This topic contains 6 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by David Kwong 11 years, 8 months ago.
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MC Lambeth, 12 years ago
Thanks for writing, Ms. Harenza.
In what ways would you incentivize businesses to outsource to Mexico rather than other countries? How would you handle issues within Mexico (cartel violence, safety at maquiladoras) in order to sell this idea?
MC Lambeth
Policy Analyst, Texans for Greg AbbottAngela Harenza, 12 years ago
A starting place (bearing in mind I am not an Economist) might be to contact companies who already successfully outsource a bulk of their work to Mexico such as IBM. A think tank scenario of what works, what doesn’t, their experience, what would make it better, how they overcome obstacles and any variety of brainstorming would be a means of letting hindsight be Texas’ guiding light in doing it right the first time.
At the same time questions can be explored to identify gains such as lower cost of goods sold by reducing transportation costs from nearby Mexico rather than far away Taiwan, for example. Rather than just calculating potential costs to implement, instead, work to obtain some firm numbers on savings that might be found in proximity.
There are also potential savings in training and management potential if for no other reason, per capita, there are bound to be significantly more Texans who speak Spanish than those fluent in languages of either the near or Far East.
Lastly there are a significant number of incentives Mexico itself offers to attract outsourced work for their labor market. Texas can take a more active role in articulating these to our companies who may benefit.
My bottom line on this suggestion is not intended to ship Texas’ jobs to Mexico. My goal is to see the state entice and facilitate companies who already outsource to far away countries to instead put that investment into Mexico because a strong vibrant economy in Mexico will do more for securing our borders than I believe a fence or guards can ever mandate.
Jason Galloway, 12 years ago
Texas shouldn’t be outsourcing anything to Mexico. Leave that to the Federal Government.
Karen Marie, 12 years ago
Improving Mexico is NOT the responsibility of the United States. Period. We need to improve the USA far too badly to take on Mexico’s reasons for allowing and even promoting its citizens to enter and reside in our country illegally. We pour so much money already into Mexico (and a host of other countries) that many people, including me, question the logic, especially when so many of our own countrymen are suffering.
Angela Harenza, 12 years ago
My purpose for improving the employment situation in Mexico is to address the problem in Texas with so many of their citizens coming here illegally. The vast majority of them come here for jobs. And I’m not talking about exporting any new jobs … I’m talking about the jobs already being outsourced to (for example) the Far East. Those are jobs lost that gain nothing for Texas.
If we can take the jobs America sends to India, Taiwan and China… and send them to Mexico… INSTEAD… it will lessen the influx of Mexicans coming to Texas for jobs and very likely decrease the cost of goods sold by decreasing the cost involved in transporting finished products back to market here or providing managerial oversight to a much nearer location that doesn’t involve an ocean.
I’m not saying it is our “responsibility” to improve Mexico. I’m saying it will be to our benefit. And… the Federal Government… NOR Texas directly outsources work. It is a cost-cutting function of for-profit industry.
David Kwong, 12 years ago
The problem with that is the ability of Mexico to handle the kinds of things that the far east can produce. China and Taiwan have vast resources to be able to produce the things that we need efficiently. They have so much manufacturing power without the headache of dealing with the cartels. Taiwan is a large source of our micro computing chips, hardware, software. Being cheaper isn’t always the reason we do trade with the Far East, It is because the countries are far more industrialized and the industry is there. Companies such as, Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, and etc all originate in the Far East. Mexico doesn’t really has much except the cheap labor. Cutting cost of function won’t work unless the companies and the innovation start in Mexico.
