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Over a quarter of trade between the US and Canada goes between Detroit and Windsor, so the scale hasn't been overblown but there's a question as to why is block

Over a quarter of trade between the US and Canada goes between Detroit and Windsor, so the scale hasn't been overblown but there's a question as to why is blocking trade off the table? Seems like another case of things being ok if they impact humans but as soon as corporations are inconvenienced, the gloves have to come off and the humans treated as terrorists. If the humans would go back to their gated free speech zones, then everything would be good?

dbliss 5y ago
Would you not agree that there are people behind the economic damage? Just calling it hurting corporations dehumanizes the automotive works that have been put out of work due to the temporary plant closures that the blockade has caused.
- salawat 5y ago
  The thing is, if you don't disrupt the chain, status quo is maintained. ...This is also why JIT logistics is incredibly fragile. Our economic sects have been shirking the inherent risk of long tail disruptive events for the better part of my life. There is a certain schadenfreude to seeing the come-uppances.
rpeden 5y ago
The border blockade quickly put thousands out auto workers out of work. Let that happen for long and you'll quickly have thousands of workers who need to feed their families converging in the blockade to take matters into their own hands. It's not just the immediate impact, either. Canadian manufacturers who sell to the U.S. (which is pretty much all of them) are constantly fighting against 'buy American' legislation that makes it more likely companies will shift production out of Ontario - and trade disruptions make it even harder to compete if Canada looks like a flaky trading partner that can't even keep its own border open. And manufacturing workers know what's at stake, and things would get ugly quickly. So it's not just inconveniencing corporations - it's threatening the short and long term viability of tend of thousands of jobs and the people working those jobs aren't likely to take it laying down. So blocking trade isn't off the table, but anyone who does it had better expect the government to treat it as a public order emergency because if they don't, it will very quickly become a public order emergency on its own.

dbliss 5y ago

Would you not agree that there are people behind the economic damage? Just calling it hurting corporations dehumanizes the automotive works that have been put out of work due to the temporary plant closures that the blockade has caused.

salawat 5y ago
The thing is, if you don't disrupt the chain, status quo is maintained. ...This is also why JIT logistics is incredibly fragile. Our economic sects have been shirking the inherent risk of long tail disruptive events for the better part of my life. There is a certain schadenfreude to seeing the come-uppances.

rpeden 5y ago

The border blockade quickly put thousands out auto workers out of work. Let that happen for long and you'll quickly have thousands of workers who need to feed their families converging in the blockade to take matters into their own hands. It's not just the immediate impact, either. Canadian manufacturers who sell to the U.S. (which is pretty much all of them) are constantly fighting against 'buy American' legislation that makes it more likely companies will shift production out of Ontario - and trade disruptions make it even harder to compete if Canada looks like a flaky trading partner that can't even keep its own border open. And manufacturing workers know what's at stake, and things would get ugly quickly. So it's not just inconveniencing corporations - it's threatening the short and long term viability of tend of thousands of jobs and the people working those jobs aren't likely to take it laying down. So blocking trade isn't off the table, but anyone who does it had better expect the government to treat it as a public order emergency because if they don't, it will very quickly become a public order emergency on its own.