On May 11, 2007, at 4:02 PM, tfast wrote:
> Doug, why don't you try crossing that border to find out just how
> unguarded
> it is? I can remember crossing into the US without so much as
> showing a
> drivers licence. Those days are gone, the US is an armed camp.
I've done so many times, most recently in July and December 2006. Yeah, it's not as mellow as it used to be but there's a long history of peaceful relations between the two countries.
> I raised the Canadian model primarily as an example of middling
> affluency
> (and aspirations) built on a very weak indigenous industrial base.
Yes, but the "branch plant" economy has worked pretty well for Canada. Middling affluency? Compared to whom? Canadians are some of the materially best-off people in the world. The latest HDI ranking <http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/> has Canada at 6, ahead of Japan (7), the U.S. (8), Switzerland (9)...
Sadly, Russia is at 65, ahead of Brazil (69) but behind Cuba (50) and Mexico (53).
Doug