Mexico: Liberalize Your Economy

Fire of Liberty

Bloomberg columnist Amity Shlaes has a good column out today on the whole illegal immigration debate which notes that a lot of our problems can be solved on Mexico's side of the border via economic growth and a further liberalization of the Mexican economy. If the government will move away from their highly regulated and monopolistic ways of business towards a more market-based economy with lower taxes and less red-tape, folks in Mexico would witness an economic boom that would create a massive influx of jobs that pay far better wages than the currently make in Mexico thus cutting back on the flow of Mexicans looking to the US. Shlaes notes that the people of Mexico have an opportunity to ensure such prosperity by electing Felipe Calderon, a market oriented candidate who advocates a flat tax and the further liberalization, president of Mexico come July 2, 2006. After seeing the folks of Mexico break the 70 year domination of the socialistic PRI by electing Vicente Fox, one can only hope that the folks in Mexico want to continue their path forward and upward by electing Calderon but then again the current drift to the left seems to have engulfed various parts of Central and South America. All in all, the fate of Mexico belongs in the hands of its people. For me, I hope they choose a path of growth to take the burden off themselves and on our citizens in the border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. It's always good to have an libertarian like Amity Shlaes pointing out that Mexico's wacky quasi-socialistic economy is one of the main reasons why Mexicans are flocking here illegally everyday.