Today was a pretty chill day, which was nice because I have been going like crazy and not feeling good. Our first visit was to the American Chamber of Commerce in Guadalajara. While the visit was nothing to write home about, it was the neighborhood that it was in. Most of the houses in this neighborhood were easily more the $1 Million USD. It kind of brought home a point that was made to me by one of the Spanish track students the night before. Guadalajara is a lot like the Florida of Mexico. The weather is always nice, and it is a nice city. As a consequence the most important people in Mexico have family and relatives in Guadalajara, and the most powerful people in Mexico are the Drug Lords. There is an unspoken rule that nothing happens in Guadalajara because everyone has family here, and family is sacred in Mexico. So that was a comforting fact to know. But honestly Guadalajara has been wonderful.
The midday lecture was about the Mexican labor laws, and human resource policies at companies. Mexico’s labor law dates back to 1930, and is very pro worker. There are so many rules against firing and laying off, and profit sharing that it is not wonder foreign firms are locating to China. Granted workers rights are very important, but businesses need to be flexible in order to be profitable and in the end sustain the jobs. There are also so many loopholes that companies spend lots of time and effort looking for them. Further evidence to me that a more market based system is always preferable. Because in a market system in the end companies that do not treat workers well will fail.
In the evening we went back to my new favorite Italian restaurant. This time I took the whole group with us. I don’t think that they had ever had such a large group. But it was a great time because it is a small restaurant and we were the only ones there (Mexicans don’t go to dinner till 9PM, we were there at 7PM).
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