When Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada left office in 2006 after a six-year stint, he didn’t go quietly into political retirement.
With the advent of social media, the outspoken Fox gained the ability to launch barbs with ease and generally treat politicians like a well-used piñata. His latest target? Take a guess.
Following President Trump’s recent declarations — including a promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and a threat to impose a 20 percent border tax on Mexican goods — Fox spoke his mind on the issue, trolling Trump on Twitter and making statements on the U.S. auto industry that won’t get him invited to many parties in Detroit.
Fox, whose last tweet reads, “Amigos in the world let’s make twitter great again,” followed by the activist anti-Trump hashtag #to2unidos, went to bat for his country’s manufacturing scene.
The ex-president’s Twitter tirade included several messages for the new American president. In one, he asked Trump, “who’s gonna pay for the costly products after you tax them? American citizens! You’re not respecting them.”
In another, he tried to appeal to reason, while adding a threat of his own. “Trump, please don’t be stubborn,” he wrote. “By taxing 20%, again American people pays for the f..wall. You know MX will impose same tax to US exports.”
While his tweets targeted Trump and trade, the mustachioed Mexican didn’t back on his neighbor’s automobile industry when interviewed by CNBC.
“You produce cars in the United States at such a high price and such a mediocre, mediocre quality that you cannot compete, you cannot compete manufacturing in the United States,” Fox said today. “That’s why Ford, Chrysler, General Motors went broke.”
Mexican manufacturing, on the other hand, is top-notch, Fox said. Blame American job losses on the rise of the machines.
“We’re productive because we’re competitive, because we produce high-quality cars,” he told CNBC. “We are not taking away jobs from the United States. It’s robots … not Mexico.”
A quick perusal of Fox’s Twitter is a good glimpse at both the free time enjoyed by ex-presidents, and of a country’s simmering anger towards a proposed policy that could hurl a wrench into its economy. The proposed border tax aims to prevent American industry from setting up shop in the cheaper environs south of the border. It would also fund the construction of a border wall.
After a planned meeting fell apart earlier this week, Trump spent an hour on the phone with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto today.
According to the Washington Post, Trump said, “We had a very good call. I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico. I love the Mexican people,” adding, “Mexico has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp. They’ve made us look foolish.”
[Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)]
I know it’s all hyperbole, but American manufacturing really is pretty good. But Mexican manufacturing is also quite good. I am proud to say that the good people at the Guanajuato plant did a stellar job making my family’s 2016 Honda Fit. I am also happy to say that the good people at the Flint Rock plant did a stellar job making my family’s ’16 Ford Mustang.
American manufacturing is just fine – I’ve had no issues with Japanese or Americans cars built here, with the exception of Jeeps because they demonstrated the typical Chrysler approach to quality.
What was disappointing was the build quality of the Mexican made VW I once owned.
What Fox is failing to account for is that the only reason cars are getting built in Mexico is because the labor is dirt cheap, environmental regs are significantly looser, and we allow the cars to come into the US tax free. Nobody is building cars there because of the tradition of fine Mexican automobile production.
But they are due to the Latin American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico is a only member to both LAFTA and NAFTA. It only logical that someone would build cars and other things in places that allow tariff free or reduced tariff trade to both North and South America.
There’s no Latin America free trade agreement, but Mexico has bilateral FTAs with several Central and South American countries.
couldn’t agree more!
“By taxing 20%, again American people pays for the f..wall. You know MX will impose same tax to US exports.”
I think the threat of the 20% tax is just cannon fodder, disinformation, redirection, whatever.
Considering how many US$ cross the border going south each day, it would not surprise me to see the Trump Team come out of left field and halt most of the outflow of US$ to Mexico at some point, like real soon.
No doubt this would affect Western Union in a big way.
Another way to raise money is a 5% money transfer fee, or money exchange fee, like they have at some European border crossings.
It would not be long before that wall is paid for.
