Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watcgl!jchapman From: jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: free trade Message-ID: <2518@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Tue, 17-Sep-85 10:25:56 EDT Article-I.D.: watcgl.2518 Posted: Tue Sep 17 10:25:56 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 05:46:57 EDT Distribution: can Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 36 Throughout the current ongoing public debate about free trade there seems to be a tacit admission that Canada is in poorer econic health than the US. Is this really true though? I've done a bit of travelling in the US and they don't *seem* to have a particularily higher standard of living in general; in fact their cities have slum/poverty areas which seem a whole lot worse than anything you can find in major canadian cities. The other day I heard that the US debt is now approx. $2trillion How does this compare to canada? My impression is that the per capita debt load is far lower in canada. Another point I'd like to make is that one of the reasons we have been having such economic problems in the last 10-15 yrs is precisely because of the large percentage of our exports that are to the US coupled with the unstable US market/economy. It was a long time ago but it seems to me my economics teacher told us that diversity is a much wiser course (don't put all your eggs in one basket as my mom used to say). Why don't we develop our markets & make trade agreements with as many other countries as we can so as to minimize the effect of any single country's economy on our own. Finally, how much political autonomy will we have once 80% or more of our trade is with the US? They will easily be able to control our political policies through economic pressure. -- John Chapman ...!watmath!watcgl!jchapman Disclaimer : These are not the opinions of anyone but me and they may not even be mine.