Trendevents: U.S. Poor Should Flee Shores To Get Federal Aid

Clyde Wilson

1994

Published in:

Northwest Area News, May 1994, No. 124

In article by Stephen L. Goldstein brings out the fact that America's poor and needy get very little consideration from their elected representatives in Congress or from the Administration in Washington. He maintains that the disadvantaged and poor would get more help from the U.S. Government by fleeing to Myanmar (Burma).

Goldstein goes on to state that historically American sympathy for people in distress increases in direct proportion to the distance they are from America's shores. "We have no tolerance for poor people in America," Goldstein reiterates throughout his essay.

Goldstein thinks that if America is going to save the world and Restore Hope in Somalia, it should resolve to save America and Americans. America has over 32 million people living at or below the poverty level and a like number of Americans on the edge of poverty, and millions of children (our future citizens) who go hungry and without the basics for life.

Goldstein also wants to know how come the nation cannot find a proverbial dime to help those Americans who have lost their jobs because the power brokers in Washington and the captains of industry botched the economy.

Of course, having no real answers to the social and economic problems that confront the nation, the poor brokers in Washington and the inner circle find it more expedient and convenient to divert the attention of the American people to countries thousands of miles from American shores. In this way, the country can never come to grips with its own problems, always diverted by wars or the myriad of problems that beset the world. regardless of what happens in other parts of the globe, the United States needs to START now to mobilize all of its resources and technology to put its own house in order.

Gridlock And Bottlenecks South Of The Border Down Mexico Way

In article by Sam Howe Verhovek (New York Times 11/30/93) points out that all of the euphoria over the celebration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may be premature as the quantity of imports and exports of goods and services increase between the United States and Mexico.

Verhovek dwells on the fact that trade between the two countries along both sides of the 2000 mile border has already created many problems. he brings out that the infrastructure is not adequate—that the bridges, roads and customs stations are already overburdened and in no condition to handle any expansion of trade that is contemplated by the United States and Mexico in the future. If traffic is already in gridlock, what will it be by the year 2000? He points out that the situation as it exists now.

In Laredo, the busiest crossing over the Rio Grande, the number of trucks heading south has jumped from 185,000 in 1987 to 800,000 last year—or more than 2000 a day.
Trucks are lined up for a mile and a half—two miles some afternoons just waiting to cross the bridge.
There are physical barriers—clogged roads, bridges and strained customs and immigration checkpoints that will only get worse.

The idea of privately operated toll roads has been proposed to meet the problem. While transportation officials of the four border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas have drawn up ambitious schemes for more bridges and super widened highways, nobody knows where the money will come from to build them. These states are already in a budget bind and can't even take care of their own infrastructure, which has deteriorated over the years from neglect.

As for the border cities of Mexico, they are among the poorest cities in Mexico. President Carlos Salinas has promised the citizens of Mexico 12,000 miles of new super highways to be built by private companies who will be guaranteed a percentage of the tolls for their investments. (Can you imagine some investment banker or entrepreneur dumb enough to get involved in something like this without a guaranty from the government?)

Those cities and the people who reside on both sides of the border feel that NAFTA makes no provision for the human element and their needs such as potable water, sewer lines and facilities, health care and a plan to curb pollution, which is already at intolerable levels.

It must be obvious that NAFTA is just another one of those schemes concocted by the power brokers in Washington without any comprehensive plan or foresight. As usual, under the present financial system, the transnationals, the banks, the investment brokers and the elite of the United States and Mexico will be the major beneficiaries of this venture. The consumer and the taxpayer will get the hindmost.