Canada,United States and Mexico

[Smallc]

Manufacturing doesn't work well inside first world economies. The areas of manufacturing that do work okay here, are still here. Large equipment for example.

[TimG]

It needs to be balanced with strong manufacturing sector. If people have no money to spend, then the service/hospitality sector will suffer. And if you have nothing to hedge against it via other sectors, it's gonna hurt.

This is largely a myth. What economies need are productive primary industries that generate export revenue that can be used to pay for imports. The more productive the primary industries the more excess wealth wealth gets recycled into the service industries. In today's world manufacturing is not productive enough to be viable in modern economies without extensive automation. This means they don't need a lot of workers like they did in the past. So even though manufacturing can be a big revenue generator it will not create jobs. The majority of jobs for people are going to be in the service sector and nothing will change that.

More importantly, the resource sector is the most important to Canada in terms generating wealth used to buy imports - even though manufacturing is technically larger in GDP terms. That is not likely to change even with the slumping dollar and oil because the world wants our resources it does not want/need our manufacturing.

Edited January 2, 2015 by TimG

[bush_cheney2004]

Canada's comparative advantages for manufacturing have been gone for some time....high energy prices, lower productivity, and lack of investment for automated processes has sent foreign (and domestic) companies to more favourable places/conditions.

The former CAW, now part of Unifor, learned this the hard way. Those jobs are not coming back.

[TimG]

Canada's comparative advantages for manufacturing have been gone for some time....high energy prices, lower productivity, and lack of investment for automated processes has sent foreign (and domestic) companies to more favourable places/conditions.

Canada has the same problems as all of the Rust Belt states. The main difference is the US has the Southern States that were willing to innovate and keep manufacturing in the US.

[overthere]

I'm talkinga bout internal services. That's 2/3 of the Canadian economy.

It's the 1/3 that makes us a prosperous first world economy.

If you don't sell things the world wants: finished goods or commodities- your economy is in trouble.

There are minor exceptions where items like international fin

Manufacturing doesn't work well inside first world economies. The areas of manufacturing that do work okay here, are still here. Large equipment for example.

Japan, Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Benelux, Switzerland, Scandinavia and much of Europe all refute that statement about 1st world economies.

ancial services affect the trade balance, but we are not and will not be part of that.

Canada has the same problems as all of the Rust Belt states. The main difference is the US has the Southern States that were willing to innovate and keep manufacturing in the US.

Ontario and Quebec have simialr problems to the Rust Belt, it is not generic to Canada.. The highly paid and very expensive semi skilled work has moved offshore and it will never return to central Canada.

The Southern Sates offer what we will never offer in central Canada: low wages, very low taxes at all levels, and no unions. The old jobs won't return to central Canada.