Everybody is complaining about all the Mexicans coming across the border these days. But nobody seems to know how to stop them.

A 700-mile-long wall? Nope. China's Great Wall never succeeded in keeping the Mongols out. They came over the wall and even established a 100-year dynasty in China.

A guest worker program? Uh-uh. That kind of quota won't work any more than did the agricultural limit of 5,000 workers. Who do you think picks all those veggies in California? Legals?

The pressure for Mexican emigration is just too great. Conditions in Mexico are just too bad. Conditions in the U.S. are just too good. The border is just too convenient.

In physics class, we learned that narrow spark gaps cannot separate plus and minus ions. They will jump the gap. And Mexico and the United States don't even have much of a gap.

How can we slow down or stop the Mexican invasion?

In the long term, we must be able to close the gap between the quality of life in the USA and the quality of life in Mexico. The U.S. government must join U.S. business to help Mexico create "lifestyle zones" which are so attractive that Mexicans will prefer to stay home.

Does that mean that pay scales must be identical?

The economists always say that migration moves from low-income areas to high-income areas. But there are huge exceptions to that rule:

• Indian scientists and mathematicians migrated to Silicon Valley for twenty years. Then India established Bangalore and other high tech centers. Even though the pay is 60 or 70 percent lower than in the U.S., Indians are migrating to Bangalore – and not to the USA. Even more dramatic, successful Indian businessmen are leaving Silicon Valley to move back to India, specifically to Bangalore, which offers all the lifestyle amenities found in Northern California. Programmers no longer have to migrate to get a latte.
• With the rapid growth of Shanghai and other commercial centers, many successful Chinese-American entrepreneurs are moving back to China. And millions of Chinese who might have braved the trip to America are now finding they prefer the employment and lifestyle available in China's coastal provinces. The pay is considerably lower, but there are great risks in emigration. Besides, the lifestyle and cultures are more familiar in Shanghai. And how can one celebrate the year of the pig in Kokomo?

What kind of "lifestyle zone" will keep the Mexicans at home?

• First, there must be employment.
• Second, there must be a pay scale of between 30 and 40 percent of comparable U.S. work.
• Third, the zones must be free of the elitists and monopolists who revel in keeping Mexico's masses mired in misery and poverty.
• Fourth, there must be a national tax system which provides adequate funds for sanitation, clean water, education and healthcare. Even the elitists must be taxed fairly.
• Fifth, the government's extraordinarily high level of corruption must be stamped out.
• And sixth, Mexico's corrupt police must be reformed and paid well so they don't need bribes from drug dealers and kidnappers. It's vital that the average Mexican be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

If these six issues can be overcome, Mexico will be transformed and few Mexicans would want to come to the U.S. We wouldn't need "great walls" and troops on the border.

Could this be accomplished in Mexico?

Well, not in the whole country. The elitists and the corrupted are too powerful.

But as was the case with India and China, the reforms could start with individual zones designed to keep citizens home and out of the US.

Helping to make Mexico more attractive to its people is the only way we will be able to control the border.

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