What are the reasons that lead you to believe that?
I have lived in both the US and Canada, I prefer Canada.
I have lived in both the US and Canada, I prefer Canada.
* housing cost is generally higher in Canada, except maybe if you're comparing to the Bay Area in which case it's a wash
* cars cost a LOT more in Canada (as does everything else)
* tech salaries are a lot lower in Canada
* taxes are generally higher in Canada (plus the huge VAT for sales)
While I'm not going to argue Canada is the best place ever or that we don't have some issues, the quality of life is still pretty damn good. Certainly not 50% lower than the US or Silicon Valley...
Remember, we're comparing lifestyles of tech professionals here, not average people or poor people. For people who can't afford decent health insurance, Canada definitely seems to have a much better system. But a tech professional should not have much trouble paying health insurance premiums.
University is like $3000/year here. I heard it's almost the same in the US if you go to a regular University.
Healthcare is irrelevant is you're insured. And if you want access to care or a specialist in a reasonable delay, you have to got the private route, which means you actually pay twice. Considering that 50% of our taxes go to healthcare, I'm paying almost 25% of my income on healthcare here in Canada.
My uneducated guess is it's about 5-10 times that at private U.S colleges.