[ont.general] Border towns

kpicott%alias@csri.utoronto.ca (Socrates) (01/04/90)

In article <90Jan3.133311est.10773@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu> tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu ("Timothy J. Horton") writes:
>
>All those compromises that were mentioned won't work near borders.
>
One thing about border towns; anyone living there has the equivalent of a
higher-priced shopping center nearby and a lower-priced shopping center on
the other side of "town".  Of course people are going across "town" to get
at the lower prices if they don't have to pay duty on the groceries.  I know
people who live an hour from the border who do all their major shopping
in the US because it's cheaper and generally has a wider selection.  (How
many residents of Niagara Falls nipped across the border for that special
Christmas gift not available in Canada?)

This is an entirely different can of worms that we probably don't want to
open (free trade, unfair competition from the US, etc...):  definitely not
to be confused with the Sunday shopping issue, despite what the unbiased
president of A&P might say.

As Timothy says, the sin tax would probably satisfy most people, but would
be very hard to enforce.  So would any reasonably compromise I suppose, but
it would be better than the current universal dissatisfaction.

--
 Kevin Picott   aka   Socrates   aka   kpicott%alias@csri.toronto.edu
 Alias Research Inc.  R+D          Toronto, Ontario... like, downtown
 "There can be no offense where none is taken" - Japanese proverb
 "There can be no offense unless one insists on taking it" - more explicit
             occidental version?  (credited to Gerard Stafleu)