When are people going to learn that exports aren’t even good. The export market just gets a lot of play in politics because of concentrated interests. Exporters lobby. Politicans present arguments to justify what they are doing for exporters. That becomes political rhetoric. Generations later people actually believe it.

Countries with high exports don’t have a great quality of life. Exports don’t improve the quality of life people living there. It increases work and lowers real wages as often as not. It just makes exporter’s rich. Did British people actually benefit from the opium wars? Do Chinese workers have physical prosperity matching their level of productivity?

Exporters have convinced countries that money is more valuable than goods. Countries print money.

This is why the tariffs don’t actually hurt Canada but are just a self-own for the US. It hurts Canadian exporters. But who cares. Now Canadians get to enjoy those products. If a few jobs are lost momentarily, they are replaced by jobs serving the domestic market.