In the past, people were so excited when big companies developed campuses near suburban communities, and not just because of the jobs. Often, more housing would be built; more stores and entertainment–possibly parks–would be developed; and more than that, a comradery would be developed among the workers. In the United States, this meant more roads, utilities, resources–but most importantly, contracts for a lot of different businesses. At that time, there was a middle class who believed the propaganda that such development was a good thing. However, what if the same principles hailed as “good planning” served to isolate people into believing that a day was structured into just going to work and coming home?
By putting companies in the middle of nowhere, workers are implicitly being instructed to get a car. In Austin, Texas alone, there are at least three corporate campuses that are nowhere near public transportation, and are isolated into suburbanism: Dell, Samsung, and Advanced Micro Devices. Most people in the city have been conditioned to believe that it is a good thing to be forced to purchase a vehicle, and to need to use that vehicle to live a life. There are no alternatives with the exception of the jobs that have likely turned remote in the era of COVID-19. Austinites are generally thrilled when campuses are built like this because it means more suburban development, and in the United States, there is unmitigated glee when suburban planning is introduced to an area.
Now, apply the same principles to a small city in Mexico, thanks to outsourcing so that people can be more exploited for less money. The same principal of being forced to purchase a vehicle is in play because either 1) there is no public transportation, or 2) the walk is so far that no one can do it efficiently while raising families. Of course, there will be some transplants who go to the factory to get it started and monitor its progress, but for the most part, people will have to adapt to life in a small Mexican community. That means that resources are extremely limited based on the existing working class.
“But people will be able to get a job, and then they should be able to purchase a vehicle without a problem!” No, because corporations do not locate in other countries because they want to pay people living wages that allow socioeconomic mobility. They develop in those places to save money and escape regulations, hoping for corrupt government officials that they can bribe into submission. Regulations require enforcement and manpower, and thanks to the current patterns of extraction, most countries with resources have very little income to ensure that international companies are following the labor standards or respecting human dignity.
Furthermore, suburban development in the United States is anomalous, and only after imitating the United States do some countries follow the same patterns. Businesses develop based on markets, and most businesses know that people in small towns lack a lot of disposable income. Buying cars and houses, shopping at malls, and eating out at fast food restaurants are not activities that small-town Mexican communities do on a regular basis. There are suburbs in Mexico, and in those communities, people have cars, spend money, and do many of the things people do in suburbs in the United States.
In rural communities in many countries, having a corporate campus in the middle of nowhere does one thing: condition workers that their lives should be centered around a job. Not family, not recreation, not even building the communities where they live–work, and hoping that one day, that work will make them rich. This is one of the reason that many people still believe the propaganda of “hard work,” especially when there are so many examples of how people work themselves to death. Corporate indoctrination is not only in marketing, but in site placement, and corporations depend on this to bait unsuspecting individuals into voluntarily depriving themselves. Instead of imitating standards in the United States–or other countries–there should be continuous and equal investment that allows residents to pool their own resources and maintain stability for where they live.
Chasing A Dying Empire 