Nov. 01, 2006 - 18:17 MST

THE SCOOP ON SHARING RESPONSIBILITY

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages in his "On Point" column today has this, herein quoted in full:

'SHARED' RESPONSIBILITY INDEED

"The 700-mile border wall approved in legislation signed by President Bush last week is "an example of the inability of the United States to see the issue of immigration as one of shared responibility," according to Mexican President Vincente Fox."

"The "shared responsibility" Fox refers to, of course, amounts to the following: Mexico generates a surplus of workers and the United States provides these workers with jobs."

"Ah, but why can't Mexico create enough jobs on its own ? Why has its economic growth over the past dozen years been so anemic -- not only compared with booming developing countries such as China but even with a number of Latin American nations ?"

"Economic deficiencies still abound in Mexico," explained Berkeley economist Brad DeLong in a recent blog item. "According to the OECD, these include a very low average number of years of schooling, with young workers having almost no more formal education than their older counterparts; little-on-the-job training; heavy bureaucratic burdens on firms; corrupt judges and police; high crime rates; and a large, low-productivity informal sector that narrows the tax base and raises tax rates on the rest of the economy. The demographic burden of a rapidly growing labor force appears to be greatly increased when that labor force is not very literate, especially when inadequate infrastructure, crime and official corruption also take their toll."

"Speaking of Mexican crime and corruption, they're probably worse than most Americans even suspect, according to Austin-based Stratfor, a risk analysis company."

"From our perspective," says Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton, "the sheer amount of violence and corruptions is probably underreported, because we are not getting accurate and open press out of Mexico about what is acutally taking place."

"So the beat goes on, along with the inevitable demands for "shared responsibility."

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This article led me to Googling OECD and I find it is "Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development" and from what little I have read so far it is an organization working for what its title denotes. I plan on spending more time reading their publications on line.

And speaking of a 700 mile fence - - won't that just funnel people through places the fence isn't ? ? ? ? Seems to me if we are serious about it, the fence should run the full distance of the border, with patrol boats far out offshore.

We have had no problem with our Canadian friends. They stay home, work their jobs, educate their children and their visits are friendly and short lived. They do have homes and jobs to return to. Whereas the Mexican folks have little to hold them in their own country, the able, energetic young folks come here to work and earn money to send support to the folks at home who are unable to come here. Who can blame them for that ?

Our country tried amnesty some years ago, and some of those amnestied folks are upset about the inflow of immigrants now, even though at one time they themselves were illegal immigrants. Getting pretty bad when things reach that stage, I think.

So instead of a political football wherein the antagonists are trying to figure out the words to use to allow the inflow to continue and claim credit for halting the alien immigration, perhaps we should get our isht together and figure out a commonsense way to control it.

One sure way is to make it a punishable felony with a long jail sentence for ANYONE who hires and pays an illegal alien to do any work of any kind (including you, me or any other somewhat upright citizen). Seems to me that perhaps that is considered to simple minded a solution by some, but if there is no work here for illegal aliens, there is no incentive for them to come here.

There are more ways than one to look at THE SCOOP ON SHARING RESPONSIBILITY . . . . . . . . . . . .