Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

washingtonstatestandard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 355 posts

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#111

Post by rayiner »

psychlops wrote: post #104
andy_ppp wrote: post #7

I’m surprised all the countries the US is trying to bully aren’t considering moving to the Euro as the reserve currency (even China might go along with this). It would be so damaging for the US they might actually understand they have been benefiting from a win-win situation since the end of the Second World War.

Consider that this is the point of all the machinations. The US having the reserve currency is a liability in many ways and the direct reason why it's a consumer not producer economy. Losing reserve status will be damaging to some parts of the american economy and create a boom in others. Take a look at what current tariffs are across the world. The US isn't necessarily bullying as equalizing.

And also think about which industries and constituencies are helped by the U.S. having the reserve currency, and which ones are hurt by that.

What would it take for America to have more of a German-style economy than the current American one? Who would that hurt and who would that help?

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#112

Post by psychlops »

dave4420 wrote: post #22
andy_ppp wrote: post #7

I’m surprised all the countries the US is trying to bully aren’t considering moving to the Euro as the reserve currency (even China might go along with this). It would be so damaging for the US they might actually understand they have been benefiting from a win-win situation since the end of the Second World War.

I suspect many countries would prefer a Chinese reserve currency to a European one, due to past bad experiences of being ruled by Europeans. But even on a purely economic level… does the Eurozone even have a larger economy than China? I can see countries moving away from USD, but I don’t see them coalescing around a single alternative.

China would absolutely not want to have a reserve currency. Their export economy would be destroyed overnight.

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#113

Post by ForTheKidz »

Trasmatta wrote: post #93
diggan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dismissed both as ridiculous I think this idealism/naiveness is why you're now sliding further and further away from democracy. Older countries already had their democracies stress-tested, but seemingly this is the biggest test so far for the "checks and balances" in the US, and I feel like many other countries learned to always live with idea that democracy can slip away really quickly unless you always pay attent…

How do you reconcile that idea with the fact that the United States is the oldest country with a continuously running democracy?

Well we've only been a true "liberal democracy" for the past sixty years or so. Before that we were a de-facto apartheid state. Maybe at a stretch you could say 105 years if you go by the 19th amendment. And frankly i'm still skittish to call America pre-Trump a democracy with my full chest given the electoral college, completely bonkers division of the country into states, the senate, complete lack of a right to vote, our continual human rights abuses in terms of poverty and imprisonment/executions, etc etc.

I'm just saying there's literally dozens and dozens of countries with far more obvious realization of democratic ideals than we've ever managed to figure out, and at this point our age and blind devotion to dead assholes ("founding fathers") are major barriers to any sort of movement forward.

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#114

Post by bdamm »

vohk wrote: post #98
hypeatei wrote: post #27

I don't understand any of the justifications for a trade war with Canada. IIRC, Trump was fudging numbers by only including the "goods" part of "goods & services" so the deficit looked worse than it actually was (assuming a deficit is even bad in the first place) It's also bewildering that Trump literally negotiated a trade deal in his first term with Mexico and Canada but is now saying we're getting screwed? Is this…

The justification is Trump wants to do to Canada much what Putin is doing to Ukraine. Russia being allowed to take Ukraine legitimizes world powers engaging in conquest within their sphere. It's really that simple. The talk about fentanyl, the supposed trade imbalance, and all the rest is just smoke and noise, because if he said that he wanted to raid Canada for resources and Lebensraum it might actually threaten his…

It is worse than this. Trump is just the spokesman for a younger group who is steering him. He doesn't actually know anything, he's just being fed punchlines and he's good at regurgitating them.

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#115

Post by curt15 »

FredPret wrote: post #56

I've seen two apocalyptic North American scenarios in fiction, and have previously dismissed both as ridiculous. 1. In the Fallout universe, the USA annexes Canada 2. In at least two Neal Stephenson novels (Snowcrash and Termination Shock), the USA has collapsed. I've never before thought that either of these would have a semi-realistic path to actually happening.

What about 3. Climate change renders large swaths of the US uninhabitable, leading to an exodus into Canada?

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#116

Post by Brusco_RF »

yatopifo wrote: post #4

That makes perfect sense. It puzzles me why supporters of the current US regime think Canada won’t resist the US. Be it a trade war or a military invasion, Canada will make the cost so great that it may eliminate the US from the world arena. Canada has been cornered and has nothing to lose at this point.

>[Canada] may eliminate the US from the world arena

Is this a joke?

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#117

Post by throaway1987 »

epa wrote: post #100
a-priori wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incorrect to think of Canada as being "cornered" here nor having "nothing to lose". It's the US that's isolating itself. Canada isn't 'cornered'. It has the entire rest of the world to talk to and make deals with. It has everything to lose by continuing to rely on the US, which is why you're seeing such a hard pivot toward Europe and Asia.

This is silly. US is Canada's biggest trading partner and one of the largest borders in the world. 80% of people live within 1 hour of the border. Free trade has allowed both economies to prosper. Canada has everything to gain with free trade. You are right on over reliance, but free trade benefits everyone.

Ironically the "free trade deals" have been broadly bad for workers, but Trump's proposals seem even worse

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#118

Post by diggan »

Trasmatta wrote: post #93
diggan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dismissed both as ridiculous I think this idealism/naiveness is why you're now sliding further and further away from democracy. Older countries already had their democracies stress-tested, but seemingly this is the biggest test so far for the "checks and balances" in the US, and I feel like many other countries learned to always live with idea that democracy can slip away really quickly unless you always pay attent…

How do you reconcile that idea with the fact that the United States is the oldest country with a continuously running democracy?

I guess I'd ask you to define "democracy" first, as for me it would at least include that all citizens are allowed and realistically can vote. It took until 1920 for women to be able to vote, and it wasn't until 1965 every citizen realistically could vote. I don't think in that case it would come close to being the "oldest country with a continuously running democracy".

Re: Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

#120

Post by rayiner »

kube-system wrote: post #109
rayiner wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does having the reserve country benefit america? Because it enables us to run unsustainable deficits? Is that good for Americans in the long run?

Yes. * The US is able to get very cheap loans, which enables the US to throw around money when necessary to do things that are important (emergency projects, economic stabilization, etc). * The US has an extraordinary power to influence global politics due to their ability to control trade and banking systems. * The US dollar is stable in part because of its status as a trade currency. And a stable currency is extrem…

But that sounds bad! Why should we be borrowing all this money from foreigners when we’re a rich country? What if I want the U.S. to build stuff, instead of moving money around and trying to “influence global politics.”

I’d also love a sane domestic politics that acknowledges that borrowing money from foreigners every year because we can’t square our spending with our taxing is a bad thing.

Post reply on HN