Hopping to get long answers or sites sources ....... I have a write-up that has to be done tonight and passed in tomorrow .. so I'm looking for idea's .. THANKS !
What Would Happen To Canada If They Adopted The U.S Dollar ?
- Thread starter ballmoney1
- Start date
And why should Canada do that, ballmoney? I assume you are writing some sort of a report. So here are some points for you to consider.
Adopting US dollar will mean that Canada gives up control on Canada's fiscal policy, economic policy. Canada will no longer have control over its currency. Usually when a currency is sliding, government may take steps to shore it up, when it is too strong, government may take steps to bring it down (like lowering interest rates etc.). These options will no longer be available.
Currently 1 Can $ is about 0.8 U.S. $. What that means is that if we do adopt US dollar, everybody’s salary will go down by 20%. Somebody making 100,000 $ per year will all of a sudden start making only 80,000. People won’t like it, there will be a revolt.
There is the matter of national pride. Why should Canada give up its currency and adopt somebody else’s currency? Especially there are indications that US dollar is losing some of its international influence.
And what is the upside? I don’t see any upside.
All things considered, it is a bad idea.
Adopting US dollar will mean that Canada gives up control on Canada's fiscal policy, economic policy. Canada will no longer have control over its currency. Usually when a currency is sliding, government may take steps to shore it up, when it is too strong, government may take steps to bring it down (like lowering interest rates etc.). These options will no longer be available.
Currently 1 Can $ is about 0.8 U.S. $. What that means is that if we do adopt US dollar, everybody’s salary will go down by 20%. Somebody making 100,000 $ per year will all of a sudden start making only 80,000. People won’t like it, there will be a revolt.
There is the matter of national pride. Why should Canada give up its currency and adopt somebody else’s currency? Especially there are indications that US dollar is losing some of its international influence.
And what is the upside? I don’t see any upside.
All things considered, it is a bad idea.
My take on it:
To ask what would happen if Canada should ust adopt the US dollar is too vague. Do we mean that Canada would adopt the US dolar but that the Treasury of the USA would continue to maintain control over its production and lending rates, to be decided by the US federal government? Would Canada have a say in this?
Or would the US government surrender control over the US dollar to some kind of US-Canadian federal government akin to the EU? If so, how would Canadians feel about US cultural symbols on their currency? Would the currency also undergo changes to the cultural symbols printed on it to reflect common cultural symbols shared by both sides? Woudl we continue calling it the US dollar or give it another name?
It's difficult to answer the question in detail without knowing the answer to al of those questions.
Now there woud be an advantage to sharing a common currency regardless of those details, and that is that it would eliminate the middle man, currency-brokers, in economic exchanges between Canadians and Americans, in the same way that the current common Canadian dollar eliminates the middleman in economic exchanges between Vancouverites and Montrealers.
To ask what would happen if Canada should ust adopt the US dollar is too vague. Do we mean that Canada would adopt the US dolar but that the Treasury of the USA would continue to maintain control over its production and lending rates, to be decided by the US federal government? Would Canada have a say in this?
Or would the US government surrender control over the US dollar to some kind of US-Canadian federal government akin to the EU? If so, how would Canadians feel about US cultural symbols on their currency? Would the currency also undergo changes to the cultural symbols printed on it to reflect common cultural symbols shared by both sides? Woudl we continue calling it the US dollar or give it another name?
It's difficult to answer the question in detail without knowing the answer to al of those questions.
Now there woud be an advantage to sharing a common currency regardless of those details, and that is that it would eliminate the middle man, currency-brokers, in economic exchanges between Canadians and Americans, in the same way that the current common Canadian dollar eliminates the middleman in economic exchanges between Vancouverites and Montrealers.
As for the matter of national pride, I don't see why we would wrap our pride in a piece of note-paper.
As far as I'm concerned, currency is just like language, measurement systems of weight, distance, temperature, time, calendars, etc. They are all means of communication, be it of ideas, time, days, weights, temperatures, or, in the case of currency, economic value. For any exchange to occer, a common system is required, whether in the original transactionor through translation into a common measure. It's only logical that having a commom measure allows for a more efficient exchange.
To ask what would happen if Canada should just adopt the US dollar is too vague. Do we mean that Canada would adopt the US dollar but that the Treasury of the USA would continue to maintain control over its production and lending rates, to be decided by the US federal government? Would Canada have a say in this?
Machjo, I assume Canada adopting US dollar would be similar to say, Ecuador adopting US dollar. Canada simply gets rid of Can $, and adopts US dollar, without any control over the currency. Presumably US will continue influencing its own currency as before, Canada simply uses US $. We are not talking of a common currency here, we are talking of Canada adopting US $.
Machjo, I assume Canada adopting US dollar would be similar to say, Ecuador adopting US dollar. Canada simply gets rid of Can $, and adopts US dollar, without any control over the currency. Presumably US will continue influencing its own currency as before, Canada simply uses US $. We are not talking of a common currency here, we are talking of Canada adopting US $.
National currency and national flag is what defines the identity of a country (along with other things, of course). Sure currency is just paper and flag is just a piece of cloth. But Canadian dollar, along with Canadian flag denote what Canada stands for, which is quite distinct from what USA stands for.
If you have no problem getting rid of a ‘note paper’, would you be OK to get rid of a ‘piece of cloth’, get rid of the Maple leaf and adopt Stars and Stripes instead? If yes, can Canada getting absorbed in USA be far behind?
If it's to be taken at face value, then the advantage of sharing a common currency would have to be considered within the context of fiscal imperialism, with Canada becoming a fiscal colony of the US.
While I could support what we could refer to as fiscal federalism (i.e. adopting a common currency shared by more than one country), I would be hesitant, perhaps even quite opposed, to fiscal imperialism, which a straightforward adoption of the US dollar by Canada would be. Now adopting the Euro might be more akin to fiscal federalism in that Canada would likely be an equal partner in determining European fiscal policy.
Have the French lost their national identy by adopting the Euro?
There is a difference between a flag and a currency. A flag usually serves a strictly patriotic purpose, except sometimes on ships and other such contexts where it then serves a communicative purpose too to identify the registered nationality of the ship.
Currency, on the other hand, seldom serves a simple patriotic purpose, but almost always serves a functional commmunicative purpose of establishing the value of a good or service.
It is an interesting topic though. i'd be in favour of Canada sharing a currency with another nation or, better yet, with other nations, as long as it's under a federal and not imperial model.
I'd be coloring it with highliter markers for one thing. Greenbacks are just plain dull.
No kidding. Is the federal reserve on a budget that they can't afford a little coloured ink? But hey, their taxes are slightly lower than ours. That might explain it, no frills no gmmicks governance?
I'm in favour of multilateralism, not bilateralism. As such, not I'd be opposed to just adopting the US dollar and flag. However, I could go for a shared currency none-the-less, as long as its one shared equally, that's all.
I think money is money. Except yen, yuan, pesos, etc. The denominations have to be too high. I've always liked pounds. That even SOUNDS like substantial dough. lol
Cool! Look what I found:
Currencies of the World
Cool! Look what I found:
Currencies of the World
Interesting. The Central African CFA Franc is similar to the Eurp in that it is shared by a number of countries. It just makes sense in a shrinking world.
Here I agree with you. A shared currency makes sense; I can see advantages with it. However, ballmoney was not talking about a shared currency, I think he was asking whether Canada should adopt US dollar.