My friend José writes in his blog today about the latest Mexico-U.S. border shenangians. He mentions the idea floated by the U.S. of having volunteer border patrols, and makes the point that the border problems are about economics and labor, about immigrants making a "costs-benefits analysis," not about sovereignity. Yes! Of course. It's suprising how little this is discussed in mainstream media, though. How often does CNN or even the NYT mention that minimum wage in Mexico is about $4 a day? Or that paying 40,000 quetzals (about 5,000 dollars) to have a coyote take you from Guatemala to Texas is a good deal?
Parenthetically, I can't help notice José doing that "I told you so" thing - he's one of the smartest people I've ever met so I forgive him - but it's something that I see bloggers doing all the time and it's just sort of funny to me: "I've been saying that for years here on this blog." Well, yeah, and I've been yelling at the TV since I was 10 but that doesn't mean anyone has been listening. Face it, if you're someone with real mass visibility (maybe Paul Krugman, Bono, Alan Greenspan) you have a right to say "hey I already said that," but otherwise, c'mon. To mutate a famous old jazz saying, It ain't what you say, or when you say it, it's how many copies of it are being sold.
Posted by steev at Julio 21, 2005 06:58 AM