Originally posted by The Irish One
It has been a while since I've paid any attention but, I thought the
Souther Cone was not interested in these broad hemispheric economic &
trade policies? anyone keep up with that stuff?
A couple of thoughts from Los Angeles in a older section of the city with a large ethnic base (mexican, croatian, serbian, swedish, greek, italian).
First of all pick up a copy of Joseph E. Stieglitz's (shared nobel prize in economic science in 2001)Globalization and Its Discontents. Its a very hard read. Its an eye openner. It concerns the policies and effects of IMF and World Bank on other countries that the US manipulates as trade partners. Bottom line is the US would not qualify under these policies for loans from the institutions that we use to control other countries.
Just to let you know, I am not racist when I mention the reality of the local situation that I observe on a daily basis. In LA at least, and as far as I can tell in California, there is a twin or mirror cash economy of immigrant labor. The government policies support it actively by ignoring existing statutes on a wholesale level. This is a program to use the taxpaying base to subsidize business interests. There is no border other than on paper or in historic memory. The policies hurt everyone and contribute to larger problems of urban decay both in housing stock and support infrastructure / services. We are bankrupt.
Consider that in the 1960's and into the early 1970's the United States lit the US Mexico border with stadium flood lighting. You could read a newspaper at night within a mile of the border near Mexicali - Calexico. The US govt. was interested in stopping illegal immigration at the time. That is no longer the case. Based on behaviors, not rhetoric, the interests of govt. at a variety of levels is to allow a flood of cheap semi-skilled and skilled labor to service corporations for short term profits.
Case in point, in LA, the LAPD if you are hispanic looking the police are instructed not to ask for any ID, insurance info, registration, etc. when involved in a car accident. If you are hit and have been here for generations, you are grilled as the victim. It is pretty ludricious. I have seen it and the person hit is generally very shocked that the police are not 'doing their job, infact refusing to do it. The police here assume that if you are hispanic you are illegal. Because the legal system is about getting money into the general fund, they will not expend the effort for something that they have determined has no income producing effect. Unless you come under scrutiny of Homeland Security for some reason, as an undocumented or illegal immigrant or worker, one is home free when they arrive on California soil. If you end up in INS custody, you have more rights than any person who brings it to their attention - visit the Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles Street in downtown LA. You can go to a public hospital and let the established legal taxpayers foot the bill. I can not imagine that this would be the case in the heartlands of rural America. The entitlement aspect of public services would be non-existent. In hospitals the scenario is similar. There is a new company that voluntarily sends illegals in private Southern California hospitals back to Mexico - hot story from the LA Times over the weekend picked up in yesterdays Seattle Times. The problem is exacerbated in the city of San Diego along the Mexican border which has no public hospitals. The problem falls on private facilities.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001788103_mexpatients11.html.
The greed for cheap labor of all sorts has led to what I consider a defacto welfare program for business. Immigration, hospitals, schools, non-compliance with laws that cross all strata of urban life here benefit business and consumers only on the short term. The costs are paid for by everyone, and go directly against what normal people consider the laws on the books as written....... particularly federal immigration statutes.
If cities are bankrupted by services to the 'poor', what can be done to alter the situation. A statistical analysis of the 'poor' in LA would most probably reveal that 'undocumented workers'- the new euphumism giving them some status..... are consumers of public services in medical aid as uninsured. These create a large deficit that is a contributory factor to our local and state deficit.
Now consider in the total recall scenario, the decriminalization of undocumented workers by providing them with California driver's licenses. The assumption is that they will go out and buy insurance, etc. and be good californians. But the reality is that virtually anyone from any country - in addition Mexico or central America could get off a plane at LAX and disappear into the woodwork. Terrorists would not have to work very hard at all. The soon to be former gov. Gray Davis refused to inform the mainstream media on repeated telephone calls as to when and where he would sign the new legistlation. However, it was announced in the Spanish language media with great hoopla - bring your friends for the party. The Mayor of Los Angeles, James Hahn and the Gov. were in attendence to celebrate. I can not imagine that worthless California ID's will benefit the average Californian in the long term. Carrying a US passport might become necessary when you travel and want to rent a car or go thru screening on a commerical airliner.
The tripling of the car tax locally was the basis of the gubenatorial recall initiative. Ironically, it was money specifically slated for local municipalities only for fire and police services. With the whole ridge of the mountains from Ventura to San Diego ablaze, no one would at this point fault the car tax. We have to pay for things of value. The new guy is going to sound like a fool as he tries to get rid of it. Hindsight is so accurate.
Another thing to realize on the economics of trade. The Chinese operate and manage the Panama Canal. A good percentage of goods imported through the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach are actually transhipped across the US via rail (Alameda Corridor project) to ports in Texas. They then go back onto cargo ships and are sent on to Europe and the middle east. We use increasingly automated ports and rail to compete directly with the Panama Canal. Some California senators husband is a multimillionaire on this trans-ship business (either Mr. Boxer or Mr. Feinstein working closely with Zim). I look directly at the mouth of the Los Angeles harbor, and have watched the expansion of the combined ports accelerate dramatically over the last 6 years. The number of shipping containers (TEU's) increase about 25% every year. These are not dollars, these are number of containers. The dollar value is about 6% a year. That equates to more and more cheap goods consumed by WalMarts and Targets and everyone else. This is obvious and palpable where I live.
A similar effect on the economics of labor. The WTO and NAFTA are in fact a dismantling of what would be considered traditional American values developed in the 1st half of the 20th century. At the heart of it is child labor laws, educational standards and what might be considered by as 'human rights'. We do not use cheap child labor on US soil, instead having our children in schools. NAFTA and other trade agreements do nothing to regulate working conditions, instead focussing on free trade and competition. This is facilitated to a great degree by the lack of mandates for worker ages. Do the math. If a pair of Rockport loafers costs as much made in China and imported as it did when made on US soil, what is the purpose or benefit to the average consumer here? ......Or an "American" car made of components produced offshore. None that I can gleen.
What happens is that if it is not a cost to be considered in unregulated labor off of US soil, eventually it will be the status quo matching condition on US soil. The strikes of the MTA mechanics and grocery workers are over benefits - health benefits, not wages. Corporations will refuse to pay, it is not a matter of if they are able.
What can cities do to be a more liveable place, when we are bankrupting ourselves and a sustainable tax base by a sucession of short term policies? Is cheap labor the end all be all? Sure seems like it around here.
A note: if I were a Mexican, I would have been the first one under the border fence. We have more - presently, but for how long? The comment about US engineers exporting themselves to Asia has long term merit.
Any thoughts from other major metropolitan areas??
e-)
