We have thing called career colleges which I think are very similar and receive similar complaints about crummy classes. A friend of mine went to a college in my city which had a really good Massage Therapy program with these two girls who had transferred from one of these colleges ( I think it was Everest) and they were so behind they pretty much had to restart. I can't imagine how pissed off I would be paying off the debt from that school. Even reputable colleges however have programs which don't really benefit the student as I'm sure any school does but people do it since they think they should. Which is a really crummy way to go about things. My only friend who really has his life together joined the military, and from constantly looking at people struggle I'm determined to just pay it off as quickly as possible. For me to achieve that I tell myself it's a small amount and life will be so darn grand after I'm done. If I told myself it was a huge amount then I wouldn't see how I was able to pay it off and I would just give up. It's like I get you aren't supposed to have everything figured out at 20 but I really wish they didn't make it so easy to fuck everything up at that age.

I wonder if living with a lower income is easier in Canada

I'm getting that impression ! I mean I got lucky in a lot of ways, my first job as a part time cashier gave me 100% prescription drug coverage so on top of not having to worry about doctors visits I also didn't worry about prescriptions. On top of that I got 10% off groceries which might seem small to start but it's not. I kept that job through college because on top of that I was guaranteed a certain number of hours for being there for a long time. After that I worked in a bar and I am fully aware I got that job because of looks/body. OH and also server wage in Ontario is higher than some minimum wages I've seen in the states. I could have easily stuck with that and done quite well for myself but I wanted to travel for work a bit. The local doctors office that most of my family goes to is amazing too, I don't know how they swing it but they have a counselor you can see for free. The wait list can be like 3 week long but as you point out you've waited longer to see a doctor that you paid for. So ya I got lucky in a quite a few things.

Obviously not everybody around me has that stuff though, and they still seemingly have it better. Everybody complains about the buses but they are actually really good. I'm not saying it's easy to get everywhere or particularly safe but the buses are there. Actually they started a new thing in my city where after a certain time you can ask the bus driver to let you off at a certain spot along the route that's safer for you. I've had to add 30 minutes to my trips because I didn't feel safe at the stop I should have got off at and I've also had to walk 30 minutes to the main bus since one bus didn't run early enough but all in all it's pretty good.

I don't know much about our social programs in comparison but I know they are pretty good. I also know we have things that don't exist in the states like the child care benefit. For people who live in rural communities that aren't near major cities it kind of sucks because they don't have as many opportunities to get ahead. As far as thing like rent and utilities go that varies a lot depending on which province you are in which I imagine is similar to the states. Even then though you can generally live in a crappy neighborhood without actually worrying that much about violence. I mean I lived in those neighborhoods, and sure one of my friends got stabbed but it's not like that's the norm. On a long enough timeline somebody is going to get stabbed everywhere. So we technically have "bad" neighborhoods but I wouldn't compare them to ones in the states. Other than first nations reserves that is, and that is a whole complex problem.