Why Mexican and Canadian CARS on US roads?

[pampango]

There is a thread prompting a discussion of why Mexican and Canadian trucks are allowed on US highways. It occurred to me that there would be a tremendous benefit to banning Mexican and Canadian cars from our highways as well.

If we required that these vehicles could not go beyond a 25 mile zone from the border, many of these visitors would have to rent American vehicles in order to continue their journeys. This would not only be great news for car rental companies with more jobs and wages there, but also in the American car industry, when the rental companies have to increase their stock of vehicles due to the increased demand.

What say you? Ban Canadian and Mexican cars from our highways.

[Quantess]

1. How serious are you?

Is this at least partly satire?

[tridim]

5. It has to be satire.. Right?

I guess we could also build 100' high concrete walls around our entire border, just make America one big prison. Or better yet build a big-ass plexiglass dome, that would even keep out the Mexican birds and insects.

[Quantess]

9. I thought so, but....

sometimes on DU it's hard to know.

[pampango]

10. Sorry. Had to do some work for a few minutes.

Oh, yeah. It's pure satire. ;)

Just seemed to fit with the Mexican/Canadian truck threads.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. I say we ban tourists from renting cars.

They don't stand in lines and get their licenses at the DMV like our ancestors did.

Plus, it's a safety issue. In Europe, they drive on the wrong side of the road, green lights mean "stop," and "champagne" means mushroom so there's a lot more drinking and driving over there.

And we don't want those frenchies over here, depressing our waitresses, spreading their frenchy diseases, smuggling unpasteurized cheeses, and so on.

This makes me SO MAD!

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Only England drives on the other side...other than that, I'm with ya!

I mean, foreigners depressing waitresses - that is seriously going to affect the onionized waitresses, won't it? And what about the Port? What if those Frenchies drink all the Port? They will be bypassing our onionized Port! We'll have to import all our Port!....um...err....oops..we already do...sorry.

OTHERWISE I'M RIGHT THERE WITH YA!

[LanternWaste]

3. Wouldn't it be safer...

Wouldn't it be safer, more effective, more efficient, and in everyone's better long-term interest to simply ban any car that get less than 55mpg?

What say you? Ban fuel-hogs from our highways...

[glowing]

4. I believe the reason the truckers do not want Mexican Freight Trucks

on American Highways, is because it would essentially outsource their jobs and living wages. If Mexican Truckers were to use American highways, the standards should be the same that are imposed on American Truckers...and if NAFTA wasn't in place, tariffs on freighted materials would cost Walmart similar amounts of money to use compared with using American workers.

I am not sure what is so hard to understand about people wanting to save their jobs, their pay and benefits, and their union.... Personally, I don't think you can call that racist. How many have already lost their jobs due to outsourcing?

[pampango]

12. I totally understand that people want to protect their jobs.

The question is how far should they be allowed to go to accomplish this? We signed a treaty with Mexico which was ratified by the Senate which, among many provisions, gave Mexican truck drivers the same rights to drive here as Canadian drivers have and as our drivers have to drive in Mexico.

Regardless of the specifics of the provision that we are unhappy with, we should have three choices:
1) Do what we said we would do when we signed and ratified the treaty;
2) Renegotiate the treaty, or
3) Withdraw from the treaty.

Frankly I prefer option 2, with option 3 as my second choice, but I will do #1 rather than renege on our word and basically tell Mexico, "We're bigger and more powerful than you. Thanks for your concessions in NAFTA, but we just decided on our own than our concession just ain't going to happen. Have a nice day."

If you sign and ratify an international treaty, I believe that you are expected to do what you said you would do, until the treaty is mutually amended or you withdraw from it.

[fasttense]

13. How far should we go to protect our jobs?

As far as we have to. By giving away all our middle class jobs to anyone who will take slave wages, we are creating a permanent underclass that can never get out of poverty. Why do you think Ford had the bright idea to pay his workers enough to be able to afford the cars they were making? Because poor people don't spend their money for anything but essentials and the handful of rich quickly satiate their needs.

The problem with the treaties our supposed representatives approved is that it leaves enforcement of labor, environmental and safety requirements up to our dysfunctional government. Now that the labor department, and governmental environmental agencies have turned into corporation protection agencies, labor, environmental and safety requirements are routinely ignored while corporate friendly requirements outlined in the treaties are enforced with an iron fist.

Seems to me this mis-administration routinely picks and chooses which parts of what treaties they will enforce. Remember the Geneva convention and the ban against torture?

[pampango]

15. "As far as we have to." Nice rhetorical response.

What does that extend to - murder, invasion. Great idea - invade Mexico to keep them away from our middle class jobs. Hey, whatever it takes, right?

If you expect me to defend the administration, you will be disappointed. Am I understanding you correctly that you agree with the administration that it is acceptable to pick and choose the provisions that will be enforced? Sounds like they have won you over to their tactics, if not their goals.

I thought liberals believed in the value of negotiations to resolve disputes rather than resorting to military solutions. What good are negotiations that lead to treaties and agreements that one or both sides have no intention of abiding by. Kind of makes the conservatives' refusal to negotiate with "untrustworthy" regimes like North Korea, Iran and good ol' Saddam Hussein, and their preference for "real" military solutions, rather than "sham" treaties, to international problems.

Sorry, I believe in negotiations leading to "real" treaties that both sides carry out in full, until such time as they renegotiate or withdraw from said treaties. I will not adopt the idiotic maneuvers of the administration as a pattern to formulate liberal Democratic solutions to global problems.

I would be happy, no ecstatic, if the Senate voted to withdraw from or renegotiate NAFTA. (It isn't helping workers in any of the three countries.) And I would respect the Senate for confronting the flaws in the treaty and dealing with them head-on. But instead they pick out a provision they don't like (and a group, truck drivers, that is pretty weak, so as to make an excellent target) and tell Mexico that the US handles treaties a little differently than they do and we are not going to do what we said we would do. And, oh by the way, don't get any ideas Mexico that you can pick out a concession that you gave to us and unilaterally cancel it. This is a one way street.

Perhaps the Senate's next vote should be to change the border with Mexico. It's only where it is because of some treaty that we signed with them. We should be able to change a provision in that treaty if we want to.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Canadian cars have HIGHER standards than we have, Mexico, lower. nt

[pampango]

11. Sounds like our cars should be banned from Canadian highways. n/t

[wuushew]

8. Canada has daytime running lights mandated for cars

if anything Canadian cars are safer than American.

[fasttense]

14. Why should we have any jobs in US?

There are millions of starving and impoverished people who could do your job, my job and the next guys or gals job for half of what we make in the US. Many of those people have fairly advanced degrees so don't think education is going to save a job.

There isn't a job in the US that can't be outsourced or in-sourced. Up the HB1 visas to 100 million. Allow all the starving masses into the US to fill those jobs Americans wont do.

Then we can sit around all day and do nothing but spend our money. Oh wait, if you don't have a job, you don't have money to spend, unless of course you were born into one of those few excessively wealthy families.

[PsN2Wind]

16. If you saw some of the cars with Sonora plates

driving around Southern Arizona and knowing that they aren't required to have insurance as we are if we drive into Mexico and also knowing you have no recourse if one nails you, you might remove the sarcasm.