Wal-Mart Invades, and Mexico Gladly Surrenders

[Khephra]

The company that ate America is now swallowing Mexico.

Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is already the biggest private employer in Mexico, with 100,164 workers on its payroll here as of last week. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions — nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country.

Wal-Mart's power is changing Mexico in the same way it changed the economic landscape of the United States, and with the same formula: cut prices relentlessly, pump up productivity, pay low wages, ban unions, give suppliers the tightest possible profit margins and sell everything under the sun for less than the guy next door.

"This is the game that Wal-Mart has played in the United States," said Diana Farrell, director of McKinsey Global Institute, a policy research group run by the international business consultancy McKinsey & Company. "They've changed the name of the game in Mexico."

more.............

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/international/americas/06MEXI.html

[JCMach1]

1. IF Carrefour comes to America, Walmart

will be out of business.

I live in a Walmart-free zone!!!!!!!!!!

[militarymanusaf]

2. Carrefour? I was there yesterday!

Then again, I'm in Korea (never heard of Carrefour until arriving here).

[theshadow]

3. Low wages in Mexico?

What are they paying them? Five cents an hour??

http://www.walmartwatch.com/

[xchrom]

4. lol

that's funny -- i liked that -- and with permission -- i'll use it.

[Pocho]

5. WAGES, PRICES, AND VALUES

Legal minimum wage in Mexico City is about 45 pesos per day which is equivalent to about $4.50 US per day. That does not tell the story however, for most workers count their wages in terms of a multiple of the legal minimum, three to five times being common for non skilled employment. Construction laborers in rural areas near Guadalajara receive about 2,000 pesos per week, equivalent to $200 US.

Balance that against cost of living. In general, grocery, hardware, and home items sell for about half to two thirds US prices. There are no taxes on foods or medicines. Two and a half years ago was the last time I was in the states. Limes sold there for 50 cents each. Here they are four pesos a kilogram or about 20 cents a pound. A half inch stack of stale tortillas there costs about a dollar. Here a three inch stack of fresh ones are four pesos or 40 cents.

Medicines 10 years ago sold for about 20% the US price. Now thanks to NAFTA pharmaceuticals are almost the same. The poor can't afford them. They die. I have never talked to a Mexican who considered NAFTA anymore than the ninth invasion of their nation by the US, this time with dollars rather than bullets.

House rents can be from about $125 to an classy $500 US per month. Imported manufactured items such as televisions or computers are about the same in both countries. My new computer web camera cost $30 US last week. Internet connections are about $20 US per month. Full restaurant meals are about five dollars. Taco stand lunches and a beer a buck or two.

New US brand automobiles are expensive, about $18,000 US for a small Chevy, but a new Nissan Platina manufactured in Aguas Calientes costs $12,000 US. The Puebla Volkswagon plant was the last one in the world manufacturing the real Beetle. It shut down last August, and the most common vehicle on the roads here is no longer being made. The last one off Puebla's assembly line sold as a collectors item $33,000 US. Our 1992 model was purchased used in Guadalajara for about $2,500 US in 1996. Its sale value today is about $1,800 US.

So much for prices, something that in the states is too often substituted for the concept of value. Here there another measure tends to be more appropriately applied. We say to friends when leaving to visit there "Dejamos las corozones en tus manos porque no se necesitan para allah. (We leave our hearts in your hands because they are not needed there).

[amazona]

6. do you live in guadalajara?

I have heard many good things about that area.

I visited the countryside in the state of Veracruz some years ago to see the "River of Raptors" and I was very favorably impressed.

[Pocho]

8. NO BUT ALMOST

We expatriated 16 years ago on retirement from a teacher’s life in Illinois to live in San Antonio Tlayacapan, a small mountain pueblo on Lake Chapala and along side the town of Chapala in the State of Jalisco. That in turn is a weekend getaway for Guadalajara, about 30 miles north.

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city. It is another Chicago with the same hurry, crowds, and traffic. Despite recent incursions such as Walmart, it is a couple hundred years older, more beautiful, and is in contrast to US movies, representative of what Mexicans consider the real Mexico.

The US state department estimates there are 7.1 million similar US expatriates who for one or another reason have escaped the US, with the largest share of those residing in Mexico. Their consulate figures about 50,000 of them live in the Guadalajara area alone.

The Chapala area hosts a large chapter of Democrats Abroad which is about 300 members strong. There is another chapter in Guadalajara. Democrats Abroad is the official Democratic Party expatriate organ and has chapters in 35 nations with a minimum of 50 members required to establish a chapter. The organization enjoys full voting privileges in the Democratic National Committee and has eight voting delegates to the party convention. There address is http://www.democratsabroad.org/

[schultzee]

7. Bush wants the USA to be like Mexico....rich and poor, not mid class

God bless America, and God Damn George W. Bush, quote by a British MP when shrub invaded the Queen's garden's recenty. So appropriate. I love it. God Bless America and God damn George. W. Bush.