Quote:
Originally Posted by casual user
exports always cost more in foreign countries than they do domestically. at least you can have some solace in the fact that europeans have it way worse
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That's not always so, unfortunately. Many Canadian products (take snowmobiles as an example) sell for less in the US (after exchange) than they do in Canada.
As a rule, Canadians are far too accepting of price gouging. We do not have the US insistence on market-driven pricing. We accept marketing boards that set minimum prices for things, we accept prices on imported goods that go beyond simple exchange rates and business risks, we accept a government policy of deliberately under-valuing the Canadian dollar (on any rational basis, the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar, and has been for over 15 years). The chilling effect on the Canadian economy has been profound, and it has kept us tied to an artificial dependence on resource exports to the US and finished good imports from the US.
Yes, we do pay too much for imported goods, and it has nothing to do with our tax structure or health system.
By the way, the lower taxes in the US are nothing but a smoke screen. The US is deferring INCREDIBLE amounts of tax, dumping it on their children through their deficits, while Canadian fiscal policy since 1995 has, until the last 2 years, produced surpluses at all levels of government, paying down our total debt.