WARNING - THE FOLLOWING IS AN OFF TOPIC RANT
Well maybe the Mexicans will open their border and allow more immigration to their country so Americans can find work. We are looked down upon there, but we work hard and just want to take care of our families.
That was a bad joke, sort of. People who are sillily worried about immigration and Mexico are missing a fact that more Americans moved to Mexico from the US than the other way around over the past 5 or 10 years. NAFTA means that our cheap fracked natural gas (25% of the prices paid in China or Europe) are flowing in pipelines across the border to Mexico's industrial cities. Given wage inflation in China, and accounting for energy and shipping costs, for most industries production in Mexico is now on par with China - and you get the benefit of reasonable governance, a forward looking president in Mexico, consistent rule of law (minus the drug stuff), and seemless integration in to the supply chain of the United States. Global corporations looking to sell into this country can locate in Asia or Eastern Europe, or they can locate in Mexico or the southern US. Increasingly they are choosing Mexico and the industrial economy there is growing incredibly rapidly.
Fortunately cheap energy gives us a competitive advantage in energy intensive industries with technical barriers - specialty chemicals stuff like that -- so there is some hope of manufacturing recovering in the US, especially in places that have natural gas reserves...if local politicians decide to let them be tapped there is some hope of resurgent manufacturing even in NY state with the right incentives and targetting of the right industries. Hope it happens - plenty of $250k beautiful old homes for people to buy up and good wholesome communities to live in - solid quality of life versus the WalMart strewn waffle house ridden southern interior where most plants are locating these days.
END RANT
