Nationalism, good or bad?
What's so bad about nationalism? Well, if you're a fan of it, you probably don't think anything. If you're against it though, you understand the worst part about it is how it dumbs everything down in a way that just sounds so damn enticing. "Why send humanitarian aid when we have homelessness?" or "Why give another government aid when our veterans are living in squalor?" or, if you're in Canada, "Why give a terrorist money?".
I'll start with the last one first, since I'll need to waste the least amount of breath on it. Since you love labels and words so much. Omar Khadr is NOT a terrorist. He WAS a CHILD SOLDIER. And we didn't GIVE him money. We SETTLED A LAWSUIT EVERY SINGLE INTELLIGENT PERSON SAID HE WOULD WIN. In other words, the settlement more than likely saved Canadians money. Shut your holes. Done.
The remainder are much more nuanced questions. But here is a very simple reason if you're simple a single track, closed minded imbecile. Foreign countries engage in trade with Canada and their citizens vacation and visit here. These are 2 very direct ways other countries give Canada and Canadians money. Our image as a country can be influenced by how we treat others. One simply needs to do a quick Google search to estimate the losses in tourism thanks to Trump's governance of the USA. In just one year, global opinion of the US has fallen enough to impact the economy there by an estimated $2B+. That is from a drop of less than 2% (I will the moment ignore that global arrivals are up over 4%, meaning the US delta is actually potentially as high as 6% or more so these figures actually hide the true losses). But, from that we can extrapolate that international tourism is easily, well in excess of $100B/year.
Even if we scale that down for Canadian markets. That number is still well over $10 billion a year. The money you're bitching about? That and more wouldn't be in Canada at all without people from outside our borders. And of course, that is JUST tourism. It doesn't account for jobs tourism has helped create or the way that international trade benefits Canadians. Often at the expense of their international counterparts. After all, every international sale that goes to a Canadian company is also one which doesn't go to a member of their local economy. That $10 billion is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, if all you care about is the cash flow, then you should probably pull your head out of your ass so you can see how much of your life is explicitly and implicitly enabled by forces external to your own country.
If you're not just a cash obsessed snob, then there are yet more reasons. The quickest draws off the last point. Our humanitarian aid reflects well on us as a country. I don't have to do anything directly, and yet, the fact that I'm Canadian reflects well on me abroad. It is a status symbol of sorts. It is a vain point to be sure. But, some people do care about that.
Let's move on to something with a bit more substance. Humanitarian efforts. Let's assume for a second that you're not a complete and total douche bag. As such, you view the lives of all total strangers pretty much equally, regardless of which flag is likely flying over them. Now consider all Canadians already have universal basic health care and costs here are staggeringly high. For the same cost to save an average Canadian life, many many many many more lives can be saved elsewhere. And, if a Canadian life is in danger, they do have access to that health care ALREADY. Their odds of survival, the means available, everything are much better. Improving those odds here is staggeringly expensive. That doesn't mean we shouldn't invest here. And guess what, we already do invest here. It just means, if you have a conscience, you would also agree that we should help others. Especially when we can do much more good for the same amount of investment.
I still don't understand why people care so much about nationality. I mean, obviously, if an arbitrary, non-literal line in the sand means a difference between living in a brutal dictatorship or living in a democracy I want to be on the democracy side. But, that line isn't a real thing. It doesn't make the people on the other side non-human. It doesn't make them worse than you. Nor does it make them better. BORDERS ARE NOT REAL TANGIBLE THINGS PEOPLE!!!! Why would you ascribe more value to a life on one side of it than the other?
Moving on to complaints about vets. In this case, veterans, not the people who care for your cats. Yes, I think most established countries, including our own fail vets. But, I don't think this failure is, in any way, intrinsically tied to foreign aid. If we scrapped ALL foreign aid (and then we would look like bigger pieces of shit than Trump, and incidentally, over time would lose much foreign investment in Canada) we might be able to make a difference in the short terms to benefit veterans. In the long term, as I alluded in parentheses, removing that much of our international aid, would have a backlash. Over time we would become a poorer and poorer economy. And then, just maintaining our currently inadequate levels would require more taxation than the common person could afford.
Problems for veterans stem from a number of places. But the two biggest factors are likely the following two very simple ones; no one wants to pay more in taxes (we'd rather just bitch about where they go) and we probably aren't using the money we already spend in the most effective ways possible.
