Now here's something interesting....

By David J. Stoddard​

October 9, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

Article Title: WHY DON'T WE JUST IMPROVE THE ECONOMY OF MEXICO ?

Don't get taken in by the title, though. Stoddard is simply quoting somebody (if he exists) he calls "head" who proposed the above as a simple solution to the influx of Mexican illegals crossing the border into the US.

However, he says, and I quote, "Anyone who believes this is a simple solution displays an abysmal lack of understanding of Mexico and all things Mexican. " Here are the reasons, Stoddard says:

1. The sheer amount of money sent by Mexicans (both legal and illegal, I presume) would have been more than enough to have already improved the Mexican economy. This year alone, it is estimated that Mexicans in the United States will send approximately 23 Billion dollars to Mexico.

(pinoybaptist says: parallelism here between Mexico and Philippines. Billions of dollars sent home by Filipinos (most of whom are legal immigrants or workers) from almost every country in the world, yet the Philippines' internal and external debt still at a staggering trillions of dollars, there is a thin middle class, a very broad lower class, and a very thin upper class which are, by the way, mostly made up of old money, politicians, landowners, and their ilk and kin.)

2. Mexican laws with regards to business and land ownership are very inimical to foreign investors because of its emphasis on Mexican ownership and Mexicans-first rights. In addition, setting up a business in Mexico requires (most of the time I figure [PB]) bribing, and then more bribing to set up the utilities and so on. He calls this the "mordida" system.

(pinoybaptist says: heck, nothing new to me either. my daughter applied for a landline phone in 2004, she was asked to set up her own two poles from the street to her home through which the lines will run, and two years later she still doesn't have her phone line.:BangHead: :BangHead: )

3. Then once you have set up your business, you need to pay the Mexican government a year's salary for each employee (I think he means the employees' one year salary equivalent) which is called a severance pay for just in case you decide to terminate the employee or pack up and leave. You also have to have funds set up for the employee's sss and so on.)

4. Finally after you're in business, you need to contend with (a) theft, (b) pilferage (c) strikes [which according to the author is a way of life in Mexico with laws heavily slanted in favor of the Mexican).

5. He quotes a lot more things, but here's the rub about the "trustworthy" Mexican partner (item number 2 = Mexican ownership, 51% which means all papers drawn up has a Mexican as majority stockholder or owner or investor).

Ah, well, let me quote him directly:

Uhmmmm, I think I will "like" Mexico. I think I understand the culture. After all, both Mexico and my country were colonies of Spain for hundreds of years. The siesta, the comida mucho, the tequila (tuba or lambanog in the Philippines), the peso slipped in the driver's license, or the passport of the incoming or outgoing Filipino.​

 

On the other hand, when I was a student we marched against so-called "Foreign Investments" because at that time (I don't know now, have lost a lot of interest in politics), the term meant that the "Foreign Investor" comes in with little or practically no money, borrows from the Philippine government the capital they need to invest, or at least a big part of it, makes profits, pays off their debt, and carts off their profits to their US or Swiss bank accounts.

I don't know how foreign investment works in Mexico, though.