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punta colonet and robber barons
Author: unk diego
Date: 09-02-2008 - 14:02
folks,
It seems some people don't understand how our robber-barons think or work. Robber-barons do not have any allegiance to flags or nation-states. Robber-barons use nation-states as what they are, service providers to the wealthy. Consider, as mentioned above, the Gadsden purchase was consummated simply so that the robber-barons who wished to build a Pacific railroad would get greater subsidies and so the U.S. military could occupy and suppress the local aboriginal population, which the Mexican military was incapable of doing.
(There was a third reason, the U.S. post office gained special extra-territorial rights to send mail across Mexico, Vera Cruz to Guadalajara, to serve the U.S. west coast. Also the Mexican government agreed to sell a much larger area, all of Baja, most of northern Sonora, and a large part of northwestern Chihuahua, but the U.S. government's congress, which approves treaties, decided at the last minute that this larger area would cost too much.)
If the robber-barons of the 1800's were willing and able to nation-state shop to achieve their ends, what makes anyone think that today's globalized robber-barons wouldn't do the same, and on an even bigger scale? When people say things like "we won't sell out" a confusion is being made using the word "we". Robber-barons, no matter what passport(s) of birth or convenience they may hold, have nothing in common with the people who happen to live and/or work in this or that nation-state. In other words, there is no "we" in any normal or practical sense of the word.
Consider what is happening in our economy today. All of the various free-trade agreements universally allow robber-barons to move factories, ports, rail lines (in other words, jobs) easily between nation-states. At the same time, almost all nation-states, and in particular the U.S. and Mexico, are using their police powers to stop people (in other words, workers) from following these jobs, in a scope that has never happened before in history. So, bottom line, is that our modern robber-barons are generating a system which is sometimes called the "race to the bottom". Wages and living conditions the world over will tend to shrink to the lowest common denominator. As long as we, the non-robber-baron we, continue to view this issue as a nationalistic problem we are doomed.
OK, now back to the topic at hand. I have never driven MX-2 east of Tecate, but looking at a map, it must be a pretty rugged road. It looks like there are several large switchbacks near La Rumerosa. When the San Diego and Arizona was built, engineers chose to cross the border east of Tecate and build through Carrizo Gorge instead of building along the future route of MX-2 to Mexicali. In other words, Carrizo Gorge, and two extra border crossings, were considered preferable to the southern route. Of course, construction technology has improved some in the last 100 years. But still, does it really make sense to build on the southern route, when the Carrizo Gorge route exists and could probably be used with the proper upgrades?
(For those of you who might not know: The SDA went south from San Diego to Tijuana, then east to Tecate, then north-east back into the U.S. through Carrizo Gorge to El Centro. From there most trains originally went south on the S.P. Calexico branch to Mexicali, then east on the now abandoned Inter-California route to Algondones, north back into the U.S. to Araz Jc, then across the Colorado River on the Sunset route to Yuma.)
Thanks for reading!
It seems some people don't understand how our robber-barons think or work. Robber-barons do not have any allegiance to flags or nation-states. Robber-barons use nation-states as what they are, service providers to the wealthy. Consider, as mentioned above, the Gadsden purchase was consummated simply so that the robber-barons who wished to build a Pacific railroad would get greater subsidies and so the U.S. military could occupy and suppress the local aboriginal population, which the Mexican military was incapable of doing.
(There was a third reason, the U.S. post office gained special extra-territorial rights to send mail across Mexico, Vera Cruz to Guadalajara, to serve the U.S. west coast. Also the Mexican government agreed to sell a much larger area, all of Baja, most of northern Sonora, and a large part of northwestern Chihuahua, but the U.S. government's congress, which approves treaties, decided at the last minute that this larger area would cost too much.)
If the robber-barons of the 1800's were willing and able to nation-state shop to achieve their ends, what makes anyone think that today's globalized robber-barons wouldn't do the same, and on an even bigger scale? When people say things like "we won't sell out" a confusion is being made using the word "we". Robber-barons, no matter what passport(s) of birth or convenience they may hold, have nothing in common with the people who happen to live and/or work in this or that nation-state. In other words, there is no "we" in any normal or practical sense of the word.
Consider what is happening in our economy today. All of the various free-trade agreements universally allow robber-barons to move factories, ports, rail lines (in other words, jobs) easily between nation-states. At the same time, almost all nation-states, and in particular the U.S. and Mexico, are using their police powers to stop people (in other words, workers) from following these jobs, in a scope that has never happened before in history. So, bottom line, is that our modern robber-barons are generating a system which is sometimes called the "race to the bottom". Wages and living conditions the world over will tend to shrink to the lowest common denominator. As long as we, the non-robber-baron we, continue to view this issue as a nationalistic problem we are doomed.
OK, now back to the topic at hand. I have never driven MX-2 east of Tecate, but looking at a map, it must be a pretty rugged road. It looks like there are several large switchbacks near La Rumerosa. When the San Diego and Arizona was built, engineers chose to cross the border east of Tecate and build through Carrizo Gorge instead of building along the future route of MX-2 to Mexicali. In other words, Carrizo Gorge, and two extra border crossings, were considered preferable to the southern route. Of course, construction technology has improved some in the last 100 years. But still, does it really make sense to build on the southern route, when the Carrizo Gorge route exists and could probably be used with the proper upgrades?
(For those of you who might not know: The SDA went south from San Diego to Tijuana, then east to Tecate, then north-east back into the U.S. through Carrizo Gorge to El Centro. From there most trains originally went south on the S.P. Calexico branch to Mexicali, then east on the now abandoned Inter-California route to Algondones, north back into the U.S. to Araz Jc, then across the Colorado River on the Sunset route to Yuma.)
Thanks for reading!
