[Dialogue] More on Raw Capitalism vs Free Enterprise

Wed Oct 10 16:44:06 EDT 2007

Karl,

Funny should mention Mexico here, but yesterday on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" (with call-ins), it's guest was former president Vicente Fox "South of the Border".  Many callers grilled him on a whole host of issues, primarily graft and corruption (as if it were new!) and the state of the Mexican economy.  You should have heard "Zorro" (that's spanish for "Fox", anyway!) - brag how Mexico's economy is one of the "strongest economies" in the world, and how free trade, NAFTA in particular, have worked miracles for Mexico's economy.   Perhaps "Zorro" thought he was speaking before the conference of Non-Aligned (Poor) Nations, or thought most Americans don't know the "beef" about Mexico!  Yeah, in the Non-Aligned circuit, Mexico might stand out as "strong", even recently rescued Argentina.  But my question is, if the Mexican economy is indeed going a lo "magnifico"...why is it that Mexicans, by the thousands, make that desperate run for the border...day after day, day after day, day after day.  If they were really "rich" and "strong", it should be Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta, instead of "run in all directions".

Then there's CAFTA, the recently-inaugurated Central American Free Trade Agreement.  Again, I must ask why many Hondurans and Guatemalans from the lower classes...also join Mexicans at the starting point of the "300-meter run".  Or, why many Latin Americans, and even some Asians (yes, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, etc.) - are holed up in Tijuana, "waiting for the right time" to make the run.  I'm so confused.

Towards the end of the show, Fox threw in a few accolades for his successor, Felipe Calderon, how is he doing a great job, and also...how much Mexico needs his party, PAN (really, means "BREAD", he, he, he!)  But judging by the number of Mexicans who enter the U.S. illegally, they could well be running out of PAN and... tortillas.  Ai, santo frijol!

Adelbert Batica

Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:39:53 -0400
To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
From: khess at apk.net
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] More on Raw Capitalism vs Free Enterprise

Jim,

I don't know when 'free trade' was used in public general speech
to mean what the dictionary says, but if you listen to any politician
in the last 25 or so years, it means some idealized market where the
buyer and seller have equal knowledge and power.  Joe Stiglitz
got a Nobel Prize a few years ago for proving that that doesn't exist
in the real world.  So we have rampant predatory lending under
the banner of free trade.  We have destruction of markets and
communities around the world under the banner of free trade. 
NAFTA+ farm subsidies has caused American corn to be cheaper in Mexico
than local corn.  So lots of the illegal aliens are farmers who
used to be able to make a living before NAFTA are heading North where
they hope to be able to eke out some kind of living.  Republicans
seem to have a bizarre idea of public interest and the corporate media
have filled Amerians' minds with these ideas, constantly being
repeated.

In Ohio there is a consumer sales practices law which (lemon law)
applied to about every kind of business, specifically exempting
financial institutions - thus the predatory lending epidemic which is
transferring billions of dollars from the middle class to the
plutocrats. A couple of years ago, it was extended to financial
institutions, but last fall in the dark of night the Republican
legislature removed the penalties for violating it.

"Free trade" is the banner of all those who want to
continue shattering the remaining safety net, to the extent of letting
children die without medical care that their parents cannot afford. 
What the dictionary says doesn't seem to make any difference.

Karl

The GOP
presidential candidates gathered in Dearborn, Mich., yesterday for,
what the Washington Post characterized as  "a group
defense of low taxes and free markets and warned that Democrats,
particularly Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, pose the greatest danger to the
nation's future prosperity. Former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) finally joined his rivals in a televised debate, adding
his voice to the chorus singing the praises of free trade, a reduction
in regulation, private health care and reduced government
spending."
In short,
the GOP (and far too many Democrats) are dead set against
"regulation necessary to
protect the public interest and to keep the national economy  in
balance. "   And that, of course, is an essential part
of the definition of "Free Enterprise."

So I
repeat:  In our world today, there is precious little Free
Enterprise and both the public interest and the national economy are
in deep trouble as a result.   

Today, there
are far too many politicians toadying to big business interests
because that's where the money is.  When women do this, we call
them whores.

The full
text of the article is at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100902348.html?hpid=topnews
Jim
Rippey

_______________________________________________

Dialogue mailing list

Dialogue at wedgeblade.net

http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last.  Get it now.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102225181033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20071010/032989cd/attachment.html 