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Thread: Big News. How well is the economy really doing in Canada ??????????????

  1. #26
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    Blue Jumper 2015 Index of Economic Freedom ......................

    Canada’s economic freedom score is 79.1, making its economy the 6th freest in the 2015 Index. Its overall score is 1.1 points lower than last year, with modest improvements in monetary freedom and the control of government spending outweighed by declines in labor freedom and freedom from corruption. Canada continues to be the freest economy in the North America region.

    Over the past five years, Canada’s economic freedom score has declined by 1.7 points, highlighting a trend that has pushed the country into the “mostly free” category for the first time since 2007. Score declines have been spread over five of the 10 economic freedoms, with an increase in the level of perceived corruption contributing the most to the moderate slide in Canada’s score.

    Nonetheless, Canada remains one of the world’s most stable business climates and an attractive investment destination. With the world’s second-best property rights regime buttressing openness to global commerce, Canada has a solid foundation of economic freedom. The financial sector is competitive, and its efficiency is supported by prudent lending practices and sound oversight.

    http://www.heritage.org/index/

  2. #27
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    Blue Jumper Regional Ranking

    Regional Ranking

    rank country overall change
    1 Canada 79.1 -1.1
    2 United States 76.2 0.7
    3 Mexico 66.4 -0.4

  3. #28
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    Redhot Jumper Difference in Cost of Drugs between the USA and Canada .................

    Having had open heart surgery 4 1/2 years ago, which included a double by-pass and an Aortic valve replacement, I am stuck with having to take my daily
    assortment of pills.
    During the 5 to 6 month of winter spent in Florida we usually take the full amount of medication needed along with us.

    Last Tuesday I discovered that the supply of one sort of pills was short by one month and a half by a mistake of the drugstore in Canada.

    Solution: See the doctor in Florida and get a prescription which was no problem.
    The diabetic pills I was told where free at the Publix (SuperMarket) pharmacy
    this month....nice. My Nitro-Glycerin Spray just for a backup was on an extra prescription. So I could ask how much they would cost me and I was told
    $ 350.00 for a tiny pocket size 200 sprays pump. At the Costco drugstore it is $ 280.00.

    In Canada my drugstore charges me between $ 6.00 to $ 12.00 per bottle.

    The 2 countries have a duty free agreement for many years, so if its made in Canada or the USA there should never be such a difference for the same item.

    I hope there no examples like this in our optical field.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    Having had open heart surgery 4 1/2 years ago, which included a double by-pass and an Aortic valve replacement, I am stuck with having to take my daily
    assortment of pills.
    During the 5 to 6 month of winter spent in Florida we usually take the full amount of medication needed along with us.

    Last Tuesday I discovered that the supply of one sort of pills was short by one month and a half by a mistake of the drugstore in Canada.

    Solution: See the doctor in Florida and get a prescription which was no problem.
    The diabetic pills I was told where free at the Publix (SuperMarket) pharmacy
    this month....nice. My Nitro-Glycerin Spray just for a backup was on an extra prescription. So I could ask how much they would cost me and I was told
    $ 350.00 for a tiny pocket size 200 sprays pump. At the Costco drugstore it is $ 280.00.

    In Canada my drugstore charges me between $ 6.00 to $ 12.00 per bottle.

    The 2 countries have a duty free agreement for many years, so if its made in Canada or the USA there should never be such a difference for the same item.

    I hope there no examples like this in our optical field.
    Having worked for a major global supplier, the costs when landed from Asia into the U.S. were incredibly low. They were marked up substantially for the U.S. market distributors, and even higher (20% or more) for the Canadian market distributors. All of the distributor channels were owned by the same parent company.

    They take a huge slice of the pie at each stage and make it much more expensive than it actually is. When I was in Asia, lens and frame prices of the exact same quality brands as North America were priced at the retail level about 70-80% below vs. North American retail.

    I'm sure it's no different than all of the other industries that import from Asian based manufacturers. It's pure corporate greed, not strategic marketing.

  5. #30
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    Redhot Jumper However I found one on the web on line: ...........................

