[Alberta's Child]

A strong dollar means fewer Canadians buy US because it's more expensive. A weak dollar means more Canadians buy US because it's cheaper. You said you are cheering on exactly which dog???

You really aren't getting it, are you? When the U.S. dollar is weak, Canadians buy U.S. products because they can afford to pay more for them than people in the U.S. can -- in other words, they have a higher standard of living than Americans.

You can root for it either way -- which is exactly what I'm saying through this entire thread. If you want to root for U.S. jobs, you have to root for Canada's higher standard of living. If you want to root for a high U.S. standard of living, you have to accept a trade deficit with Canada.

If you tell me that the U.S. can enjoy "both," then you are utterly ignorant on this subject.

For sports fans out there, it's worth noting that at the height of Canada's strong currency, the best team in the National Hockey League was the Montreal Canadiens. Over the last ten years when the Canadian currency has been weak, there hasn't even been a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup finals. Now you see how this currency business works in the sports world -- when Canada's currency is weak, one of the things they can't even afford is their own native-born hockey players.

[drlevy88]

Shoot, let's make the dollar infinitely strong and everything will be outsourced and imported. Everything will be almost free, only catch to this utopia is that hardly anyone will be earning any money to buy it with.

Does standard of living equate to how much junk I can accumulate? Or rather to subjective matters such as health, comfort, and dignity? One of the hardwired factors of dignity, since before Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, is to work. An infinitely felicitous society which has elves to furnish its every whim -- in your economic model, has a "far higher standard of living" than the world -- is heading for decadence and misery.