Richard Jernigan -> RE: My Offer (Feb. 4 2017 3:23:25)
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To me the simplistic bashing of NAFTA is the product of economic ignorance, and in some instances, racism. We spent Christmas and New Years in Oaxaca. Every time I have visited Mexico in the past few years one of the major impressions has been the country's prosperity, compared to how it was when I first began to visit. Oaxaca has several upscale shopping malls, with lots of American brands on offer. Nothing of the sort existed in the mid-1960s when we began to visit. We spent a night in Mexico City on the way to Oaxaca. We ate at the Cafe de Tacuba. It was very different from when I first began to eat there in the 1950s. Then it was quiet, men wore suits, women nice dresses, there was an air of elegant prosperity. The other night there was a big crowd, many tables with large family groups, the conversation level was fairly loud, people wore casual clothes but not cheap. I described to Larisa the ambience when I first went there in the 1950s and 1960s. A little later I said, "The parents of these people couldn't have afforded to come here. They lived in slums and worried about where their next meal was coming from." We stayed at the St. Regis. It was more like old time Mexico City upper crust: impeccable food, service and atmosphere, except maybe the manners of the clientele weren't quite so refined. It was way, way cheaper than the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, but I would bet the St. Regis staff lives better than the Ritz people do. One visible result of this prosperity has been the reduction of immigration from Mexico. During the last few years more Mexicans have left the USA than have entered. Mexicans love their country and their culture as much as (more than?) we Americans do. With only a tiny number of exceptions, the hundreds of Mexicans I have spoken to in the last 60 years have left for only one reason: economics. As Mexico's economy has improved mightily, many have returned. With the improved economy millions more Mexicans make a decent living, and have no incentive to move to the USA. Ten years ago I was staying in Uruapan, 30 kilometers south of the guitar making town of Paracho, in a fancy hotel. At breakfast I met a wealthy Guatemalan, who was in the business of exporting fruit from Uruapan to the USA. He was there to meet his Mexican partner. The hinterlands of Uruapan stretch from the 8,000-foot altitude cool country north of town, where they raise apples, pears and more macadamia nuts than anywhere except Hawaii, to the tierra caliente to the south, where they raise all manner of tropical fruit. The USA is a major market for these crops, thanks to NAFTA. When I first visited Uruapan in the late 1950s it was small, poverty stricken, shabby and downcast. Now it is clean, modern and prosperous, thanks to NAFTA. Trump thinks the trade deficit with Mexico is a loss in some simple minded zero sum game. This trade deficit has played a big role in Mexico's economic progress. Trump and his supporters inveigh against Mexican immigrants being a drain on the U.S. economy, consuming government resources while paying no taxes. He recently signed an executive order barring undocumented people for receiving welfare benefits. Guess what? That has been the law for years. But apparently his "Strategic Advisor" and Chief Xenophobe thought it would be a good idea to try to take credit for it. People complain that immigrant children burden school systems, and their parents pay no taxes. But their parents rent a place to live, and the landlord pays school taxes just like any other property owner. I know a number of young undocumented workers who graduated from our schools here, who now work hard and productively in the economy and pay taxes--even though Trump has repeatedly threatened to deport them and their parents. Don't get me wrong. I'm not in favor of illegal immigration. Though my family used to employ hundreds of seasonal undocumented workers, they went home after the harvest. What I am complaining about is a simple minded view of economics as a zero sum game, where someone wins only if someone else loses, and Trump claims to think he and his supporters have been screwed, despite himself exploiting undocumented workers, importing building materials and making his crotch length neckties in China. Statistics show job growth has been more rapid in the U.S. after NAFTA than before. NAFTA has also visibly benefited Mexico to great effect. Is that a bad thing? NAFTA is only one case of Trump's "America First" xenophobia. RNJ
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