So Trump has already started messing up big time relationships with Mexico

[Pemalite]

Jpcc86 said:

It should've been obvious from the start that no one but your own tax dollars are gonna pay for that wall and it should've been obvious from the start that an actual physical wall isnt gonna erradicate illegal drugs and immigration from entering the country. If anything its only alienating and antagonizing a good bussiness partner.

The wall got downgraded to a "Fence in areas" and with the USA paying for it, with the idea that "Mexico will pay it later".

As for Drugs... My own country is surrounded by Sea. It's a natural border with 1,478 miles (2,378 kilometers) between us and our closest neighbour.
We intercept boats and turn them around, have Radar etc'.
Drugs still get in, you cannot stop it, they just find other avenues to bring it in.

Drugs are very supply/demand driven, the more demand, the more that supply tries to meet that demand, thus if you cut off the drug trade with Mexico, the drug trade with Canada/home-grown efforts will simply increase to compensate.

You need to attack the drug problem from both ends, reduce the demand with education, rehab. etc'. And reduce the supply at the same time, you still won't eliminate it though.

BraLoD said:

The article I read right now was 12 to 15 billion... great, it's already increasing.

You could reduce the cost if you got Mexicans to build it. :P

Snoopy said:

That might actually force Mexico to pay for it. They have to trade with US or else they will be done for.

Or they could do what other countries do. Increase trade with other countries instead, the world is not only larger than the USA, but also a larger economy overall.
South America and in particular Brazil could be a bright spot for Mexico going forward.

Australia had declining trade with the USA for years, so we got closer with China... And the end result is, we didn't go into recession during the Financial Crisis because we weren't reliant on them.
Now with our Manufacturing having imploded, resources in decline our economy is starting to transition again and looking towards Indonesia, Vietnam and other emerging economies for leverage.

I am interested to see what Tariffs will do to consumer prices in the USA though, Video games and consoles should increase in price for example, you might start looking at $80 a game rather than $60.