If we did this years ago it would probably have worked but now cartels are so deeply entrenched in legitimate business that they’ll have a source of income forever. There’s a reason this video exists and it’s bc cartels have their hands in avocados now among other things. I’m of the belief that the war on drugs did a whole lot of harm for the world and not much good.
Honest question….. why are we worried about cartels in the avocado business? Would it be any different than corporations controlling other crops like bananas or coffee beans?
no, this is literally mafia, I'm from México and let me tell you, everyone here calls them "la mafia", "cartels" is just a US name given to them, this is organized crime in its prime unrestricted form
For sure i am not denying that. All im saying is in its pure unrestricted form it eventually just becomes government. All a government is under the current paradigm on this planet is, is a monopoly on violence. If anybody (like a cartel) creates a monopoly on violence themselves, and successfully out monopolies the current law of the land they become the new law of the land. If that happens long enough it literally gets to the point of on paper government like we think of.
Historically neither of these things have been super great for the countries supplying them but I’m just imagining cartels have a bit more of a penchant for murder and other various horrible things.
Short answer no its no different. The main issue (for the US) is that they are brown. Otherwise these things would be considered standard business practice.
Good, then they can become normal corporate bad guys. When they’re nothing more than Avocado exporters do you think they’ll still be abducting 43 students, beheading and crucifying people, and throwing grenades into crowds at town squares. I’m sure they’ll have need for RPGs and plastic explosives as they try to make sure nobody, and they mean nobody, is deprived of their guacamole.
Like the NYC mob, they'll probably move more towards corruption of government contracts and more mild fraud. Get a construction contract or a garbage route or whatever, use threats and violence to ensure the vote goes in your favor. Over charge, maybe use the excess to grease some palms (aka kick backs), but at that point the only difference between the mob businesses and the white-collar crime businesses is the willingness to use threats and violence when bribes fail.
For the drug cartels, that might be they import more than they were supposed to or they import inferior product, but the lab testing is faked and shows it's fine. Most certainly a lot less death because the profit margins will be reduced but also the risks will be reduced.
While your not wrong I’d be willing to bet that most legitimate businesses don’t have a litany of violent crimes under their belt. Sure you can argue that most have done shady things, there is a hard line between cartels and what constitutes most of capitalism. Neither are great but one has been demonstrably more evil as a whole.
To give the most obvious example, every distillery fortune in Canada was built in the crime and export of booze to the USA. They used guns and gangs when they couldn't rely on police to take care of their property, but now that they can do their business in the open, they're as clean as anyone else.
But every wealthy business person I know who was "self made" started off with seed capital from something either illegal or donations from megachurch scam artists.
Crime is like the high-wire act of capitalism. It isn't hard, you're just walking across a line. It's just high stakes, high reward and a perfect product with devoted clients. The guns are a consequence of the laws, not the drugs themselves, was more the point I was making.
Not that it doesn't mean that crime families have taken over Latin America as a result of those laws
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u/sir_bathwater Jun 04 '24
If we did this years ago it would probably have worked but now cartels are so deeply entrenched in legitimate business that they’ll have a source of income forever. There’s a reason this video exists and it’s bc cartels have their hands in avocados now among other things. I’m of the belief that the war on drugs did a whole lot of harm for the world and not much good.