    Quote Originally Posted by Lab Insight View Post

    I'm sure it's no different than all of the other industries that import from Asian based manufacturers. It's pure corporate greed, not strategic marketing.

    I got your point ..........................

    However I found one on the web on line, sold in the USA:

    Nitroglycerin Lingual Spray 0.4mg/Spray 200DS

    $39.95


    SKU: HF2060
    same bottle as have been using, and the drugstores in Florida want between US $ 350.00 to $ 180.00 at Costco.

    contrary to $ 12.00 maximum, I pay in the drug store in Montreal Canada



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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Who is your health insurer? Its like $12.00 co-pay if you have BC/BS.

  7. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbaker View Post

    Who is your health insurer? Its like $12.00 co-pay if you have BC/BS.
    Being a Canadian Citizen, we are fully insured for medical services by doctors and hospitals, when in Canada. We pay ourselves for prescribed medications from the drugstore.

    However when spending the winter in Florida we are on our own, and can cover ourselves with a private travel insurance for the period. No pre-existing conditions are covered.

    Doctors services and Hospital care can be reimbursed by the Can Health insurance at their rate which is way lower than in the US.

    My 5 hours open heart surgery including nearly 3 weeks of hospital stay, was valued at $ 59,000.00 versus several hundred thousands in the USA.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    Being a Canadian Citizen, we are fully insured for medical services by doctors and hospitals, when in Canada. We pay ourselves for prescribed medications from the drugstore.

    However when spending the winter in Florida we are on our own, and can cover ourselves with a private travel insurance for the period. No pre-existing conditions are covered.

    Doctors services and Hospital care can be reimbursed by the Can Health insurance at their rate which is way lower than in the US.

    My 5 hours open heart surgery including nearly 3 weeks of hospital stay, was valued at $ 59,000.00 versus several hundred thousands in the USA.

    In Quebec . your medication have insurance to .. the 12.00 is only a part of the real cost.

  9. #34
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    Redhot Jumper Thefore that does not justify a selling price of $ 350.00 ..........................

    Quote Originally Posted by oculus View Post

    In Quebec . your medication have insurance to .. the 12.00 is only a part of the real cost.
    Would you please explain the amount of co-pay by the government of Quebec.

    My Montreal pharmacist has told me that if somebody is in urgent need of a spray without an RX
    just by showing the empty bottle. he will charge $ 24.00. I assume that this is the full resale value in Quebec.

    Thefore that does not justify a selling price of $ 350.00 by Florida drugstores

  10. #35
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    WE have obligation to be cover for medication insurance, private one if your company offer one .. or you will have to be on the provincial one, you pay the amount on your annual tax report. After 65 .. you are on the provincial plan (not sure but I think you don't pay)

    This page describe the plan ..

    http://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/en/citize...ion-drugs.aspx

    But I am with you on the 350.00 $ ... nitro is not a new drug .. they must have lots of generic ??



    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    Would you please explain the amount of co-pay by the government of Quebec.

    My Montreal pharmacist has told me that if somebody is in urgent need of a spray without an RX
    just by showing the empty bottle. he will charge $ 24.00. I assume that this is the full resale value in Quebec.

    Thefore that does not justify a selling price of $ 350.00 by Florida drugstores

  11. #36
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    Blue Jumper Dr. William Murrell experimented with the use of nitroglycerin .................

    Nitro has been around since:

    Quote Originally Posted by Wikipedia

    Following the discovery that amyl nitrite helped alleviate chest pain, Dr. William Murrell experimented with the use of nitroglycerin to alleviate angina pectoris and to reduce the blood pressure. He began treating his patients with small diluted doses of nitroglycerin in 1878, and this treatment was soon adopted into widespread use after Murrell published his results in the journal The Lancet in 1879.[10] A few months before his death in 1896, Alfred Nobel was prescribed nitroglycerine for this heart condition, writing to a friend: "Isn't it the irony of fate that I have been prescribed nitro-glycerin, to be taken internally! They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist and the public." [11] The medical establishment also used the name "glyceryl trinitrate" for the same reason.

