NAFTA turns 20: Mexico is pact's biggest winner

Is Mexico really the run-away winner? Mexico is right on the knife's edge of total anarchy and is rapidly heading towards "failed state" status. The United States has shed most of its manufacturing capacity ... some to Canada, more to Mexico but the lion's share to neither. They have just endured the worst downturn since the Dirty Thirties and they are directionless and unsure of themselves. We escaped most of the recession and the only reason that our manufacturing suffered so is that our currency suddenly became seriously over-valued. Before that, we were certainly holding our own, having grown it over the previous two decades.

It spite of our troubles ... few as they are compared to just about any other nation ... we are the real winners of NAFTA. This country is considerably richer than it was 25 years ago, in spite of tremendous competition from Asia and a united Europe. The glass is way more than half full, here, as Mexico edges closr to civil war ... and maybe even revolution.

Mexico is not so much drifting towards civil war as much as it is just slowly slipping into a general anarchy. If it continues the way it has been I figure the decade will close on a Mexico that resembles China in the 1910-1930 period with warlords running virtual city-states. Parts of Mexico already act this way.

Some winner, hunh?

Looking at this a different way, if Mexico is what the 'winner' of NAFTA looks like then Canada and the USA got buggered raw in the deal.

Yeah, well. I don't believe it for a second. That cheap Mexican labour was going to be exploited NAFTA or no. It is a "natural" for Texas, etc. to take advantage of that resource, right next door.

Canada should do the same by taking advantage to all of that cheap labour, just next door in Michigan.

Sadly, none of those people want to work. They just want to tax productive people and use the money to pay for sports teams.

Sadly, none of those people want to work. They just want to tax productive people and use the money to pay for sports teams.

... sounds like the fall of Rome, eh wot?

Interesting observation. Have you read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?

Interesting observation. Have you read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire


I'm aware of it but it is a HUGE read and I haven't yet found time in my life to do so. It should be a the top of everyone's list, I expect.

Seems you haven't been paying attention for the last 25 years.

I'll never forget the 2nd day after the original 'Free Trade Deal' was signed, the company a childhood friend of mine worked at (Burlington carpets) announced they were moving back to the USA. He had just bought a house after a few years of savings and to say he was shocked would be an under statement.

He survived but that was because there were still numerous places to work at which paid fairly well.

But quality, high paying jobs in all sectors have left in search for the lowest wage lands of the globe.

I was at a Tim Hortons last month with a digital sign out front advertising 'competitive wages' and I commented to someone "isn't that a sign of the times when fast food is claiming competitive wages".

In that particular town (Guelph) alone thousand of high paying jobs have left for lower wage destinations such as Mexico and China and the 'Right to Work For Less' states.


There was a reason Canada, and the USA prospered before Free Trade(s) and there is a reason why most new opportunities are service sector, min wage payers now.

Seems you haven't been paying attention for the last 25 years.

I'll never forget the 2nd day after the original 'Free Trade Deal' was signed, the company a childhood friend of mine worked at (Burlington carpets) announced they were moving back to the USA. He had just bought a house after a few years of savings and to say he was shocked would be an under statement.

He survived but that was because there were still numerous places to work at which paid fairly well.

But quality, high paying jobs in all sectors have left in search for the lowest wage lands of the globe.

I was at a Tim Hortons last month with a digital sign out front advertising 'competitive wages' and I commented to someone "isn't that a sign of the times when fast food is claiming competitive wages".

In that particular town (Guelph) alone thousand of high paying jobs have left for lower wage destinations such as Mexico and China and the 'Right to Work For Less' states.


There was a reason Canada, and the USA prospered before Free Trade(s) and there is a reason why most new opportunities are service sector, min wage payers now.


I'm a senior manager in a manufacturing operation (in the GTA) that exports all over the World .. including quite a bit to Mexico. We are incredibly busy and growing every year. Perhaps, you should be paying more attention.

All of those manufacturing jobs left Canada because our currency became suddenly VERY overvalued. Either the Canadian dollar goes down, Canadian productivity goes way up (that is what protects German jobs) or Canadian workers must be prepared to accept the same wages as Chinese and Mexican workers receive. The third option doesn't have much of value behind it, does it?

Take a good look at Mexico again and tell me that they are doing better than we are ... only with an obscure graph showing total manufacturing man-hours could you argue that. The same graph would show a slave state outperforming Mexico and China ... a good argument for bringing back slavery, no?

The collapse of the Middle Class is a global phenomenon and it is happening to all of the advanced industrial economies inside or outside of NAFTA. I remember, growing up in the sixties and seventies being told that automation and efficiencies would bring about a "leisure" society in which only some of us would need to work and not all of the time. Well, here it comes. What those futurists failed to grasp is that no one is going to pay you to be "leisurely" in the leisure society.

Mexicos violence problems have nothing to do with NAFTA and everything to do with the War on Drugs.

I wouldn't doubt that there is a definite correlation between the dramatic increase in capital floating around the place and gowth in drug trade. Money attracts violent assholes like honey & bears.