Don't bitch about where the government spends a tiny amount of your tax money. Tell them to raise your taxes if you're serious. In fact, Canada has actually REDUCED spending in this area in Trudeau. In fact, according to this, we're contributing less than half of what well respected establishments feel we should be spending.
BTW... I went out of my way to help with the math. We spend about $5B a year on foreign aid. YES, that little. We have over 650k veterans. If we took back every single dollar in foreign aid, and gave it directly to veterans it would amount to about $7600 a year. Of course, that seems like a large number. But it isn't. Veterans are an aging group and a group with higher rates of disability and mental illness than the general population. In truth, if we spent the money like that, it would probably only tangibly change the lives of a handful of them. If they can't afford proper medical attention or other life important things. What amounts to a little over $600/month isn't likely to substantially change that.
So, at the cost of being absolute shit heads on the world stage, we could give our veterans each and extra $600 a month.
And since we seem to be unable to avoid kicking that dead horse, I'll bring it up one last time. Omar Khadr's settlement was estimated at $10M. That's roughly $15 per veteran. One time. Or, about $0.33 per Canadian. Don't get me wrong. Costs of such things should probably not be mocked. But, this one bothers me because people don't seem to understand the issue at all. That money wasn't paid because the person in question is or was or may have been a terrorist. That money was paid because the Canadian government was complicit and even assisted in the illegal torture of a Canadian citizen. FUCK whatever you think about the specific person and his past, and focus on the case in question. If you don't understand that you're effectively seeking to undermine the constitutional rights of ALL Canadians by setting precedent under which they are OK to ignore. We really don't seem to know what we've got until its gone.
But then, that whole bit is a part of the bigger picture. We are (as a group) too stupid to see past the catch phrases. The click-bait. The tempting slogans to look out for our own first. Most of us aren't willing to part with a single cent more in taxes, but we still want heaven and Earth moved by someone else to see veterans treated properly and homelessness eradicated locally and senseless loss of lives in our country to end. Life, the world, nothing which matters that I can think of works that way. You have to pay the price to make it so. You need to be willing to spend more in taxes. Or get off your whining ass and actually do something to improve the lives of these people.
Our humanitarian efforts save far more lives abroad than they could here. They improve our image on the world stage which helps promotes Canada as a tourist destination and a trade partner. It insulates us from countries wanting to wage war on us. And we spend an insultingly low amount of money on those efforts. But, still we whine. I don't know if we're simply too dumb, or just willfully ignorant. I don't know how to fix us. I wish I knew.
I'll start with the last one first, since I'll need to waste the least amount of breath on it. Since you love labels and words so much. Omar Khadr is NOT a terrorist. He WAS a CHILD SOLDIER. And we didn't GIVE him money. We SETTLED A LAWSUIT EVERY SINGLE INTELLIGENT PERSON SAID HE WOULD WIN. In other words, the settlement more than likely saved Canadians money. Shut your holes. Done.
The remainder are much more nuanced questions. But here is a very simple reason if you're simple a single track, closed minded imbecile. Foreign countries engage in trade with Canada and their citizens vacation and visit here. These are 2 very direct ways other countries give Canada and Canadians money. Our image as a country can be influenced by how we treat others. One simply needs to do a quick Google search to estimate the losses in tourism thanks to Trump's governance of the USA. In just one year, global opinion of the US has fallen enough to impact the economy there by an estimated $2B+. That is from a drop of less than 2% (I will the moment ignore that global arrivals are up over 4%, meaning the US delta is actually potentially as high as 6% or more so these figures actually hide the true losses). But, from that we can extrapolate that international tourism is easily, well in excess of $100B/year.
Even if we scale that down for Canadian markets. That number is still well over $10 billion a year. The money you're bitching about? That and more wouldn't be in Canada at all without people from outside our borders. And of course, that is JUST tourism. It doesn't account for jobs tourism has helped create or the way that international trade benefits Canadians. Often at the expense of their international counterparts. After all, every international sale that goes to a Canadian company is also one which doesn't go to a member of their local economy. That $10 billion is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, if all you care about is the cash flow, then you should probably pull your head out of your ass so you can see how much of your life is explicitly and implicitly enabled by forces external to your own country.
If you're not just a cash obsessed snob, then there are yet more reasons. The quickest draws off the last point. Our humanitarian aid reflects well on us as a country. I don't have to do anything directly, and yet, the fact that I'm Canadian reflects well on me abroad. It is a status symbol of sorts. It is a vain point to be sure. But, some people do care about that.
