40% of the people live below their poverty line. There is a wide disparity between the US and Mexico in terms of wealth and opportunity. That is a fact, not a ruse.
Mexico has many businesses just in the tourist industry alone. Have you ever been there?
Yes, many times on the border. I have lived in San Diego and have a home in Arizona. I have visited Mexico City twice. The slums and pollution are terrible.
They also have outstandingly great resources, including a large mining industry (gold, coal, oil, etc) and they have a burdgeoning business/industrial base thanks to NAFTA.
The government is corrupt and the wealth is controlled by small number of families. Income distribution remains highly unequal. The oil industry, the biggest source of foreign revenues next to money being sent back by Mexicans in the US, is nationalized>
The problem in Mexico seems to be cultural, in that the governing class is reluctant to let the lower class prosper too much. It is harder for them, but not impossible. Given human nature, and what they see on American TV, they would rather take their chances in the US where no one starves or is homeless, unless by their own choice.
Easy for you to say. The millions who are coming here do so at great personal risk and expense. They are riding on the tops of trains and buses braving robbers and corrupt cops to get to the border. They cram themselves into trucks and trek across the desert to get here. If caught and returned, they try again. Also, Mexico is being used as a transit point for Central America, where conditions are even worse.
The very fact that the Bush administration crows about sending back 6 million illegals in five years gives you an idea as to the enormity of the problem. 500,000 to 850,000 make it through. We are being invaded.
A quick Google search reveals that Mexico's per capita income in 2004 was $9,600 compared to Russia-$9,800 or Bulgaria - $8,100 or Bosnia-$6,500 --- (all quasi European countries) or Brazil-$8,100.
Let's stop making Mexico out like there is mass starvation or no jobs whatsoever. My dad had a chemical/pharmacutical company when he was alive, and he did plenty of business in Mexico with MEXICANS.
He traveled there several times a year, and always spoke of how business and the economy there was better than the average American imagined.
Millions of Mexicans make a comfortable living in the tourist industry thanks to the 'wild and crazy' Americans who think nothing of dropping $5,000-$10,000 there in a vacation weekend.
The real problem in Mexico is cultural, I believe, with the native indiginous peoples (Aztec anscestry) suffering much more than the Spanish descendants (from Spain).
We are doing Mexico no favors if we simply let them continue their corrupt way of life.
They have the means, the resources, and the brainpower to solve their problems, but Pappa Bush would rather be their "enabler" rather than force them to solve problems.
I presume you got that "40-percent live below the THEIR poverty line" from the CIA website on Mexico.
If you check further, you'll note that the average Mexican's life expectancy rate is 75.41 years, which rivals the US rate, does it not. Hardly dire poverty with starvation. (women on average live to 78.5)
Also, Mexico has a labor force of 43.4 million people, but wouldn't cha know, they have 38.4 million CELL PHONES and more than 18 million homes have land phones (hardly abject poverty).
And LOOKY HERE, their per capita income in 2005 was $10,100, according to the CIA, again hardly abject poverty.
Again, I have a loving heart and I try and help anybody and everybody I can in a reasonable fashion, but your impression of Mexico as this country of abject poverty is just nonsense. The people, I believe, watch a lot of American TV and they think that EVERYBODY in the US is living that lifestyle, and thus they bust the borders seeking a dream that doesn't always exist.