🚀 go-pugleaf

NAFTA had little to do with American plants moving to Mexico. That
process was started with treaties between the two countries back in the
late 60's. Before that, American companies were moving to Japan and
Korea. When those two countries priced themselves out of the labor
market (the same way American workers did, and for the same reasons) the
American manufacturers started looking for other cheap labor markets.
	Piss and patriotism sound great at 4th of July picnics, but they don't
butter our bread. Profits do. The ones who are kretching the loudest
about NAFTA are those who haven't yet figured out how to make money from
it. When they do they'll jump on the bandwagon with the rest of the
capitalists.
	The only major difference NAFTA has made has been in making
American-made goods more readily available to Mexicans. When I lived
there back in the 60's and 70's there were no American products for sale
anywhere in Mexico, except in the border towns where a brisk smuggling
trade went on. Today the stores are full of our stuff, giving the
Mexicans a much wider range of choices than they had earlier. The losers
have been the Mexican manufacturers; the people perceive American-made
stuff as being superior to Mexican. They can take those RCA tv's to El
Paso and put a sticker on them that says "Made in USA" and sell it in
Mexico twice as easily as they could if the tag said "Made in Mexico."
Cordially,
--Dave