Let's move on to something with a bit more substance. Humanitarian efforts. Let's assume for a second that you're not a complete and total douche bag. As such, you view the lives of all total strangers pretty much equally, regardless of which flag is likely flying over them. Now consider all Canadians already have universal basic health care and costs here are staggeringly high. For the same cost to save an average Canadian life, many many many many more lives can be saved elsewhere. And, if a Canadian life is in danger, they do have access to that health care ALREADY. Their odds of survival, the means available, everything are much better. Improving those odds here is staggeringly expensive. That doesn't mean we shouldn't invest here. And guess what, we already do invest here. It just means, if you have a conscience, you would also agree that we should help others. Especially when we can do much more good for the same amount of investment.
I still don't understand why people care so much about nationality. I mean, obviously, if an arbitrary, non-literal line in the sand means a difference between living in a brutal dictatorship or living in a democracy I want to be on the democracy side. But, that line isn't a real thing. It doesn't make the people on the other side non-human. It doesn't make them worse than you. Nor does it make them better. BORDERS ARE NOT REAL TANGIBLE THINGS PEOPLE!!!! Why would you ascribe more value to a life on one side of it than the other?
Moving on to complaints about vets. In this case, veterans, not the people who care for your cats. Yes, I think most established countries, including our own fail vets. But, I don't think this failure is, in any way, intrinsically tied to foreign aid. If we scrapped ALL foreign aid (and then we would look like bigger pieces of shit than Trump, and incidentally, over time would lose much foreign investment in Canada) we might be able to make a difference in the short terms to benefit veterans. In the long term, as I alluded in parentheses, removing that much of our international aid, would have a backlash. Over time we would become a poorer and poorer economy. And then, just maintaining our currently inadequate levels would require more taxation than the common person could afford.
Problems for veterans stem from a number of places. But the two biggest factors are likely the following two very simple ones; no one wants to pay more in taxes (we'd rather just bitch about where they go) and we probably aren't using the money we already spend in the most effective ways possible.
Don't bitch about where the government spends a tiny amount of your tax money. Tell them to raise your taxes if you're serious. In fact, Canada has actually REDUCED spending in this area in Trudeau. In fact, according to this, we're contributing less than half of what well respected establishments feel we should be spending.
BTW... I went out of my way to help with the math. We spend about $5B a year on foreign aid. YES, that little. We have over 650k veterans. If we took back every single dollar in foreign aid, and gave it directly to veterans it would amount to about $7600 a year. Of course, that seems like a large number. But it isn't. Veterans are an aging group and a group with higher rates of disability and mental illness than the general population. In truth, if we spent the money like that, it would probably only tangibly change the lives of a handful of them. If they can't afford proper medical attention or other life important things. What amounts to a little over $600/month isn't likely to substantially change that.
So, at the cost of being absolute shit heads on the world stage, we could give our veterans each and extra $600 a month.
And since we seem to be unable to avoid kicking that dead horse, I'll bring it up one last time. Omar Khadr's settlement was estimated at $10M. That's roughly $15 per veteran. One time. Or, about $0.33 per Canadian. Don't get me wrong. Costs of such things should probably not be mocked. But, this one bothers me because people don't seem to understand the issue at all. That money wasn't paid because the person in question is or was or may have been a terrorist. That money was paid because the Canadian government was complicit and even assisted in the illegal torture of a Canadian citizen. FUCK whatever you think about the specific person and his past, and focus on the case in question. If you don't understand that you're effectively seeking to undermine the constitutional rights of ALL Canadians by setting precedent under which they are OK to ignore. We really don't seem to know what we've got until its gone.
But then, that whole bit is a part of the bigger picture. We are (as a group) too stupid to see past the catch phrases. The click-bait. The tempting slogans to look out for our own first. Most of us aren't willing to part with a single cent more in taxes, but we still want heaven and Earth moved by someone else to see veterans treated properly and homelessness eradicated locally and senseless loss of lives in our country to end. Life, the world, nothing which matters that I can think of works that way. You have to pay the price to make it so. You need to be willing to spend more in taxes. Or get off your whining ass and actually do something to improve the lives of these people.
Our humanitarian efforts save far more lives abroad than they could here. They improve our image on the world stage which helps promotes Canada as a tourist destination and a trade partner. It insulates us from countries wanting to wage war on us. And we spend an insultingly low amount of money on those efforts. But, still we whine. I don't know if we're simply too dumb, or just willfully ignorant. I don't know how to fix us. I wish I knew.
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