Canadians have become wealthier than Americans for the first time

It looks like there is more in the Great White North than just hockey sticks and Rush records. For the first time in ages, the average household income is worth more in Canada than the US, and jobs numbers are more favorable north of the border too.

Environics Analytics WealthScapes reports that, as of the first of this year, the average household income in Canada comes to around $363,202, which for the first time in recent history dwarfs its neighbors to the south. By comparison, the mean figure for American homes is only at $319,970 which, coupled with other items, iron out an argument that the US might be seeing some serious competition on the other side of the border.It’s not just income that’s welcoming up north, but employment as well. Comparing jobs figures, Canada is clocking in repeatedly as being the more attractive locale for job hunters: as of July, unemployment claims in Canada were at 7.2, which is a welcoming change from the stagnant 8.2 percent in America. Only months earlier, of course, the percentage of Americans filing unemployment benefit claims hovered around the 10 percent mark for months.In an op-ed published by Bloomberg News recently, writer Stephen Marche sums up his explanation rather succinctly, writing, “The Canadian system is working; the American system is not." Marche adds that the blame could be put on the deterioration of a country based on a system no longer relevant, continuing that the backbone of America — the country’s own Constitution — could be blamed.Marche quotes US Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s quip from a recent Egyptian television interview in which she remarked, “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.”“The natural replacement,” Marche insists then, is “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” that country’s equivalent to the American Bill of Rights which is about to approach only its thirtieth birthday.Additionally, it doesn’t help America’s argument that they are the winning country because, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, the average Canadian home has a value "worth over $140,000 more" than the houses in the States, thus giving Canucks “almost four times as much remaining equity in their real estate.”“The average American has more liquid assets – cash in hand – than the average Canadian,” The New York Daily News’ Ryan Gorman chimes in with an op-ed of his own. “Too bad it burns gaping holes in most people’s pockets.”Even if that isn’t exactly the case, the statistics show that while America continues to fight to stay afloat, things have only been getting better for their northern neighbors: Canada’s gross domestic product has grown 20 percent in just the last year alone, the Daily News reports.