Factory door

More exports. Less productivity.

Mexico proved both are possible at the same time.

Manufacturing exports grew tenfold since NAFTA. The average Mexican worker generates less value per hour today than 25 years ago.

The factories became world-class. But 54% of workers stayed informal — street vendors, subsistence farmers, small shops where workers have no contracts, no benefits.

The prosperity stopped at the factory door.

The factory alone isn't the growth engine anymore. It's also services — retail, hospitality, healthcare — that a growing middle class needs to build for itself.

As for factories — semiconductors, aerospace, advanced automotive — they need an even more skilled workforce than before.

Build both. Or grow neither.