posted on Mar, 2 2005 @ 03:00 PM
I think the really ironic thing here is that the simple and shortminded nature of corporate rule is causing America to miss much larger opportunities.
I obviously believe in market forces- where they function properly they can not be ignored (they do malfunction in certain situations), but I believe
that in as much as international trade is a matter of foreign relations and a matter of providing for citizens that it should be to some level
supervised, and guided by governments. There are opportunties for America that the corporations dont care about here.
In many situations, people will naturally let themselves fall under the leadership of whoever among them is most capable. This is especially true when
there is any kind of goal. America has what it takes to be a leader here- to gain the respect and loyalty of our neighbors. If we helped these people
to prosper and become stronger, their strength would be an assett to us. Imagine the political leverage that America would gain from building a
political alliance through participating in MUTUALLY beneficial trade blocs. We might seriously gain the clout to fix the UN through such measures.
We shouldn't be so adamantly opposed to social programs, we shouldn't be setting broad "rules" that we expect people to follow, and we DEFINITELY
shouldn't be trying to impose our foreign policy on these people vis a vis the isolation of Cuba.
What we should be doing is making creative ventures and searching for ways to create nationally beneficial trade in ways that direct capitalist
interaction can't do. Through multi-lateral arrangements between nations and industries, governments can "set things in motion", taking the initial
necessary but unprofitable moves which open up the possibility for new and profitable ventures, from which the governments can then recoup their
losses through taxation on those profits.
If we'd get involved in REAL nation building that way, looking first at what we want to achieve for the people, then engineering a way to make it
profitable or at least minimally expensive, we would be able to arrest South America's slide to the left, befriend them as equals, and count on their
enthusiastic support whenever we and our way of doing business became threatened.
We're missing the boat here. We are only thinking about how to get our corporations in there for the quick buck, and its poisoning a great
opportunity and driving away would-be allies. (I hope I've made good sense on this issue, I'm a bit tired. I may have to make things more clear
later when I'm firing on all cylinders.)