NAFTA, immigration, free trade, and comparative advantage

I think I have part of this right.

When NAFTA went into effect, North America was supposed to receive the benefits of free trade. Comparative advantage would work its magic, and all people in North America, even in Mexico, would be rolling in the gravy.

So what is the big deal about illegal immigration? It is the result of free trade and comparative advantage. Things are working perfectly. People are going where the jobs are. Businesses are employing those workers at low wage jobs.

Mexico has unfortunately not prospered as expected. They've been under bid by countries such as China for United States business. Agriculture in the United States is still subsidized which has meant that Mexican agriculture can't compete with it. Displaced Mexican farmers can't find jobs in Mexican industry because the U. S. has sent those jobs to Asia. Meanwhile U. S. businesses are happy as pigs in slop with the newly found pool of low wage labor streaming across the border from Mexico.

Things have not worked out exactly as planned by the market fundamentalists who preach free trade and comparative advantage, but free trade and comparative advantage are alive and well. That is unless you take into account such things as social and public costs. Let's face it, even the illegal worker needs some social services from the country in which she works. After all, you don't want all those dead bodies piling up in front of the gates of suburbia. Not only is it unsightly, but it is also down right unsanitary.

Of course, this being the good old United States, nobody wants to pick up the tab for those social and public costs. It is sort of like the Iraq War. Well I have a solution for the costs of immigration. Let's just pass it on to the next couple of generations. I am sure things will sort themselves out by then.

Like I said, I think I have part of this right. But I will continue the search for the truth anyway.