Remittances are the #1 source of income for Mexico. I thought it was down at #3 or #4, but Mexico makes more from remittances than oil exports. It looks like Donny has more leverage than Fox is letting on.
Yup!
It’s been argued that if anyone really wanted to crack down on “undocumented workers”, you really just need a ban on cash transfers by them. Their whole reason for being in the USA would be eliminated.
Or better yet go after all those people and companies that break the law and hire them. They are here for jobs. No job and they don’t stay.
Do you mean Carlos Slim and the New York Times? How would they pay for the propaganda that molds the minds of America’s imbeciles?
It’s clear the failing NYTimes has found a Pres it likes – the Pres of Mexico! Two actually, past and present.
The NYTimes owes its existence to the very controversial plutocrat Carlos Slim – a man who has Mexico’s interests – he controls 7% of the Mexican economy – at heart.
Every article the NYTimes prints concerning the US and Mexico should have a disclaimer stating that it was saved from bankruptcy by one Carlos Slim, a Mexican plutocrat, who is the NYTime’s largest and most important stockholder.
“Every article the NYTimes prints concerning the US and Mexico should have a disclaimer stating that it was saved from bankruptcy by one Carlos Slim, a Mexican plutocrat, who is the NYTime’s largest and most important stockholder.”
Wow! That says it all.
DeanST: That would do it, if one thinks those undocumented workers are really such a problem. With all the important issues facing our country, Mexico doesn’t even move the needle. Still, the uneducated have been brainwashed to think that Mexico is THE problem, hence the “win” in November.
As for “mediocre” American manufacturing, that is just childish Twitter tit for tat with the PCOTUS -Petulant Child of the United States.
The #1 priority for Trump voters was the Supreme CT. That’s where the “win” was and only the brainwashed thought it was Mexico.
I didn’t much care for him while he was in office, but I’m starting to come around on Senor Fox. His point about the relative quality of Mexican built cars vs. that of bankrupt American automakers is amusing, if nothing else.
I wasn’t a fan of President Bush when he was in office, but President Trump is making me look back on the Bush 43 years fondly. I never thought it would happen, but President Trump has made the Bush 43 White House look like the epitome of class and civility.
Trump makes Dan Quayle look like a brilliant orator.
Living in interesting times kinda sucks, doesn’t it?
Interesting doesn’t cover half of it.
I never thought I would consider choosing Mrs. Palin over some other choice, but life is full of amusing twists and turns. She would be an ineffective ditz. Mr. P-grabber on the other hand is arguably quite an effective ditz.
I love how Mr. Fox is spouting empty braggadocio as a counterpoint to that of Mr. Pgrabber’s. Fight fire with fire.
I suppose you supported the rapist?
Hillary lost that too.
don’t worry Trump will end it all soon. At least we will be able to see if North Korea can actually get a ICBM off the launch pad and somewhere close to the US!
You forget, all GOP candidates and prezes are Nazis who will blow up the world – until they are defeated or out of office and then the shills declare their new “respect” for them.
All too predictable. And that’s why Trump is immune to all the media nonsense, the public has been inoculated against it.
Never a fan of Dubya not the carnage he unleashed in the Middle East but he always seemed like a pleasant and civil person. By all accounts the transition from Bush II to Obama was smooth and civil.
Señor Fox is a bit disingenuous. Mexican manufacturing succeeds not because it is better than American but because they pay workers way less and have less regulation. That is why free trade doesn’t work between the two. It worked between Canada and the US because wages and standards were broadly similar.
I never thought I’d say this but now I miss George Bush. While his polices to me were mostly reprehensible, he was not a spiteful, childish baby. He was actually a genuine person and a decent human being at that. DJT? Put it this way: a co-worker took a trip to Kazakhstan a month ago. The guy who took her money for exchange looked at the US dollars and said “Ha Trump”. We truly are the laughing stock of the world.
