Forget Greenland

I’m intrigued by Trump’s idea of buying Greenland. Buying land and inhabitants from another country sounds odd, but the US has done it before. They bought Alaska from Russia, the vast Louisiana Territory from France, the Gadsden Purchase of southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico. 

Gadsden Purchase

Reports are that Greenland and Denmark are not interested.

I have a better idea.

Let’s sell Trump Canada instead.

Gets him just about as close to the North Pole and the North Atlantic. Nice bundle of resources, too.

We could sell it all to the US at, say, $100,000 per Canadian; or, really, just about any sum. Then we pocket the money, nominally become Americans, and go on pretty much as we had. But with full access to American markets and opportunities. As American citizens, we continue to own what we sold anyway.

I can’t see a downside.

But here’s the deeper moral: this is more or less the deal Canada’s First Nations made when they signed their various treaties. Contrary to common claims and complaints, it was actually a sweetheart deal for them.