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Canada considering charging for road access from USA to Alaska

washingtonstatestandard.com

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

#291

Post by jaredklewis »

maxwell wrote: post #48
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.

On the contrary, a weaker dollar would make exports more competitive and imports more expensive, thus realigning trade balance. https://www.lynalden.com/fraying-petrodollar-system

If you are manufacturing complex things with complex supply chains (like a Boeing 787 or a Caterpillar power shovel), the imports being expensive bit also drives up the price of exports.

But regardless of what happens with trade balance, it will also make borrowing money much more expensive, which is not great for the US since our debt to GDP ratio is over 100%.

It also removes another non-military weapon from our toolkit.

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

#292

Post by psychlops »

xyzzyz wrote: post #273
psychlops wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but think the German economy just broke last week when they blew the cap off their debt ceiling and kicked current day payments to future generations. Note that Germany protects its production with tariffs and VATs, the rough average I've found is 19-21%. I think China is the one to watch. They have double the energy output of the US and are basically the production capital of the world for the fore…

Germany doesn't protect its production with tariffs any more than, say, North Carolina does. There are no German tariffs, because Germany is part of European Union, which sets up common, shared tariff regime, and tariff-free goods movement within EU. Germany can lobby within EU to propose tariffs that it considers beneficial to it, just like North Carolina can in US, but if other EU members don't like it enough, it w…

Thank you for clarifying, it did not occur to me that member states paid VATs. From outside the EU, the VAT is no different than a tariff. They are both taxes which inflate the cost to do business. From your example, I think it's fair to sum the state taxes into US tariffs for comparison.

You did send me down a research rabbit hole trying to better understand VAT. It's complex so I picked a car as a test product. As a comparison, I found that to import a car from Germany into the US it costs 2.5% of the cars value. North Carolina charges an additional 3% state tax on it for a grand total of 5.5%.

To import the same German car into France the cost is (cough) 20%.

To import an American car into France the same 20% is paid plus a 10% import fee for a total of 30%. I'm sure I'm glazing over many, many smaller charges/exemptions in these examples.

To answer your question about protection using the numbers above, companies outside the eu that want to compete at an equal price with an equivalent German car would need to do so with a product that is at least 10% cheaper.

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

#293

Post by mindslight »

rayiner wrote: post #63
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.

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?

Being able to trade arbitrarily-devaluable IOUs from a future America for real goods today is a fantastic deal. Putting it in the kid terms that seem to be necessary for this dynamic of endless "questioning" - if Bobby can get ice cream treats from the corner store by giving them pieces of paper with his picture on them, that's pretty awesome for Bobby.

In the bigger picture - the reserve currency dynamic has allowed many things to grow detached from reality, and those things are in dire need of reform (eg the everything bubble). But that the destroy-America-first platform can include condemning the whole dynamic is itself just another symptom of that detachment and entitlement. Talk about wanting to kill the goose that lays golden eggs because you don't understand it, and don't want to spend any effort trying to understand it.

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

#294

Post by FredPret »

machomaster wrote: post #277
FredPret wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For any armed force, even a 2-3 million strong one, fighting a war against an entire population of 40 million goes one of two ways: - unimaginable atrocities that would make Hitler blush, and then they might still lose - Vietnam x 100

How many of those 40 millions have military education/skills, are willing to use them, as well as have access to weapons?

I don't know, but let's do a thought experiment.

North Vietnam had 13 mil people, South Vietnam 17m. Afghanistan had 20m people at the time of invasion.

These were undeveloped countries with very low human capital. Their militaries did not hold up. And yet - how did it all turn out for the US?

Canada has 40m people, terrain ideally suited to guerilla warfare, a huge land border with the US, and a population that is not only indistinguishable from American civilians, but also enjoys much wider popular support in the US than the Vietnamese ever did.

It would be extremely foolish to think you could simply invade such a place at all, nevermind easily.

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

#295

Post by soperj »

Brusco_RF wrote: post #219
SonicScrub wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see how the Highway 17 situation is unique in the context of winter storms though. As per the comment above this, most transit of East and West goods occurs via other means, meaning the Highway 17 bottleneck is hardly some vital artery. A winter storm shutting down Highway 401 for example is much more economically chaotic, and has the practical impact of making travel through its corridor impractical (…

My only point was that Canada has more to lose than the US if we start taxing journeys through each others countries. A lot of commenters missed that.

Your point is terrible though. How many people live in Kenora? 15,000? There's not a highway of trucks that are backed up from Kenora, anything that needs to be transported to Winnipeg will come from the West coast, and anything to Toronto will come straight down the St.Lawrence.

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

#296

Post by throw16180339 »

machomaster wrote: post #278
rayiner wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the basis of that index. Are they alleging US elections are rigged?

Why are you asking questions instead of easily reading about the index criteria?

He's just sealioning again.

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

#297

Post by vel0city »

ianburrell wrote: post #190
vel0city wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what's the reason for it needing to be 13 states?

There are 10 provinces and 3 territories. Most of the provinces could make states, PEI and territories are too small. Making Canada one huge state would be stupid, even more than annexing Canada.

Ah so mostly just absorbing structures as is. I was thinking there was some obscure annexation law or something from a long time ago I wasn't aware of.

> Making Canada one huge state would be stupid, even more than annexing Canada.

Fully agreed.

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

#298

Post by maxerickson »

hintymad wrote: post #181
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.

An honest question: what is wrong with reciprocal tariff? Wouldn't that be fair to both countries? I understand that there were many compromises when the countries signed trade deals like NAFTA, so we got some protective tariffs here and there, but I was wondering in general why reciprocal tariff is considered unfair.

It's not that it's unfair, it's that it is stupid.

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

#299

Post by chneu »

diggan wrote: post #88
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.

> 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…

Americans, and actually young folks worldwide, don't value democracy anymore. There's an episode of Radiolab or This American Life that dives into the results of a worldwide survey.

It's deeply concerning. Essentially, people don't care about democracy because they've grown up in it.

It's one of those "My father rode a camel, I drive a land Rover, my son will drive a land Rover, his son will ride a camel" type stuff.

On top of that, Americans truly believe we are different. We don't have to follow the rules that other nations do because we have manifest destiny. This prevalent all throughout American culture. You'll notice it when you start to look for it. "You can count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else." Americans are stubborn.

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

#300

Post by rayiner »

machomaster wrote: post #278
rayiner wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the basis of that index. Are they alleging US elections are rigged?

Why are you asking questions instead of easily reading about the index criteria?

It’s just a way to say: why do you think this index is meaningful based on what it measures.
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