    I think I solved the question why is it so expensive The drugstores are selling the old Nitro sub lingual drug pills between $ 1.50 and $ 1.75 each.

    The small liquid spray bottle is containing the equivalent of 200 sprays as marked on it. That would make it the same amount of 200 pills.

    I have checked with 5 pharmacies here and they all to the same. The pharmacist goes on the calculator and multiplies 200x$1.50 plus some thing else and comes up with something over $ 300.00.

    It is not of what is the cost + the profit = selling price. They take another product (the pill) as the base to charge for the liquid product in a 40ml. 200 spray bottle.

    However on line it is available for $ 39.95.

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    Blue Jumper

    Quote Originally Posted by Lab Insight View Post

    Having worked for a major global supplier, the costs when landed from Asia into the U.S. were incredibly low. They were marked up substantially for the U.S. market distributors, and even higher (20% or more) for the Canadian market distributors. All of the distributor channels were owned by the same parent company.

    They take a huge slice of the pie at each stage and make it much more expensive than it actually is. When I was in Asia, lens and frame prices of the exact same quality brands as North America were priced at the retail level about 70-80% below vs. North American retail.

    I'm sure it's no different than all of the other industries that import from Asian based manufacturers. It's pure corporate greed, not strategic marketing.

    That is also why on-line optical s can exist with selling at way lower prices than the B&M stores.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    That is also why on-line optical s can exist with selling at way lower prices than the B&M stores.
    That is also why I am buying directly from overseas suppliers.

  14. #39
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Read Factory Man by Beth Macy. See where our industry is headed.

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    Redhot Jumper

    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post

    Read Factory Man by Beth Macy. See where our industry is headed.

    Interesting .........................

    Factory Man
    By Beth Macy
    Little, Brown, 464 pp., $28
    "Factory Man" is about wars, civil and uncivil. Between family members. Between American manufacturers and Chinese entrepreneurs; whites and African-Americans; women and men; labor and capital. Between local interests and federal legislators; between national and global economic forces. Between tradition and innovation; the past and the unsettled present; the present and the seemingly directionless future.
    These are all large and seething tensions, the tectonic forces pressed long and hard against each other to create American industries, with all their muscular energy and underlying contradictions. Steel. Automobiles. Plastics. Textiles.




  16. #41
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Best quote so far:

    " If somebody wants to predatorily kill your industry and take market share, that's fine as long as the consumer can get it a little cheaper? But what happens when they destroy your industry and then raise prices thirty percent once all your factories are gone?"--Wyatt Bassett

  17. #42
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    Redhot Jumper when they destroy your industry and then raise prices ....................

    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post

    Best quote so far:
    " If somebody wants to predatory kill your industry and take market share, that's fine as long as the consumer can get it a little cheaper? But what happens when they destroy your industry and then raise prices thirty percent once all your factories are gone?"--Wyatt Bassett
    Judy your quote applies very well to the present situation.

    In Europe and North America most manufacturing of consumer goods has left for China. When the Japanese made the cheap stuff in the 50s and 60-s nobody closed factories and moved the equipment there.

    I had a renter who rented a third in my factory building who had a 45 year old huge machine that made and pressed rods of welding flux that nobody could copy or imitate. The owners decided to have it all made in China for cheaper.

    So they cancelled the lease by paying a 3 month extra and took the machine apart into 3 sections, loaded it into 3 huge containers and shipped it to Chinw where it was re-assembled by the same guys that took it apart and they continued to sell the same product ever since, ...........but made for a lot cheaper and some of the ingredients still come from here. That was only 10 years ago.

    And now that India has opened it borders for easier imports and manufacturing by foreign corporations, plus a much higher expertise for quality than China had originally, the same circle will continue just in another corner of the globe.

    So if we do not adjust to the older and new conditions in the optical field, from manufacturing to retail, the strongest ones will dominate and make the decisions on a world wide basis.

  18. #43
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Absolutely, Chris. I was thinking in terms of what happens when a small handful of powerful manufacturers control all the optical labs in our industry as well as the frame manufacturing and distribution.

