trade wars are good—and easy to win (12. 181)

Here’s a compelling argument for Canada, in particular though it could apply to other economies under a capricious threat of tariffs, not to introduce retaliatory measures in kind—NAFTA and its successor under a different name plus America’s most-favoured nation seal of approval was on balance beneficial to corporate barons by enabling chasing cheap labour and off-shore environmental damage and in its latest incarnation enforced a hallmark of the rentier economic model with the proviso that enshrined IP and forbade the circumvention of digital locks and greatly eroded the right to repair for manufacturers and consumers. As with car parts, printer ink, streaming-services and charging plugs, this inability to seek out third-party solutions, this subscription system locks people into leases over ownership and ensures a steady stream of rents rendered and fears of sunk costs for everything invested in activating the extra features. As much as the US is seeking Canadian raw material and natural resources and exploitable manpower elsewhere, for which embargoes would be a pyrrhic victory at best as reliant on exports, any target could instead invoke a regime of jailbreaking, a domestic app store that bypasses American-based fees, kits that would overcome non-original parts, carve-out to warrants (this is not technologically difficult to do) and offer ways to get out of lease contracts and not experiencing reciprocal price-rises, which is a proven accelerant for populism.