[ilbegone]

Originally Posted by Jeanfromfillmore

This is some information most people don't know. This is the buying power of the citizens of both Mexico and the US for 2008 and 2009. These are the last years I could find the stats. You'll notice Mexico's personal buying power was better in 2009 than the US. As for their paying "shit wages" that is not necessarily the real facts when you see the stats. What is happening is the lowest of Mexico's labor force is being force to the US, but most in Mexico are being paid much better.

Purchasing Power per pop


2008 Mexico $12,400 US $13,780

2009 Mexico $13,900 US $13,820

I'm not sure what you are talking about.

This is what I've heard:

There's lots of work in Mexico, but there's no money... Some of those coming here have a very good life on the ranch, but there's no money. Those who do have money are extorted by various means, quite a few who have disappeared seem to have resisted extortion demands.

I read an article in the Press Enterprise a week or so ago I almost posted here, it's not a propaganda piece for American consumption. It was headlined something like Mexicans are the hardest working people in the world.

According to the article, the number of hours Mexican nationals work in Mexico to make the barest of living standards exceeds that of even the Japanese. A Mexican government official who was interviewed for the piece said that it demonstrated the failure of the Mexican nation towards its citizens.

There is no such thing as welfare in Mexico, if you don't work, you don't eat.

I've read about the failure of subsistence farming - in part due to government subsidized imported American corn, population overflow from the pueblos to the cities, the trash pickers of Mexico City. You can see that those who come here definitely know how to stretch a nickle.

It seems to me that people in Mexico are far more inclined to be concerned about the price of tortillas than following the stock market.

I've seen fences at tumble down farm housing in the San Joaquin made out of a fantastic array of materials woven into a tight structure, from sticks to pieces of old table and maybe the occasional scrap bumper. I've even seen a clothes wash basin / scrubbing board made out of stone in the back yard of Mexican Nationals living in San Bernardino.

You can't tell me that the majority of those who have nearly emptied whole pueblos in Mexico to come here do so because they have the same buying power in Mexico as Americans do in America with resultant equal living standards.