Some of the current headlines talk about the issues surrounding the ‘renegotiation’ or lack there off of NAFTA. I haven’t read much about it…I am not in the mood to wade through the minutia and policy. But NPR said that President Trump was talking about negotiating with only Canada and ignoring Mexico. Apparently because they are so unfair to the U.S. and American workers and American companies. That last one is a total fabrication given that American companies are major benefactors of the NAFTA agreement. There is probably a fair amount of the president’s endemic xenophobia in there somewhere.
But lets talk about American workers and Mexican workers for just one callous moment. NAFTA purportedly has cost jobs in the United States. And that is one way to look at it. On another parts made in Mexico get installed in American made products and American made parts get installed in Mexican made products and cheaper goods imported from Mexico keep consumer prices down in the United States. It’s a fairly tangled relationship all around. And the plus and minuses shift in any given period of time.
But I keep getting off track in ignoring that callous take on NAFTA. For all of you wall builders…if not for the NAFTA inspired factories IN Mexico providing locally livable wages…how many more undocumented Mexicans would be living in the United States?
No, we’re not wall builders; there has always been international commerce, even before globalization.
The Chinese understandibly did not appreciate the opium trade from the Brits and U.S.
We believe in nation states, but they have to interact politically to promote the interests of our people–not just those established families that glorify their success and wealth–while normal people are left to wallow in their their suffering.
Free Trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP will destroy
our nation state. That’s not being “nationalist,(like Hitler),” and should be negotiated as treaties. I am in no way racist, sexist, or anti-commerce. It’s just that moving away from the failed neo-liberal scheme would certainly help the most of us (like people that would want Dem candidates to actually win elections).