Mexican here. Living in a city very near the border (3 hours away), work in a offshore software developing agency, friends and my father works and used to work at Ford's maquiladora and other industries.
For a very long time, foreign investment have played a large role in our economy, since early in the 1900, there is a lot of investment in minery particularly on the states near the border. With the modern age, a lot of "maquiladoras" exists in the cities that are near the border, Tijuana, Juarez, Monterrey, Hermosillo, Nogales. The labor hand is incredibly cheap, and it's not only because the companies like Ford or Motorola or Samsung wants to pay low wages, the government plays a large role since not very long ago our economy secretary considered that a person who makes ~$500 a month can afford to have a car, a good house and send their kids to private schools (which is of course a stupid lie). A typical laborer works 48 hours a week and is expected to change schedules as the needs changes, often working more than these 48 hours sometimes pulling up to 60 hours a week or even more. The average salary for a laborer in a month is around $600, which is around $3 an hour. It is enough to live a fair life. To put this in perspective, the minimun wage is around $4 a DAY.
The article says the average wage is $6 an hour, but I find that inaccurate from what I can see every day.
A laborer typically hasn't finished their school, probably dropped before going to college or are graduates who studied something with not a lot of demand, like administration (probably the most studied grade) or graduates that fail to find a job for what they studied. In the eyes of the big companies, the laborers are just disposable people, there's always more from where they came from. People settle with the first opportunity they see, a lot of people dream is to find a job in the government and retire 40 years later. There is a lot of apathy and I think that's one of the reasons we don't progress as a country (Our president is a disgrace, for example).
Luckily the software industry is MUCH different. It's one of the best paid professions here, very flexible hours and working Monday to Friday and the pay is 4 times greater than that of an industry laborer and even then that's less than a junior level engineer would earn, all you need to know is how to speak English and learn some web development. A well paid software engineer with around 5 years of experience, earns around $14 an hour, which is I think around twice the minimum wage in USA? An entry level engineer earns around $5.
Life here is much cheaper, I can go out with my girlfriend, eat something fancy, buy a 3 liters of beer and go see a movie with $25 and still have some money left.
>Life here is much cheaper, I can go out with my girlfriend, eat something fancy, buy a 3 liters of beer and go see a movie with $25 and still have some money left.
But if you're good at software development you could be earning around $1k per day and retire in less than a decade. Are you really happy just chugging away like this for 40 years just so some rich CEO's can get even more money they can never spend?
That parable doesn't work very well when we're talking about someone working 40+ hours per week. If you can really live so well on $500 a month then just a year or two making actual market wage would be enough to finally do all the things this Mexican fisherman could do that the GP can't today.
sorry for the tangent. Hi overgunn77, can I email you? I have a couple of projects that I might need to contract out due to lack of time, and your email was not in your profile. I am also taking a trip to Mexico soon, and it seems like talking to you might point me in the right direction.
For a very long time, foreign investment have played a large role in our economy, since early in the 1900, there is a lot of investment in minery particularly on the states near the border. With the modern age, a lot of "maquiladoras" exists in the cities that are near the border, Tijuana, Juarez, Monterrey, Hermosillo, Nogales. The labor hand is incredibly cheap, and it's not only because the companies like Ford or Motorola or Samsung wants to pay low wages, the government plays a large role since not very long ago our economy secretary considered that a person who makes ~$500 a month can afford to have a car, a good house and send their kids to private schools (which is of course a stupid lie). A typical laborer works 48 hours a week and is expected to change schedules as the needs changes, often working more than these 48 hours sometimes pulling up to 60 hours a week or even more. The average salary for a laborer in a month is around $600, which is around $3 an hour. It is enough to live a fair life. To put this in perspective, the minimun wage is around $4 a DAY. The article says the average wage is $6 an hour, but I find that inaccurate from what I can see every day.
A laborer typically hasn't finished their school, probably dropped before going to college or are graduates who studied something with not a lot of demand, like administration (probably the most studied grade) or graduates that fail to find a job for what they studied. In the eyes of the big companies, the laborers are just disposable people, there's always more from where they came from. People settle with the first opportunity they see, a lot of people dream is to find a job in the government and retire 40 years later. There is a lot of apathy and I think that's one of the reasons we don't progress as a country (Our president is a disgrace, for example).
Luckily the software industry is MUCH different. It's one of the best paid professions here, very flexible hours and working Monday to Friday and the pay is 4 times greater than that of an industry laborer and even then that's less than a junior level engineer would earn, all you need to know is how to speak English and learn some web development. A well paid software engineer with around 5 years of experience, earns around $14 an hour, which is I think around twice the minimum wage in USA? An entry level engineer earns around $5.
Life here is much cheaper, I can go out with my girlfriend, eat something fancy, buy a 3 liters of beer and go see a movie with $25 and still have some money left.