[yawaramin]

Toronto may be expensive but it's not SF-level expensive. Salaries may not compare but you don't have to worry about basic things like healthcare and high-powered weaponry in the streets.

Those are just the top two–there are many other reasons to move to Canada than just money.

[refurb]

Toronto house prices are about 3/4 of SF, but salaries are about 1/3 to 1/2.

Far harder to own a home in Toronto on a tech salary.

And if you get a tech job in SF, you’ve got great health insurance, so not a major obstacle.

[yawaramin]

> And if you get a tech job in SF, you’ve got great health insurance, so not a major obstacle.

Yup, as long as you have a job with medical coverage, you're OK. But God forbid you should lose your job and get sick, right? Because then you're screwed.

[ummwhat]

High powered weaponry in the street? Someone has given you a very unrealistic conception of California.

[jldugger]

> Someone has given you a very unrealistic conception of California.

That someone might have been a Californian. To pick a recent example: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Videos-show-fatal-shoot...

Hyperbole aside, you are more likely to die from firearms in California than Canada. Most of that, on both sides of the border, is suicide.

[ramraj07]

Studied in Montreal, went to Texas, then to New York. When I left Montreal, people were genuinely worried for me that I'm gonna get shot.

Contrary to popular Canadian fear mongering, the US is not a shooting free-for-all, as big as a problem gun violence might be. Of all the variables, getting shot is not something I consider about when deciding between the US and Canada.

[artificial]

I believe the "News" may be thanked for that.

[rambojazz]

What does "high-powered weaponry in the streets" mean? Do you guys have tanks roaming the streets?

[inferiorhuman]

Aside from that one guy who stole a tank a few years back in San Diego, no. But shootings along I-80 are not uncommon (and then there was that driver in Gilroy with a slingshot). That big eviction in Oakland? The county showed up with MRAPs. Oh, I guess that recent Greyhound bus shooting was in California.

At least we're not Kentucky.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fully-ar...

[fouc]

I understand SF folks are paying $500-1,000/mo for healthcare?

[filoleg]

If they are working in tech, their employer either pays for it fully or subsidizes it to the point where the person just pay something nominal like $50-100/mo, and it is not counted as their salary. So people usually don’t include that when saying how much they make, because they typically dont even actually know or care how much their employer pays for it (at my place of work you actually have to go pretty deep into the HR portal to look it up).

[nitrogen]

Not at high-paying tech companies, those usually cover most or all of insurance.

[klipt]

You're still paying for it, but like payroll taxes it comes out of your salary before you even see it which makes people think it's "free".

[umeshunni]

Sure, and if you live in Canada, you're explicitly paying for healthcare in the form of high taxes.

[dragonwriter]

> Sure, and if you live in Canada, you're explicitly paying for healthcare in the form of high taxes.

You mean, “the United States”, not Canada, right? The US pays more (not just per capita, but as a share of GDP, and thus would need higher taxes to pay for it) out of public funds for healthcare than Canada does. See, e.g., https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

The US, unlike Canada, also pays a bit more in private funds on healthcare than it does in private funds.

[klipt]

Probably lower than what Americans pay (between 2.9%-3.8% Medicare tax plus insurance premiums). America's healthcare system is really bloated and inefficient compared to developed countries.

[briandear]

Not even close. I pay a $250 premium for my family of 6, my employer pays the rest. My health coverage is worth $24,000 per year if I paid out of pocket — with the SV salary differential between Canada and Silicon Valley, I am still coming out much further ahead even if I had to pay 100% of my own insurance.

[toephu2]

Most FANG tech workers pay $0/month for healthcare.

[refurb]

Not in tech jobs. I pay $60 per month for myself. Company covers the other $8,000.

[jorblumesea]

Housing prices in YVR or Toronto are similarly out of reach, more so in the case of YVR

[AzzieElbab]

Because they are young and do not use it?

[tnel77]

As someone from a very red, very “high-powered weaponry” friendly area, I grinned ear to ear at your statement. Don’t let a few psychos scare you. Guns are neato.

[masonic]

Imagine the reaction here if London was being discussed and somebody rattled off anecdotes about the growing number of stabbings there.

[briandear]

If you work for an SF company, you don’t have to worry about healthcare either. As far as “high powered weaponry,” that’s just hyperbole. Toronto has a higher homicide rate than New York. https://www.blogto.com/city/2018/06/toronto-homicide-rate-no...

[jbarham]

Headline from this past weekend in Toronto: "Three dead, two injured in shooting at Airbnb rental in downtown Toronto" (https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/01/31/four-injured-pos...)

[gdilla]

you want a cookie? homicide exists in every city. Toronto is relatively safe compared to its American counterparts.

[refurb]

Which American counterparts?

Detroit? Kansas City? Camden? Sure.

But cities like SF aren’t like those cities at all. Quick google shows 33 homocides in SF and 142 in Toronto. Based on population, that’s 33 per million for SF and 24 for Toronto.