Banana Republics, With Nuts (Yes, this is old, but it's still pretty timely)

Reason magazine ^ | August/September 2000 | Glenn Garvin

[Jacob Kell]

Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner, and Alvaro Vargas Llosa, translated by Michaela Lajda Ames, New York Madison Books, 218 pages, $24.95

My Costa Rican friend Celeste, ordinarily mild-mannered to a fault, was turning purple. The TV newscast said her country was about to get its first maquila, a factory where cloth would be imported duty free from the United States, cut and sewn into garments, and shipped back to the United States. An enterprising reporter discovered that the Costa Rican seamstresses--though well paid by local standards--would be making about $4 an hour less than similar workers in the States.

"That's racist!" Celeste shouted, conveniently overlooking the fact that Costa Rica, where all the local Indians were slaughtered before anybody got a chance to interbreed, is an overwhelmingly white country. "The government has to put a stop to this. You can't pay us less to do the same job as an American!"

"Celeste, you don't pay the same rent or the same grocery bills as an American, either," I pointed out. "Besides, if the company has to pay Costa Ricans the same wages it would pay in New York, what's the point of opening a factory here? They can just keep sewing the shirts in the States and save the shipping expense. And Costa Rica will lose 300 jobs."

"Then we lose the jobs; I don't care!" she barked. "We'd rather lose the jobs than get paid less. We're as good as you! It just isn't fair!"

Celeste was far too sweet a person--most of the time, anyway--for me ever to call her an idiot. But Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner, and Alvaro Vargas Llosa, whose instinct for the jugular has evolved far beyond mine, would.

[Jacob Kell]

I know that this article is old, but in light of recent events in Chile and especially Bolivia, I feel that it's still pretty timely.

[Publius6961]

"The government has to put a stop to this. You can't pay us less to do the same job as an American!"

This is the classic non-sensical line spoken, not by an idiot, but by a mental deficient, totally ignorant of economics, and oblivious about reality. But it is normally an American mental deficient who uses this line.

For a third world resident to use this line defies belief, since they should, more clearly than others, see the fallacy (to put it kindly) or the stupidity of it.

[tom paine 2]

The wave of privatization that swept through Latin America just put the wealth of the country into the hands of corrupt businessmen. Now the people want Marxism instead.

[3AngelaD]

Too bad that patan in Bolivia didn't read this book a few years ago.

[Publius6961]

The wave of privatization that swept through Latin America just put the wealth of the country into the hands of corrupt businessmen. Now the people want Marxism instead.

Let's be clear about this: the corrupt businessmen are one and the same as the previous corrupt politician administrators, only now the ownership is in their family name.
As for the cry for marxism, they will have gone full circle. Change of ownership name only.

Most latin American countries gained independence before the U.S. did, and many have as many or more natural resources, proportionally.
What is their problem? Might it be the culturally bulletproof combination of corruption and lethargy?

[tom paine 2]

It is very sad. I have been going to Mexico since 1994 and I believe Mexico will turn this way in the next election.

[infowarrior]

Most latin American countries gained independence before the U.S. did, and many have as many or more natural resources, proportionally.

Patently not true. Most of Latin America (both Central and South America), gained their independence in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, which ended in 1815. The reason this occurred is simple. In 1805 Napoleon invaded Spain itself, and it took the combined efforts of both Spain *and* Britain to oust them, which did not occur until years later. While Napoleon never invaded Spain's colonies on the American supercontinent, or elsewhere, the residents of these colonies, both colonials and indigenes, weren't stupid.

They realized, "If Spain cannot even protect itself, how can they protect us?" This was the impetus for revolutions across Latin America, some of which were initially successful, and others which were not, but by the 1830's Spain's farflung empire had dwindled down to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines (which they continued to hold until 1898).

Now, as to the entrenched corruption which was part of both Spain itself, and its colonies, you *do* have a valid point. However, along with the corruption came a large degree of inefficiency, and it is the combination of the two, never fully addressed until this day, which has hamstrung the Hispanic American world...

the infowarrior