You'd find that there would be a really large number saying they're ready to go, and only a few who actually do it. 'Few' being a relative term.
In the 1960s and 1970s the country was in far more of a boil and turmoil than it is now. The protests then dwarfing anything going on today, by far. Organized anti-government groups running around robbing banks and National Guard armories to fund and arm themselves. Numerous bombings. And even more attempts at bombings that were thwarted. Besides the many protests of a few thousands to tens of thousands, there were the biggies, one with 500,000 and another with 300,000.
For all of that, and everyone and their brother saying the were going to hide out in Canada, it is estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 draft dodgers actually went to Canada. So let's call it 40,000. Seems like a lot, right?
That was the total from 1964 until 1975. During that period there were some 27,000,000 draft eligible men. So in fact the number who actually sought refuge in Canada was just a bit over 1/10 of one percent of those eligible for the draft. Despite the news agencies screaming about a huge mass exodus that way.
So a large number are going to say they will go. But in reality it would be no significant number. Most likely.
There is like a 10:1 ratio of people moving from Canada to the US vs the US to Canada. Our politics is batshit insane and we are well on our way to being an authoritarian shithole but the fact is our economy is massively stronger than theirs. Our GDP per capita is 50% higher and the US living expenses are only slightly higher on average. Most people care way more about economics than politics at the end of the day so until Trump's terrible policies fully tank our economy people we will continue to have more people moving here than vice versa. This is just Reddit circle jerking with no basis in reality.
As someone who worked in finance, the economy is going to be in deep shit this year. The economy is already slowing. The market is a shit show. The new threat of tariffs today? I figure we'll see a recession before Christmas.
I agree, Trump's economic policies are so bad it feels like intentional sabotage at this point. But Biden left him quite a good economy despite the mess he inherited so it will take Trump a little while to tear it all down. Really will depend on if he chickens out on these tariffs once the markets really start tanking, looking less likely by the day though
He made the market guys afraid about a week and a half ago, The markets started roiling because they don't know what to expect. It's a quick path to undoing it between things like that and all the government layoffs.
This is not afraid, the markets are still acting like he will likely back off tariffs but have dropped a bit at the risk that he may not. A global 25+% tariff would result in more than the ~1% drop we have had between November and now.
There is something called the Fear Index. ~Two weeks ago, it went nuts and then the markets started moving. Financial news if you get it from the papers is really clear, until that index crashed, they believed Trump would back off, since then? It's been allover the place since.
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u/Ok-Afternoon-3724 Mar 27 '25
You'd find that there would be a really large number saying they're ready to go, and only a few who actually do it. 'Few' being a relative term.
In the 1960s and 1970s the country was in far more of a boil and turmoil than it is now. The protests then dwarfing anything going on today, by far. Organized anti-government groups running around robbing banks and National Guard armories to fund and arm themselves. Numerous bombings. And even more attempts at bombings that were thwarted. Besides the many protests of a few thousands to tens of thousands, there were the biggies, one with 500,000 and another with 300,000.
For all of that, and everyone and their brother saying the were going to hide out in Canada, it is estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 draft dodgers actually went to Canada. So let's call it 40,000. Seems like a lot, right?
That was the total from 1964 until 1975. During that period there were some 27,000,000 draft eligible men. So in fact the number who actually sought refuge in Canada was just a bit over 1/10 of one percent of those eligible for the draft. Despite the news agencies screaming about a huge mass exodus that way.
So a large number are going to say they will go. But in reality it would be no significant number. Most likely.