Far past time for this: North American passports

[RB TexLa]

The future of the United States lies in North America. This is not a geographic truism, but a strategic imperative. Generations of Americans, distracted by far-flung crises, have long taken our own region for granted. This must change if the 21st century is to be an American century. The United States, Canada and Mexico are bound by a shared economic, environmental, demographic and cultural destiny. How we move forward together is key to our success.

In recognition of our shared destiny, the three countries should create a North American passport that would, over time, allow their citizens to travel, work, invest, learn and innovate anywhere in North America. Work, tourist and student visas are necessities in the modern world to regulate the flow of people between sovereign states.

In the North American context, much like within the European Union, our economies and societies are far more integrated than our immigration system recognizes -- and a North American passport, much like the EU passport, would align our laws with reality.



http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/opinion/martinez-kurtz-phelan-north-american-passport/

[leveymg]

1. Send us your bankers, computer scientists and other downtrodden masses. Hold the rest.

Actually, there is a Trade North America (TN) visa. It dwarfs the capped H-1B in usage. If you have the right degree or enough money, you get in.

[CJCRANE]

2. Globalist pablum. Sovereign nations need control of their own borders, trade and currency

otherwise there is no true democratic accountability.

[RB TexLa]

3. That's very antiquated thinking

And belongs in history books. The world is a much closer smaller place now.

[CJCRANE]

4. If the world turns into one huge global free trade zone

how do we citizens have any democratic control?

Even now in the EU the people of various countries have lost control of their immigration, fiscal and economic policies and are totally at the whims of the stronger countries' banks and corporations.

[RB TexLa]

6. That sounds like a right winger complaining that their county, school board or state is

being put under control of the federal government.



And most of that complaining in the EU is by right wing nationalist parties.

[CJCRANE]

8. IMO the EU doesn't work as a democratic federation. It doesn't have an elected President

and I can't envisage that being possible in the near to mid-term due to the massive language and cultural differences. They don't have EU wide parties either. There is a huge democratic deficit.

[RB TexLa]

9. They actually have four presidents within the EU

[CJCRANE]

10. How many are actually elected by one person one vote?

And why do they have four? What's the point of that?

[RB TexLa]

11. Many political entities do not have a direct one person one vote election for their

executive leader. That's hardly a requirement for democracy.

[CJCRANE]

12. European citizens don't vote for their president at all. They don't have EU politcial parties.

They don't have a common language or culture.

For these reasons I believe that the EU is not viable as a democratic federation.

No taxation without representation.

[RB TexLa]

13. Yes there are EU political parties, and yes they do vote for members of the EU Parliament.

You really think those parties and the elections did not really happen?

[CJCRANE]

15. They don't have EU-wide parties. They only have national parties which form blocs. nt

[CJCRANE]

16. Do you know the names of those four presidents? Which parties do they belong to?

What are their policies?

Hardly anyone knows who they are because the two or three big countries in the EU do all the heavy lifting.

And having four presidents is overdoing it IMO. Guaranteed to quadruple bureaucracy.

[CTyankee]

5. Paul Krugman writes a lot about the problem with the Euro. He really didn't think

it had a chance and was a great obstacle for the European Union. The situation in Greece highlights the challenges of having one's country held hostage to a currency controlled by other than its own government. We are seeing this play out in real time right now...

[RB TexLa]

7. Integrating economies into one isn't easy. And it takes time.

[hunter]

14. As the political situation is now, the U.S.A is doomed.

What remains of it will be annexed by Canada and Mexico.

Probably sometime in the next century.

[pampango]

17. You don't want us to be like Europe - open travel across a continent - do you?

That will inevitably destroy our society.

Look how many Europeans want to reinstitute border controls. OK almost no one who is not on the far-right wants to eliminate the freedom to travel, to work and to live anywhere on the continent. One of the most popular features of modern Europe is the sense of being a "European" with the freedoms that go with that.

[AgingAmerican]

18. NAFPA

North American Free Passage Agreement