    I'm already second-guessing where I purchase furniture and other home goods. I'm even looking at where my fabric is coming from. This book is changing my entire outlook. Martinsville, Bassett, Danville are all in my territory as is Galax. My trip there last week as I was reading this book made me pay closer attention to the abandoned homes, some covered completely with kudzu, and empty store fronts I passed on the way to Wise. The area has the highest unemployment rate in the state as well as the highest use of food stamps and other "entitlements". These aren't "welfare queens" that politicians love to trot out to justify harsh penalties and reductions in benefits. These are Americans who were "globalized" right out of the jobs that supported the area for generations.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    Absolutely, Chris. I was thinking in terms of what happens when a small handful of powerful manufacturers control all the optical labs in our industry as well as the frame manufacturing and distribution.

    I'm already second-guessing where I purchase furniture and other home goods. I'm even looking at where my fabric is coming from. This book is changing my entire outlook. Martinsville, Bassett, Danville are all in my territory as is Galax. My trip there last week as I was reading this book made me pay closer attention to the abandoned homes, some covered completely with kudzu, and empty store fronts I passed on the way to Wise. The area has the highest unemployment rate in the state as well as the highest use of food stamps and other "entitlements". These aren't "welfare queens" that politicians love to trot out to justify harsh penalties and reductions in benefits. These are Americans who were "globalized" right out of the jobs that supported the area for generations.
    I own property in Wise, Pound, and Clintwood Va. These are some of the poorest areas of the region, and they are getting poorer still, due to the number of coal mines that have been shuttered in the last 3 years. What little economy they had is all but gone. They have a resource, right in their back yard, and yet they are not allowed to mine it. No globalization issues there...
    Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry

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    Are you kiddding me,after turning me down was this the best you could do?
    Quote Originally Posted by Johns View Post
    I own property in Wise, Pound, and Clintwood Va. These are some of the poorest areas of the region, and they are getting poorer still, due to the number of coal mines that have been shuttered in the last 3 years. What little economy they had is all but gone. They have a resource, right in their back yard, and yet they are not allowed to mine it. No globalization issues there...

  21. #46
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Perhaps the greatest impediment to todays economic growth is the onerous State and Federal Regulations which have been forced upon us all by the present administration. Just remember our feckless leader said that he would close down the coal industry in the United States and he means what he says. He is clearly anti energy in all forms with the exception of moonbeams and pixie dust.

    Our corporate tax rates are some of the highest in the world. Is it any wonder why businesses move off shore.

  22. #47
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    Redhot Jumper world domination of a commercial sector ....................

    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post

    Absolutely, Chris. I was thinking in terms of what happens when a small handful of powerful manufacturers control all the optical labs in our industry as well as the frame manufacturing and distribution.
    The small handful of manufacturers you describe already controls the optical industry to a large part on a world wide basis and is steamrolling ahead like an avalanche in the Himalayas.

    It is just too sad that North Americans are not too interested in what is going on in other countries and act accordingly. Everyone is only concerned with his own environment or maybe even the country or continent. The economy in other areas is not important as long as we can make a decent living.

    The most modern country is now China with their high speed trains and totally new infra structure and the huge debt they own from nearly every other country around the globe.
    All this while our own infra structure is over a 100 years old, falling apart and was never built for such a larger size of the population.

    The optical companies you mentioned have already their tentacles well established in the successor to China. as the next industrial super giant for the last 15 years, which is India. They are using North America as their testing ground for bigger things to come.

    It is all about world domination of a commercial sector versus the old days, when it was physical domination.

  23. #48
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Johns View Post
    I own property in Wise, Pound, and Clintwood Va. These are some of the poorest areas of the region, and they are getting poorer still, due to the number of coal mines that have been shuttered in the last 3 years. What little economy they had is all but gone. They have a resource, right in their back yard, and yet they are not allowed to mine it. No globalization issues there...
    No John, they don't want uranium mines in their back yards. Neither would I. Been to Danville lately? Tasted the water? That's from coal ash dumped in the Dan River by Duke Energy, on of those "over-regulated" industries of which Mr. Baker speaks.

  24. #49
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    No political discussions. Thread closed.


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