In the 1960s, a different kind of travel guide appeared in American bookstores, with titles like “Europe on $5 a day.” Overseas travel, which until then had been the province of the wealthy, was now within the grasp of working-class Americans. Hoi polloi fanned out in every direction, children and grandchildren of immigrants, going back for a look at the old country. Paying close attention to their guides, the travelers found a succession of discount this and cut-rate that, lumpy beds and bad food. Many came home thinking, “If this is what it was like, no wonder Grandpa left.”
Those books are still around, although the prices have changed; few places can be visited for five dollars a day anymore. George W. Bush may be carrying a similar volume onto Air Force One when he flies to Mexico tomorrow to meet with President Vicente Fox. The news media, taking an obedient cue from the White House press office, report Mr. Bush’s foreign trip – the first since his inauguration and the fourth since his birth – is symbolic, a message that Bush foreign policy will look first to the American continent before squinting across the water.
President Fox is still riding high on his throw-the-bums-out victory over the Party of Institutional Revolution. Like Mr. Bush, Mr. Fox talks a good game; both men say they represent a new kind of politics – but do they?
Trade is the alpha and omega of the meeting’s agenda. Mr. Fox has given the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hives by saying he would like to see NAFTA evolve into something like the European Union, with open borders and a common currency. Mr. Bush says he wants to help Mexico better exploit its oil and natural gas resources, both for Mexican industry and for export to the United States.
Before we make grand plans for the future, we should take a hard look at the present. Mexico is still on the five-dollar-a-day plan, except that price doesn’t apply to tourists, it applies to workers. Minimum wage in Mexico is four dollars a day. In the maquiladora industries lining the U.S. border, the wages are higher – 10 or 12 dollars a day. Of course, the relative prosperity of the maquiladora boomtowns means prices are higher there, especially for housing. People arriving from the countryside build squatters’ shanties out of whatever materials they can find. There is no electricity, no running water and no sewers. Seven years on, this is what NAFTA has delivered for the Mexican people – 10 dollars a day, a tarpaper shack and your neighbor’s excrement running past your door.
Still, Mr. Fox says he is a new kind of politician. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo moved 10 million people from the countryside to the cities. Mr. Fox has already proposed moving another 20 million rural Mexicans to the cities. If that happens, the 10-dollar-a-day jobs will be five-dollar-a-day jobs and the shantytowns will grow exponentially. The depopulated rural areas will be available for industrial development by multinational corporations, thanks to the cheap oil and natural gas that will flow if George W. gets his way.
Besides the assistance on oil, the U.S. donates the jobs. Factories all over the U.S. shut down and relocate to Mexico, where workers earn less in a day than their U.S. counterparts earn in an hour, and where safety and environmental regulations are all but non-existent.
George Bush and Vicente Fox will write a new chapter to “Mexico, on $5 a day,” but it’s an old story. Five hundred years old.
Mexico, on $5 a Day
In the 1960s, a different kind of travel guide appeared in American bookstores, with titles like “Europe on $5 a day.” Overseas travel, which until then had been the province of the wealthy, was now within the grasp of working-class Americans. Hoi polloi fanned out in every direction, children and grandchildren of immigrants, going back for a look at the old country. Paying close attention to their guides, the travelers found a succession of discount this and cut-rate that, lumpy beds and bad food. Many came home thinking, “If this is what it was like, no wonder Grandpa left.”
Those books are still around, although the prices have changed; few places can be visited for five dollars a day anymore. George W. Bush may be carrying a similar volume onto Air Force One when he flies to Mexico tomorrow to meet with President Vicente Fox. The news media, taking an obedient cue from the White House press office, report Mr. Bush’s foreign trip – the first since his inauguration and the fourth since his birth – is symbolic, a message that Bush foreign policy will look first to the American continent before squinting across the water.
President Fox is still riding high on his throw-the-bums-out victory over the Party of Institutional Revolution. Like Mr. Bush, Mr. Fox talks a good game; both men say they represent a new kind of politics – but do they?
Trade is the alpha and omega of the meeting’s agenda. Mr. Fox has given the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hives by saying he would like to see NAFTA evolve into something like the European Union, with open borders and a common currency. Mr. Bush says he wants to help Mexico better exploit its oil and natural gas resources, both for Mexican industry and for export to the United States.
Before we make grand plans for the future, we should take a hard look at the present. Mexico is still on the five-dollar-a-day plan, except that price doesn’t apply to tourists, it applies to workers. Minimum wage in Mexico is four dollars a day. In the maquiladora industries lining the U.S. border, the wages are higher – 10 or 12 dollars a day. Of course, the relative prosperity of the maquiladora boomtowns means prices are higher there, especially for housing. People arriving from the countryside build squatters’ shanties out of whatever materials they can find. There is no electricity, no running water and no sewers. Seven years on, this is what NAFTA has delivered for the Mexican people – 10 dollars a day, a tarpaper shack and your neighbor’s excrement running past your door.
Still, Mr. Fox says he is a new kind of politician. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo moved 10 million people from the countryside to the cities. Mr. Fox has already proposed moving another 20 million rural Mexicans to the cities. If that happens, the 10-dollar-a-day jobs will be five-dollar-a-day jobs and the shantytowns will grow exponentially. The depopulated rural areas will be available for industrial development by multinational corporations, thanks to the cheap oil and natural gas that will flow if George W. gets his way.
Besides the assistance on oil, the U.S. donates the jobs. Factories all over the U.S. shut down and relocate to Mexico, where workers earn less in a day than their U.S. counterparts earn in an hour, and where safety and environmental regulations are all but non-existent.
George Bush and Vicente Fox will write a new chapter to “Mexico, on $5 a day,” but it’s an old story. Five hundred years old.