US-Mexico Economic Realities of Both Sides

as can be seen in the above graph, the greatest sector of industry is machinery, and most electronic-related economic sectors have become the heaviest interest in Mexican maquiladora industry. It is important to note that this is not exclusively around the border regions, although it is the primary area of study. Notice however, that textile industry has decreased substantially.


These cities show which have the greatest growth in industry. Ciudad Juarez has decreased in recent years while Reynosa has substantially outpaced other neighboring cities.


Approximately one-quarter of the population in the US counties bordering Mexico live at or below the poverty line. This is over double the rate of the national average (12 percent) of the US population living in poverty. Furthermore, the unemployment rate in US counties on the southern border is 5.6 percent compared to 4.7 percent in the rest of the country. Mexican border states have an average poverty rate of 28 percent, significantly below the Mexican national average of 37 percent.


Communities on the Mexican side of the border generally have less access to basic water and sanitation services than border communities in the United States.

Two of the 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, Laredo and McAllen, are located on the Texas-Mexico border. Estimates indicate the population of many border cities will double in 30 years. The population along the Texas border region is increasing at twice the rate of Texas as a whole.


The maquiladora economic sector accounts for 45% of all exports from Mexico and were begun in 1965 as part of the Programa de Industrialización Fronteriza.

As for the United States...does it feel like anything is 'Made in America' anymore? If it's been a while since you've seen that logo or know of anyone who still holds onto a manufacturing job that pays well--you may have found both are getting harder to stumble upon.

Aside from the statistical reality that manufacturing jobs are being outsourced to foreign companies--one of the main ones being México, how is it that the Bush Administration still boasts about it's present trend of uninterrupted job growth? The jobs that Americans are filling are no longer manufacturing, now they've become service jobs. But to add insult to injury...serious insult in February 2004, CBS reported that the President's Annual Economic Report suggested that the loss of manufacturing jobs to other countries was good for the American economy...and then went on to suggest that the definition of 'manufacturing' can be vague enough that this: can apparantely be considered manufacturing because of the assembly work involved, but it would be a service if it were made at a snack bar.

The report confused a considerable amount of politicians when this story came out, and during the 2004 presidential race, it left the door open for the Bush Administration to 'fudge up' how much of a loss we were really experiencing by including new categories into the 'manufacturing' definition.

The President's report was nothing short of vague, and for further reference, I encourage all readers to check out the article for yourselves: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/20/politics/main601336.shtml
the Congressional Budgeting Office reports it's findings that the US had about 14 million manufacturing jobs in 2004, down by 3 million in 2000.

Cavanaugh and Anderson, authors of "Happily Ever NAFTA?" referenced a Cornell University who documented that "US employers increasingly threaten to move their factories to México and other low wage countries in order to fight unions and restrain wages." This was one of the reasons for why the US real wage growth was so slow in the Nineties.

Imagine that? Mexican workers are threatened with being fired, horrible working conditions including unsafe work environments and dilapidated machinery as well as environmental damage and urban sprawl. And American workers are threatened with losing their jobs altogether if they unionize or demand higher wages.

Who is ever happy with this kind of scenario? Despite a previous post which demonstrated veiled racist comments by Lou Dobbs, and aside from a threat to nationalism, doesn't everyone lose when systems of economy seem to favor the transnational corporation that takes from everyone, not just from the empoverished nation?