We have been the laughingstock of the world – for the previous eight years. But that was the plan, wasn’t it.?
0 never liked the idea of US leadership and was never one to exhibit it. 0 legacy: The US position in the MidEast – laughingstock. The US position in EU – laughingstock. THe US position in the Far East – laughingstock.
um, those plants are owned and run by “bankrupt American automakers.”
Last I checked about half are not owned by the bankrupt American firms.
The tepid insults from the former president of a near-failed narco state have little bearing on anything and even less relevance.
His nation’s destitute and parasitic economic woes and proximity to our market are the only reasons for such a high concentration of automobile production, not their relentless pursuit of quality assembly. Go ride in a Jetta.
Fox was a puppet for the Sinaloa’s. This whole thing is turning out to be a circus.
As for assembly quality – so long as you keep a few good engineers at the plant level, and you give them a good product, the Mexican plants I worked in will screw together a car better than Toyota in the US would.
I suspect that Jetta is the result of half assed Euro engineering where they’ll pump out retail cars with soft tooled parts because ‘who cares?’ ‘no one will even notice.’ Just look at the Focus RS vs a US built ST.
Forgive my ignorance tres, but “soft tooled parts”?
Soft (zinc, unhardened steel, or other soft metal) tools are cheaper than nice tool steel tools but wear badly over fairly short lives. First rate companies use soft dies and molds for engineering prototypes. Cheap fly-by-night jobs use them for rate production.
anamoly has it right. I was making a sweeping generalization that the Europeans don’t follow process and won’t gate retail production because a car doesn’t have 100% of it’s parts fully ready via APQP.
From what I can tell certain Californian automakers do the same, but that’s none of my business…
I’ve seen plenty of mass-market European cars and came away very unimpressed. I think all of those Jalop-types who claim they’re dying to be able to own a Dacia Duster or SEAT Ibiza would have incredible buyer’s remorse within one day.
seriously, we already get all of the *good* European cars over here. Nobody truly wants the flimsy little griefboxes they don’t export here.
@anomaly149
“From what I can tell certain Californian automakers do the same, but that’s none of my business…”
no, they just expect to be able to make daily changes to hard tooling. No joke.
I remember driving a Vauxhall Corsa and being relatively impressed with it compared to comparable US cars, particularly anything made at the time by GM for the US market.
Europeans pay higher prices, and they sometimes get more because they’re paying for it. Americans demand lower prices, and that means that we sometimes don’t get what we aren’t paying for, particularly when it comes to mainstream (not luxury) cars.
LMAO @ JimZ & anomaly149.
Pch101: my experience is limited with multiple Euro programs with one OEM. YMMV.
@JimZ
Fantasyland statement as usual. Vast number of very good Euro vehicles you do not get in the US.
Most of your cars are hand me down Euro sourced vehicles, Japanese and Korean concoctions .
No wonder the Camry has been N01 in the US for so long
@RobertRyan,
sorry, but I’ve driven plenty. When I say something about a Dacia Duster or SEAT Ibiza, I say it from experience.
I’ll consider the rest of what you said your usual trolling.
I’m no fan of The Donald – and have little issue with having low-profit margin vehicles and components assembled in Mexico – but I’m generally fine with the idea of a harsh reset of our nation’s relationship with that country.
Mexico exists on the precipice of outright third world hellhole status (and plummeting fast) yet its leaders have grown accustomed to being treated as equals with Great Britain, France, etc. That needs to change.
Our War on (some) Drugs has played a large role in Mexico’s current situation.
Huh? Mexican leaders think they should be treated as equals and you need to slap them down? Weird.
Just FYI, there are 15 nations with a GDP of > USD 1 Trillion, and Mexico is one of them. Their economy is fast growing, balanced and stable.
Are you counting the billions in narco money as part of that ‘fast growing, balanced and stable’ economy, VoGo? How about the nearly $25 billion in annual remittances from Mexican citizens living in the U.S., legally and not-so-much?
