Mexico vs. U.S.

I have often wondered why the U.S. does so well economically while Mexico, in comparison, does very poorly. Undoubtably, my personal experience with San Diego on this side of the border and Tijuana on the other side give me an exaggerated sense of the difference between the two countries, nonetheless, I think that there are very few people who would say that the difference isn't very large.

Some people might say that Mexicans are just lazy, and don't work as hard as U.S. citizens. Others might say that there is too much corruption in the Mexican government, and that this causes waste in the government. However, I have a third possibility, one that involves a difference in culture between both the governments and the peoples of the two countries.

People often comment on how friendly the Mexican people are, always willing to stop and have a quick chat, always willing to help out when you're in trouble, etc.. I think the big difference between the two countries is that, relatively speaking, in the U.S., it's "what you know", not "who you know", that gets you ahead in business. In Mexico, it's "who you know".

I remember back in the '60s there was a lot of complaining that it was "who you know", and not "what you know" that got you ahead in business. I don't think this attitude was new in the '60s, it's just that I wasn't really around before then so that's just when I first became aware of it. Anyway, I don't hear that too much anymore. I think that complaining was the result of a shift in peoples values. Before then, people were more community oriented. More people lived in small towns, and how you treated your neighbors was important. In business, you did favors for people who treated you well, maybe you gave their son a job, or some such thing, but it was definitely through your contacts that you were able to get ahead. At some point, there was a shift to the thinking that the best qualified person should get the job. The change wasn't immediate, and while this thinking was changing is when you heard a lot of people grumble that it was "who you know" and not "what you know" that got you ahead in the world.

You don't really hear that complaining too much any more, at least not in the U.S.. That's not to say that "who you know" doesn't play an important role in how you get ahead, it's just to say that the balance between "who you know" and "what you know" is about what people feel is appropriate.

About this same time, I'm guessing the 1940s and '50s onward, is when you really have the U.S. pulling ahead of the rest of the world economically. That's probably an over simplification, but I think it's close to being accurate. In Mexico, you still have a "who you know" and not a "what you know" value system. That's why Mexicans are so friendly compared to people in the U.S.. It's through making friends, networking, that you get ahead in life there. However, it also means that the person best qualified for a job is not necessarily going to be the person who gets it, and that means that the quality of the work that gets done is not going to be as good. It also means that there is less incentive to do a good job, or to learn how to do a good job, because that isn't what gets you the big bucks.

This type of thinking pervades the Mexican government as well. It's not corruption when a government official awards a work contract to a company owned by the officials brother-in-law, and pays him more than the job is worth, it's just the way things are done down there.

If you ask me, the U.S. government, all share this philosophy, it hasn't caught up with U.S. business yet. Politics, by it's very nature, has too much politics in it. It's schmoozing, it's "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine", it's voting for another politicians bill if he'll vote for yours, regardless of the merit of the bill.

Certainly, if we go to an all "what you know" society, we're going to end up with a society of a**holes (or maybe we already have). We need a balance between the two philosophies, it's just a matter of where that balance lies. I don't have the answer to that, I'm just trying to identify the real issue.