SMBC Comics Forum

Being for trade deals during an election is pretty difficult. There's no part of it that can be sold very well to the population. Because the concerns are tangible and immediate, the benefits are difficult to describe and are better seen on a longer timeline.

It is a tough position. There's definitely a perception that manufacturing makes up a waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy bigger portion of the economy here than it actually does. Which isn't to diminish those that still do work in manufacturing or mining or similar fields, but a job isn't a life sentence. That might sound unfeeling, but those jobs are going away no matter what, and due more to advances in technology and automation than trade deals.

How much does Nafta get talked about in Canadian politics?

I don't know much about the TPP (I assume we are talking about TPP?) but many of the objections I've heard to it are based on specific details, like new intellectual property rules that could cause drug prices to rise.

EDIT: Don't know much about NAFTA either but Bombardier has blown some contracts here (in Toronto) due to defective parts arriving from their factory in Mexico. It's now up to our idiot mayor to sue the pants off them, but he doesn't want to for some reason, which I guess is on us and not NAFTA.

At this point in time NAFTA gets pretty much no press. It has gotten very occasional press in the last 10 years or so but it's usually in respect to lumber or energy.
Hard to say how influential TPP is among the populus since it's still pretty fresh. Short term complaints are there, long term benefits are yet to be seen.

I do think that NAFTA did generally foster big-box retail while hurting small-business. Some small-business adapted itself to take some of the market but big-box still holds the reins. Which I think is still detrimental to local culture.*
TPP seems like it might be more detrimental to some production and farming. It's difficult to see exactly how it will play out.

*Nevermind the destruction of small-business, the notion of big-box retail hits a sense of local community right in the chin.

I image big-box stores would be able to do their standard running local stores out of business with or without free trade deals. But I dunno for certain.


Re: Democratic Convention, Michelle Obama's speech last night was incredible.

I imagine NAFTA gave them an extra edge, but since most of their items probably come from Asia, I doubt it had a huge impact. And their ability to buy in bulk and do their own distribution and Just In Time inventory management was the big advantage.

Saw some pictures of flash flooding in Maryland. I hope you're okay, Edie!

I'm fine! It was about twenty-ish miles from me, and closer to Kaharz since Ellicott City is a suburb of Baltimore.

but damn, those are some scary-ass photos.

I used to live right by there and my parents still live pretty close by. But the main Street / historic area is kind of a special case. It is basically a short and broad river gorge with pretty steep rock slopes on either side, especially the north side. There are also two streams that flow into the main water way at the east end (downstream) of the flooded area. That area floods a lot. Some of the buildings are actually over the river. I know they used to close some of the public parking areas and tow cars whenever there was a flash flood watch, but I haven't spent much time there in the last fifteen years or so. This was probably the worst flood since hurricane Agnes in 1972 though and I believe the first lethal flood since the one in the mid 1800s where the river rose about 6m. That was the worst flood on record.

One of the places I used to hang out at was a bar / restaurant called the Bloody Bucket. For about twenty years or so after the Agnes flood only the upstairs was open because of the owners couldn't afford to repair the downstairs. Someone eventually bought it and renamed it the Trolley House or something and finally reopened the downstairs. They left some of the wood columns with obvious high water marks on them.

Wasn't there some nasty weather/holes in the ground in/around Baltimore recently? Two years ago?

Well the city has had a nice run of fairly large sinkholes caused by utility failures leeching soil away. There was also an impressive 100ish year old retaining wall failure adjacent to some freight rails. We had some serious problems with power outages after a derecho storm the summer before Sandy. Some people were without power for over a week during the hottest part of the year. Those are the only things that spring to mind, but it is a reasonably old*, very poorly maintained city. Lots of shit breaks.

*by 'New World' standards. But most of the problematic stuff, like modern water and sewer systems, have only been around to a large degree for the last 150 years or so in any city.

Kaharz wrote:There was also an impressive 100ish year old retaining wall failure adjacent to some freight rails.

That's the one. Was that near where you live?

Edit: I looked it up. Turns out I walked right past the rebuilding of the road when I was visiting my girlfriend there. Neat!

It is a bit south of where I live. It is also on the way to take my wife to the bar she works at. One of the other routes is a road that floods out whenever it rains hard because the adjacent river rises above the storm drain outfalls and the exit onto the highway also floods in heavy rain due to collapsed drains. A day or two after the wall collapsed it also rained like hell. We tried to go down the road by the river but had to turn around. I watched one car that didn't turn around almost get washed off the road. Then we tried to go the way where the wall collapsed because I forgot about the closures. The police already had the highway ramp blocked. It took us about 40 minutes instead of the normal 5 to 10 we had to turn around so many times. Fortunately there is almost always another route in the city.

Kaharz wrote:Well the city has had a nice run of fairly large sinkholes caused by utility failures leeching soil away.

Holy shit that sounds like a thing that happens in Mexico City, not the US (it happened in Mexico when I was there, but I only saw it on TV).

A lot of Baltimore's water and sewer is pushing 100 years old. At best the specified lifespan for the pipes was 50 years. But the pipes are really difficult to replace, especially the water lines. Gravity fed sewer lines can often be replaced without actually having to dig them up. It is a common problem in many US and Canadian cities. Baltimore is built in a drainage basin, which doesn't help. A lot of streams were diverted into the storm drains and even the main river is built over in the downtown area.

And the 'fairly large' is relative. They are usually about 4m in diameter and 6 - 8m deep. Nothing like the one in Guatemala City that was 18m wide and 100m deep.

Mexico city is also mostly built on some absolutely terrible soils. It is a former lake bed filled with clay sediment. The amount of subsidence there is legendary.