+
Note added February 8, 2012, to enlarge on a point made toward end of this post.
Let's say hypothetically that country XYZ buys $35 billion worth of manufactured goods from Canada in 2011. We then say to country XYZ that in 2012 we will allow free entry of your manufactured goods up to a value of $35 billion. Beyond that level, no imports allowed.
Result: Canada demonstrates belief in free trade up to the point of equal amounts of manufactured goods in each direction. But nothing beyond that! No more trade deficits. No more devastating hemorrhage of a net $80 billion per year, pouring out of our country, amounting to over $2300 for every man, woman, and child in Canada.
This is what we have to do to get employment going again. This is the only way to get employment going. Cut imports and increase domestic manufacturing. This is Canada's most critical need and there is virtually no discussion of the issue in government or in the media.
Seniors Scare Harper!
Prime Minister Harper says seniors threaten social programs. He is concerned that senior numbers will increase to the point that by 2030 there will be only two working-age people for every retired person (as opposed to the current four people).
But like most politicians, Harper is thinking about one issue at a time. Why don't politicians think in terms of interrelated issues?
Obviously the real issue here is that working-age people in 2030 need to actually have employment and therefore income, so they will be paying taxes, to help support retired people, among the many things governments do with our money.
At the rate we have lost jobs in 2011, can anyone say with any certainty that we will have enough employed people in 2030 to provide tax revenue for any purpose?
The Harper record
Prime Minister Harper has been in office for almost six years. This amount of time provides a fully adequate basis for evaluating his performance. The fact is that Harper has compiled a record of complete mismanagement of the economy and especially jobs.
If we continue our present policies, long before 2030 there will be an economic crisis and an unemployment crisis beyond anything we can imagine now.
Harper and his ministers go around bragging about the wonderful state Canada is in. Actually, Canada is in bad shape as indicated by a real unemployment rate of probably 20%.
The Canadian economy looks good superficially because we have raw materials and resources that we are selling to an enemy country, China, and to other countries, at giveaway prices. Harper cannot take credit for the raw materials and resources. He didn't put them there. It is happenstance that the resources are there, making Harper look good.
It is only through manufacturing that we get mass employment and the ripple effect creating employment openings in many other fields.
Disastrous trade deficit
Our trade deficit in manufactured goods with all foreign countries was $81 billion in 2010. (The figure for 2011 will be available in due course.)
The trade deficit has nearly tripled since Harper took the helm. This comparison alone demonstrates Harper's complete mismanagement and complete lack of understanding of what is going on.
The trade deficit is determined by the equation
trade def = exports of manufactured goods minus imports of manufactured goods
There are different ways exports and imports could move, and still give the same figure for trade deficit. During Harper's reign, exports remained essentially level. They certainly did not go up. The great increase in trade deficit is due to a great increase in imports.
The increase in imports means that many hundreds of thousands of Canadians are no longer working. The goods these Canadians could be making have been replaced by imported goods.
So if Harper is really concerned about the effect of increasing numbers of seniors, he should be concerned about all the working-age people who are losing their jobs due to his misguided policies.
A theory gone wrong
The word "free" attached to any other word makes that word sound better. Free trade, free love, free enterprise, free will, free markets.
Unrestricted free trade and a continuing increase in the number of international trade deals is a theory that sounds good on paper. But in practice this theory leads to an insane result:
+ Steadily increasing outpouring of wealth, a net $81 billion in 2010, to pay foreign countries to do our manufacturing for us, while steadily increasing numbers of our own workers stand in line at unemployment and welfare offices.
In the 1960s, the Canadian government cooperated with business "leaders" to obtain justification from think tanks to the effect that we no longer need to worry about "smokestack" manufacturing. Manufacturing can be done anywhere. Canada will move ahead with "knowledge-based" industries.
We have had 50 years of propaganda based on this theory. Ninety-nine percent of our authority figures, in government and in business, and many ordinary Canadians, believe in this theory.
However the unfortunate fact is that this theory is completely wrong! It is leading Canada, and all other western countries, USA, UK, Australia, EU, to destruction. The only way to properly support our seniors in 2030, and generally to have a viable economy, is to change course completely.
We have to limit imports of manufactured goods to the amounts foreign countries buy from us, on a country by country basis. No more trade deficits in manufactured goods.
We have to get the phrase "compete with China" out of our minds completely. The allegedly lower prices of foreign goods are fantasy. If the true hidden costs are taken into account, it becomes clear that it is much cheaper to manufacture here at home!