There is indeed a reason why Mexican citizens continue flooding the U.S. seeking a better life. Conditions are horrid on the ground and in the barrios for many, and I’m not even factoring in the drug violence and other brutal crimes that are increasingly rampant, not only in certain known cartel territories but throughout the entire nation.
That is why I feel, strongly, that no purported ‘leader’ of such a societal wasteland should feel entitled to the same diplomatic treatment as those from more civilized nations. And while I agree with ttacgreg’s point below that there’s more that could be done by the U.S. to encourage growth of the Mexican economy and promote more stable conditions, I’d rather see our government focus on addressing those same concerns within our own borders first.
“Are you counting the billions in narco money as part of that ‘fast growing, balanced and stable’ economy, VoGo? How about the nearly $25 billion in annual remittances from Mexican citizens living in the U.S., legally and not-so-much?
There is indeed a reason why Mexican citizens continue flooding the U.S. seeking a better life. Conditions are horrid on the ground and in the barrios for many, and I’m not even factoring in the drug violence and other brutal crimes that are increasingly rampant, not only in certain known cartel territories but throughout the entire nation.”
+ 10
I would only add that people outside Mexico who consume these illegal substances need a reality check. Research the violence, misery and mayhem related to the drug trafficking that is perpetrated on and against the Mexican people and think long and hard how you contribute to all of it.
Trading with them and helping them with their domestic economy will/would be far more effective at reducing immigration than crippling their economy and driving them further down the third world hole making them desperate for jobs, and then building a (supposedly effective) wall to keep them out.
Must be surprise news to Honda, Toyota, etc who make plenty of money with American workers in American plants.
Trump lowered the bar, so we can expect others to step over it.
That being said, assembly quality is a function of who is running the plant.
A Mexican Toyota will be superior to an American VW because it’s a Toyota. An American Toyota will be superior to a Mexican VW because it’s a Toyota.
The best solution would involve getting Toyota to engineer and assemble all of the VWs. Let the Germans style it and do the suspension tuning, but don’t let them near some of the other bits.
Agreed on all points.
As tres alludes to above, build quality will also depend on how much autonomy the local plant has to go cheap on things like tooling. Labor quality plays a pretty small role nowadays.
A lot of people don’t understand that the purpose of an assembly line is to minimize the possible negative inputs or errors of the individual worker.
These lines are not producing handmade products. Individual initiative on the line should make very little difference; if it does, then there is a management problem.
Pch101: individual ‘initiative.’ HAHA. I like to call it, ‘missed operation.’
And yes, even ‘initiative’ has error proofing in place if it’s possible. Unless it’s craftsmanship issues (fitting, surface finish, process damage, etc.)
or what we euphemistically called “bonus stock” when doing squeak & rattle testing.
“Bonus Stock” means things like a screw or nut dropped into an assembly and left there to rattle around.
An assembly line that requires heroes to operate is going to fail because production quality requires consistent processes combined with quality parts and tooling, not heroism.
A good assembly line will be designed to produce high quality with perfectly average people.
@Pch101
One reason complete Automation gets over that. No human involvement.
“The best solution would involve getting Toyota to engineer and assemble all of the VWs.”
Not my Jetta! I don’t want thing driving like a Yaris.
One day you may wish that Jetta drove like a Yaris. Unless you sell it before the warranty expires.
I don’t want VW customers to influence the market as much as they do. There was a time when a Jetta drove better than a Toyota. Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. Sometimes you have to move on.
I remember when crappy US car quality was an issue in the 70’s. Lots of blame was placed on the workers. Over time it became apparent, and acknowledged that it was the management and engineering that determined the end product’s quality.
There was so much blame to go around… I suggest you find the NPR “This American Life” broadcast about NUMMI. Management was bad, but it’s possible they’d given up because of the UAW.
Toyota rehired 85% of the GM UAW employees for NUMMI and did not have issues with the union.
