Offshoring U.S. Transportation Jobs to Mexico

ab0di · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2005 Posts: 100 Location: Iowa

There is a very interesting article in this month's Monthly Review regarding the proposed NAFTA corridors from Mexican Pacific ports into the US. A summary of some of the issues follows. A full-text PDF of the article is
here.

I can't see how this scheme can survive increasing fuel costs. This is just plain crazy.

NAFTA Corridors: Dividing the Nation to Multiply Profits

by Richard D. Vogel

The NAFTA corridors system currently under construction will irreversibly divide the U.S. geographically, economically, and socially for the sake of profit. The cumulative consequences of this "biggest engineering and construction project in the history of the U.S." promise to be more damaging than any natural disaster in modern times.

The largest of these massive transportation corridors, designed primarily to accommodate NAFTA traffic from Mexico across the U.S., will be 1,200 feet wide and consume 146 acres (almost 1/4 of a square mile) per mile. Because the corridors will contain high-speed passenger and freight rails and underground water, gas, and petroleum pipelines, as well as multiple high-speed truck and passenger vehicle lanes, they will be constructed at grade level and permanently divide the areas through which they pass. To make matters worse, the extensive grading and construction of barriers to protect the high-speed traffic will alter air currents and watersheds and prevent the movement of wildlife.
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All politics emanates from a barrel of oil. -- after Mirabeau

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3796

Not to get too far off topic but I was joking with my brother in law that in the future, with many Americans who can't afford medical care, people will go to Mexico to recieve health services.

Suppose you didn't have health insurance, but needed medical care that was not urgent. It would be much cheaper to drive down to Mexico and get medical care.

To make matters even more interesting, imagine you did have health insurance but your provider has outsouced all the non-urgent care to a facility in Mexico. So if you needed medical care that was not urgent,
1) you fly down to Mexico
2) get your medical care and your insurance pays for it
3) return home

sounds impossible? Is there a law to prohibit this? who knows what the future will hold? Very Happy

aflatoxin · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 263

My next door neighbor went to Mexico to get a bunch of dental work done. It would have cost over 10,000 dollars here.

It cost a lot less in Mexico, but he got Hepatitis at the clinic, and is in pretty bad shape now.

NeoPeasant