• Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    77
    ·
    22 hours ago

    Here are some numbers to consider.

    The US sold $441 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in 2024.

    Canada sold $482 billion worth of goods and services to the US in 2024.

    The US has a populating of 334.9 million people.

    Canada has a population of 40.1 million people.

    Per capita, every American man, woman, and child spent $1,316.81 on Canadian goods and services.

    Candians spent $12,019. 95 on American good and services.

    Who isn’t pulling their weight in this trading relationship?

    This isn’t about illegal immigration and it isn’t about the 20 lbs of fentanyl that tried to cross the border from Canada.

    This is about the billionaire class raising taxes on the poor and raising prices for Americans.

    • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      7 hours ago

      This is hurting the wealthy also since it jacks up costs on businesses. I wonder what the conversations he must be having with his donors must be. Maybe he is picking favored businesses.

    • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      12 hours ago

      On the topic of fentanyl, if I may be so bold as to ask, do that many Americans genuinely give a shit about any fentanyl coming across any of our borders? I suppose those who do drugs that are likely to be cut with fentanyl, but as an American whose drug use consists of at most alcohol and legal weed, fentanyl isn’t something I’m particularly worried about. I’m not saying it’s not destructive or dangerous, but it’s not something I ever feel worried about. Maybe I’m just too poor to be exposed to people who do the kind of drugs that get laced with fentanyl, or maybe I’m lacking more empathy than I realize, but while I’ve seen sad examples of people whose lives have been destroyed by opiates and fentanyl in news programs and documentaries, I also have a hard time not seeing the fear of Fentanyl as anything more than wealthy parents like Trump, who know their kids are doing cocaine or other drugs, worried that their kids (like Don Jr) will accidentally OD on some laced drugs, which again, maybe it’s an empathy problem on my part, but maybe if you aren’t smart enough to test your drugs maybe you shouldn’t be doing them. I don’t know, it just seems like dhe dumbest issue to tank the whole economy over (unless that was the goal all along, and you just want a boogeyman-scapegoat for an excuse). It’s not that I even really care about “the economy” that much either, but I do care about ordinary people being able to afford housing and food.

      • btaf45@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        5 hours ago

        Never believe Trump’s stated reasons for doing something, because Trump is notorious for being a pathological liar. Fentanyl doesn’t have the slightest thing at all to do with Traitorapist Trump’s new tariffs. The amount of fentanyl coming from Canada is almost zero. In his first term, Trump told a documented 20-25 lies per day 7 days per week. The fentanyl thing is just part of his quota of 25 lies for that day. The best way to understand Trump is that he literally thinks dishonesty is a virtue and honesty is a vice.

      • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 hours ago

        If there wasn’t such a huge demand for drugs in the US they wouldn’t smuggle them in. They will continue to be smuggled in regardless of any trade war. I guess he plans on keeping them going forever.

    • dx1@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      20 hours ago

      Who isn’t pulling their weight in this trading relationship?

      Not how that works. Even with a “trade deficit”, a trade relationship must have an element of bilaterality. You’re exchanging something for something. The exception would be when one side militarily has their boot on the other side, i.e., sweatshop/imperialist relations. Which the U.S./Canada relationship is not exactly a poster child of.

      • galanthus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        12 hours ago

        Idk why you are being downvoted, that seems about right.

        A purchase of goods only equates to exploitation in the head of Trump, the contents of which, despite his protectionist and nationalistic tendencies, seem to resemble swiss cheese more and more with each passing year. So I wouldn’t adopt his rhetoric.