GM got the union that it deserved.
They deserved the 15% that was unfireable but so bad that Toyota couldn’t rehabilitate them?
taccgreg: Remember back then there was a lot of variability in the assembly process. If you ever worked on cars of that era, you find many of the body panels had slots to allow for variation in the overall assembly. Good guys like Mikey would make sure the parts were aligned as well as possible before tightening everything together. Some guys were not so concerned, and sometimes the plant manager got a bonus for output, so the incentive for quality took a back seat. Today the tolerances are so much tighter that those parts often have locating pins and round holes so the workers have little input on how the assembly goes together.
Thank You, golden2husky. Even going back to the early 70’s, myself and about 90 percent of my co-workers did the best we could with the materials, and tools, we were given.
Oh, it was a combination of things, line workers included. I have old friends who worked for Ford and GM beginning in the mid-70s and I heard the stories of their co-workers breaks and lunches where coffee and food were not usually consumed but illegal substances were. I also bought a new ’78 Buick Regal Sport Coupe and that experience prompted me to never again purchase a GM car from that day forward.
@General….Not for a second will I deny that such things took place at breaks, and lunches. I can also tell you for a fact , that the Honda and Toyota plants are not immune from such practices. Although at Honda and Toyota they may be somewhat more discreet.
As far as your 78 Regal goes . No, I don’t doubt that it was a rolling turd. The 78 “A body” was poorly engineered , and rushed into production. We built the Pontiac, Monte Carlo, and the Malibu. The workers did the best they could. The ‘bean counters ” were in charge , and they called the shots.
Hundreds of thousands of folks like yourself walked away from GM , and never came back. Can’t say that I blamed them.
At the time though, for every customer that quietly went over to Honda, two more customers came through the door. Frankly , GM didn’t give a —k.
25 years, and millions of lost buyers later, GM finally woke up. In the interim thousands of auto workers paid the price.
Mikey, yep, a lot of makers had to deal with unrest, issues, etc.
I must say the new Malibu, Cruze and the SS are very attractive cars. My neighbor bought a new Corvette a few months ago and he keeps telling me I have to take it out for a spin. Just hearing that engine crank and start is music to my ears!
This is the same guy that said Mexicans did jobs not even American Blacks wanted to do…
I worked at Chrysler’s Hemi Engine plant when it opened in 2001. It was important enough for the economy that Fox visited the plant and shook hands with everybody.
Tresmonos is on the money that the Mexicans can build a car as good as the parent company wants, or is willing to pay for. The Jetta is sloppy because of the parent company. When I had to deal with American Chrysler plants vs. the Mexican plants, the difference was night and day in favor of the Mexican plants.
Are the manufacturing differences only significant to engineering nerds or would a consumer be able to see/touch/feel the difference?
You probably won’t notice. For example: Chrysler still is getting on the DC tool bandwagon that other OEMS jumped on a decade ago. So that means calibrated air and hand tools rather than fancy computerized nut runners that collect data on a server. Do consumers notice? probably not. But maybe it has something to do with ‘FCA quality?’
There are plants that are utter garbage (that I won’t mention) but if your Quality Operating System is working, the customer won’t notice most of the issues. Your bottom line will certainly feel it, however. Rework is usually a function that is poka-yoked to the point that you must perform it and whoever buys it off must repair it or eventually lose their job.
Now quality in design? Consumers see that waay more than assembly quality. It’s noticeable in recalls. Warranty can be a mixed back of assembly and quality. The way my employer has been running, my friends and family have all been pained with design / program issues.
