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Atlas Shrugged in Mexico

 Most will have heard of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged.  To say that the book is a contradiction to the real life of the author who lived off the government for years would be an understatement.  One of the premise of the book, is that society is corrupt by the good thinking left, because the problems are not caused by greed but by incompetence.  Obviously, the first idea that incompetence is something only left-leaning people do is ridiculous, but it somewhat fits here, since AMLO's government is considered a left-wing (really it's a  1960 nationalistic corporatist) party.

So THE STORY: The Mexican, government is building an oil refinery in the middle of a swamp.  The total cost was to be US$ 6 billion, but now it could be as high as US$18 billion.  So the cost of building a simple refinery is 3 times the initial estimate (BTW Bechtel had bid the project at around US$ 8 billion excluding the pipeline -- and yes that WAS in the bid offer). Now the good bit; this morning the President of Mexico used almost the exact words that are used in Atlas Shrugged; we forgot to include certain costs (like a pipeline to bring the crude to the refinery), "it was nobody's fault there was no overpayment there was no greed".

I swear if it was not so f'ing tragic it would be funny.  Mexico built three major projects since the accession of AMLO, the refinery, the Maya train and the new Mexico city airport.  The first two are wildly over budget (Maya train that was to costs $8 billion is already at $22 billion) we will never know the cost of the new Mexico City airport because it was built by the military (with a grand total of 14 gates) but something tells me that once all is said and done, that too will have cost far more than anyone anticipated (they had to remove a mountain that was at the end of the runway...).  The shocking truth is that it is the ordinary Mexicans that will pay the bill for that, but then they are the dumbass who continues to support AMLO and his party so maybe they deserve each other!



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