"Why not trade only within their province then? Or their town? Or their neighborhood? Or their family?
Commerce quickly collapses under this regime. That border between the US and Canada and the US and Mexico is really an artificial contrivance, a legal fiction."
You've posed your own question and given your own answer. It has nothing to do with the comment that "allegiance is based on group identity", but it is still a pretty question and answer! I will only add that trade is beneficial specifically BECAUSE it transports resources so that all may benefit from an abundance of choice, both in need and in caprice--so that this abundant variety may inform a much improved standard of living, and thus enhance the quality of life and the appreciation thereof.
"We are each major trading partners."
Major? We are your largest trading partner. We have made you dependent upon both our material and our human resources!
"Just tell us the date of our next war with Canada"
How about tomorrow at the abandoned gravel pits?!
"I was speaking of mutual deal making"
Which means?
Which means that in order to pursue self interest, individuals and groups of individuals make trillions of deals every day in the hope of improving their lot in life. In relation to Canadian provinces, they all rely on different resources and strengths as artillery for improving the lives of their citizens from the municipal level on up.
Apart from the differences which obviously define all groups of people, there is also the commonality between certain groups which encourages a greater cooperation for mutual benefit, and a diminished sense of defensiveness and "otherness".
In many instances, the difference between a particular group of "Canadians" and a particular group of "Americans" is less remarkable than many of the interstate or intercounty differences. Nor are these differences "natural" differences, but are based on the tendency of humans to identify with whatever groups have resources which can be bartered to the enhancement of particular values. We find in many cases that people are capable of being useful to one another within a shared ethic.
In the above sense, there really isn't any critical information conveyed by the adjectives "Canadian" or "American". The new paradigm is major cities, and how they unite and divide "North Americans" as trading and cultural centers.
This is not to disparage the fact that Canadians generally govern with a larger vision than do yourselves, nor to insist that the self righteous idealism which defines so much of the American charcter is entirely without basis in Canadian life! It is simply to suggest that our differences are not so much American and Canadian as they are THIS cultural/trading center versus THAT cultural/trading center. North American CITIES are competing for human, cultural, energy, and business resources.
"Were we not here to keep the Canadian economy going. you would have frozen to death long ago"
We will continue to see that your energy needs are met, and you will not go thirsty on our account. WE have the trade surplus! YOU have the trade deficit! And quite frankly--this is frightening to many non Americans. Some of the world have come to believe that American morality is often dictated by expediency...
BTW, please accept that much of what I say is tongue in cheek, in keeping with the bantering tone you have set. I love Canada, AND the United States, AND Mother England. She is still your MOTHER, too--you ingrate...<gg> |
