Made in "Your Country Here" ; Is it important to you?

[ShadowHM]

I'm going to assume China, because they're the only one of our major trading partners without a free-floating currency. About 90% of Canadian imports come from countries with free floating currencies - and the other 10% are coming from China, which is keeping its currency *down*, rather than up, and would be only too happy to see our own currency appreciate. (Which we won't let it do, for fear of losing parity with the US.)

China, which is the country I do worry more about than others, is keeping its currency down as a deliberate policy measure to try to make sure that we do purchase products manufactured there. Of course, they have not said that; I may be wrong in that conclusion. That particular country's government has the both the ability and desire to take the long view in terms of making sure our own manufacturing base is (at the very least) weakened.

Regardless, the trade logic still holds, and if China chooses to hoard Canadian and US dollars, then they're welcome to. Eventually they'll have to release those dollars, and our exports to them will increase.

Exports of what? More natural resources? More of the hewers of wood and drawers of water kinds of jobs for us? Or will they be jobs in the tourist service 'industry'? I worry that eventually we will have no manufacturing jobs of any sort.

trade works. If we sell our stuff to someone, someone (maybe not the same someone, but someone) will end up buying from us, and vice versa. Think about the alternative extreme case - could we really increase global employment if we broke up all countries into tiny non-trading autarkies? All goods would be bought and sold locally, but it would be disastrous for everyone.

What's the case, accounting for all flows, that says Canada would be better off if we bought and sold only to/from ourselves?

If the playing field were level in international trade, I would agree with you. It isn't now and isn't likely to become so. The rule-set for companies here is not the same as for companies elsewhere. If we bought and sold only to ourselves (or places with similar rules about how to treat employees and how much pollution is allowable), we might be able to maintain a standard of living for all here, instead of increase the disparities between the low-wage-earners and the factory owners and mirror conditions elsewhere.

The long view that I see now is that those dollars will come back to us in ways that will not benefit 'regular' citizens in any way. So, for example, owners of Nexen stock might be rejoicing right now. But I am hard pressed to believe that they might spend their gains in ways that will create jobs for the rest of us.

Frankly, if we're talking solely about environmental damage, all countries should probably sever their trading relationships with Canada, post haste. We're among the world's worst offenders, in deforestation, in carbon pollution, in the generation of trash and waste. And we, as ethical consumers, should buy from everyone else, rather than ourselves.

I would not argue that we Canucks are doing what we should in terms of carbon pollution or generation of trash and waste. On deforestation, we could do better, but we are not as bad as some. Our laws are more stringent that those of China, for one important example. Companies are not allowed (generally) to pollute the water supplies of others. Additionally, there are teeth in the rules we do have, to make companies that do break the rules have to pay. (Unfortunately, the oil sands are an egregious exception. We don't even know how much pollution we do there, because our beloved government has declined to even find out how much the Mackenzie River basin has suffered.)

(Unfortunately, neither of those things would make a lot of difference, for the reasons I already outlined above - exports balance imports in the long run, whether that's 4% of your economy, like the US circa 1905, or 50%, like the UK.)

And, as I said, that long run may well include other changes that I don't want to see.

I'm still not seeing the case for why, unless "buy local" is just shorthand for "buy environmentally friendly," or "buy with a social conscience," which, as an Albertan (well, expat) with an environmentalist streak, sounds like a bad joke. Not every locality is better than every other, by definition.

My own locality is full of people I know personally, who I would like to be able to make a living, pay taxes and support the social systems I want to have surrounding me. Buying the materials they make keeps the local economy healthy.

I may (and do) feel sorry for the factory workers who are trapped in poor conditions elsewhere in the world, but I still am parochial enough that I want the people I know to do well.

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your input. And may you have a glorious Thanksgiving weekend, with appropriate feasting, even if you are not 'here' to do it.

P.S. Deebye, if you are reading this still - when/if you drive through the town of Wiarton, check out the small butcher shop called Sullivans (on the main street) for their sausages and smoked bacon. I will be stopping on my way home from our Thanksgiving gathering to collect a sufficient supply of both to get us through the winter.