Canada, NAFTA, AMLO Mexico’s new President and the United States – July 2, 2018
well, this post is actually directed at Canada which is where I currently live and this post is in response NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and Mexico’s very interesting new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador better known to the world as AMLO. Umm to keep things short Canada may want to really consider getting out of NAFTA right now and signing a Bilateral trade agreement with the United States. To give you an idea of AMLO consider watching the video below:
The VisualPolitik EN Youtube channel the creators of the video above are pretty much center-right politically and in many ways, they go out of their way to make sure the left has a voice when they’re worried about AMLO you should pay close attention. Personally, I love to read below is a link to AMLO’s Wikipedia page. What you’ll notice by the wording is that AMLO believes in bigger government, however, his methodology to bigger government differs from that of former Mexican presidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Manuel_L%C3%B3pez_Obrador – Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Why am I writing that if the option is available Canada should consider renegotiating NAFTA? Well, Donald Trumps presidency revolved around immigration reform, business aside AMLO is considering releasing criminals with drug offenses back into Mexican society. Now, in Mexico, the people may look at this differently because of the history of government corruption in Mexico, but from an outsiders perspective, from a trump supporters perspective, this border control crisis might become even bigger.
To add to this uncertainty is AMLO and the business community in Mexico, AMLO’s policies seem rather subjective and flexible from a governmental perspective, AMLO political strategy appears to be a bait and switch method for businesses. Meaning he may say things to lure businesses in, only to change alter or trap the business once they commit. If you take the time to review AMLO’s policies they’re all rooted in the same type of socialism Nicolás Maduro and Hugo Chávez engaged in, which has led to the ongoing collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
A mini story about a small businessman I once knew and observed
I grew up in Toronto, in my neighborhood there was a convenience store owned by a Chinese family. This small business was a family business, the man’s children would be working in the store and doing their homework at the during after school and on the weekends. The father would be running the store with the mother while the children helped and did their homework. This store opened 6 am every morning before any other store in the area, they also closed around 11 pm after every other store in the plaza closed. All the store owners children grew up to be Lawyers, Doctors and own businesses of their own. I remember one driving up to the store with a very expensive car.
What a boring story right? Well, unfortunately, these types of people are not as common as you think and if a better option presents itself these business people will leave your town, your city, your Province/State and ultimately your country as they seek more freedom and better economic opportunities. Once these people leave you’ll get a Venezuelan economy, you’ll get stuck with the economic problems existing in Africa. These dedicated hardworking business minded people aren’t as common as you’s assume. Also, people of a particular ethnicity are like this. You might just be lucky that they landed in your neighborhood and not someone else’s. I’ve seen a lot of situations where small business owners simply sell or just leave unexpectantly and there’s no replacement. Most people namely political left-leaning individuals in the back of their minds say to themselves oh running a business is easy all I need is some money and I’ll be rich. That’s an incorrect way of thinking.
A 7 day a week convenience store? Are you sure you could handle it? A lot of people I talk to want to party, they want to go on vacation, they want to make lots of money so right after they can have lots and lots of fun while they’re young, they want to have sick days at work, they want the government to take care of them when they’re old, they want universal health care, they want to pay fewer taxes while the people working 7 days a week pay more taxes.
This is the real world of political democracy, the majority pick on the minority until there’s a social outcry against it. School and even the media in the past used to detail the pros and cons of any political action, in the modern world the media and even the schools only tell the people part of the story.
If AMLO is the type of socialist many business people think he is Mexico’s economy could be headed in the wrong direction. Based on Donald Trumps history, chances are Trump is going to test the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to see what he’s made of. Socialists are easy to spot, because they tend to react emotionally under pressure, they’re also usually very prideful and have a hard time dealing with what they believe could be social ostracism. This is something most business people understand and I recommend that Canadian politicans pay close attention to the new Mexican president before throwing talks of a NAFTA renogoiation off the table.
Then again maybe all will be fine.
Interesting times ahead.