Ask fire-breathing right-wingers which countries are more “socialist” than America, and they might list Canada, among others. Interesting:

In Canada on Friday, the government reported that the country’s economy added more jobs than expected in November, erasing the losses in October. Statistics Canada reported a net employment gain of 79,000 in November, topping expectations of a 15,000 gain. The unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent from 8.6 percent in October.

But surely, a socialism-leaning country like Canada can’t outshine America on job growth … can it? From the same article:

The United States economy shed a surprising few 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, from 10.2 percent in October, the Labor Department said Friday.

Not bad. But not as good as Canada.

Now … don’t get me wrong. I am not a raging fan of so-called “socialism” — I still prefer capitalism, thank you very much — nor am I suggesting Canada is better than the U.S., nor do I think it’s fair to draw a comparison on two month’s worth of employment data. But what might be fair to conclude is that a country like Canada, with a sizable investment in social programs, can still generate jobs and expand its economy. In other words, responsible expansion of social programs in the U.S. does not have to be the end of our country as we know it, no matter how much the fire-breathing right-wingers might want us to think so.