August1991

Trump is playing the Ace card that Truman and Reagan gave him.

We various Canadians get along. This current world - the 2020s - needs people like Canadians; you know, Newfoundlanders. Quebecers. Albertans. People who want to get along.

Disagree. If you are retired and fly to Cuba or buy stuff at Dollarama, a lower Canadian dollar is hurtful. But if you live in Canada and make stuff, we are now priced better. Some win, some lose.

The measure of a democracy is not voter turn out, it is tax compliance. The measure of a civilised society is if state power is passed without death, between opponents.

Agreed, on your first two points. But as to your third point, I disagree with the implication. The value of a currency is not a signal of well-being: ask any older woman who dyes her hair.

Wow! AG, maybe you're correct.

Bump.

Serbia? America (free trade) won in the 1990s. ==== We now live in a world similar to the 1910s - not the 1930s. Putin is no Hitler. Putin reminds me of Catherine the Great, Nicholas II. After this Cold War, we need an arrangement for peace.

Our GST is a remarkable tax. It is a sophisticated VAT, and it is fair. It is a tax on consumption - not income. Russia has such a tax. Sweden too. The only country without a federal VAT, consumption tax is the US. ===== Harper foolishly cut it to 5%. Trudeau Jnr is doing crazy things.

China is known for chopsticks. England is known as a place to speak English well. France is known for its food, sauces. America? A place to get rich. Around the world, Canada is known because we get along: French-English, Catholic-Protestant.

AG, most people are right-handed. But some are lefties. A civilised state makes both get along.

Disagree. By any measure, Cdn govt (sub/federal) debt to GDP ratio is well below 100%. True, since Trudeau Jnr, it is rising ===== The US is another story. It is a Ponzi scheme. The US debt (sub/federal) is rising faster than GDP growth. This is not sustainable. I suspect that Trump -like Mulroney- will impose a US federal consumption tax (VAT).

Bump. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/no-place-for-the-state-in-the-bedrooms-of-the-nation-1.4681298

DUI_Offender, You (and many others) view the world as it was in 1936 or so. In these 2010s, our world has changed. The Berlin Wall has fallen. === Unlike Lenin, Putin is not a Communist/Marxist ideologist, fomenting world revolution. IMHO, Xi and Putin are typical nationalist dictators. Let them be.

About 30% of all Canadian income tax filers pay no income tax. With the Mulroney GST refunds and food/rent exemptions, our VAT is a remarkable tax. ==== This federal Liberal measure is a Hail Mary - and I'm a Protestant.

MAGA? Make America Great Again? China was once poor. Now it is richer. Imagine both America is greater and China is richer.

How did Trudeau Jnr get this money? Where? And DUI_Offender, as they famously say, "the cheque's in the mail".

This is bad on so many levels. At least Harper cut the GST permanently. == To have a civilised society, we need taxes. Tax compliance is a better measure of democracy than voter turn out. Quote me. Our federal GST is a remarkable tax. Mulroney did it. The US (public debt/gdp ratio is above 100 and rising) is the only civilised state without a federal VAT. Rand Paul, take note.

Before 1989, like Truman and Reagan, we were correct to defeat the Soviets/Communists/Socialists who wanted to take over the entire world. But now, in these 2020s, Americans are merely facing a typical opponent, in a new world.

Radiorum or DUI_Offebder, Before you claim the death of democracy, at least explain what it is. Democracy? Here are my two conditions of a civilised State: -a government peacefully changes (Bush, Obama, - opponents hand over power,etc) -the State itself changes without death (US Civil War, Canada)

Huh?

The Communists/Marxists/Bolsheviks wanted to change the world. In the 1950s, we in the West were facing people who wanted to take-over the world. NATO was created to stop them. Reagan won in 1989. ===== Sadly, in 2010s or so, we live in a world like Europe in 1912, the world of the Titanic. We believe all is well.

Disagree. ==== China and Vietnam now allow free trade. They have adopted the Singapore Lee Kwan Yew model: free markets. Even Russia under Putin has done the same. Reagan won, Communism lost.

This forum is great! (But be careful kids, the Internet is forever.) ==== AG, good question. Does the fall in the Cdn dollar put more food on the table of most Cdns?

The current US State Department bureaucrats (so-called deep state) are doing exactly as European bureaucrats around 1900 did. Read Tuchman's, The Guns of August. ==== In 2020s, we are not facing Hitler. We are struggling with a multi-polar world.