At Long Last

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

This letter appeared in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) on 6 December 1993.

This item may be cited as M. R. Franks, Letter to the Editor: At Long Last, New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 6, 1993, at 10B.

Dear Editor:

A foolish homeowner takes pleasure in his neighbor's poverty and delight in the disrepair of his neighbor's house. A wise homeowner knows his own interests are best served when his neighbor is prosperous and his neighbor's house well maintained.

If only a farsighted Congress had given us NAFTA 30 years ago, the wealth that today is Japan's would be instead in our own backyard. Television sets, cameras and cars now made in Japan would instead be made in Mexico.

By now, wages in Mexico would be comparable to those in Japan and the United States. We would not have our present illegal immigration with its concomitant problems of drugs and crime. Instead, prosperous Mexicans would come here legally on vacations, spending money.

If only a farsighted Congress had given us NAFTA 30 years ago, we would have been able all along to sell American goods and Louisiana rice to what by now would be our affluent neighbor, rather than experiencing the closed markets and lack of reciprocity that characterizes the Oriental country that we instead allowed to become our major trading partner by default.

There already is a giant sucking sound, and, unfortunately, it has for too long been in the direction of countries that have shown a singular reluctance to reciprocate. It would serve our best interests to create some nearby and friendly trade alternatives to the Pacific rim.

M. R. Franks

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