Solar Wall (Page 2)

Jeez, if i am reading this thread correctly, even the hard righties are abandoning the notion of a physical wall on the southern border. Welcome to the sane side of this issue guys, come on in and have a fine craft beer and maybe some kale salad.

Edited by Oysterboy 2017-06-29 5:37 AM

On a liberal note...I think if we can help the Mexican build a stronger economy that would go a long way into curbing the flow of immigration.

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Jeezus, you sounded almost… uhh, socialist!

But yeah, probably would make a huge difference. As a Teamster, I can fully appreciate the things they accomplish to make my job a better place for everyone. I can also see where they totally efff up and make a lot of things worse. I'm guessing those in charge at Mexico would never allow unions to get a foothold. I'm pretty sure our guys that work down there aren't Teamsters though I d need to ask someone to be certain. Getting unions in Mexico would take a pretty good deal of violence, just like here in the US way back. Their populace has been subservient for so long that I doubt we'll see it happen, so long as there's an option to head north for a better life, regardless of the risks.

I remember hearing that most of the people crossing the border are not Mexican, but rather from Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, etc). These countries have huge problems and the refugees are just looking to the US as a way out. The income inequality in Mexico is huge. Unfortunately, USA is not that far behind.

Gini index, measure of income inequality. IMHO, an issue we need to address in the USA - a real threat to our democracy.





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The gini index is a economic measurement of inequality. Specifically, if everyone in a country made the same amount of money the gini would be zero (0). On the other hand, if all the money in a country belonged to one person the gini would be 1.0. Of course, neither scenario is feasible so we have gini indices between 0 and 1.0. I will look for a more recent computation of gini, but I can assure you, things have only gotten worse in the USA over the last 10-15 years. (I am not an economist, but reading macroeconomic theory is a hobby for me).

This is computed Gini from 2011 for a number of countries. I know that Mexico has really bad inequality, but ours is not much better and is amongst the highest in the industrialized world (UK is not far behind us). I do think the US citizens are starting to "get it", witness the problem people had with the medicare cuts balanced with the tax cuts. This is one of the ways inequality is generated, and it is not healthy for our society.





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Do they take into consideration our billionaire club, professional athletes, and Hollywood elite? Seems that would skew the outcome to make us look similar to Mexico and other third world nations. It also doesn't take into consideration that our poor don't have even remotely similar conditions that the poor do in Mexico. Folks living below the US poverty line are living in what could be considered middle class in Mexico and South America. I know this to be true because people are migrating north in droves from these countries to live below what we consider the poverty line. Apples and oranges.

Edited by mdg2003 2017-06-30 7:53 AM