Progressive Nation

November 5th, 2005

Putting the lie to the same old liberalization theories.

RE: 4th Summit of the Americas: Ok, Prime Minister Martin, you may really believe that free trade is the key to helping Latin Americans, but I don’t think they do. Furthermore, it’s not like China and India, the countries he mentions whose growth rates exceeded those of Latin America, were exactly free market economies during their time of growth!

I don’t trust Latin American leaders, either. Latin America is not a picture of prosperity. But I do trust people to know what’s good for them, much more than those who pretend to.

By the way, this NYT editorial is trying way too hard to give time to pro-liberalization arguments. I hardly think that Latin American countries were as full of faith about liberalization 11 years ago as may seem so in retrospect.

The most telling line:

“Still, a small step is better than no step, and perhaps it’s enough that after the last few years of putting Iraq and the Middle East above all else, President Bush is finally paying a small bit of attention to America’s own hemisphere.”

“Own hemisphere.” - our sandbox, of course, that would look exactly the same, or worse, in fifty years, if we didn’t pay any “attention” to it.

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