What are we supposed to make of this?  For the first time in recent history, Canadians are richer than Americans.  That is to say that the average Canadian household is worth more than the average American household.  And we aren’t talking about a few bucks.  Nope.  The average Canadian household is worth more than $40,000 more than in America.  Canadians are also more likely to be employed and their real estate is worth more.

So how did this happen?  How did we get to the point where, in our lifetimes, Canada has managed to go from a joke to having its head screwed on straight and kicking American butt?

I’ll tell you how: They cut the size of government.  Why did they cut the size of their government?  Because they had to. 

In the 1990s, they had to make tough decisions because they were facing the same crisis that we are currently facing: An exploding national debt and a growing entitlement crisis.  So in the 1990s, Canada took steps to shrink the size of its government.  John Stossel explains …

They cut unemployment benefits and other welfare programs.  Their debt stopped increasing and eventually went down as the government began to run budget surpluses.  They fired government workers, which didn’t end up leading to a colossal increase in unemployment.  They did raise some taxes but this was balanced with extreme cuts in government spending.

These clowns in Washington have a lot of tough decisions to make.  Kick the can down the road long enough and we will make Canada look like a veral economic stud.