Tres, please keep your comments coming. Your insights on how cars actually get made are invaluable to most of us.
a quality problem with a car usually comes down to one of three possible things:
1) design defect in a part or assembly,
2) parts quality from the supplier, or
3) craftsmanship/fit & finish.
the assembly plant is largely responsible only for #3. So if your Honyota breaks a lower control arm, and a number of other owners are also reporting the same problem, that’s probably a design defect (but could also be supplier parts quality.) If your radio suddenly poops out, but it’s not really a common issue, parts quality.
now, if you’ve got runs in the paint, trim that’s not attached fully or aligned properly, or a loose screw rattling around inside the door, that’s on the assembly plant. Not only for the process error, but also for not being spotted and sent for re-work.
I had some bad blood with the Toluca Plant. Their supplier quality engineers where shady as f*ck. I spoke good enough spanish that I caught them with their pants down. Too many non-standard tools than I could shake a stick at.
Once I identified all their BS, they shaped up and ran my product like a top. You gotta keep reminding them of their job (good manufacturing engineers who know the quality and production operating system and keeps auditing it via the usual inputs) but at the line level, you won’t find a worker that will want to do a better job than in Mexico.
My understanding is that in Mexico, auto jobs are pretty much prize catches, Tres.
They are. I saw lines outside of the plants I worked in every day. People just being hopeful for a position.
I gotta get off this site or tonight is going to be an angry drunk kind of night.
Some of the hardest working people on the planet!
Gotta say, I’m not sure he’s wrong. Mexican auto workers are darn good. (Though I think they’re also held to higher standards)
But I know Mexico makes better cars than Canada by a mile, sheesh those are heaps of junk.
Examples of junky Canadian made cars?
Any W-Body? The Ford Panthers?
(yes, I’m trolling)
the last few years of the Panthers (at least the Grand Marquis) was really just worn out tooling. the last MGM I rode in was a rental from the final year of production, and I could easily see the trim was in a much poorer state than it was when the cars were last updated for 2003. All of the plastic parts had signs of tools which were just worn the f*** out.
Freed Mike, these hallowed pages have buried Oakville’s finest, and you’re still a doubter?
I could fit my fingers in the panel gaps!
The ‘schwa’s trophy cabinet would beg to differ, nevermind the fact that Cambridge assembly is good enough for Lexus.
Although I’m now thinking you were just trolling. Or you own something made in Brampton. Which is your own fault, really.
Funny JD Power recognized two Canadian plants as best in North America. How do ya like them enchiladas?
A JD Power award is basically useless marketing crap. JD Power is rather generous in passing out participation trophies to grateful manufacturers who in turn pay a licensing fee to use the JD Power logo and quote in advertising.
Essentially what George B says. I trust a feeler gauge a lot more than I do a JD Power or CR award, but YMMV.
I see where some folks here know what they’re talking about. Some haven’t a clue, and a few are just trolling.
I only pay attention to those that actually have some concept of the modern vehicle assembly process.
Not hard to figure who they are.
Enchiladas? How about Poutine?
How about a Vicente Fox Quesadilla? I hear it’s all the rage.
I hear they give you gas.
I have a Honda of (Alliston, Ontario) Canada Civic. That thing is a durable paint-job away from being the perfectly assembled car. My first car was a Canadian Plymouth Valiant. That similarly had paint that faded in less than a decade, but it was also the best “American” car of its day. Most of my Mexican car experience is with pre-Fiat-Chryslers and VWs, but they’ve all been pretty poorly engineered and made vehicles. I have driven some Mexican Tacomas that were fine.
Well, yes, burros are pretty reliable as long as you feed them.
Former Mexican NARCO President Fox Slams American Manufacturing as ‘Mediocre’
There I fixed the title. Fox is no different than Madonna or Ashley Judd. A has been that is desperately trying to stay relevant. It’s not working.
No amount of NARCO money can change the fact that car manufacturing quality is Japan-Korea-America-Germany-and then Mexico. Just ask Honda.
Trump, “They’ve made us look foolish”
Dracula has no need for mirrors.
Look up context in the dictionary. Most of us already know what it means.
@WeeTodd – I don’t feel like explaining the metaphor to you.
Ain’t nobody got time for Lou!
