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Comment by wildmusings | Hacker News Reader

That's not how pricing works. Higher pricing for German cars will lower sales substantially in favor of cheaper cars. Even if someone still buys a German car, they will probably choose less expensive options. There's no way that the continent starts a trade war with the UK.

Neither Hillary nor Trump agree with Obama's "back of the queue" comment. So no matter who wins in November in the US, they will almost certainly be very eager to make a good trade deal with the UK. Australia and New Zealand will too. Hopefully, this will result in a reinvigorated Anglosphere.

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I think Sandworm's comment is not really sensible. Most people surely buy on some price to quality benchmark, i.e. value. If German cars are suddenly x% more expensive, well that will have a big impact. Not to mention US/Japanese/French cars being perfectly decent!

Perhaps in a perfectly fair and free economy ... such as in a collective group of countries that all trade freely with each other. That may now be over. Britain still needs cars and, unable to produce them locally, may well tolerate the higher prices.

Also consider BMW/Mercedes/VW-Audi as political influences in Germany - they are going to do anything they can to keep their products flowing, and prices down.

> Australia and New Zealand will too

Good for Australia and New Zealand. But the ANZAC future stopped being British when they surrendered Singapore.

> Hopefully, this will result in a reinvigorated Anglosphere.

Why hopefully?

Because these are countries that share some really great values like a belief in human freedom, democracy, and free markets. We share a taste for competitive capitalism and individual initiative. Our foreign policy goals are very aligned. It would be the most powerful and rich bloc in the history of the world. Why wouldn't it be a good thing?

> Because these are countries that share some really great values like a belief in human freedom

The head of state of the UK is an unelected monarch. The upper house is life peers and Anglican clergy. What kind of "belief in freedom and democracy" is that?

> We share a taste for competitive capitalism and individual initiative.

You... don't actually know anything about the political history of most of the world's English speaking countries, do you?

Yes, they keep the Queen around for the tourists. The monarch wields zero actual power in British politics. Sure, the House of Lords is unelected, but it's only still around because it works so well that no one has convinced the House of Commons of a better alternative. Also, they can only delay legislation, not stop it all together. Is that really the best you've got against the Brits?

And what about their history? I know full well that the UK, for example, has dabbled quite heavily in socialism. They're also one of the most resilient people on the planet, up there with the Jews, and they came back from that with a vengeance.

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