Fresh Obsessed

So true

Say I’m 32 years old and you’re 22 years old.

In how many years will we be the same age?

…

Silly question, right? If you define aging as a process that stops at death, the only way we’ll ever be the same age is if I die first. If you don’t, then we’ll never be the same age. Every time you age a year, I also age a year. Since our ages increase at the same rate, you will never catch up to my head start. We have achieved a total equality of aging, but that does not change the permanent inequality of our age.

Okay, say I have a million dollars and you’re completely broke. If we both get a dollar a day, how long will it take you to catch up with me?

Now, this one’s even sillier, because if you have no other resources, your dollar a day is going to be eaten up by basic living expenses that it doesn’t quite meet, and I have an excess of money that can be spent on money-making opportunities that pay off far better than an additional $365 a year. I could literally burn the dollar I’m getting as part of our Totally Equal Income and still make more money in a year than you do just by sticking my money in the bank. 

But still: both of us getting a dollar a day is totally equal, right? It means we’re being treated exactly the same.

And now, final problem:

If we have a world that contains structural inequalities, systemic imbalances, disproportionate danger faced by some, and unequal access to resources and opportunities, is “treating everyone the same” really going to result in equality?

I do pay attention to American Politics. I never said that.

What I did say is that I’m not an expert on American Politics, but all the major stories I am aware of. I’m aware of every major political candidate, all the major political parties, the current president, and a general sense of how the American political system works.

How many Americans would possess that kind of very basic knowledge about Canada?

I’m not advocating for Americans to create original Canadian content, only to share it when it is presented to them. There are universal themes to these issues, and everyone should be sharing them. Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women is a major issue, that people should be able to understand the importance of. Same goes for income inequality, food insecurity, climate change, muzzling of scientists, etc

America and Canada share the largest trade relationship between two countries, in the world. At this point, neither of our countries would exist in their current state without the other - that’s how intertwined our economies are and how much we rely on each other.

“The United States and Canada have one of the greatest international relationships in history; they essentially have one economy, with the largest energy trading relationship in the world. Two hundred years after the only war that found Canada and the United States on opposite sides, it is hard to think of two countries that rely more on one another and where the relationship is more strongly cemented with extensively linked economic connections.

Today, the United States is the number-one destination for goods and services from Canada, and Canada is the leading export market for the United States. In 2011, U.S.-Canada trade totaled over $680 billion, with U.S. exports totaling $337 billion and U.S. imports totaling $343 billion.“