I think if a bunch of us put our heads together in a hunting camp anywhere we'd come up with solutions for imediments to the next day's hunting. Human nature, a reluctance to accept ideas from other places, is part of the problem of rich nations not finding better ways of doing things.

France, with extraordinary social infrastructure and equality, the best healthcare in Europe but serious problems of inclusion, struggles to find a way to pay for all the social amenities without ruining them along the way. Canada, prosperous with full employment and trade surpluses, struggles in the same way with child poverty.

How can wealthy Canada justify the inequality? Within the last 30 years, the United Kingdom has done a remarkable job of reducing child poverty with tax credits and social programs. The US, sleepwalking into economic darkness, has the same problems of building social mobility in a rich but unequal society.

If a bunch of liberal and conservative hunters, Protestants, Catholics and Muslims, can find practical solutions to their common problems of high winds and high waters, safe transportation etc, you'd think our leaders could find inspiration and common ground to make healthier and happier societies, eh?