Miami Beach

[Plane]

<<We here in Amerikkka appreciate your support of our economy and we promise to build more war materials with your donations.>>

I'm very glad to hear that.  We here in Canada are very grateful for your monumental fucking stupidity in mismanaging your economy and blowing half a trillion  bucks on pointless wars, which not only jacks up the price of our oil, but makes it possible to spend our money in NYC, Miami Beach and other fine American destinations without having to pay any more odious premiums on foreign exchange.  We hope that you will continue to conduct this ever-cheapening sale of your national patrimony for many years into the future and particularly recommend that you continue spending your money on war material rather than human or material infrastructure so that your downward economic spiral continues to accelerate and in future years our Canadian dollars will buy even more of your fine sunshine and beaches.

So you do or don't think NSFTA is a good idea?

[Michael Tee]

Do  you mean NAFTA?

[Rich]

>>I'm very glad to hear that. <<

I'm glad you're glad.

Please feel free to visit our wonderful country as much as you like and spend as much has you like. Just make sure you go home.

[Michael Tee]

<<Please feel free to visit our wonderful country as much as you like and spend as much has you like. Just make sure you go home.>>

If we stay more than six months out of the Province, we lose our government-paid medical benefits.  Otherwise, I'd stay a long time.  It's a great country to visit.  Wouldn't wanna live there.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I fail to see why Richie would want MT to go home.
 Could it be because he does not consider Ann Coulter to be an astute political commentarist?

[Michael Tee]

<<I fail to see why Richie would want MT to go home. >>

He's a very angry man.  Very insecure.  Stems from weakness and self-doubt.  There's no cure for it.  It's the way he always was and the way he'll always be.  These guys give America a very bad name in the world, unfortunately, and I think it's up to the rest of the country to counteract it as much as possible just by being their own good selves.  Right now, it seems like the Rich's are running the country, but hopefully that can't last too much longer.

[Plane]

Hero Member

Posts: 5920


    Re: Miami Beach
? Reply #31 on: March 02, 2008, 03:33:52 PM ? Quote Modify Remove Split Topic 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do  you mean NAFTA? 

AgggH!
Yes.

If we stay more than six months out of the Province, we lose our government-paid medical benefits. 

First I heard of this restriction , don't a lot of Canadians have contracts that bring them across the border for long periods? This must be a severe loss to someone like that.

[Rich]

Good, as long as you go home.

[Michael Tee]

<<So you do or don't think[NAFTA] is a good idea?>>

It's probably a good idea in the long run, like the EU or even the abolition of tariffs between the 13 Colonies after the Revolution.  In the short run, there are winners and losers.

My daughter got a fantastic job in the U.S.A. right out of journalism school.  Nothing like it was being offered to her in Canada.  If I wanted to live and work in the U.S.A. I probably could, thanks to NAFTA, as could my other two kids, but then there are probably Canadian businesses that had to shut down because they couldn't compete with larger U.S. firms without some kind of tariff protection.  Well, theoretically, they could have found partners to amalgamate with - - you gotta be ready to change directions, to adapt, and if you're not, the Theory of Evolution works in business the same as in biology.

Some of the disputes are just too complex for me to follow, like the softwood lumber dispute.  All the Canadian editorials say the U.S. is fucking us and flouting the NAFTA treaty, but it's just not interesting enough to follow, so I don't know.  In the auto parts industry, Canada is said to do very well in cross-border trade, but that trade existed anyway before NAFTA, as a special case.

On a personal level, I'd like to live and work in either Manhattan or Miami Beach, but I really don't know if I'd prefer them to Toronto (except in winter!) - - but NAFTA does give me that option.

<<First I heard of this restriction , [gotta live in Ontario six months a year to get the benefits of OHIP, the provincial health-care plan] don't a lot of Canadians have contracts that bring them across the border for long periods? This must be a severe loss to someone like that.>>

Well, each Provincial plan probably has its own residency requirements.  Ontario used to require at least eight or nine months' residency, now it's only six.  But I would think if a guy has a contract requiring in effect that he sacrifice his OHIP eligibility, he'd probably want to insist on equivalent coverage through private insurance at the employer's expense.

[fatman]

Some of the disputes are just too complex for me to follow, like the softwood lumber dispute.  All the Canadian editorials say the U.S. is fucking us and flouting the NAFTA treaty, but it's just not interesting enough to follow, so I don't know.

That's funny, because a lot of the editorials down here say the same thing, only with Canada and US's roles being reversed.  There's a lot of irritation with loggers down here because Canada has less stringent forestry regulations, and can thus sell their lumber cheaper.

Not that it matters a whole lot right now, there's a huge glut of lumber on the market and prices are very low.

[Amianthus]

That's funny, because a lot of the editorials down here say the same thing, only with Canada and US's roles being reversed.  There's a lot of irritation with loggers down here because Canada has less stringent forestry regulations, and can thus sell their lumber cheaper.

I can verify that a HUGE amount of lumber passes through Minnesota from Canada to points south. The trains run about 2 miles from my house in Minnesota, and when I get caught by a lumber train heading south, I go into the cafe near the tracks and get a snack - it's 30 minutes or more for some of the trains.

[Michael Tee]

Well, I know it's pretty complex.  There's some kind of administrative body that oversees trade disputes under NAFTA and the Canadians were bitching that they got five or six consecutive decisions in their favour which the U.S. government treated as totally non-binding and invalid, but then the case went to court and the court sided with the Americans so honest to god who the fuck knows?

One thing the Canadian lumber industry has is clear-cutting, which I don't think they have in the U.S.A.  In 2003 we went to the West Coast to see Vancouver and hike the Pacific Rim National Park on the north-west side of Vancouver Island (the City of Vancouver is on the mainland, across from the island.)  The park was absolutely beautiful but on the road up there it was really apparent that some of the mountainsides had been clear-cut.  Ugliest fucking thing you ever want to see.  Like a sickness where part of a healthy body is rotting away and leaving huge patches of scabs and sores.

[Xavier_Onassis]

If you fly over Oregon and Washington, you will see that there is a fringe of trees along the highways, but the interior between most of the highways has been seriously clear cut. I noticed this in 1992. When I lived in Washington in the 1960's, there was no such clear cutting in most places. I imagine that Reagan and his madman evangelical Sec. of the Interior James Watt and his successros had a major role in allowing this.