BajaNomad - 11-23-2002 at 01:18 PM
I was searching for an old article in Forbes when the Peso devalued on Zedillo (I think it was) and the U.S. was fearful that Mexico would default...
they suggested forgiving the debt through purchase of the Baja California peninsula...
...and I ran across this article by Ken Layne, a Baja fan, suggesting (playfully) they move Israel to Baja:
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49353,00.html
Ken has his own quite interesting site at, what else?:
http://kenlayne.com
[Edited on 12-13-2007 by BajaNomad]
BajaNomad - 11-23-2002 at 01:26 PM
AHA... it actually exists:
A modest (?) proposal.
By Peter Brimelow.
March 27, 1995
[Peter Brimelow writes: I enjoyed writing this article, which the former and great Editor of Forbes, James W. Michaels, held out for a cycle while he
pondered the possible reaction and which got me on the front page of the Tijuana paper (twice) and denounced on Mexico City radio. Seven years and
maybe 2 million net Mexican immigrants later, I still think ? why not? Could it be worse than the current situation? Ironically, given the penultimate
paragraph, it?s now Mexico that seeks to micromanage U.S. immigration and other policies.]
WHILE WAVING FAREWELL to $20 billion of U.S. taxpayers' money as it starts its perilous trip South of the Border under the terms of the Clinton
Administration's Mexican peso bail-out, we can't help pondering this Modest Proposal:
Wouldn't it be simpler to go back to one of the early versions of the 1853 Gadsden Purchase?and just buy Baja California?
James Gadsden was sent to Mexico by President Franklin Pierce, charged with buying enough land for a transcontinental railroad route around the
Rockies. But American and Mexican negotiators also discussed more sweeping alternatives that suggest Baja California was then valued at around $10
million.
That $10 million adds up to about $180 million in today's purchasing power. And it represented a proportion of U.S. 1853 GDP that by a happy
coincidence is now equivalent to . . . $23 billion!
With more than 1,600 miles of coastline, Baja California is a real estate developer's dream. They could really create value. One way or another the
desert might be made to bloom?or at least generate healthy tax revenues.
Only about 2 million Mexicans live in Baja, mostly in three border-area cities. And in 1990 there were well over 4.3 million Mexicans living in the
U.S., legally and illegally. About 250,000 more settle here each year.
So we're getting the Mexicans. And parting with the money. How about the land?
Linda Chavez, the former Reagan Administration official who now heads Washington's Center for Equal Opportunity, belongs to one of those Mexican
families that never came to the U.S.?the U.S. came to them, when it acquired northern New Mexico. "The best thing that ever happened to us," she says
flatly.
And Chavez guesses that Baja Californians would agree, if they ever got a chance to vote on joining the U.S. And she notes that the Colorado River
would be a better barrier against illegal immigration.
Asks Chavez: "Why not?"
Purchases, of course, are out of fashion nowadays. But in the 19th century, the U.S. peacefully acquired the Mississippi Valley, Florida, Alaska. . .
. And recently, in 1992, Walter Russell Mead of New York's New School caused something of a stir by proposing in World Policy Journal that the U.S.
bid for Siberia.
Intolerable insult to a sovereign nation? More so than micromanaging its finances and hypothecating its oil revenues, as the Clinton Administration
expects to do to Mexico?
Well, we just thought we'd ask.
[Edited on 11-23-2002 by BajaNomad]
RE
JESSE - 11-23-2002 at 03:55 PM
Wow, i cant believe someone actually proposed this, but well everybody is entitle to their opinions.
I for once think it is an imposibility, i know most of you dotn want to believe it, but the mayority of Mexicans wouldnt want to be a part of the US,
i like americans but i really disagree with the US goverment, if Baja became a part of the US, i would first move to Mexico, i would then become a
terrorist and try to overtrow the politicians that sold my land.
Well maybe i am rambling here, but i think doing something like that would mean the end of Mexico as a country, civil war and terrorism would destroy
it. This is as imposible as Mexico invading the US and taking back the southwest.
Interesting article
Dave - 11-23-2002 at 04:51 PM
You're kidding yourself Jesse. Deep in their heart of hearts most Mexicans (at least those who really understand the democratic process)would love to
be part of the U.S.
Eventually most of the Americas will be in Fact, if not in spirit, one country. And eventually the whole world will be as one. Not in our children?s
lifetime but it will come to pass. Look at the European Union. Can you ever again imagine a scenario where England France and Germany will war with
each other? Now think of the whole world as one country. After all we are all brothers and sisters.
JESSE - 11-23-2002 at 05:45 PM
Perhaps you are right, we have a love-hate relationship, but i do think that today is too early for something like that, i can only speak for myself
and a few friends that i have, and i think theres many things we like and are impressed by in the US, but at the same time, i just cant see giving up
my freedom and my uncomplicated lifestyle for more dinero, i do agree that eventually the borders are going to disapear, the only good thing is that
it wont happen in my lifetime, so lets enjoy it while we can. 