Forbes magazine has just published its Annual Billionaires List. The 2008 Billionaire List  has 1062 entries—and includes no less than ten (10) Mexican billionaires. Indeed, in second place worldwide is Mexico's Carlos Slim, worth $60 billion.

Two years ago, I wrote a VDARE.COM article about the Mexican magnates on the 2006 billionaires list, which you can read here . It was followed up by an article about Mexican magnates investing in the United States.

Why is the presence of Mexican billionaires relevant to the U.S. National Question, the subject of the VDARE.COM?

It wouldn't be, if Americans weren't constantly lectured by the media and our leaders to open the border to Mexican immigrants. White middle class Americans are special targets of such propaganda. They are led to believe they are horrible racists if they don't want their neighborhoods overrun with legal and illegal aliens from Mexico.

But why should middle-class Americans bear the brunt of-out-of-control mass immigration when Mexico has at least 10 billionaires who should be doing a lot more to create jobs in Mexico?

By world standards, Mexico is far from the poorest country in the world. It has plenty of resources and economic advantages. They have just been mismanaged.

But there is plenty of wealth in Mexico. I have resided here since 1991, and have had some contact with the local wealthy in the metropolitan area in which I live. And many wealthy Mexicans sure like to flaunt their wealth.

I remember in my very first teaching job—when I was rather naïve, I admit. I was telling my fifth-graders (who already had a good level of English) that knowing English better could help them get rich.

"We're already rich", retorted one girl. Of course, she was right. What was I thinking, these kids were richer than me!

On another occasion, I invited the kids to accompany me outside, where snow flurries were falling, since it hardly ever snows in that region. But some of them weren't interested—after all, they regularly flew to ski resorts in the U.S.!

And these kids weren't even from millionaire families, of which there are plenty. But what Forbes is talking about is billionaires—dollar billionaires—and the magazine lists 10 of them.

In fact, it's highly unlikely there are only 10 billionaires in Mexico. A private analyst (whose name I won't divulge) has sent me his own Mexican billionaire list. According to his analysis, Mexico has 28 billionaires, 18 of whom are not listed by Forbes. The unlisted billionaires keep a lower profile and hide or don't report or all their assets. That seems highly likely. It's been estimated that 40% of Mexican businesses and 70% of Mexican professionals and small business owners cheat on taxes, so that up to 50% of potential tax revenues go uncollected. [Mexico planning to raise its tax receipts, By Marla Dickerson, and Carlos Martinez. Los Angeles Times, Jun 21, 2007 (Pay archive