The following blocked paragraph is from Yahoo News at http://news.yahoo.com /s/afp/20060817/bs_afp/
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KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Japanese officials have proposed a sprawling 16-nation free-trade grouping with China, South Korea, Australia, India, New Zealand and the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc.
Go to the linked site, read the whole article, although you can get a good picture of what is to come from just that first paragraph if this actually goes through.
What I think this all means is that there will be a European Union that has made the European economy stronger in most countries within that union, and an equivalent in Asia that will likely strengthen the economies of many of the nations within that union. That leaves this side of the world including North, Central and South America.
What options does that leave to the United States of America? Of course, the USA could form a wonderful union with all of the nations within North, Central and South Americas. This might be a great boon to the economies of many of the poorer nations involved in such a union; but what would that do for the US economy?
Countries in Europe got to team up with other European nations that had strong economies and that actually were quite productive as far as things like manufacturing and agriculture went. For example Italy gives its European counterparts things like wine, Fiats, and great tourist spots. Switzerland gives them the Alps, skiing, chocolate, clocks and banking. Germany gives them Mercedes Benz, fine Solingen steel, and some of the greatest beer in the world; and the list goes on for other countries in the EU.
In Asia it will be likewise. Japan brings a wealth of manufacturing, the cultured pearl business, fishing fleets, Sony, Toyotas, and aggressive marketing. South Korea gives us Hyundai. Australia gives exports of lamb and other agricultural products, great tourist spots, and a strong military. Chine gives a very strong military, nuclear technology, a wealth of people resources and agriculture. The list also goes on.
In our neck of the woods the USA would be able to give: education (for free to illegal aliens), a wealth of other free services such as health care (to illegal aliens), low or no taxation (for illegal aliens), a wealth of agricultural produce (often given for free or through government subsidies to illegal aliens), manufactured products such as the flags of all South and Central American nations (waved by illegal aliens during protests of tougher Immigration laws), wide open spaces (which are currently being quickly filled in by illegal aliens), constitutional rights (which are being usurped by crooked politicians who favor acceptance of illegal aliens).
What does the USA get in return from its neighbors. If you guessed illegal aliens, well you would only be partly correct. You see we do get agricultural products from Canada to include timber, and food products, and they also give us a better view of Niagara Falls from their side of the border, and from what I understand there is great hunting and fishing to be had north of our border. I don't always agree with Canada's political train of thought, but I like Canada for the most part. Now we turn to Mexico, what do they give to such a Union. Yes you guessed right, their main contribution has and probably would be a mass of illiterate, unskilled people who come to the USA to recolonize it. We currently often refer to the great majority of these folks as illegal aliens. They also give us something else, illegal drugs. Each year millions upon millions of dollars of illegal narcotics are smuggled into the United States from Mexico. These include soft drugs like marijuana; but also include killers like cocaine and heroin. In addition we also wind up getting an overflow of opportunistic thieves and other criminals from Mexico. This is why the auto theft rates along the southern border are historically often sky high. We get much of the same from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela (which also gives us the threat of being our enemy) and so on. In addition, lest you think I have overlooked them, our neighbors in the Caribbean such as Haiti give us more of much of the same. Of course lest I forget we also get some special things from places like El Salvador such as MS-13, the violent crime gang.
So what can we do to strengthen our future in light of all of this. First of all we can get rid of the illegal aliens who are here sucking us dry. Then we can submit an economic unionization plan to our neighbors to insure they will use their resources to the best of their abilities to foster strong economies. This would include eliminating: drug trafficking, illegal border crossings, sweat shops, and the like. It would also foster instituting: decent wages in said countries, fair labor laws, a decent educational system, and so forth. Can it be done, sure it can. Will it be easy – hell no. Yet countries like Mexico, that actively seek to promote illegal immigration to the USA by the poor of Mexico, is one of the richer nations on this side of the world. They have huge oil reserves, but getting to them through the systemic political corruption in a country where mordida (the small bite, aka: bribery) is a way of life is almost impossible, and certainly not cost effective.
The truth of the matter is that the USA is going to have to depend largely upon itself, as it always has done, to remain a viable economic power in the world of the future. In order to do so we need to manage: our resources carefully. This means not giving them away to tens of millions of illegal aliens. We can continue to welcome legal immigrants tom our shore, but ilegals, let's face it - many of them commited a crime as their first act upon our soil. In addition, we will have to manage our domestic and foreign policies wisely. This means a replacement of most of the politicians on state and federal levels by politicians, whom we vote into office, who truly have the good of this nation as their goal as opposed to having an anti one person outlook. Let’s face it folks, if all the majority of one of our political parties wants to rant on about is how we need to get rid of our current president, well then something is drastically wrong with our politics. First of all, don’t these folks realize that he is out in a couple of years no matter what! So why rant on about getting rid of him? Likewise why does the other side, or at least much of it, feel the need to support him 100% in everything he does?
As I see it, we need to get together on this across party lines. This does not mean we have to all vote for one candidate or for a third party candidate (though that might be a help, that is if there was a really viable third party – which there is not currently). What it does mean is that we, and our current elected leaders, ought to get together to plan a reasonable, well thought out plan, for the economic survival of the United States of America before it is too late and we slide down the slope to becoming a third world nation. I am open to suggestions about how to do so, suggestions that are non-partisan, and logical. My first one was mentioned above, let’s get rid of those, many of whose first act upon our soil was a crime, of course, by whom I mean illegal aliens. Then let’s work onward from there, let's get rid of politicans who drag us into the dirt and replace them with men and women whose only goal is to better the USA; it can only get better for us if we do so.
All the best,
Glenn B
