Words that needed to be said

Today in Bret Stephens "Global View" WSJ column:

Meanwhile, let’s state clearly what shouldn’t need saying but does: Americans are blessed to have Mexico as our neighbor and Hispanics as our citizens. On this point, disagreement is indecency.

Stephens notes that the murder rate in Mexico is about the same as Philadelphia (and less than Miami), no one from Mexico has attacked the US since Pancho Villa, Mexico is the 2nd largest purchaser of US products, and more Mexicans are headed south of the border than in the opposite direction.  

Fewer Mexicans immigrating to US

Yesterday's NYT reports that the wave of Mexican immigration to the US may have crested.  The incentives to immigrate depend on the difference between opportunities in the US and Mexico as well as the cost of making the move.  The cost has risen, thanks to increased border enforcement and the spread of gang activity along the border.  Opportunities in the US have stagnated, as we all know. 

The article highlights another critical factor that has not received much attention: increased opportunity for those who stay in Mexico.  Mexico has significantly upgraded its educational system, making high school and college more accessible.  Mexican fertility rates have fallen dramatically, close to US levels, cutting into what had been a perpetual excess supply of labor.  The article also notes that "democracy is better established, incomes have generally risen and poverty has declined."

Supply and demand for recreational drugs

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico today to discuss our mutual concerns about the violence associated with drug trafficking. Yesterday's WSJ column by Mary O'Grady does a good job of explaining the futility of drug prohibition in simple economic terms. Money quotes:

I suggest that one or two of Mexico's very fine economists trained at the University of Chicago by Milton Friedman sit down with President Obama's team to explain a few things about how markets work. They could begin by outlining the path that a worthless weed travels to become the funding for the cartel's firepower. In this Econ 101 lesson, students will learn how the lion's share of the profit is in getting the stuff over the U.S. border to the American consumer.

Marijuana use, through medical marijuana outlets and general social acceptance, has become de facto legal in the U.S., and demand is robust. The upshot is that consumption is cool while production, trafficking and distribution are organized-crime activities. This is what I called in a previous column, "a stimulus plan for Mexican gangsters."