[alanmcorcoran]

Boy you guys sure know how to knock the fun out of neck-snappin', asphalt-chewing power!

I'm no expert on the global economy or political science but I have some expereince in business. In the business world there are many kinds of participants: Creators, inventors, researchers, promoters, and risk takers; hard working laborers; exploiters and parasites; cheaters, slackers and coasters. There are very few of the first category, and they go largely unappreciated by the next three even though, with the exception of farming, they create most of the "jobs." There have been disparities in wealth since the beginning of civilization and, contrary to the implications of the "Global South" theory, there is plenty of wealth in Brazil and Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe and Mexico and Russia and China, etc. but it is held in fewer hands and most people do not feel they have any chance of accumulating any of it, (so they end up in categories 2-4.)

If you think our government is a bunch of sanctimonious, ineffective blowhards, they are noble geniuses compared to some of the regimes that these other places are saddled with. Culture and corruption are powerful economic forces and can often outweigh the effects of disparities in natural resources. (See Africa vs. Israel.)

And dh, if you think poverty will be "good for us", (a view I strongly disagree with!) you can join millions of severely over privileged folks sneaking across the border into Mexico for a better life.