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Originally Posted by ilbegone
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.
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What you're comparing is the lowest rung, that is what is sent here from Mexico, not the average Mexican. As you know, 10% of Mexico is now here and it's not their average citizen. When you compare the average Mexican with the average American there is only a small difference in their buying power. Numbers don't lie. What you and most here in the US have been exposed to over the years is the lowest end of Mexico.
Mexico has Gucci, Prada and all the other high end stores just like Beverly Hills. But exposing just how wealthy Mexico is does not make for good propaganda.
I've seen people here in the US, in the outskirts of Bakersfield and Fresno that live in conditions about equal to those that we see in the commercials asking for donations for the poor in other countries. We have some very, very poor here. I was in what they called a "home" were the floor was made of broken plywood and the broken windows were covered with scraps of wood. But you don't see those places on the news, not unless they're in Mexico.
Mexico is the third richest country in the Americas, but all we're fed is that it is such a poor country, "they're so poor" crap. Those figures I gave are true, and the average Mexican in Mexico is not that bad off. Especially when you consider that Mexico has pushed much of its poor onto our soil. How much better would the average US citizen be if we were able to ship 10% of our country's poorest of poor off to another country. It would sure leave a lot of extra dollars in most of our pockets.
Take the time to look up just how "poor" Mexico really isn't. The other countries south of the US that are doing somewhat well are Chili and Argentina. There may be more, but I didn't have the time to look at all of them.