Let's Buy Mexico: What About All Those New Voters?

Prior to my decent into the sonic nightmare that was the Spring Band Concert I had been providing you, my loyal and decent readers, with a visionary proposal for solving illegal immigration. I think it is safe to say that you will hear no such brilliance emanate from your President tonight, and instead will suffer the same “gassy platitudes” of the whole “we’re a country of immigrants, built on hard work and strong values etc…”

Which is why I probably should be President, but you know, who has the time?

So, on with my third and final installment in the “Let’s Buy Mexico” plan. When we last left my proposal I was anticipating the very valid objection of what in the world we would do with millions of new voters skewing the electoral process. This is really the most problematic aspect of my plan and must be addressed if we are to achieve anything approaching success. I mean after all, these folks voted for Vicente Fox!

As I mentioned before, my thoughts here are strongly based on an article that I read in the early ‘90’s by Walter Mead. In “Let’s Buy Siberia” Mr. Mead addressed this very issue from a “what do we do with all them Ruskie voters point of view”. Here, I thought Mr. Mead came up with a wise answer: We don’t let them vote!

Well that wasn’t exactly his solution so before you write this idea off, I’ll admit to a little hyperbole there. Obviously we have to let our knew Mexican voters vote, but we have to do so in a way that doesn’t “water down” the voting power of the existing blocks in the U.S. Mr. Mead’s proposal that I’ll alter here for my Mexico idea is that we keep Mexico as a separate legal entity from the United States – effectively a wholly owned subsidiary.

In fact, the correct way to do this, and the one that might also be the most palatable to Mexican citizens is that instead of buying Mexico, we lease it for a very long time.

The correct model for this type of ownership structure is the Hong Kong model. In that case the U.K had control of Hong Kong on a 99 year agreement after which time the island was returned to mainland China’s control. For Mexico we could structure a similar deal. In this case, the U.S. would execute a capital lease (remember your accounting my fellow MBA’s?) for 99 years. During this time Mexico would function with all the benefits of U.S. legal possession and operate under a U.S. legal and political system, but continue to maintain a separate government. The Mexican military would merge with the U.S. military so that the full land mass of the U.S. would be protected by the joint military, and all infrastructure would be built to the same standards. At the end of the lease Mexico would revert to the control of its citizens, except that we would structure in a “buy-in” provision should they want to join the U.S.

In only this way do we get the benefit of our buying Mexico without the bloating effects of tens of millions of new voters. And make no mistake the benefits would be huge. The opening of a free market for the flow of labor and goods would result in profound improvements in the conditions of both countries. It is a great lesson of history that teaches us that where man is motivated by economics, politics or opportunity, laws and the best efforts of those who try to stand in the way will be nullified by the sheer force of the will of the people.

Make no mistake; we are witnessing an ongoing “black market” in labor that is the result of a need that exists on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border. To try to stop it is like our efforts against so many other black markets; It is futile and we simply end up criminalizing otherwise law abiding citizens, while continuing to fail in our prevention efforts. Temporary worker programs such as that which the president will propose tonight are fine as far as they go, but remain difficult to administer, and in the end remain self deluding options for those who prefer denial to the real solution.

Let’s buy Mexico then! The flow of people into this country tells us that the demand is there, and this proposal’s implementation will change the troubled unidirectional flow of traffic across the border into a healthy back and forth of commerce and ultimately wealth for all.