Ross: Hey American retirees, Mexico is calling
May 20, 2019, 7:00 AM | Updated: 9:48 am
About a year ago, a long-time friend announced that not only was he retiring, but that he and his wife were going to re-locate from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
And when I asked why, his smile was so big I had to back away. He said that for the price of a mediocre retirement here, he could live in Mexico — in a villa with a cook, and a maid, and a beach!
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Foreign-born residents doubled in Mexico between 2000 and 2010, with Americans representing three-quarters of that group. And according to the Washington Post, this is now a social phenomenon with as many as 1.5 million Americans calling Mexico home. It’s a tiny fraction of Mexico’s population, but it’s enough that Mexico now has pickle ball tournaments!
Which makes me think — there’s another way to solve our border crisis.
Encourage this reverse migration, and not just among retired people. Get young entrepreneurs to go. You can live large in Mexico on about $3,000 a month. So encourage young job creators to go South, live well, and create jobs in Mexico for those caravans from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Imagine if those refugees, instead of running a vicious gauntlet of smugglers, ran a virtuous gauntlet of American businesses ready to give them jobs right there in Mexico.
Everybody wins. And if enough Americans go south – someday, South Texas becomes the 51 state.
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