Radical Avenue

It seems fairly certain that any serious US response to the humanitarian crisis in Colombia will have to wait until after the next president takes office. The 3.8 million Colombians currently living in exile have failed to penetrate the presidential bubble. And don’t bother asking Dick Cheney about this tragedy either. It’s not something he reflects on while fly fishing.

Dropping the remaining tariffs on products shipped between Colombia and the United States would certainly provide a revenue boost to the merchants now paying those taxes. But violence from the forty year old drug war in Colombia still scares away investors. The conflict has crippled the region and a free trade agreement won’t matter to millions of impoverished Colombians.

Trickle Down vs. Rising Tide
President Reagan justified tax cuts for wealthy Americans under the theory that well funded entrepreneurs would grow the economy through their wise investments. However the “trickle down” effect did not make up for lost federal revenues and the deficit grew during Reagan’s presidency.

On October 3rd, 1963 in Heber Springs, Arkansas President John Kennedy described how public works projects benefit an entire nation.

These projects produce wealth, they bring industry, they bring jobs, and the wealth they bring brings wealth to other sections of the United States. This State had about 200,000 cars in 1929. It has a million cars now. They weren’t built in this State. They were built in Detroit. As this State’s income rises, so does the income of Michigan. As the income of Michigan rises, so does the income of the United States. A rising tide lifts all the boats and as Arkansas becomes more prosperous so does the United States and as this section declines so does the United States. So I regard this as an investment by the people of the United States in the United States.

Since the United States is Colombia’s leading trade partner, this rising tide approach to public spending could also apply to our investment in Latin America. The Colombian free trade agreement currently pending in Congress however relies on the trickle down plan. It offers tax cuts to wealthy Colombian merchants as a panacea to the countries’ problems.

Reagan is the lazy farmer who dumps all of his seeds in the most fertile corner of the field. Kennedy prefers to carefully till the entire field and spread the seeds around evenly. Some of the plants will die in either case, but Kennedy’s egalitarian approach will result in a more bountiful harvest.

In Kind Aid
According to the World Economic Forum, Latin American countries have fallen behind European and Asian nations when it comes to internet network readiness. Upgrading information systems infrastructure in Colombia would give more Colombians access to the World Wide Web and an opportunity to trade directly with Americans here in the States. I’m sure eBay wouldn’t mind the extra traffic.

Providing foreign aid in the form of public works projects has the added benefit of preventing corrupt local politicians from diverting public funds to private accounts. Put people to work wiring up remote villages and self serving politicians will have a much harder time appropriating that investment for their own purposes. The local governor may insist on having the new server farm named after his favorite polo pony, but that shouldn’t hold things up too much.

Colombia, humanitarian crisis, foreign aid investment, trickle down, rising tide