Why All These Mexicans?

It’s the one question left unasked in the immigration debate. Why are so many Mexicans desperate to leave their own country?

The answer is simple. The Mexican economy stinks.

The reason for that is equally simple. Vicente Fox. Fox (left), the first opposition candidate ever to win Mexico’s Presidency, squandered it all by following an American model.

Mexico’s economy is dominated by a very small number of people. Chief among them is Carlos Slim,  whom Forbes lists as the third-richest man in the world, behind only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Among Slim’s holdings is the Mexican phone company. Also among his holdings is its cellular company. He runs both as monopolies, controlling the supply and price of bandwidth throughout the country.

Because of this Mexico’s broadband capacity is minimal, its price outrageous. The country’s intellectual infrastructure is nil.

The caption to the right on this anti-Slim cartoon is "lower the rates, Mr. Telmex."

While Latin economies like Brazil and even Argentina are moving ahead,
Mexico is stagnating under the control of a monopolist. This should be
a big issue in the race to succeed Fox, which is now underway. It
doesn’t matter which party wins. What matters is what they do.

Free Mexico’s intellectual capital. Make Mexico a home for minds, not just hands.

The solution for Mexico’s problem is real competition. It is to open up
unlicensed spectrum, to encourage such things as WiFi and WiMax, to
truly embrace open source, to extend knowledge freely throughout the
country. A u-turn would not bring Mexico prosperity right away, but it
would build the nation’s intellectual capital, and lead to prosperity
over time.

And now that I’ve told you the sad story of Mexico, maybe you
understand why I worry about America going down the same road, with
AT&T and Verizon controlling (and hoarding) all our broadband.

I don’t want to see my kids face a choice between smuggling themselves into Canada, or starving.