MOJAVE MULESKINNERS

All my life I've heard and seen the old clichés that are as much a part of Americana as Mom & apple pie. "Buy American." "Work Union, Buy Union." 'Support your Focal merchants." "America First." etc. etc. And I would be among the last to turn my back on the greatest endeavor mankind has ever built -~ The U.S.A.

 

But as see it, many of us are having a problem arriving at this twenty first century mode of thinking; over the past several years' world economy has changed significantly. The end of the cold war, rapidly declining inflation in Latin America, the fall of Soviet Russia, and emergence of our Internet as a means of locating the lowest cost of goods and services in the world depict events which were unimaginable six or seven years ago.

 

Take a look at Russia. Who would've thought back in 1990 that our closest military rival and our political opposites would collapse. The sorry state of their commerce, the low standard of living relative to the rest of the developed world and the lack of global competitiveness in many key industries should serve as ample warning to heads of state the consequences caused by insulating your economy from the world at large.

 

Early on, Yankee ingenuity set our fledgling little economy up there among the big ones, and that same attitude keeps us there today. If it can be made cheaper than we ourselves can make it, then buy it by trading some part of our own goods for it. Communist leaders' lack of faith in this bit of advice is one of the factors that ultimately led to the failure of their ideology. A nation cannot close off the rest of the world, producing nearly all its goods within its borders with little regard to quality or cost.

 

Now, here comes a bundle of extraordinary opportunities brought about by the end of the cold war and the liberalization of trade in such countries as China and India. Nearly three billion people, or close to fifty percent of the world's population, who were previously producing goods and services in an extremely ineffective system, are slowly converting to market economies. And this movement towards freer trade isn't just occurring n formerly communist countries. World leaders everywhere seem to be looking at their world market potential. Americans know, or should know, that competitive markets are guided and driven by their own momentum, In such a market, investors and workers would do what is best for themselves, leading to the optimization of productivity of both capital and labor. Financiers will invest their money in projects with the highest rates of return and workers will seek out the jobs which pay the highest wages. By allowing the forces of supply and demand to interact, the market will determine the correct price of an item.

 

Could it be that the forces set loose in 1776 will ultimately spread world wide? Is the desires of world population driven as fervently as those of our forefathers? Anyone doubting this had better head for cover, because the world has caught the scent of freedom and all the promise that goes with it. If you listen closely you can hear the approach of the stampede just beyond the horizon, Free enterprise is coming, and it brings with it all the examples we Americans, have so boldly illuminated in our history.

 

We are about to face challenges unheard of in politics, technology, exploration, transportation, medicine, mechanics, and marketing. We have set the standard for the world, and now the world wants a piece of the pie. My question is: Can we compete with the world? Can we exist in a worldwide competition? Does Yankee ingenuity still live?

 

By the end of 1997, the Coca Cola Company invested $600 million inside Russia, to build a bottling network capable of reaching 80 percent of Russia's 150 million people. Still more are planned. That's just one old American Corporation. How long has it been since you had a Coke?

 

~ Weakeyes Cody