Little Things that go Unnoticed

There was an article in the San Diego Tribune paper yesterday Jan 13, on the new television factory being built in Rosarito Beach in Baja, California. It’s a 600,000 square foot factory with an estimated projected output of high definition televisions at 200,000 per month. I imagine to the uniformed, Baja, California is considered part of the United States (so much for high school geography). It’s rather odd that the word Mexico never came up in the article.

Then today in the same paper, business section, it shows a picture of a large warehouse under construction in Tijuana. It lists various locations along the Mexican border and says that there are presently about 1,236,000 workers in the 3,000 plants averaging $2.30 per hour. Total product for export was just under 100 billion in 2005.

[Double click on the image for a larger view]



[courtesy of San Diego Tribune January 14, 2007 Business Section]

Let me see if we have this right. Daddy is in the United States picking tomatoes in Fresno at $8.00 per hour and his kids are in a Mexican factory producing wide screen TV’s for $2.30 an hour. Right? --Wrong! Most kids are smarter than that, they’ll go with dad.

What do you have? A lot of people in Mexico with absolutely nothing, and this is their first step towards the promised land. A coyote will charge $500 to $2,000 to get them across the border. Go for it!!! One year in the wide screen plant, and the next year, relax in the "California Triangle" (Fresno to Bakersfield to Modesto). Think that I am kidding about the "California Triangle?" Drive the area, and count the number of English speaking radio stations FM and AM—I never get past 3.

What’s it all boil down to? Our labor costs are far more expensive than foreign countries. Manufacturing jobs are leaving the country in large scale. Ross Perot, back in his quest to become President, often mentioned the “Giant Sucking Sound,” in reference to the proposed free trade with Mexico.

200,000 wide screen television sets per month, and everything goes “high definition” in 2009, as per Congressional Decree. Mind boggling isn’t it? Easy monthly payments, and did I mention, they want $500 to mount it to your wall?

I wonder when Boeing will make the decision to move to Mexico?