if I worried I might have broke a bone with a simple fracture, I'd seriously question if it'd be worth it to go to the hospital at all.

* And that's worthy of a whole separate story.

H1B1Esquire Has the right idea, if you contact the company they can give you a card that should pay for most of it.