The sun has not yet risen here in Acapulco, but in a few hours hundreds of U.S. Ambassadors will try to secure trade agreements with thousands of Mexico’s most skilled negotiators.
No, it is not another round of NAFTA; I am here for the 29th International Mining Convention, an industry trade show which is held every other year. And our U.S. ambassadors are not pin-striped suits from the State Department; we are the businessmen and businesswomen who travel the world every day selling American goods and services, creating jobs and prosperity back home and improving living standards in the developing world.
Every day all over the world, deals valued into the hundreds of millions get done without the participation of government. I didn’t bring anyone from the Commerce Department with me to Mexico, and the Mexican mining executives who we will meet with at the convention do not have their government officials tagging along, either. Those guys are having a nice Waldorf salad together in Mexico City, telling each other how important out two nations are to each other for the kazillionth time.
Here in Acapulco, we will be discussing the projects that miners are developing; the equipment they will need; the mix of technical features, price, and service that adds the most value to their operations. NAFTA won’t come up; frankly, none of us have read it. The deals will be done on the basis of best value and company reputation, not government policy. We don’t talk about trade; we trade. The whole world is competing for the same orders; it is a buyers’ market.
Over dinner, we will discuss culture, sports, world affairs, economics, and politics – both ours and theirs. We will talk about family and faith, values and beliefs, our philosophies about managing a company, leading a community, developing the next generation of business leaders. They will laugh at my Spanish, but the attempt will be appreciated.
We will find we have more things in common than things that separate us. And I will be reminded that Mexican people love America and Americans for the products we make, for what we stand for, for the things we have accomplished, for our commitment to liberty. It is only the actions of our government and our central bank that anger them. It is the same all over the world.
Ron Paul is ridiculed by the press for proposing a defensive military posture, as if military bases and embassies are the only means of interaction between Americans and people of other nations. Big-government spokesmodels like Meet The Press’ David Gregory express genuine bewilderment at the idea that less government would mean more engagement. To the business person, Paul’s suggestion is self-evident. Government does not facilitate commerce; it impedes it.
When American businesspeople trade abroad, we are the face of the nation; I have been in many places where I am the only American they will ever meet in person. The world has an insatiable appetite for all things American; we are a topic of endless fascination and our founding principles are genuinely admired wherever they are understood. Most of us are happy to help them understand, and we take our responsibilities to represent our nation seriously.
Businesspeople, students, missionaries, public health workers, tourists, educators, engineers, researchers, airline crews, technicians, interpreters, and athletes – American interests are advanced every single day by interesting Americans. Here in Acapulco, the only American government presence is the guns we sold to the narcos in Operation Fast and Furious, but that is a rant for another day.
Many misperceptions of Americans and American ideals are spread by our enemies to foment hatred. And by enemies I also mean American leftists and unionists whose only export is anti-capitalist rhetoric which paints all economic development as exploitation and assigns all under-developed peoples to perpetual victimhood.
The most effective antidote for this poison is for standard-issue Americans to interact with the people of other countries; this is the real importance of free trade. The miners of Mexico don’t buy into the exploitation myth. Sure they are poor compared to the owners of the mines which employ them; there is no disputing that. But they are rich beyond their wildest imaginations compared to how they lived before the capitalists came in to develop the mines – Americans, Canadians, Chileans, Australians, South Africans.
You can’t buy a bag of beans with the gold that is in the ground. Perhaps if our eco-terrorists had to live on $2 a day for a while, they would show a little more appreciation for the people who dig it up and make it unnecessary for them to do so.
Libertarians are often called isolationist because we would reduce the American government’s footprint around the world - closing military bases, reducing embassy and consulate staff, and eliminating foreign aid programs that enrich corrupt foreign leaders with money we must borrow from the Chinese.
Reducing our government’s footprint does not mean reducing America’s engagement with the world. On the contrary, our commitment to free trade, tax and regulatory relief, and trans-border mobility would unleash tens of thousands more of our best ambassadors into the every nook and cranny of the world, spreading the message of liberty, democracy, and capitalism. Of course, some will do lots of other less noble things, too, but go to either Party’s convention and tell me that businesspeople have the exclusive franchise on debauchery.
