According to the CIA Book for year 2004:

Out of 232 countries Mexico is the 14th largest economy of the world measured by gross domestic product. The U.S. is ranked 1st and Spain is ranked 15th. (In 3 years Mexico dropped from 9 to 15).

However, measured by Gross Domestic Product Per Capita Mexico is ranked No. 85, Luxemburg No. 1, the U.S. No. 2, and Spain No. 39. (What does this GPD per capita mean? Is it like the real purchase power or what?)

According to Aneki.com:

By number of billionaires Mexico is ranked 9 out of 11 countries, interestingly enough listed ahead of United Kingdom, Russia, and Saudi Arabia (in that order). The U.S. is ranked No. 1; Spain is not ranked; and Mexico is the only country listed from Latin-America.

Can anyone explain the meaning of these numbers? What they tell you about Mexico?

odd Madridman.com posting...but..here it goes..

GDP is a measurement of all the goods and services a country produces in a year. It is calculated by adding the value contributed by each sector (agriculture, manufacturing, service) of the economy in the form of profits, compensation to employees, and depreciation (consumption of capital).

Mexico is ranked slightly higher than Spain because it produces more on a yearly basis than Spain; probably because of PEMEX. PEMEX is the oil company in Mexico; Mexico is one of the world's largest producers of oil.

However, Spain is more efficient at producing its capital, which is why its GDP per capita (per person) is higher. Spain needs fewer people to produce the money it makes (basically). That could be for several reasons: perhaps Spain produces goods of higher value with less labor.

Luxembourg is ranked number one because it is populated by rich people and special banks but there are relatively few people there. So, mathematically, it seems as if Luxembourg is a financial powerhouse.

When you take GDP and divide by the number of people, you get an idea of who wealthy the population is. Low per capita GDP means there is a small middle class and larger lower class...so Mercedes Benz won't do as well in Mexico as in Spain.

Jabsh and TJguy:Then take all that data and look at the crime rate and the fact that Mexico in one the biggest exporters of illegal immgigrants and you start to see a picture of a very corrupt country develope. They have so much wealth that since President Fox has been in office he has been on the phone constantly to his buddy GWB wanting the US to get a guest worker program going. The economy of Mexico is so great that every year a few thousand Mexicans die in the desert southwest of the US, all wanting the same thing, A JOB.

Mexico has a tremendous amount of natural resources, and personal wealth. It also has a very corrupt government, military, and police force. When doing business with a Mexican businessman, take the advice of a man of experience, hang onto your wallet. Until such time as those problems are corrected, you the American taxpayer will have to keep paying for those black body bags so the Border Patrol will have something to put the bodies in when they find them in the deserts.

After having lived on the southwest border for the last 35 years my advice is to take the information you got from the CIA fact book, and a few dollars and go to Star Bucks for a cup of coffee. When you get you coffee, and go to sit down and drink it, use the CIA information to wipe down the table, then properly dispose of the paper, and then you will have gotten some good use out of the CIA fact book.

Thank you so much TJGuy.

So a country like Mexico needs either increase its GDP, in the case of Mexico a lot, or decrease its population and maintain the same GDP. Right?

I did some numbers:

Not to bore you with all these numbers, but I find interesting that the key to development might be GDP per capita.

For example, Mexico with its present GDP of $1,006,000,000,000 and population of 106,202,903 needs to increase its GDP by $10,744,000,000,000!!! to match U.S.’ GDP of $11,750,000,000,000; or increase its GDP by $3,252,736,410,300 ("easier") to match U.S. GDP per capita of $40,100; or in a more extreme scenario Mexico needs to maintain the size of its economy and reduce its present population from 106,202,903 to only 25 million to match U.S.’ GDP per capita.

So for Mexico to become a “developed” country at American standards Mexico needs to come up with $3,252,736,410,300 or drastically reduce it population.

If Mexico keeps growing steady ay its GDP at the same present 4.10% rate, it will take 36 years to go from 1,006,000,000,000 to 4,258,736,410,300 and match today’s U.S. GDP per capita. In 36 years I am sure the U.S. will also grow so it will take even longer to match them.

Also at the present migration rate of .45% (thinking that for every person that is born one dies) it will take 170 years to come down to 25 million people.

So this only shows me that unless something big happens and Mexico gets a lot of money from some where for the next 36 years Mexico will be a developing country. Ok. I was just trying to fix my country. But think it might take more money than I expected

I am sorry but I keep thinking about this issue. I was about to get kind of communist and pass a law limiting wealth to certain extent in Mexico, but then I realize that even then, if we distribute the amount of money that Mexico has among the poor it is not enough to substantially raise the GDP per capita. Also wealthy people and foreign investment will leave. Probably we should go American and give everyone a decent house and car on credit to pay in the next 30 years, and "put a patch" on the problem, even if it's just temporarily.

Jabch: That seems to be the method that Sr. Fox wants to use to deal with the problem, "just export the problem to the US." "Don't deal with it here in Mexico." "Send the bill to the US taxpayers for our problems."

TJ explains quite nicely a very important fact!
So it would seem that if one were looking for a rich spouse, Luxembourg would be the most likely place to find a wealthy partner!

yep..sure is one way for Mr. Fox to get himself out of a pickle...send a portion of his labor force to an area that allows them to make more cash (its a huge upside that they send millions of dollars back to Mexico - - give's them a large dollar reserve in the banks - which is unrelated to GDP and GNP) than if they worked in Mexico. When the illegal immigrants send the $$$ back to Mexico, it allows the Mexicans to buy more things in Mexican stores, thereby increasing GDP & GNP.

It also decreases the load on Mexico's social services; which is what angers most Americans. Most Americans don't care that they come here to work (hard to find an American that will work in a tomato field for 10 hours a day) - it drives us nuts that we spend more money on social programs than we normally would because the illegal immigrants aren't 100% integrated into our economic system.

a note to Booklady...i'm really really really really disgustingly rich - i'm ugly and fat with poor personal hygiene..but if your lookin' for a sugar daddy..........

DD: Don't take me wrong. I don't favor shipping one country's problems to another country to get them solved. I'm just trying to analyze the situation of Mexico, which includes the issue of emigration.

I understand that you are seeing this from your country’s point of view and can be frustrating, but that doesn't mean that I am not free to analyze the different scenarios under which Mexico can grow economically.

Also, I dislike the way you address some issues. Words like “you the American taxpayer will have to keep paying for those black body bags so the Border Patrol will have something to put the bodies in when they find them in the deserts” have a different meaning to me. For you the issue is money from our taxes into black body bags. For me you are talking about the death bodies of my country mates. How do you think I feel when you talk like that? Do you care about other’s feelings or you have such an arrogant attitude and imperialistic mindset that you can’t even see how bad you sound expressing yourself like that. What do you want? Pile those death bodies and dump them on the other side of the border? If your country is taking care of them in this way, even if expensive, it is the appropriate way to do it. Less is not expected from a country like the U.S.

Another thing, you may know a lot about poor Mexicans in the U.S., but you barely now anything about Mexico itself. So think twice before giving an opinion on Mexico.

as a defense to Mexican businessmen...i've done business IN Mexico for ten years and haven't ever had a problem. I've been stuck by more U.S. business' for $$$ than by Mexican business'. Its more a matter of knowing who you are dealing with before jumping in. The frustrating thing that DD faced, I'm sure, is that he had no recourse.

BUT, in defense of DD. Once you get stuck by a Mexican in Mexico, you are truly stuck. Very little chance of getting recourse through the courts and its not like you can report them to Dunn and Bradsreet.