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By that logic, why didn't you just enforce a compulsory buy-out of all the slaves instead of fighting a civil war over it? After all, it would have been FAR less expensive in the long run, in lives, money and social cohesion.

And the answer is very simple. The cost of a buy out could be quantified, the cost of a war, couldnt. In the same way, the cost of a wall can be quantified. The cost of all the problems of illegal aliens (which I grant is probably far higher), isn't. In any case you would never be able to build a wall so strong it could not be breached. Anything built by man can be circumvented by man.

Not that it matters because the issue is not technical. I'm sure that if America put its mind to it it has the money and the skills to build a stupendous wall. The problem is whether the political will to do it exists, and I'm quite sure it doesnt. People on the southern border might think differently, but not in the country as a whole. The political fallout from such a project would be immense. America's enemies, domestic and foreign, would make capital on such a wall forever.

The sad part is that you go on about all the wonderful things America has created and all the wonderful things you enjoy, not realising that it is those very riches that attract all these illegals in the first place! If you really want to stop the flow of illegals, you have to address the disparity in wealth and opportunity that creates the pressure for people to enter illegally. Either you adopt the Barack Obama solution of making America a poorer and less attractive place to be, or the capitalist solution of making Mexico a more attractive place.

First let me say you are a bummer.

By that logic, Had we taken your advice we would have threw our hands up and said it was imposible to end slavery.
Likewise a wall.

“all the wonderful things you enjoy, not realising that it is those very riches that attract all these illegals in the first place!”

So, one of our biggest problems is we have to much? Are you a luddite?

“If you really want to stop the flow of illegals, you have to address the disparity in wealth and opportunity that creates the pressure for people to enter illegally... the capitalist solution of making Mexico a more attractive place.”
I would say the desarity is due to a corrupt government. Mexico can not even maintain a reliable train let alone compete with America. Still, not our problem. While America is still better than any place on earth we have our own ethical and financial mess staighten out. Although, we should be open to trade with Mexico.
And i genuinely wish the hard working honest Mexicans good luck.
Make Mexico Great!
Maybe some of them will come back legally in the not to distant future?

You seem to confuse where the duty lies. The duty of our Governments is to the rooted peoples of our constituent States, not to those of other nations.

While we offer friendship to all, we do not offer--or should not offer--to take the fruits of the labor of Americans, to bestow on those who may envy our achievements. Of course, anyone may contribute to others, from their own labor--but not from an involuntary neighbor.

Similarly, we owe it to our posterity to preserve the lands and resources, with which we are Blessed. We no longer have a largely unsettled frontier. Many of the still vast unsettled areas are not really suitable, or if suitable, have other reasons not to be conducive, to new settlements--even of immigrants from nations that share more of our cultural values, than do those from South of the border.

If you would care to study American history a little better, you might learn that Thomas Jefferson made the vast Westward expansion possible by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from the French. If you looked more clossely yet, you would learn that his motive was his considered need for a barrier between Anglo & Hispanic culture. He was not hostile to the latter; just aware that the two were not really congenial.