A maintenance superintendent at a mine in Zacetecas State will never meet the U.S. Government’s ambassador to Mexico, but he will meet with an American ambassador in an hour or so - me. It will be my pleasure to represent my country and hopefully bag some orders to keep our American factories humming.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
No, it is not another round of NAFTA; I am here for the 29th International Mining Convention, an industry trade show which is held every other year. And our U.S. ambassadors are not pin-striped suits from the State Department; we are the businessmen and businesswomen who travel the world every day selling American goods and services, creating jobs and prosperity back home and improving living standards in the developing world.
Every day all over the world, deals valued into the hundreds of millions get done without the participation of government. I didn’t bring anyone from the Commerce Department with me to Mexico, and the Mexican mining executives who we will meet with at the convention do not have their government officials tagging along, either. Those guys are having a nice Waldorf salad together in Mexico City, telling each other how important out two nations are to each other for the kazillionth time.
Here in Acapulco, we will be discussing the projects that miners are developing; the equipment they will need; the mix of technical features, price, and service that adds the most value to their operations. NAFTA won’t come up; frankly, none of us have read it. The deals will be done on the basis of best value and company reputation, not government policy. We don’t talk about trade; we trade. The whole world is competing for the same orders; it is a buyers’ market.
Over dinner, we will discuss culture, sports, world affairs, economics, and politics – both ours and theirs. We will talk about family and faith, values and beliefs, our philosophies about managing a company, leading a community, developing the next generation of business leaders. They will laugh at my Spanish, but the attempt will be appreciated.
We will find we have more things in common than things that separate us. And I will be reminded that Mexican people love America and Americans for the products we make, for what we stand for, for the things we have accomplished, for our commitment to liberty. It is only the actions of our government and our central bank that anger them. It is the same all over the world.
Ron Paul is ridiculed by the press for proposing a defensive military posture, as if military bases and embassies are the only means of interaction between Americans and people of other nations. Big-government spokesmodels like Meet The Press’ David Gregory express genuine bewilderment at the idea that less government would mean more engagement. To the business person, Paul’s suggestion is self-evident. Government does not facilitate commerce; it impedes it.
When American businesspeople trade abroad, we are the face of the nation; I have been in many places where I am the only American they will ever meet in person. The world has an insatiable appetite for all things American; we are a topic of endless fascination and our founding principles are genuinely admired wherever they are understood. Most of us are happy to help them understand, and we take our responsibilities to represent our nation seriously.
Businesspeople, students, missionaries, public health workers, tourists, educators, engineers, researchers, airline crews, technicians, interpreters, and athletes – American interests are advanced every single day by interesting Americans. Here in Acapulco, the only American government presence is the guns we sold to the narcos in Operation Fast and Furious, but that is a rant for another day.
Many misperceptions of Americans and American ideals are spread by our enemies to foment hatred. And by enemies I also mean American leftists and unionists whose only export is anti-capitalist rhetoric which paints all economic development as exploitation and assigns all under-developed peoples to perpetual victimhood.
The most effective antidote for this poison is for standard-issue Americans to interact with the people of other countries; this is the real importance of free trade. The miners of Mexico don’t buy into the exploitation myth. Sure they are poor compared to the owners of the mines which employ them; there is no disputing that. But they are rich beyond their wildest imaginations compared to how they lived before the capitalists came in to develop the mines – Americans, Canadians, Chileans, Australians, South Africans.
You can’t buy a bag of beans with the gold that is in the ground. Perhaps if our eco-terrorists had to live on $2 a day for a while, they would show a little more appreciation for the people who dig it up and make it unnecessary for them to do so.
Libertarians are often called isolationist because we would reduce the American government’s footprint around the world - closing military bases, reducing embassy and consulate staff, and eliminating foreign aid programs that enrich corrupt foreign leaders with money we must borrow from the Chinese.
Reducing our government’s footprint does not mean reducing America’s engagement with the world. On the contrary, our commitment to free trade, tax and regulatory relief, and trans-border mobility would unleash tens of thousands more of our best ambassadors into the every nook and cranny of the world, spreading the message of liberty, democracy, and capitalism. Of course, some will do lots of other less noble things, too, but go to either Party’s convention and tell me that businesspeople have the exclusive franchise on debauchery.
A maintenance superintendent at a mine in Zacetecas State will never meet the U.S. Government’s ambassador to Mexico, but he will meet with an American ambassador in an hour or so - me. It will be my pleasure to represent my country and hopefully bag some orders to keep our American factories humming.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
