Donald Trump says 'nasty' Canada 'meant to be 51st state'
Donald Trump says 'nasty' Canada 'meant to be 51st state'
"I deal with every country, indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada," Trump said.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40942039
Ladies and gentlemen, the dumbest person on the planet, Donald Trump.
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America has been subsidizing Canada
2024: Canada imports ~$480 billion total from the USA. Divided by 40 million Canadian population, that's $12,000 for every man, woman, and child spent on American shit.
USA imports ~$586 billion from Canada. Divided by 400 million population, that's only $1,465 per capita, and that's only 1/8th of the amount that Canadians bought from the USA in return.
##BUY CANADIAN, BE FAIR!
You can't compare apples to apples when one side of the equation has 10 times the population. If we're trying to be fair, Trumpistan needs to buy 8 times more Canadian shit!
Tariffs on the Canadian side will be reciprocal and will only serve to make us stop buying Murcan shit, leading to an even bigger Trumped-up deficit and the loss of their biggest, best customer. Likely long-term.
There's no point in overanalyzing Trump's claims, he lies constantly. Regardless of the numbers, buying things is not subsidizing.
His supporters really believe every word he says. I've seen them on this site and others, complaining about how Canada leeches off the USA. If you ask them how, you get silence, because they have no idea. Their thought process seems to be: Trump says it, then I say it.
Does Canada have car manufacturers?
Lol, not sure if you're serious. Canada manufactures Ford, Honda, GMC, etc.
https://www.autotrader.ca/editorial/20250203/made-in-canada-what-cars-are-manufactured-in-canada/
Two of those are American companies
'Made in Canada' is more important to the cause. That's where the jobs are.
'Headquartered in Murca' makes very little difference to the Canadian economy. It's not like the c-levels contribute anything to Murca, as can be plainly seen.
it might not make a difference to the Canadian economy, but buying cars from American companies still boost theirs.
Not at all! They contribute nothing to the American economy except inflation.
That makes zero sense. How do they benefit by selling and manufacturing cars in other countries, if not by making money?
Weird, right? So people make money while working for Ford, for example.
Ford the automaker gets paid and makes "profit" in Murca.
Profit goes to the 1%. The 1% contributes nothing to the economy by dodging taxes and securing a greater share of the overall wallet in Murca.
This causes inflation because there's less money circulating. Huh. It's almost like the profits do nothing, despite what Reagan told you.
And profit going to the 1% isn't bad because...?
It's bad, but it's such a small slice of the pie, and accomplishes nothing except the accumulation of wealth at the top 1% who contribute nothing to the society they're in.
Of course it would be slightly better if we had wholly Canadian-owned auto makers but I'm pointing out that it's not much better. Ford Canada is already a thing. Honda Canada is already a thing.
American companies that do less of their manufacturing in the US than their Japanese rivals do.
They are still raking in money from sales in Canada and other countries though, no?
I’m confused what you’re asking.
I don't understand how an American company wouldn't make money by selling and manufacturing cars in other countries. If that isn't the case, why the fuck do they do it?
I think the point they're making is that the majority of the money they make in Canada, they spend in Canada. They pay Canadian taxes and Canadian staff, using Canadian banks, etc.
Just because their headquarters are in the US doesn't necessarily mean they're sending vast sums of money across the border, that would be expensive. The American-based company makes money, but not necessarily in America, they're multi-national and their money is kept all over the world.
As opposed to a company that exports their products, in which case the money is paid to the American company in America with American staff etc.
I don't have any numbers or sources to back this up though. Just outlining what I think the other commenter was implying.
That makes sense. But aren't the people that are in charge and have control over the profits, whether or not the actual funds are in America or not, American? I don't see how the Americans, that are actually doing harm to their citizens and other countries, COULDN'T benefit from buying their cars.
They absolutely would benefit.
Mr. Hypothetical lord high executive oligarch can take his private jet to Canada and lounge around on the company card with the money from his US company's car sales, or find an excuse to convert some of it to USD for some reason, or use it to buy up more Canadian companies to expand their power, or a million other things.
However, I think the point of the boycott is more about making the tariffs hurt the US economy by messing with their ability to export as well as import. Making the trade numbers look bad is likely to put more pressure on the US to end the trade war. It's not so much about hurting the capitalists that operate in Canada (a worthy goal in itself but not what people are specifically trying to do in this instance since it won't really affect those trade numbers).
They manufacture significant parts of their cars (or sometimes entire cars) outside the US and then sell them in the US. It’s part of why small pickup trucks don’t really exist anymore, due to tariff nonsense.
They do it because manufacturing labor is cheaper elsewhere.
That has nothing to do with my confusion.