“What I’d like to see?” confessed the president. “Canada become our 51st state.”
Why?
“We give them military protection,” he offered.
Then things got weird.
“We don’t need them to build our cars,” Donald Trump added. “We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need them for anything.”
Shocking? Yes. But not just for the disrespect shown to our northern neighbors.
What’s most shocking is our president’s ignorance of economics. While we don’t “need” Canada for any of the things Trump mentioned, we’re better off trading with Canada than not. The sending of “billions of dollars” up north is neither charity nor waste; the gains both sides make are apparent in the voluntary trades themselves.
It’s as if he thinks if “we” must pay anyone, it should be to ourselves, that is, to our fellow countrymen.
Behind this is that old crank notion, protectionism: “we have big deficits with Canada, like we have with all countries.”
Now, it’s true that Canadians send more raw materials to the U.S. than we send to them, and that we send them more dollars than they send us theirs: that’s what “trade deficit” means.
But how is this bad for us?
Trump doesn’t explain. “I look at some of the deals made and I say, ‘Who the hell made these deals?’ They’re so bad.”
Mr. Trump identifies no specific trade rules or agreement; he doesn’t say which are unfair, or why; nor does he say who made them. But the trades that pile up to that overall deficit, each was made by Americans and Canadians who thought the deal best for them.
Trump’s seemingly goofy idea of adding Canadian provinces to the U.S. as new states would have one great benefit: more trades with these good people than ever. This belies Trump’s far, far more troublesome notion that we need nothing from Canada. We need everything. As Canadians do.
That is, freedom.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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4 replies on “The 51st State?!?!”
Elsewhere, I’ve explained the idea of comparative advantage, and why trade makes sense, whether we’re talking about trade across national borders or trade between you and a grocer.
But, here, I want to note that Trump claims that we shouldn’t trade with Canada, but that the US should annex it. Why should Americans want the US to include a portion with whom we don’t trade?
Our various Presidents have often said things that lack general coherence, and Joe Biden sometimes made utterances that weren’t in any language; but, still, President Trump is being absurd here.
As for me, I’m unhappy with the present share of denizens in America who don’t support liberty of expression, and union with Canada would make that share much larger. If a majority of Canadians petitioned for annexation, I would vehemently urge rejection.
But, of course, I favor free trade with Canada, even if their government never reciprocates.
Maybe he thinks he can steer them away from Socialism.
We make up 19% of the GDP of Canada, while they make up 1.5% of the US’s. A mild annoyance for the US to do without. It would be very rough on Canadians. But, easy to forget, that one of the techniques that Trump has used quite successfully over the years is to start off a deal (even one that would greatly benefit both parties) with a logical extreme that he is not really that interested in, but that he can then use as a potential stick to make the actual carrot in the deal seem quite desirable. It costs almost nothing to start a negotiation there, besides alarming the folks he is negotiating with, and it makes them take seriously the idea of finding a reasonable alternative. And if it cements the viewpoint of the hardcore libprogs that he is a crazy person, that’s acceptable collateral damage since they weren’t fans of his anyway. Just adds more equity to making the next negotiation with the next folks that much easier.
That’s the art. Of the deal.
If we add Canada, we need to break it up into 2 states. The conservative west and the more liberal east. Otherwise, we would be feeding the democrats.