Quote from StockJock:
Instead of a fence how about a wall such as in Germany. Yes, that is an extreme example since the east was communist, but it makes the point.
History Lesson 101
I. Reasons why the Berlin Wall was built:
1. Spying activities by the Americans. Hords of spies were able to just walk into East Berlin and then spread all over East Germany. It could be compared to Manhattan being in the possession of the Soviets during the Cold War. Do you think the US would allow free movement between Manhattan and the rest of the US????? So why do you think the Soviets would be foolish enough to just allow CIA to freerly roam East Germany???? Come on think a little bit.
2. Counterfeit currency was transported from the West to destabilize East Germany. Since you are trading, I will not have to explain to you the dangers of having your country flooded with perfectly counterfeited currency printed on the best machines available by your enemy.
3. Constant trickle of East Germans leaving for West Germany. Thanks to generous US economic help which was given to most Western European countries after WWII to stop the local population from electing lefitist governments, the West German standard of living was already higher then in the East. Also what once was East Germany was always less industrial,less developed (by German standards) than West Germany and it was only natural that West Germany would do better right off the bat. Moreover, many Germans that stayed in East Germany were from the territories awarded to The Soviet Union and Poland after WWII, so for them, it was not so difficult to move further west, they were displaced to begin with and once they noticed that life in the west would be easier they picked up again and moved west.
Speaking of walls: the one being build between US and Mexico sure looks interesting. Most Mexican are moving to the US because their country is pure capitalism: no independent unions, gov. lets business do whatever they want, you know typical laissez faire, minimum wage is non existent, education is substandard, very little help coming from the government to the people, you know PURE CAPITALISM. You can open up any kind of business, pay workers $5 a DAY, no health insurance whatsoever, no taxes to pay, no unions, no pension, no job protection, no environmental issues to worry about ... and the end result is....Mexico. So they move to the US where pure capitalism has been replaced after the Great Depression, when the government and the rich elites realized that in order to keep the people from making another Russian Revolution, some social protection needed to be built in, hence you get S.S. and other programs designed to help people.
Also look at West Germany and their social system. They provide a lot more benefits to their poor, and their workers and still or (here is a radical thought) maybe because of those benefits, they produce $150.000 MB cars and have a higher standard of living (in general) than people in the US. END OF THE LESSON