{"id":43802,"date":"2020-11-24T01:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=43802"},"modified":"2020-11-23T10:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:11:36","slug":"qotd-canadas-economic-stockholm-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2020\/11\/24\/qotd-canadas-economic-stockholm-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Canada’s economic Stockholm Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Trade agreements are always about “concessions” in which foreign suppliers are grudgingly given \u2014 or, more often, indignantly denied \u2014 the right to sell Canadians goods and services at prices lower than what we pay now. Let’s be clear here: lowering the price of consumer goods and services has the exact same effect<\/em> on household welfare as an increase in incomes. But I defy you to name an elected politician who will list “the ability to buy cheaper stuff” as the most compelling reason to support free trade: more than 200 years since Adam Smith wrote that paragraph, our trade agenda is still written by and for producer interests.<\/p>\n

We’re stuck with a system in which producer interests \u2014 most notoriously the dairy cartel that operates under the name of “supply management” \u2014 hold the rest of us hostage. Dismantling the dairy cartel is an act that would significantly increase consumers’ buying power, but this is a measure that the Conservatives have all but ruled out under any circumstances, and the NDP has made maintaining the cartel a condition for supporting any sort of trade agreement.<\/p>\n

Why would the [major parties] stubbornly insist on sticking to a policy that makes consumers worse off at the expense of producers? Because it’s a popular position. It’s one of the marvels of the Canadian electorate. Show Canadians a special interest group that uses its government-granted privileges to fleece consumers, and they’ll embrace it as a “national champion,” a “uniquely Canadian way of life” or some equally vapid catch-phrase.<\/p>\n

This is from the Wikipedia entry for Stockholm Syndrome<\/a>:<\/p>\n