Merging the Canadian Dollar, American Dollar and the Mexican Peso

[Galleleo]

It all depends on what corner you are coming from, but pure Capitalism is supposed to work on it's own not with interference from the Government making rules and what not.

[Squeezer]

It all depends on what corner you are coming from, but pure Capitalism is supposed to work on it's own not with interference from the Government making rules and what not.

Yeah, sure the Adam Smith model of capitalism is supposed to work without interference, but that's applying Social Darwinism to human beings which doesn't really work.

Well, it works for those with callous hearts.

[Eric is God]

Tell that to the Mexican making $.40 an hour so that "CEO of random fortune 500 company" can make almost 100 times more than the American that works for them, never mind the egregious gap between the wages being made by those actually manufacturing the goods. I mean christ, they struggle to make a living wage by their standards (less than a dollar an hour is not a sizable living wage...Even in Mexico.)

I get where you're coming from and have heard the positives of NAFTA first hand. I agree it's a good idea, but at the same time it's not hard to see who's really benefiting from the agreement, and who isn't.

I'm not going to argue with anything you said. If there's anything I've learned from my undergrad degree in economics it's that real life is very far from the tidy equilibrium points we set. All I ever hope for is that society takes 2 steps forward for every 1 step back.

I get pissed thinking about how the two CEO's of my company have personally made $4-5 billion in the last 5 months due to stock pricine increases while the average employee will see a bump in their performance bonus of $200-300. I'm not trying to compare myself to a Mexican worker, but it's all relative as there are many people in Canada who barely get by on $30-40k a year. The point is you see people getting screwed at almost every level of society because it's a very flawed system we live in.

[Zerzera]

Even worse are those CEO's that are brought in to lead big companies, don't reach any of the main goals or targets that were set, and still leave with a huge bonus after 4 years.

[Squeezer]

I'm not going to argue with anything you said. If there's anything I've learned from my undergrad degree in economics it's that real life is very far from the tidy equilibrium points we set. All I ever hope for is that society takes 2 steps forward for every 1 step back.

I get pissed thinking about how the two CEO's of my company have personally made $4-5 billion in the last 5 months due to stock pricine increases while the average employee will see a bump in their performance bonus of $200-300. I'm not trying to compare myself to a Mexican worker, but it's all relative as there are many people in Canada who barely get by on $30-40k a year. The point is you see people getting screwed at almost every level of society because it's a very flawed system we live in.

Alright, fair enough. I'm not going to drag out an argument, and I guess on one level you and I disagree.

edit: Oh, and I have a feeling you have more knowledge (perhaps your waving of your degree) of this anyway :grin:

And is it really that difficult to make things a little more even?

[Cops]

Yeah, sure the Adam Smith model of capitalism is supposed to work without interference, but that's applying Social Darwinism to human beings which doesn't really work.

Well, it works for those with callous hearts.

I completely agree, this is pretty much the same debate as the Health Care thread.

[Galleleo]

Even worse are those CEO's that are brought in to lead big companies, don't reach any of the main goals or targets that were set, and still leave with a huge bonus after 4 years.

Really? I was planning on being one of them.

[Eric is God]

edit: Oh, and I have a feeling you have more knowledge (perhaps your waving of your degree) of this anyway :grin:

And is it really that difficult to make things a little more even?

Normally that might be the case but it was an innocent reference. A lot of people (yourself included) have demonstrated more than a basic level of economics knowledge so there is no need to dismiss anyone's opinion by waving my degree around

Unfortunately it is THAT difficult to make things a little better. It's difficult because anything as complicated as free trade is going to involve almost every special interest group in a country. Politics is a necessary evil, it's just more evil than necessary. That's the reason I almost never vote. Very rarely can any political party (in Canada anyways) bring about significant social change for better or worse. But then again I'm extremely cynical so don't listen to me.