NAFTA, what the

Friday October 6, 2006 - 4:40AM EDT

Well apparently a fence is going to be built along some portions of the border between Mexico and the U.S.  I lauded Michael Chertoff a while back for calling the fence idea a bad one but he had no power in the decision. Since when has fencing (and the cameras and guards and sensors and whatnot) between countries ever been a reliable method of...well of anything for that matter. First of all it just isn't feasable to cover every inch of the border at all times so there are going to be holes to get through. Second of all the money they put into the fencing will be another half-assed effort so they will never even come close to implementing a fence plan that will be effective. This is just the most assinine solution to a legitimate problem. I can't think of anytime in history throwing up a fence between territories actually worked. Fuck even the Great Wall of China didn't work and that was the biggest fence project the world has ever seen. Alright that is not a good analogy and one that I don't know much about but still something to think about in relation.

This whole issue of immigration has connections back to NAFTA and that brilliant piece of legislation. This free trade agreement was in theory supposedly going to foster economic growth across the region because of the lack of tariffs for certain goods result in cheaper goods in one area while increasing exports in another. There can be other nuances but that is the basic gist. Theory and pratice are two different things. It could have worked if practiced in a different way but it wasn't.  All it has done is give the US cheaper goods and make a whole bunch of people complain about the lack of low level manufacturing jobs.  The main dissappointment is the lack of substaintial economic growth in Mexico that was supposed to benefit from exports. The problem was that Mexico didn't have much to export in the first place so all NAFTA did was allow US based companies access to cheap labor without the additional cost of import tariffs. Native Mexican industry didn't benefit, mainly because there wasn't much there.  All that grew in Mexico was small patches of low-wage jobs in which most of the economic stimulus associated with those jobs flowed back to the United States. NAFTA did so little for the Mexican people that it might has well have done nothing.

Some may see it as, well we tried doing it the right way before now we need to build a fence because that didn't work. The issues with that kind of stance was that we tried before, but it wasn't the right way. I think we would all agree that the best way to stop the kind of illegal immigration that goes on is to help make Mexico not such a bad place when it comes to working and economics. The solution is simple enough but the effort to reach it is not. Building a fence is just giving up. It is not a real solution. It is not going to stop illegal crossing outright and it does nothing to address Mexicos economic problems which are the ones that needs to be solved. Also when one thinks of civilizations and cultures who have built fences either figurative or literally it can often marks the begining of decadence. The signs of decline in various aspects of American culture are already apparent. This fence probably won't turn into another symbol of decline but the historical symbolism is undeniable.

Sometimes you wonder when ideas like this pass muster what the hell are people doing.