The reason for the first is that the US has a much, much better environment for conducting business, compared to Mexico. This is on many levels, starting with education, continuing along to infrastructure, but also things like “low levels of official corruption” and “effective and consistent application of the rule of law,” especially least where business is concerned. For all our troubles (you needn’t raise them, I know) chances are that no one you know will ever be stopped by a cop claiming you were speeding and asking for a bribe; this would be business as usual and fairly unremarkable in Mexico.
It would be good if Mexico could improve and avoid these problems. Until it does so, trapping the Mexican laborer in Mexico to earn his wage, when he could go elsewhere, is like making a farmer farm in the desert.
It is not a natural-resource ownership allocation problem like you allude to with Norway.
> It is not a natural-resource ownership allocation problem like you allude to with Norway.
This is false in the general sense but also you can just ignore the natural resource ownership allocation problem and still use Norway as an example, or a different country (the Netherlands? New Zealand? Japan?).
The answer someone has to provide is why an everyday American barista can't wake up and move to Switzerland, Norway, etc.
> Trapping the American laborer in America to earn their wage, when they could go elsewhere, is like making a farmer farm in the desert.
Japan is notoriously xenophobic with regards to matters of immigration. Many analysts speculate that this attitude will cost them dearly as their demographic trends continue and the population ages, or expect attitudes to change. The same is true for much of East Asia. Some recent coverage from within the past week: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/07/06/the-new-asian-f...
We don’t need to be stuck in a rut of malaise like Japan. We could prosper instead.
It would be good if Mexico could improve and avoid these problems. Until it does so, trapping the Mexican laborer in Mexico to earn his wage, when he could go elsewhere, is like making a farmer farm in the desert.
It is not a natural-resource ownership allocation problem like you allude to with Norway.