General – looks like you made time ;)
All of two… Make it 10 seconds
@mtmmo
Currently it is Germany then a long distance to US sourced products. No Mexico involved
without all the american, german, and japanese companies there that own the plants and hire the workers for pesos a day, mexico would only be known for telemundo and prepaid wireless phone service.
and midget wrestling.
if trump wants to make a serious dent in the issue, he would impose a huge tax on all the remittances that go back to mexico via western union, etc.
if the illegals get taxed on the money they send home ( a LOT of money) theyll probably “self deport”
Yeah, but there are plenty of other ways to transfer cash to Mexico beyond remittances. Get a prepaid visa card and mail it to your relative in Mexico. Then, reload the card from the US. There’s also PayPal, which is in Mexico. I’m sure there’s a long list and you can bet people will find them.
This ^^^
Like many proposals, they can be gotten around. What is the most common method hispanics end up being undocumented? its certain not over the rio grande.
how does most of the narcotics get to the US? a wall isnt stopping that
vincent fox isnt wrong in the end. Wasnt it Daimler or BMW who threw shade at US car manufacturers trying to get into the EU.
Make better cars?
We get the Mustang in RHD. How come its failing NCAP? There’s an issue somewhere and its not the money.
They can be gotten around, but if you take Carlos Slim out of the game then you take away the funding for the propaganda that turns SJWs into suicide cultists.
I wonder how the wall and much increased border security will impact the drug trade. How much of the Mexican economy is fuelled by the drug trade. Could this be one of the reasons the Mexican government is so upset? It seems to me that Mexico has done little to stem the flow of drugs from their side of the border. For financial reasons perhaps?
Their government is bought and paid for by drug cartels, but even ignoring that, illegal immigration is Mexico’s number 1 source of income through remittances from people that come into the US and send money back home.
It also allows Mexico to never address poverty or corruption because those that don’t like it can simply pack their bags and head to the US for a much better life.
So, a former government official who’s opinion has no influence on his country’s current administration says something bad about American manufacturing and instead of just ignoring it, again, because he’s a private citizen with no real influence, ttac decides his statement warrants a long post?
Why exactly? Ah, that’s right – battledrome! Fight to the death amongst yourselves monkeys. Fight! Mexico sucks, now the other side go. Get me those page views!
The US has all the leverage here, I guess former leaders like Vicente can talk tough and make the Mexican people feel better about themselves, but they will lose any sort of trade war with the United States and simply go further into poverty.
And Mexico can whine all they want, but look into what Mexico does to Chinese imports. They’ll actually destroy them on the spot like drug contraband. It’s protectionism on steroids.
Combined current trade between the US & Mecico is nearly 2/3s of a trillion dollars (about 60 billion US deficit) but… Fab deal compared to the Middle East war(s) R.O.I. If this is how the DT treats a friendly neighbor, there’ll be hell to pay with the “enemies” and once a global trade war awakens and the protection isolationists are truly isolated…and American consumers can’t get their WalMart deals…he’ll get hoovered up.
Of course his overseas hotels present an easily i.d’d target rich environment for those pesky terrorists. It’s only a matter of time.
“We are not taking away jobs from the United States. It’s robots … not Mexico.”
Since the start of the industrial revolution the Luddites were screaming about how everyone was going to lose their jobs. The reality was that improvements in tech changed the nature of jobs, but overall more jobs were created, and people earned more. Now that we have arrived on the threshold of AI, the Luddite prophecy may be upon us. When machines begin to learn, and robots can construct other robots, a large portion of humanity will become economically superfluous. Economists….real economists, not people writing for crackpot blogs…..are now saying that only beneficiaries of AI will likely be people who control capital and political power. The rest of us, not so much.
That’s why the near future will be a great time to die leaving no progeny behind. Feudalism and overcrowded rat cages for everyone else but the 1%.
Great and rare point, though, about dumb machines having ultimately been employment multipliers.