Yeah I've noticed North American customer service is far superior than anywhere else. Europe is way behind North America in that regard. I guess they put more of an emphasis on good service and happy customers here, whereas Europe isn't quite there yet. 

Yeah French people are the worst. Some are  very unfriendly and unhelpful, even the one's in Quebec!  

Could you not have dual citizenship? Like have both your Holland citizenship and Canadian one? I say that because the benefits of an EU passport far outweigh the benefits of a Canadian one. 

haha, that's unfortunate. Passing through the US border is sometimes a pain. I prefer taking a flight to the States from Canada because you can clear US customs at Canadian airports and staff at our airports are much more friendly than immigration staff in the US. 

I have no idea of the benefits. My Canadian girlfriend (now wife) never had any trouble with her passport in Europe. I guess I technically still am a dual citizin although my Dutch passport might be expired by now. I extended it once in Canada at the Dutch consulate in Hamilton. That almost was a scene straight out of Monthy Python. Waiting in some grey old guy's living room, slowly following procedures to the last letter. Wait, get called one by one to sit behind a bookcase for passport pictures, wait again while he fills out forms at a snail's pace, talking all formal language while adressing the people in the room. I had to avoid eye contact with the other people waiting not to burst out laughing.

Dutch tax office are miserable people too. I still got a fine in 2011, 9 years after leaving, for not paying Euro 0.00 in taxes in time. Then when I wouldn't pay it, explaining to them I haven't worked in Holland for the past 4 years, they send a 'dwangbevel in naam der koningin', threatening to impound my property. I would have liked to see that, the queen show up at my door to take 60 euros worth of household items.
Dealing with 2 tax offices was a pain in the ass. I continued working from home for a Dutch company, over the internet. Try to explain that to tax people in 2002. First year I ended up paying 50% of my income to the dutch tax office and another 30% to the Canadian tax office, plus a big fine because my accountant could not figure out in time how to file my situation correctly. It still took years before the Dutch tax office stopped taking money out of my pay check but at least I could get most of it back the year after to pay to the Canadian tax office. It took 5 years before my company gave in and started paying me through a Canadian payroll service so I would not have to deal with it anymore. (Then I quit the year after, working from home and flying back and forth 4 times a year wears you down eventually) However it took another 4 years before the Dutch tax office finally left me alone.
Living on a Dutch salary in Canada was great though!

Judging by the ones with enough money to have internet, they're mad for having any form of social security.

I like the Nethelands, I really need to visit Amsterdam in this lifetime :D

Police are getting too crazy. Too many people with agendas instead of actually HELPING people.

I like the people in general but not your government. That's the same with any country I guess. Decent people, bad people, then you have politicians. Same thing no matter your race.

I would love to travel coast to coast someday. East to west. That would be awesome. Not live there though

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/09/understanding-poverty-in-the-united-states-surprising-facts-about-americas-poor

severity.

The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau as taken from various government reports:

• 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• 92 percent of poor households have a microwave.
• Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
• Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.
• Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.
• Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.
• More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
• 43 percent have Internet access.
• One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
• One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.

Seems the poverty bar is set a bit high.
Anyway are you saying that 1 in 7 Americans gets social security benefits? Looks like social security is working if they can afford all that.

When you say social security do you mean welfare, or do you mean the mandatory pension system we all must go through in the U.S? 47 million Americans recieve food stamps, and probably similar numbers receive or are eligible for medicaid. Fewer recieve direct cash welfare, but with food, healthcare, and (for some) shelter covered, it's not an issue. Nevertheless, the "poor" afford these things because 1. in the world perspective, including the first world countries they aren't poor when you consider the local purchasing power of the USD and the lesser costs of living in the U.S due to a plethora of resources, land, etc which Europe and Japan do not have, 2. With credits their income tax is almost entirely refunded, allowing them to splurge on non-essential electronics, cars, etc. (This is what my mother who is in the bottom 5 percentile does, she pays some of her debts then buys a new computer or a television, etc.) 

The complaints about the U.S system isn't that the poor don't get benefits, but that the government doesn't pay for the middle class as well. Social Democrats in the U.S want universal health-care, state paid education, etc: all things which the poor recieve already (some might say in excess) for the middle-class. The issue other philosophies present are the costs involved, not just the monetary costs, but the costs to economic and social freedoms, examples being mitigated income mobility, innovation, risks, and progress, more monopolies, and fewer choices. 

I was talking about welfare yes. I have no clue how the pension system works in the US. In Canada you have rrsp, registered retirement savings plan. You can put part of your income away each year before tax and invest it the way you like. Or don't do it and the limit carries over to the next year.

Welfare in the US sounds like it suffers from the same problems as in the Netherlands. People rather stay on welfare than get a low paying job and lose income in the process. You can blame welfare for that, or low minimum wages.

In Canada I only know welfare from a friend that went through a rough time during a divorce. Getting a simple job here at least does improve your situation. We helped her out with food a couple of times, so she could stay on the internet and complain about the hard times on welfare...

The easiest way to get poor is by being bad at handling money. Unfortunately you can't force people to make smart decisions. I suspect a lot of 'poor' people are in that situation with big credit card debt, created by buying luxuries, or simply by being wasteful with money. For example in the Netherlands I noticed how a lot of people on welfare had the thermostat cranked up high in winter, while at our house my parents kept it to a more reasonable temperature and told us to wear a sweater to save some money.