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I was surprised that this article seemed devoid of historical context. Surely I am not the only person who remembers that twelve years ago, it was a big deal t
by meej 14y ago
I was surprised that this article seemed devoid of historical context.
Surely I am not the only person who remembers that twelve years ago, it was a big deal that the Xbox was being assembled in Mexico by Flextronics -- heck, Wired even published an article about it: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.11/flex.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.11/flex.html
Or we can go back twenty years, when Maquiladoras were kind of a big deal. And over the last decade, there was a lot of recognition that China posed stiff competition for them. For example, here's an 2003 article from The International Economy titled "How China Is Eating Mexico's Lunch":
http://www.international-economy.com/TIE_Sp03_Rosen.pdf http://www.international-economy.com/TIE_Sp03_Rosen.pdf
If you google 'maquiladoras china' you can find other articles with the same theme.
In other words, over most of the last decade, China was the new Mexico. I can believe that the trend might be reversing now, but writing an article with the title "Mexico: The New China" without mentioning any of this history seems... disingenuous? uninformed? I'm not quite sure what to think about it. The most charitable explanation I can come up with is that the space constraints of a NYT opinion article didn't allow for a discussion of it. Whatever the reason, it strikes me as odd. Am I the only one?
- rgbrenner 14y agoIf you want to see where US goods are being manufactured, then just visit the Census bureau. Trade in Goods with Mexico 1985-2012 http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c2010.html http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c2010.html Trade in Goods with China 1985-2012 http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html And the rest http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/ http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/
- erickhill 14y agoActually, the columnist - not reporter - is Chris Anderson. He used to run Wired for years, but now (as he states in the article I assume you didn't read) runs a company called 3D Robotics. The column is based on his personal experience running a company that requires high tech manufacturing. It's interesting - you should read it.
- rgbrenner 14y agoIrrelevant. Mexico is not the new China. China's exports to the US are nearly 2x more than Mexico's, and in the past year, China has increased its exports to the US by 25billion vs 15billion from Mexico. Compare this to a decade ago when Mexico exported 135b vs 125b from China. Mexico is not the new China. Mexico is the China of last decade. It's not going to retake that position any time soon. China is as big as ever, and one mans story doesn't change that.
- xxiao 14y agodo I need a SWAT team to secure my staff at Mexico? how safe is it in Mexico these days?
- meej 14y agoThank you for the links to the census figures. Having read recent buzz about "rehoming" offshore operations, I might have been too credulous about the plausibility of Anderson's hypothesis; plus I was so focused on the possibility that he is unfamiliar with the recent history of US-Mexico trade that it didn't occur to me to check whether the numbers support his argument, which clearly they do not. I am suspicious that he just doesn't really know what he is talking about.
- rgbrenner 14y agoIf you're concerned about "rehoming" then it's worth pointing out the balance of payments for Mexico and China. In the past year, Mexico's has been REDUCED by 3b (so even though Mexico's exports increased by 15b, their imports increased by 18b). Compare to China: an INCREASE in the imbalance of 20b (so +25b in exports to the US vs +5b in imports).
- cschmidt 14y agoIf you liked the article, then you should read Chris Anderson's book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Lots of interesting stuff about the "Maker" revolution, with 3d printing, etc. He also tells about 3d robotics got going. I really enjoyed it.