That question arose when Trump just recently decided to hit Canadian aluminum imports with a 10% surcharge. I won’t ask what happened to the recent trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, but I will ask how that surcharge makes any sense.
US manufacturers presumably buy Canadian aluminum because it is at a lower cost than the US product. Forcing the price of Canadian aluminum up, will theoretically make US manufacturers look more favourably at the US product (at least that appears to be Trump’s position). However, paying the higher price for US aluminum will dictate higher costs for the end products … and there is a massive range of products that use aluminum (e.g. Transportation, Construction, Electrical & Consumer Goods industries)! The aircraft industry is a major user of aluminum, and we must not forget about the canned drinks industries! Logic would suggest that higher product costs will impact the cost of living which, based on history, will simply widen the gap between the “rich” and the “poor”.
As if that is not enough, Canada will almost certainly retaliate by imposing a surcharge, or import restrictions, on select US products. So who wins in this situation? I would suggest nobody, and if Trump believes otherwise, then I would also suggest that he is a bigger fool than we currently believe.
Of course this is the same idiot who decided to block cross-border passage of immigrants by building a wall and hitting on the immigrants, while totally ignoring the US business that were hiring them.
NEWS FLASH Mr. Trump – You could save US citizens a fortune by hitting those US citizens who are hiring illegal labour. If there were no work opportunities available, the immigrants would have less reason to cross your southern border, and guess what? You probably would not need that wall.
So what is stupid? Given that the context has been stretched to new limits these past few years, I would hesitate to define it. Instead, I would just fall back onto Einstein’s thoughts that human stupidity has no limits. It truly is infinite.
I agree with your assessment on tariffs. Tariffs are just a subtle way of taxing the consumer. Now, since this comment is crossing the Canadian border, that will be a 10-cent impost on you.
I also agree with your assessment on immigration. However, a few of our states tried going after businesses that hire undocumented immigrants. It nearly wiped out their agricultural industries. So they quickly changed the laws back to going after the immigrants. It’s an inefficient and mostly ineffective approach, but at least the politicians can say they’re doing something about illegal immigration.
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Re Immigrants. That’s the whole point though isn’t it. Lose the immigrants and you will lose the industries, or they pay a more reasonable rate and hire US citizens, and then pass the increased costs out to the consumers … which will raise the cost of living. Alternatively, Trump could subsidize those industries and recoup it in taxes from you! It doesn’t matter whether they stop the cross-border immigrants (where the industries suffer), or they hit the industries hard for illegal hiring (where the industries suffer)! What kind of incompetents do you have in office that cannot see alternative solutions must be found?
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Personally, I’m for open borders. Maybe that’s not the best alternative solution, but I’m sure I’m not competent to hold office, either.
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An obvious solution. If you need them as workers, then give them citizenship and a legal income … and tax them like everybody else. If they are going to keep those industries afloat, they may as well contribute to the country as well … and think of the $Billions saved by stopping that wall project!
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I’m not worried about the cost of the wall. Isn’t Mexico paying for it? But we would save a lot of money by being able to lay off most of our Border Patrol.
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Mexico paying for it? In Trumps dreams! That’s like asking homeless people living in a shelter to pay off a mortgage!
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Well, Trump promised they would. What the hell’s going on here?
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Sadly for you, but happily for Mexico, Trump does not control their financial planning!
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We may have to invade.
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Good luck with that idea! Hopefully you can open link below. It is our latest news re Trump!
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/08/07/canada-fires-back-with-36-billion-in-tariffs-after-donald-trump-revives-trade-spat.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a01&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0A42EF502C025553EED27776B0E619C9&utm_campaign=teve_28525
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Well hell, looks like our taxes are going up, too.
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Yup! Does look like that doesn’t it. I like “our” position in that we will NOT escalate this “game”, but WILL match “dollar for dollar” whatever your administration hit us with. Sadly we seem to have an overgrown child playing on the other side of the board.
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Let’s just hope our overgrown child doesn’t escalate.
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History would suggest that he will. Time will tell.
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The overgrown child needs a permanent time-out!
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🙂
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I’d like to agree, but I’m not so sure his replacement would be better.
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Given the limited choice you guys have ……… he must be potentially better than Trump.
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True and I would say he is potentially better BUT sadly that fact isn’t real reassuring, being that it doesn’t take much to be better than Trump!
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I suppose there’s that potential. But lately the way Biden’s been talking and acting, it almost seems as if he has dementia.
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I hear you! I am uneasy about him too. How the Democratic party could not come up with anyone better I will never understand! I am really hoping that his VP choice will be really good! For if not or if we get stuck with Trump again, then Canada starts looking really inviting again! My son just said again this week how he could see himself living in Vancouver.
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He said he’d reveal his VP choice during the first week of August. But here we are on August 8th (the second week), and still no reveal. This seems to be another sign of Joe’s dementia. He’s forgotten to pick his VP.
Canada has Trudeau, and I’ve heard some not so great things about him, from CP. I almost got her to agree to trade him for Trump.
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Hi TG. You can hear negatives about every leader, as there will always be those who complain, and it is so easy to complain when you have neither the inclination nor the resources to fix anything. I prefer to look at the positives, and just accept that none of us are perfect. Your Trump however is really pushing the boundaries of superficial and narrow thinking but then, his privileged background would not have exposed him to life as we know it. Sadly he also lacks the education to effectively run a country on a world stage and, even more sadly, his ego is preventing him from learning anything new. Trump or Trudeau? For me it’s a real no-brainer. 🙂
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No leader is perfect, it’s true. But I would like a leader I could feel confident about. Neither Biden nor Trump inspire much confidence from me.
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Sadly that looks like being your election choice, which is dangerous because apathy could easily produce low voter turnouts …. and Trump will be working his supporters as hard as he can. i.e. as incomprehensible as it may be, Trump could get re-elected!
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He very well could be re-elected. His supporters have the most enthusiasm (go figure), whereas most of Biden’s supporters are just ho-hum about Joe. Trump is behind in the polls, but has been narrowing Biden’s lead these past few weeks. The election may well be very close, regardless of who wins.
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I would trade, at least Trudeau is better on the eyes! 🙂
Maybe thr VP he wanted turned him down?? Maybe I should just think about moving to Italy. They have the BEST gelato and its beautiful there!
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I’d move to Sicily. I think the pizza is best there.
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This is just one of the many examples of his buffoonery. *sigh
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Sigh indeed. 🙂
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Pooh may be a bear with a head full of fluff, but….still has more sense than Trump!
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🙂
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Yes indeed 💜
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🙂
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I agree with your conclusion, Colin. As for the reason Trump does these things, I’d have to guess it benefits himself or his cronies, or will help him at election time, as those are the only three things he cares about.
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I agree with you. Let’s hope that he has misjudged the voting public, and loses the next election. Of course we can predict cries of rigging, cheating, miscounts etc. etc., but this is to be expected when a privileged child is put into a position of authority. Throwing a temper tantrum and blaming the system will be no surprise.
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Back during the Democratic debates leading up the primaries, they asked Mayor Pete (Buttigieg) what he would do if he won and Trump refused to leave the office and he said maybe they could “put him to work, doing chores around the White House.” LOL. The Big Cheeto hasn’t done an honest day’s labor in his life, but it was fun to picture him dusting and washing dishes and pulling weeds at the behest of a gay president.
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🙂
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No words for what is going on today.
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Understandable Kate. Hopefully change is on the horizon for you.
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Fingers crossed!
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🙂
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My thoughts exactly!
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Pity America won the war of independence else they would have Boris to contend with
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Now there’s another “real winner” from what we hear/see on our news.
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