Medary.com

Survey finds many Mexicans would move to the U.S. if they could:

In the survey of 1,200 Mexican adults, conducted in May by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, 46 percent said they would like to live in the United States if they had the opportunity. Among college graduates, 35 percent said they would head north.
. . . According to the (Mexican Government's) Population Council, 400,000 Mexicans, or less than 0.4 percent of the population, migrate to the United States every year. About 75 percent of these people enter the United States illegally, the council says. In July, the CIA estimated Mexico's population at 106 million.
. . . Many Mexican politicians hoped NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994, would raise wages.

But stiff competition from China, and a long-running depression in the Mexican agriculture sector, have kept unemployment high and wages low, said Monica Gambrill, an expert on the agreement at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

Once again, the question comes up: What is so special about the American model that half of the population of a neighboring country would up and move if they had the opportunity? I think the answer is in the combination of political and economic freedom which is unique in the world's history. The two feed off of each other to create the dynamic American way of life. Other countries, other systems restrict political or economic freedoms in a way which is corrosive to those countries' success. Even such "advanced" European countries like France and Germany have overlayed a stifling welfare state over their economies leading to their relative undesirability. No other country in the world was started with the premise that it is the government which must be restrained, not the people.

This is why issues like the Kelo decision are so important. Government Must Be Restrained.