Friday, July 29, 2005

Giant Sucking Sound

Incredible. Just incredible.

Let me see if I have this straight.

Under CAFTA, following on the heels of that stunning success NAFTA, US corporations get to go to Central America, taking those jobs out of the United States, set up shop in Central America and pay sweatshop wages to the workers there. Then they put all of the local businesses out of business and destroy the economy there.

After they've destroyed the economy, then they can proceed to destroy the ecology and pollute to their black, shriveled hearts' content, with no pesky regulations to get in the way of profits. Then, if their adopted land dares to question their right to pillage, they can sue their new home for 'potential loss of profit'. And don't even think about getting medicine they can afford with the pittance they're paid; the 'intellectual property rights' of the pharmaceutical companies will prevent the locals from making generics that are affordable.

What happens next? Why, the Central Americans, with their countries taken hostage, will come to the U.S. legally or illegally, in search of work.

Let's review, shall we?

United States: big job loss

Central America: destroyed economy and ecology

U.S. corporations: unlimited profit

Sounds like Bush Heaven to me.

And do you think for a minute that they'll pass any of these incredible savings on labor and regulations on to their customers in the form of lower prices?

Sure.

And I'm Ann Coulter.

11 comments:

kissfan said...

And I'm Ann Coulter.

Please don't say that. It took me fifteen minutes to stop convulsing. My left eye is still twitching uncontrollably.

{{Shudder}}

Alicia Morgan said...

Ah - so my diabolical eight-month stealth attack has worked according to plan! I shall decimate all liberals!

Sorry, kissfan - I couldn't help myself...

Anonymous said...

how could you do this, ann? now i have to love cafta.

Rainbow Demon said...

The "Wal*Mart" model in action...
It's now the newest 'reality show' on the Bush Network...

What does the winner win again?

Peace,
=RD=

p.s. Great site. Keep up the good work, Sister.

Alicia Morgan said...

karena - what's not to love? If you were a real woman, you'd find yourself a rich corporate guy to submit to and live happily ever after on the fat profits theat CAFTA will bring. Look at me, how successful and happy I am - oh, wait - I'm not married yet - OH, GOD, I'M NOT MARRIED YET (*sob*)!

Alicia Morgan said...

=RD=, welcome to Hooterville! You got that right - the Wal-Martization of the world is going along right on schedule - the race to the bottom is on!

I love your site and viewpoint and hope you'll come back soon.

best, Alicia

Anonymous said...

CAFTA amazes me. Not so much what they're doing - that's gone on for ages - more for the fact that Kathie Lee's not involved. At all. WhaWhaWhaaaa?

;-)

But this really is nothing new. Proliferation of a bad economic policy that's existed in the US for some time. Well, good for the US numbers, I suppose, in terms of industry costs, but bad for the US people who lose jobs, and worse, much worse, for those in this week's Country Of Exploitation. Past examples include Ford in Mexico (the first of this trend, I believe), Coke in Colombia, and of course children's-mogul Disney employing street kids in Haiti. I think the kickoff banner for CAFTA said "Join The Club".

Alicia Morgan said...

What it is, of course, is good for corporations, which have no allegiance to anything but the dollar - certainly not their own country which has enabled them to be so successful in the first place.

What amazes me is that CAFTA passed after we've already seen the results of NAFTA! And that there were Democrats who voted for it! A lot of them, of course, are DLC members - 'Republican Lite' - who are doing a fine job of dividing up the Democratic Party so that what little influence we do have is splintered.

Like I said before, welcome to Serf City, USA!

Unknown said...

Great post as usual, Alicia. SerfCity USA indeed.

I think the there are like 4 democrats left in the government, really. The rest are just repug-lite as you say. Pretty f'in scary.

The shameless sociopathic worldview that the corporations and bush co. share is stunning in its heartlessness. I wonder much of the time if they are actually 'people,' or some other sort of beings. I certainly don't like sharing a species with them, in any case.

Alicia Morgan said...

You've hit the nail on the head - the scary thing about corporations is that they are not people but are treated as such - a legal 'entity' - by law!

In other words, a corporation has legal rights and standing, but cannot really be punished because it is not a person with feelings or a life. If you take all its money, it simply disbands and reorganizes, yet it has power to hurt and injure human beings.

oldwhitelady said...

Ann, you really have changed since the last time I saw a photo of you. --scroll down to mid-page.

CAFTA - Just one more way for the rich to get richer and to pollute the planet.