'OK, Mexico, Save Me': After China, This Is Where Globalization May Lead

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/01/business/mexico-china-us-trade.html
https://archive.ph/W7hom

‘OK, Mexico, Save Me’: After China, This Is Where Globalization May Lead
As American companies seek to limit their exposure to the pitfalls of making goods in China, some are moving production to Mexico.
By Peter S. Goodman
Jan. 1, 2023

As American companies recalibrate the risks of relying on Chinese factories to make their goods, some are shifting business to a country far closer to home: Mexico.

The unfolding trend known as “near-shoring” has drawn the attention of no less than Walmart, the global retail empire with headquarters in Arkansas.

Early last year, when Walmart needed $1 million of company uniforms — more than 50,000 in one order — it bought them not from its usual suppliers in China but from Preslow, a family-run apparel business in Mexico.

It was February 2022, and the contours of global trade seemed up for alteration. The worst pandemic in a century had upended shipping. The cost of transporting products across the Pacific had skyrocketed, and ports were choked with floating traffic jams — a stark indication of the dangers of depending on a single faraway country for critical goods.

...

[flying_wahini]

1. It would be a great thing for the big production companies to move to Mexico.

Especially since around 80% of our drugs are manufactured in China.
Big Pharma likes it when we are beholden to them.

I also wonder how many immigrants would stay home if they had good paying jobs in Central America? How would it effect the extortion and organized crime there?
If people could make a living wage it could raise the standard of living across the board.

[Chainfire]

2. It would be a heck of a good time to return industrial jobs to the US.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Manufacturing wages are lower in Mexico

than China.

https://insights.tetakawi.com/manufacturing-wages-mexico-vs-china

[slightlv]

4. Countries such as Finland, Sweden, etc.,

where the happiness index is so much higher than anywhere else... what do they do? Do they import everything, or do they manufacture in their own country?

I'm of two minds with this news. First, I'm very glad we're getting out of being beholden to China so much. We need enough trade to make good relations with them, but they do not need to own the US and it's people by all the stuff they make. Plus, with all the short cuts they take and all the additives they use, I don't trust them with production of anything taken internally. When companies will knowingly kill their own infants with poisoned powdered milk... just to jack up the protein levels on a scale... count me as dubious of their worth. And Mexico could use more than a little modern investment, as well as Central and South America. They've been 3rd world countries as long as I've been alive. Let's help them into the modern world and maybe the people won't be so quick to adopt a Bolsinaro again. Of course, OUR people gave us Trump... and we're suppose to be First World (tho I will argue the concept).

My 2nd thought is we need to bring much, much more manufacturing to OUR country. If these companies are not going to do this willingly... if instead they insist on going any place where they can exploit labor to all but slave conditions, then that's when government is suppose to step it make the situation less comfortable for them. Usually it's the carrot and stick approach, which I tend to approve. But this has truly devolved into a National Security situation. When everything we need is made by another country and we can't get what we need in case of emergencies, then we HAVE to start doing things ourselves again. The People are willing... and see the need. We need to kick the conglomerates in the butt. They have no loyalty to any country or creed except profit. This, we need to take away from them. If they register in another country due to tax liabilities in the U.S., then have them MOVE to the other country and pay taxes to that country. Meanwhile, they are registered as and P'R'd as a foreign country in the U.S. Make it uncomfortable for them to be seen as traitors to the people of this country. Let them know the shareholders are not the only people who count.

There ARE some ways we used to do things that actually were better... like the mass mobilization of war goods during WWII. Trade is good, and there's no getting around globalization, but there's nothing like making sure you can take care of yourself in your own country.