Gary Hoover Interview: The Possibilities of Mexico

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Gary Hoover is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and educator.  He is the founder of BOOKSTOP and Hoovers, Inc.  Below, Gary explains why he believes that Mexico is vital to the future of the U.S.

Curt-I know that you are a big fan of business in Mexico.  Can you tell me why?

Gary-As an entrepreneur, I am constantly looking ten to twenty years ahead in the future.  Some parts of Mexico are dangerous, but it won’t be like that forever.  Currently, Mexico City is probably safer than Washington D.C. and just as safe as Chicago.  How Mexico will acquire a sense of security for tourists and international business professionals is hard to say.  Mexico may take a route similar to Colombia, where the Colombian government finally took control of crime and put criminals in jail.  Because of that control, Colombia’s economy has really turned around.

Mexico will also grow substantially in the coming years.  Mexico has roughly 112 million residents and in 2050, that number is expected to grow to 150 million people.  The Hispanic population is large in the U.S.—and growing.  Currently, every seventh American is Hispanic.  Two thirds of the US population growth over the next 40 years is expected to be Hispanic.

The U.S. and Mexico are wedded at the hip.  Mexico is the second biggest customer of American products and our third biggest supplier of imports.  If Mexico fails economically, then the U.S. has some big issues.  It’s clear that the countries in the western hemisphere are interlinked. 

On the flip side, if Mexico succeeds, that’s the greatest thing America could hope for.   Mexico is starting to invest in toll roads and new universities, which will serve them well in the future.  They are building a brand new business school in Mexico.  I spoke to 3,000 business students in Queretaro’s new business school and it was very inspiring.  One of my favorite sayings from Warren Buffett is, “When everyone else is greedy, be afraid.  When everyone else is afraid, be greedy.”  Now is the time to invest in Mexico.

Latin America often gets overlooked because the U.S. is so focused on the Middle East.  The future in Mexico is more important than how the Middle East pans out.  There have been a lot of strong opinions that have turned into policy over our borders.  Many people are worried that too many people are crossing our border.  Why are we focusing on border patrol instead of the real solution?  The way to stop illegal immigration to the U.S. from Mexico is to raise the incomes of workers in Mexico.  If their economy were stronger, then Mexican workers would stay home.  They want to stay home with their families now but the income difference is just too great between the countries.  So what can the U.S. do to raise the incomes of the Mexican people?  Simple: we create jobs down there.

The U.S. is facing a worsening dependency ratio in future years: this ratio is the number of working age people compared to the population who are not in the work force (including children and seniors).  The US will have a huge number of retired baby boomers and relatively fewer working age people to pay taxes and social security.  Mexico, however, is the opposite story.  Mexico will primarily have people between the ages of 18 and 49, in their prime working years.

Curt-Why does Mexico have such a different demographic?

Gary-Mexico has a different demographic because they developed later.  They’re a younger population.  The average age is much younger.  An economist I met in Mexico said that the country could provide America with a million well-trained, high-quality nurses.  One of my ideas is to open assisted living and nursing homes down to Latin America.  There are going to be 100 million baby boomers in the U.S.  Not everyone will want to move to Latin America, but I think it would be a great place to spend retirement years in countries with better weather and affordable costs.

If you are interested in expanding your small business to different countries, then stay tuned for my next post!

Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx.  Follow his company on Twitter.

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon. @curtfinch