Vincente Fox, the president of Mexico, is a former Coca-Cola executive in the company’s central American subsidiary.
He’s a man of vision. A man of courage. A self-made man. Fox became president of his alleged banana republic through free and fair democratic elections.
So the obvious question is: why would he want to talk to Dubya? More importantly, why would Dubya choose Fox to visit for his first foreign excursion.
It might be because President Fox has an easy name to say and spell. It’s not complicated like Salinas, Mexico’s past chief executive. Imagine the international embarrassment Dubya could generate by wanting to foster greater corporation with the administration of President Saline Ass.
Canada is the customary first choice of U.S. Presidents but their leader calls himself a prime minister and has a complex series of syllables in his name. Dubya needs more practice before his Canadian trip.
The real fun will come with India, Pakistan and all of Asia. Bush will make history in those regions.
Actually, Mexico is a very good choice for President Bush. Mexico has the potential to be a southern Canada if the United States is willing to put aside the misplaced bigotry that has caused unnecessary problems during the entire history of our nation. Mexico could benefit tremendously from a complete elimination of U.S. paternalism. The U.S. would gain in a myriad of ways from a better social structure south of the border.
That process began early in this decade and validated itself with the election of Fox. It’s time to deal a better hand to Mexico.
Mexico, however, has sticky issues that aren’t sticky issues with our hockey puck stoners to the north. The stickiness of these issues boil down to bigotry.
Fox wants to establish a better North American Trade Agreement. You might not like NAFTA but neither do a whole lot of Mexicans. You get to eat vegetables on the cheap, and they get to break their backs so your salad doesn’t get too expensive. Understandably, Mexico wants a few more coins per tomato.
Fox would like to see greater freedom of Mexican transports, mostly tractor trailers. The U.S. has regulations governing the safety of this kind of stuff and wouldn’t trust Mexicans to keep their wheels on until very recently. Transport vehicles from Mexico remains a problematic issue.
The most controversial transport issue is those human body transports that try to get across the border to feed their families back home. These transports are vital to the U.S. economic system and keeping Mexicans from crossing the border has been a mainstay of fascist politicians in the United States for quite a long time.
Fox wants open borders for his constituents.
In terms of geography, the U.S. has absolutely nothing to fear from open borders with Mexico. There are several economic principles pertaining to geography that make a solid argument for open borders.
Most people love their land. Even if they don’t, most people still live and die exactly where they were born. If they leave, the reasons are usually economic and temporary. Seldom is immigration done for political reasons.
Friction of distance is the principle that governs your ability to move anywhere. For any given distance, the more difficult it is to cross, the less likely that a new move be made. On the flip side, if you are lucky enough to make a difficult move, the more likely you are to stay put.
The friction of distance between Mexico and the United States is minimal. Given a choice, and an easier visa system, Mexicans will be happy to simply work in the U.S. and drive back home. Unfortunately, between the Border Patrol and illegal immigration protection rackets, crossing the border is an insanely expensive proposition in terms of time, money and, sometimes, physical integrity.
The U.S. absolutely needs Mexican labor to maintain this society. The U.S. grows as fat and lazy as it grows wealthy. It’s time to admit this and reconfigure U.S. immigration law to accommodate Mexicans as we accommodate Canadians.
Any perspective that sees Mexico as a winner from open borders is wrong. There is another principle called “brain drain”. The result is that Mexico’s best and brightest genes are probably already Americans. Brain drain shows Mexico has already lost from the border situation and opened borders would allow them to rebuild from their losses.
The final point is drugs. Blaming Mexico for the drug problem is as senseless as blaming Mexico for immigration problems. The U.S. government is capable of shutting down its borders like a faucet but they don’t. Everything that crosses the border in the form of people, drugs or weapons does so because the U.S. economy benefits from it.
