The economic reality of the United States – Prensa Libre

According to GDP, the United States of America is the richest country in the world. Its economy is 281 times larger than Guatemala’s, with 20 times the population. GDP per capita in the United States is US $ 65,297, while in Guatemala it is US $ 4,620 —Q3 6 thousand—, 14.13 times more. The minimum wage is 5.5 times that of Guatemala. In the United States it is defined by the hour, while in Guatemala it is defined by the day, as opposed by the union sector.

The last two weeks I had the opportunity to be in the states of California, Texas and Illinois. In California, GDP in 2019 was US $ 3.137 billion, in Texas GDP in 2019 was US $ 1.887 billion, and in Illinois, GDP in 2019 was US $ 897 billion. California is number 1 in GDP, Texas second, New York third, Florida fourth and Illinois fifth.

If we compare with the world, the economy of California is similar to that of India, that of Texas is similar to that of Brazil, that of New York is similar to that of Canada, that of Florida is similar to that of Indonesia and that of Illinois It is similar to the one in Holland. The state of Idaho, 41st in GDP, has an economy similar to that of Guatemala. It should be noted that California’s workforce is 19.5 million people while in India it is 519 million, while the Texas workforce is 14 million people versus 92 million in Brazil. There is no doubt that the productivity of the labor force in the United States is higher than that of the countries being compared.

In California I was with family and friends in San Francisco, Marin County and Sonoma County. You can see economic activity again, after the forced closure due to the pandemic in 2020. You can already see the population without a mask on the streets and with a mask in closed places. In Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas I hung out with fellow college friends I attended in the 1980s. You see the economy in overdrive, people without masks on the streets. In Chicago and Naperville, Illinois, you also see economic activity on the move and people without a mask on the street. I was able to see a lot of tourism in all three states. The high percentage of citizens vaccinated against covid-19 has managed to regain confidence in having work and social activity.

With all the people I spoke to, the issue of illegal migration of Guatemalans to the United States was discussed, mainly because of the coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Guatemala. In general terms, she is very poorly qualified for her poor work on the southern border issue. It will surely continue to be a serious issue because in the United States they describe what happens with illegal migration from Mexico and Central America as a crisis.

In Guatemala we must focus on two things: 1) in the short term the health issue is extremely important so we must collaborate so that citizens take care of themselves (mandatory use of a mask in closed places and public places, frequent hand washing, keep your distance, preventive medicine) and because the vaccination reaches levels that obtain herd immunity, and 2) we must continue working on recovering the economic but at the same time implementing the projects of the Guatemala No Stop Plan.

We must be consistent in public policies, in the legal framework, and in providing legal certainty so that the United States itself can expand our collaboration by sending investors to Guatemala. There is so much investment by American companies in China and other Asian countries that I would really believe that, in this part of the planet, almost in its vicinity, we could produce the same products. The United States must pay attention to the economic development of Mexico and Central America. Suits them.

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