PLAYPEN: Covid-19 Everything Political

[LesPalenik]

So why are you for Biden if he'll be tougher on Canada than Trump?

Being tough is not bad compared with ignorant and incompetent.

[BobShaw]

We don't agree on much, but I think this is a good point.  Especially with regard to this thread, where, at least to some extent, where you stand may depend on where you sit.  I'm repeating myself, but I think it would be useful if those posting here would at least fill out the Location field in their respective user profiles.

A reasonable position.
It would be great if people posting in the For Sale understood that there are other countries too, and included a location.
The reality is though that on this subject every country is below the US on bad results.

As one who ships items to many countries, the US is one of the worst.
Usually you only have to state what the item is and the value and that it is not dangerous. To go to the US there is a massive extra amount of information required.
A lot of things you simply can't send.
At the moment I can not send anything to the US by post. I can ship to China and Russia no trouble.
If I arrive in the US I have to be finger printed and take off my shoes. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
And of course you have to deal with the US Border force who will go through your passport and quiz you on every country you have been to.
You go into Canada and they look at your passport and your face and say "welcome to Canada"
So I think a lot of problems that the US has with trade are not the other country.

[Alan Klein]

That statement carries as much weight as the ones Trump makes when he says "People are saying..."  or "Everybody knows that so and so..."

IE, no weight whatsoever. Weasel words.

Those who cheat at golf are cheaters.  Full stop.

I said changing your golf score as Trump did was cheating.  Just like Biden cheating in college or plagiarizing is cheating too.

[Alan Klein]

We don't agree on much, but I think this is a good point.  Especially with regard to this thread, where, at least to some extent, where you stand may depend on where you sit.  I'm repeating myself, but I think it would be useful if those posting here would at least fill out the Location field in their respective user profiles.

I've repeated this a number of times as well, to no avail.  Being anonymous apparently gives some people the freedom to say things they might not ordinarily say if people knew who they were.

[Alan Klein]

Being tough is not bad compared with ignorant and incompetent.

He's loud and often obnoxious but not ignorant or incompetent.  Hillary Clinton and his Republican adversaries thought that too. 

[chez]

As the US passes 6 million cases it is hard to argue with that.
There is no plan other than to blame someone else.

Come on man. There is a plan. "It'll magically go away". We are all awaiting this magic.

[LesPalenik]

A reasonable position.
It would be great if people posting in the For Sale understood that there are other countries too, and included a location.
The reality is though that on this subject every country is below the US on bad results.

As one who ships items to many countries, the US is one of the worst.
Usually you only have to state what the item is and the value and that it is not dangerous. To go to the US there is a massive extra amount of information required.
A lot of things you simply can't send.
At the moment I can not send anything to the US by post. I can ship to China and Russia no trouble.
If I arrive in the US I have to be finger printed and take off my shoes. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
And of course you have to deal with the US Border force who will go through your passport and quiz you on every country you have been to.
You go into Canada and they look at your passport and your face and say "welcome to Canada"
So I think a lot of problems that the US has with trade are not the other country.

I have to agree that crossing the border from Canada to USA is very different than in the other direction. I mean the attitude of the custom officers.
I also remember the 40 years ago, when crossing the border by car, we were just waved through the border.

[Alan Klein]

A reasonable position.
It would be great if people posting in the For Sale understood that there are other countries too, and included a location.
The reality is though that on this subject every country is below the US on bad results.

As one who ships items to many countries, the US is one of the worst.
Usually you only have to state what the item is and the value and that it is not dangerous. To go to the US there is a massive extra amount of information required.
A lot of things you simply can't send.
At the moment I can not send anything to the US by post. I can ship to China and Russia no trouble.
If I arrive in the US I have to be finger printed and take off my shoes. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
And of course you have to deal with the US Border force who will go through your passport and quiz you on every country you have been to.
You go into Canada and they look at your passport and your face and say "welcome to Canada"
So I think a lot of problems that the US has with trade are not the other country.

Nobody wants to blow up anything in Canada.

[chez]

I have to agree that crossing the border from Canada to USA is very different than in the other direction. I mean the attitude of the custom officers.
I also remember the 40 years ago, when crossing the border by car, we were just waved through the border.

As a kid with a dirt bike, I used to cross into Washington state quite often without any border regulations. One time I ventured onto not so friendly skinhead territory which really opened my eyes with the differences between the two countries. Needless to say, I stayed in BC from then on.

[chez]

Nobody wants to blow up anything in Canada.

Wonder why.

[Robert Roaldi]

Being tough is not bad compared with ignorant and incompetent.

I don't quite get any of the "tough on Canada" talk. What is it that Canada did to warrant this? The "trade war", if this is what it is, seems to have come out of nowhere to me. Was there a real trigger or is this a make believe fight?

