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During my visit to civilization last week, I ran into my old friend Rex Ewing, whom I've known since high school. He used to be a roofer -- among his metropolitan works are the slate roofs of the old Tivoli complex on the Auraria campus and the portico on the north side of Trinity Methodist Church downtown -- but he stepped down from that to take over his father's company a few years ago.
The John Ewing Company's main product is Formula 707 Horse Conditioner, a vitamin supplement to oats and hay that enhances growth in young horses.
To promote his products, Rex once went to a trade show
in Texas. It was a complete bust,
he recalled.
I'd spent $1,500, and I'd sold maybe $100 worth of
stuff.
Hoping to ease his disappointment, Rex found himself in a saloon with a feed dealer whose store sat within spitting distance of the Rio Grande. The dealer explained that, in the southern arc from Florida to California, there was a great interest in strong and feisty roosters, and that Rex ought to produce an avian version of Formula 707.
Since cock-fighting is illegal in many jurisdictions, I won't explain this interest in hearty roosters.
Rex studied poultry nutrition and, after considerable
research and testing, went on the market with
Cock-Sure.
I note that its label has no mention of
combat, and that it is formulated to help any little red
rooster, even a docile barnyard fowl, get up and crow the
dawn.
Cock-Sure sells very well along the southern tier of
states,
he said, and we don't advertise it at
all.
Last week, I never thought I'd be cheering for Al
Gore against Ross Perot. But if NAFTA passes, it opens up
the Mexican market, which means a few more jobs here in
LaSalle if we can export Cock-Sure to Mexico.
And if NAFTA is defeated tomorrow, then a Colorado business misses an opportunity to expand.
The only giant sucking sound
to date is the
babbling and ranting from Ross Perot. Who's threatening him
this week -- Elvis clones from Mars or Republican
operatives in the hire of the Bavarian Illuminati?
As for losing jobs to foreign competition, it's already happened.
If big business wants to export jobs, then big business will find a way, NAFTA or no NAFTA, as General Motors did all through the 1980s. Or recall how many Colorado miners lost their jobs after our CIA installed a regime in Chile which dumped subsidized molybdenum on the world markets.
Where was Ross Perot then? Or Richard Gephardt? Or any of the others who now charge forward to protect American jobs? If they were sincere, they'd have done something when it might have made a difference.
NAFTA won't change anything for big business, which can operate in splendid disregard for political boundaries, but NAFTA could help the small businesses that create new jobs.
Given how things usually work in America, that means NAFTA won't pass. Which is too bad, because I was hoping to persuade Rex that it was vital for me to accompany him on a business trip -- sometime in February, perhaps, just to check out potential markets in Cancun or Cozumel.
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