A bit more about the Panama Canal, as it relates to debates on foreign investment today. •• The Panama Canal and associated Canal Zone surrounding it was a huge point of contention in US-Panama relations for almost a century. In the original construction and running of the Canal, the US tried to exclude Panamanians from seeing profits from the project as much as possible. •• Panamanian goods, markets, services were forbidden from operating in the Canal Zone, and the few Panamanian workers allowed to operate in the zone were heavily discriminated against. US citizens living in the area were perceived as having a highly colonial attitude towards locals, exacerbating tensions. •• Furthermore, the cost of transit in the Canal was artificially kept low by the US, who needed to ship goods from the East Coast to the West Coast and back and wanted most of the surplus to go back to US producers and consumers (because unfortunately the US has a history of “we’re totally capitalist until it doesn’t benefit us”). •• So the US was strangling the potential profits from the Canal, and even those measly profits and potential side bonuses were kept as far away as possible from Panamanian hands. Meanwhile, US GDP between 1914 (first ship goes through the Canal) and 1940 was estimated to have increased 4% more than it would have without the Canal. Nowadays, Panamanians running the Canal have maximized profits to an incredible degree, and more of the money is (slowly) seeping through Panamanian society. •• The point of this isn’t to slam the US for it’s actions decades ago. It’s to draw attention to the fact that when economically powerful countries like the US, China, UK, etc get involved with foreign investment in a poorer country, it’s not always a good thing. Very often, because the relationship is unequal, poorer countries are forced to accept very unfavorable terms in exchange for the slightest perks, and most profits made by foreign investment end up reverting back to the original countries. . . . . . #panama #panamacity #ciudaddepanama #panama🇵🇦