Oct. 1, 2008 — Two or three weeks ago, a friend sent me the link to a Christian Science Monitor article which asks if Mexico is the new China. Since the population of Mexico has at least quadrupled since I was here as a child, I answered “yes” rather cynically in my mind.
But the article is about manufacturing, not population. It begins,
With skyrocketing oil prices, escalating labor costs in China, and an appreciating currency there, companies targeting the US market are doing the math and giving Mexico another look. So-called “nearshoring” could generate a reverse globalization that brings manufacturing back to Mexico.
The article is at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0911/p01s02-woam.html
The point is that with fuel prices rising, it will make sense to diminish distances. Well, it is nice to see people realizing this!
I am a huge fan of the “locavore” movement taking root in the US, where people do their best to eat as locally as possible. We do that here a lot, with bananas, papayas, lemons, and more exotic fruits in our own yard, and an organic vegetable garden.
Just the other day, some friends were planning an outing to a pottery factory that is between here and Guadalajara. I blogged about going there over a year ago, as we have numerous large and small planters from it. Sadly, my friends discovered that the pottery factory is closing down.
Why? Because their main business was exporting to the US and they can’t compete with Chinese copies of Mexican style pottery.
China the next Mexico? Mexico the next China? What a world!
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