NAFTA and Mexico

My son laughed when they served the quail. He thought it was the funniest thing to get a plate with a little bird on it minus the head. He ordered quail and I ordered the quail/steak combo. We both actually liked quail.

I've been quail hunting twice, and both times didn't see a single quail the whole time we were out there. When it's not hunting season, you see quail everywhere. I think someone tips them off and lets them know when hunting season is so they can hide. So, I've never had quail before that night.

Sitting next to me was a guy going to Grad School for Latin American Studies. And you thought your major was not economically viable.

He explained to me why NAFTA screws over Mexican farmers. I've heard a lot about what NAFTA does to American workers from both Ralph Nader and Ross Perot, who Great White Bear calls "that funny little guy with the big ears." I've never heard what NAFTA does to Mexican farmers though, so I was all ears.

Four things I'd like to make straight about Mexico before I continue:
1) Mexico has more proven oil reserves than America does,
2) Mexico has a tremendous amount of silver,
3) Mexico has enough arable land to feed Mexico, and did quite fine before NAFTA,
4) Mexico's gorgeous.

Mexicans eat a lot of corn and beans, so a lot of farmers grow one or the other, or both. They work a plot of land then sell their food on the open market. It worked fine for centuries, long before the United States of America existed.

America subsidizes its farming industry. It kind of screws over the little man, but that's another post. With America subsidizing its farming, it allows American farmers to grow their crops even more cheaply than Mexican farmers, even though Mexican farmers make less.

NAFTA forces Mexico to trade food with America. Before NAFTA, Mexico bought their food from Mexicans. With NAFTA, Leonardo explained how the little guy farmer can no longer compete on the open market and has to sell his farm and either move to Mexico City in search of work or go to El Norte (that's America). In the meantime, the rich buy out the land from the poor and gobble up tons of farmland, then employ other poor to work on it and thus accelerating the bad business model that screws over the average Mexican farmer.

So we'll soon have the same situation that existed before the Mexican Revolution.

With a lot of them coming here illegally, it really does do a disservice to Mexico. These are the people who should be pissed off and fighting for change. Instead, they're fleeing the situation, which does absolutely nothing to change the political climate, where the big dog exploits the little dogs. Like I said before, I like what Edward Abbey said. He said we should hand them a rifle at the border and tell them to finish the revolution. And us Americans should have listened to that funny little guy with the big ears.