JuanDaBomb -> RE: government thugs (Aug. 10 2011 22:11:35)
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My experience has been that people in Mexico would rather buy American made products instead of domestically made stuff, because they know by their own experience that the quality of domestic products is quite a bit lower (and not always cheaper). But the Mexican government, in a feeble "patch-fix" attempt to protect Mexico' over-exploited and already weak economy, wants to essentially force its people to buy Mexican-made products. When I was in Morelia, I saw basically all the major stores and fast food places one would see in the States (I was really tempted to go in and try the Burger King to see if it was any different, but meh, I have to believe Burger King sucks no matter what country you're in!). Since these stores source their supplies and labor locally, I figure they have the government's blessing to operate. The same goes for cars. I had a friend who worked at the Nissan plant in Cuernavca, and he told me about how people would leave out bolts or clips or whatever because of the inhuman pace at which the assembly line moved (no one over there is going to tell them to slow it down for safety's sake, which I figure is just how foreign investors like it). It's no wonder many people I knew who came from Mexico always took back a car or two whenever they went returned to visit family! That policy has since changed. Now you're not allowed to register cars from the U.S. in Mexico. Once in a while, they open the border to, say, a few thousand vehicles, but only to trucks and work vehicles, presumably because people use them to work in Mexico. Nevertheless, I don't like this policy either. It's total crap and when it comes to my money I would rather just steer clear of that whole mess. Since U.S./Mexico policy is so intertwined, it's hard to place blame on Mexican politicians alone. But as always, it's the people who end up losing out, on both sides of the border.
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