[Black Agnes]

Not sure I buy that allegation. I find it interesting that of the 3 large countries in central and north america, CA and US have made a decent go of it and given our citizens a decent standard of living for the most part, but for some perplexing reason MX just can't. There's no substantive reason MX has to be 3rd world, they have plenty of natural resources and for a country the size it is they're not really that overcrowded if you'd spread people away from the city slums. Too bad they can't do a Japan or South Korea and snap out of it!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Mexico really doesn't have much arable land. Historically Mexico relied on mining. The mining industry has been in collapse since about 1900. Given the corruption, governmental inertia, and systemic barriers to entrepreneurship, Mexico just hasn't made a go of it. One would think that a mining economy could switch to an oil economy easily, but Mexico can't. They still suffer from the 500 years of Spanish bureaucracy overlaid with the Diaz corruption.

I think Fox is giving it his best, but big ships turn slowly.

[185JHP]

Mexico has some of the finest peole I've ever met - warm, smart, and classy. But the nasty people in Mexico are a lot like the nasty people in Frane - almost preternaturally nasty. The biggest problem Mexico has is a spiritual problem, that's related to the incredibly vile stuff that was done there, before civilization was thrust upon them. In the 1500s cannibalism and human sacrifice was being widely practiced in what is now Mexico. THE Lord God hates some forms of nastiness more than others.