And if "conservatives" (if there are actually any of those) are not in favour of government propping up inefficient companies, then does it make sense to increase tariffs to protect companies? I don't follow that logic at all.

Someone pointed out earlier that Canadian companies sell aluminium more cheaply than US companies. So what. There may be many other sectors in which Canadian prices are higher than US ones. Isn't that just how things go? Isn't that what the "free market" is for, to sort out inefficiencies by the mechanism of price?  I wish people would just make up their mind about what they want. Must be driving all the CEOs nuts, an unpredictable government regulatory framework is highly annoying for businesses.

[Alan Klein]

I don't quite get any of the "tough on Canada" talk. What is it that Canada did to warrant this? The "trade war", if this is what it is, seems to have come out of nowhere to me. Was there a real trigger or is this a make believe fight?

And if "conservatives" (if there are actually any of those) are not in favour of government propping up inefficient companies, then does it make sense to increase tariffs to protect companies? I don't follow that logic at all.

Someone pointed out earlier that Canadian companies sell aluminium more cheaply than US companies. So what. There may be many other sectors in which Canadian prices are higher than US ones. Isn't that just how things go? Isn't that what the "free market" is for, to sort out inefficiencies by the mechanism of price?  I wish people would just make up their mind about what they want. Must be driving all the CEOs nuts, an unpredictable government regulatory framework is highly annoying for businesses.

As a general principle, I feel we shouldn't have tariffs.  Before Trump, tariffs in the US have generally been lower than tariffs applied to American goods in most countries.  Trump wanted to equalize these or frankly get rid of them on both sides.  That would help American exports. 

Of course, when another country subsidizes exports of their goods, they make it cheaper for Americans to buy.  So we live better off the backs of foreigners who are working for us for lower wages and earnings they get because it's their citizens who pay for the subsidization through their own taxes.  Thank you for allowing us to live better.

[TechTalk]

Just a friendly reminder, before the thread is locked again, that comments are supposed to relate to Covid-19 in some form or fashion.

[Alan Klein]

Good point.  Speaking of trade, 90% of drugs to the US comes from China and India.  So we're relying a lot on the country who caused the Covid crisis to provide many of the medicines and PPE we need to fight Covid 19.   That isn't smart.

[chez]

Good point.  Speaking of trade, 90% of drugs to the US comes from China and India.  So we're relying a lot on the country who caused the Covid crisis to provide many of the medicines and PPE we need to fight Covid 19.   That isn't smart.

Yeh...and the price of drugs in the US...could one imagine where that would be if they were all manufactured on homeland. How much would a pair of jeans cost? How much would the iPhone cost? Who would be working these assembly jobs for minimum wage...oh wait...the Mexicans like they do for so much of the existing labour intensive jobs low paying jobs.

[Alan Klein]

Yeh...and the price of drugs in the US...could one imagine where that would be if they were all manufactured on homeland. How much would a pair of jeans cost? How much would the iPhone cost? Who would be working these assembly jobs for minimum wage...oh wait...the Mexicans like they do for so much of the existing labour intensive jobs low paying jobs.

After Covid, some manufacturing will come back to the US as out-of-work service oriented Americans will take low paying manufacturing jobs. 

[LesPalenik]

After Covid, some manufacturing will come back to the US as out-of-work service oriented Americans will take low paying manufacturing jobs.

That would be about time. Running a high-volume, fully automated plant shouldn't be much more expensive in a developed country than in Asia.

[jeremyrh]

That would be about time. Running a high-volume, fully automated plant shouldn't be much more expensive in a developed country than in Asia.

Not many jobs for locals though.

[Robert Roaldi]

After Covid, some manufacturing will come back to the US as out-of-work service oriented Americans will take low paying manufacturing jobs.

As has been pointed out several times, the US is the world's second largest manufacturing economy. There are plenty of jobs for robots.

But there is some irony in the idea of of low-paying factory jobs returning to the US because of unemployed former service workers. But that seems unlikely to me. Why would companies move labour intensive manufacturing back to US soil? As soon as the post-Covid economy improves a bit, people will quit those lousy low-paying jobs.

[Craig Lamson]

Yeh...and the price of drugs in the US...could one imagine where that would be if they were all manufactured on homeland. How much would a pair of jeans cost? How much would the iPhone cost? Who would be working these assembly jobs for minimum wage...oh wait...the Mexicans like they do for so much of the existing labour intensive jobs low paying jobs.

I can see you have never been to an RV plant. Very labor intensive, wages and benis are good because companies are fighting for employees.  Very few hispanics.  The products cost what they cost and people buy them.

There are some things ( not rvs to be sure) that just need to be made here, not in some overseas plant, for security reasons.  Ingredients and finished drugs are a perfect example.