How did Mexico become so poor?

Answer 1

From globalissues.org:

To attract investment, poor countries enter a spiraling race to the bottom to see who can provide lower standards, reduced wages and cheaper resources. This has increased poverty and inequality for most people.

Also see related questions.

Answer 2

It is certainly noticeable that some people have widely taken advantage of Mexico's richness. Some good some bad. It's also true that most Mexicans are considered STUPID when they are only humble and ignorant unfortunately. But what really makes Mexico a poor country is the lack of positive attitude in themselves, the lack of getting more, the lack of believing in others, the lack of enthusiasm, the lack of AIMS, and over all the lack of DISCIPLINE and all this word involves!

Answer 3

Mexico is an "emerging market", "developing country" or "newly industrialized country" because although it is the tenth largest economy in the world (USD$1,845 billion for 2013), it has an ongoing industrialization, where agriculture activities are still important but are rapidly being outpaced by industrial (specially manufacturing) activities. This means Mexico is not fully developed, as many regions within the country have a quality of life equivalent to those of Western Europe, whereas there are other regions with education, life expectancy and economic advancement equivalent to those countries found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For instance, the Human Development Index (HDI) is a ranking created by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure countries or regions according to three basic population parameters: health, education and income. For Mexico, which is composed by 31 states and one federal district, the Federal District and Nuevo Leon had the highest HDI in 2004 (0.8837 and 0.8513, respectively), while the lowest corresponded to Chiapas (0.7185) and Oaxaca (0.7336). As a comparison, the Federal District and Nuevo Leon indexes are equivalent to those of the Czech Republic and Lithuania while Chiapas and Oaxaca correspond to those of Vietnam and Iran.

On a municipality level, this contrasts are much more dramatic: The Benito Juarez district (Federal District), the San Pedro Garza Garcia municipality (Nuevo Leon) and the San Sebastian Tula municipality (Oaxaca) have the highest HDI in Mexico (0.9509, 0.95, 0.9204, respectively) which correspond to the life quality levels of Norway, Australia and Spain. By contrast, Tehuipango (Veracruz, 0.4985), Coicoyan de las Flores(Oaxaca, 0.4768), Batopilas (Chihuahua, 0.4734) and Cochoapa el Grande (Guerrero, 0.4354) correspond to the quality of life of Madagascar, Haiti, Kenya and Benin.

Therefore, until Mexico attains certain "threshold of development" where all its people has a certain quality of life, it will continue to be considered a "developing country".

Answer 4

Mexico is an "emerging market", "developing country" or "newly industrialized country" because although it is the eleventh largest economy in the world (USD$1,683 billion for 2011), it has an ongoing industrialization, where agriculture activities are still important but are rapidly being outpaced by industrial (specially manufacturing) activities. This means Mexico is not fully developed, as many regions within the country have a quality of life equivalent to those of Western Europe, whereas there are other regions with education, life expectancy and economic advancement equivalent to those countries found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For instance, the Human Development Index (HDI) is a ranking created by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure countries or regions according to three basic population parameters: health, education and income. For Mexico, which is composed by 31 states and one federal district, the Federal District and Nuevo Leon had the highest HDI in 2004 (0.8837 and 0.8513, respectively), while the lowest corresponded to Chiapas (0.7185) and Oaxaca (0.7336). As a comparison, the Federal District and Nuevo Leon indexes are equivalent to those of the Czech Republic and Lithuania while Chiapas and Oaxaca correspond to those of Vietnam and Iran.

On a municipality level, this contrasts are much more dramatic: The Benito Juarez district (Federal District), the San Pedro Garza Garcia municipality (Nuevo Leon) and the San Sebastian Tula municipality (Oaxaca) have the highest HDI in Mexico (0.9509, 0.95, 0.9204, respectively) which correspond to the life quality levels of Norway, Australia and Spain. By contrast, Tehuipango (Veracruz, 0.4985), Coicoyan de las Flores(Oaxaca, 0.4768), Batopilas (Chihuahua, 0.4734) and Cochoapa el Grande (Guerrero, 0.4354) correspond to the quality of life of Madagascar, Haiti, Kenya and Benin.

Therefore, until Mexico attains certain "threshold of development" where all its people has a certain quality of life, it will continue to be considered a "developing country".

Answer 5

Well, not everybody in Mexico are poor. But some people are, because they don't get paid enough when they work. Like, you get 50 cents when you work harder in a hour. That is why some people needs to follow the American Dream, when they start living in the U.S. they get 7.25 dollars per hour working hard.

Answer 6

Because Mexico is a developing country.

Wages are low because of productivity issues: many jobs and occupations are still labor-intensive, and due to low capitalization (e.g. lack of enough foreign investment), these cannot be improved with automation.

The best example is agriculture. Many people use outmoded methods of farming, such as using the manual plow, instead of modern tractors. They cannot afford to buy a tractor, hence their productivity is low and the amount of money they receive for their harvest is equally low. This is known as the circle of poverty.

Answer 7

It was a result to their war for independence in the 1910's. the rich land owners refused and still refuse to aid the poor.

Answer 8

This critical situation in Mexico is caused by individual, geographic and political factors.

Answer 9

Mexico rocks yeah go Mexico