Mexico isn't a gangland gunbattle: Drug war fuels news, while middle class blooms
From USA Today
By Shannon O'Neil
Mexico has become one of the most open and competitive economies in the world.
6:00PM EST November 25. 2012 - "The neighbor Americans believe they have to the south, and the Mexico that has developed over the last 20 years, are
two different places. As Mexico's incoming president Enrique Peña Nieto meets with President Obama this week, the biggest challenge facing relations
today may be our skewed perceptions.
In Americans' psyches, drugs dominate. When advertising firm GSD&M and Vianovo strategic consultants asked Americans to come up with three words
that describe Mexico, nearly every other person answered "drugs," followed by "poor" and "unsafe." Other questions reveal Americans see Mexico as
corrupt, unstable and violent, more problem than partner. Americans had more favorable views of Greece, El Salvador and Russia.
These perceptions reflect the Mexican reality that dominates headlines: soaring crime rates and gruesome murders in a war against drug traffickers.
But this window into Mexico overlooks an economic transformation and deepening ties with the United States that reflect a dramatically different
country.
Canada on the Rio Grande
In the past two decades, Mexico has become one of the most open and competitive economies in the world, with trade to GDP (a common measure of
openness) reaching 63%, surpassing both the United States and China. This trade is dominated by manufactured goods (not commodities), leading to a
stronger and more diverse economic base than many of its emerging economy competitors.
Though the poll found that over half of Americans still see Mexico as a developing country, it is now a middle class nation. Over the last 15 years,
Mexico's middle class has grown to encompass roughly half the population. These families own houses and cars, send their two children (on average) to
the best schools they can afford and buy the newest products.
This transformed economy is also now profoundly integrated with the United States. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that
imports from Mexico are, on average, 40% "made in America," far more than the 4% in Chinese imports. This back-and-forth of parts and products across
the U.S.-Mexico border through the expansion of North American supply chains has been good not just for Mexico but also for the United States,
revitalizing companies and supporting the jobs of some 6 million U.S. workers.
Mexicans are us
With all the recent focus on illegal immigration, people forget that there is a lot more linking Americans and Mexicans. In addition to some 5 million
legal Mexican immigrants, there are 30 million more Americans who claim Mexican heritage. The Latino political heft, pushing President Obama over the
top in many swing states, is largely Mexican.
If there is a silver lining in the poll results, its skewed view stems from the fact Americans do not know much about their neighbor. And we know it.
Just as many of us admit we don't know when asked questions about Mexico as venture a positive or negative opinion. That acknowledgment from Americans
provides an opportunity for newly elected and re-elected presidents, policymakers and businesses to fill that void with a fuller understanding of
Mexican realities and the importance of our nations' growing together."
Shannon O'Neil is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the forthcoming Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United
States, and the Road Ahead.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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OK, Americans have the wrong impression of Mexico, but Shannon O'Neil, the senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is quilty as charged on
having no idea about Canada (as so many Americans) 'Canada on the Rio Grande' ?
The grass is always greener....
and so, there is always a better spot in Baja
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