I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. We were right. We said jobs would go to low cost countries, hollowing out Canadian manufacturing. They did. The rich got richer and everyone else got poorer. And now resurgent populism.
I guess the question is what we need to do next.
I always liked the idea of globalizing rights: free trade with countries that have similar labour and environmental standards. Maybe that’s the next move? Or are we back to bespoke tariffs on everyone?
I think realistically the best case scenario is bespoke tariffs plus resurgence in union density and militancy. Our own labor standards are too low for sustainability at this point so teaming up with other countries with similar standards would still not solve the issue at home. We’re still on an uptrend when it comes to inequality and we know it leads to instability at some threshold. We need to significantly curb the amount of money/wealth going to the top and instead direct it to the working class.
The only way to curb wealth going to the top is taxes on their wealth/income… Tariffs help with labour outsourcing, but not with wealth inequality…
I suppose a guillotine would help with wealth inequality as well though…
We’re Canadian. Guillotines are out. Execution pits with either rabid beavers, or bull Moose in musk with the oligarch dipped in lady Moose pheromones before being thrown in.
Isn’t it the opposite? Free trade has ended like you wanted, but it didn’t make things better
“… now the electrical grid’s collapsed, there’s no coal-gas infrastructure for lighting! I warned you electricity was bad! I told you so!”
The problem right now is not what we were doing, last month.
