Thread: High Cost of Living Reorients Mexicans

High Cost of Living Reorients Mexicans

Mexico, Aug 15 (Prensa Latina) The upward trend in food prices in recent months has reoriented Mexicans' consumption and reduced retail sales as a consequence.


It is better to buy food than spending money in clothes and shoes, or other lasting goods, said Juan Pedro Treviño, board member of the Mexican Institute of Executives and Finances.



Economic analyst Lourdes Rocha said the sale decrease in departmental, specialized and self-service stores answers straight to inflation increase.



Sales of clothes and shoes decreased 10.5 percent in July, when general merchandise sales experienced a 5.8 percent fall in relation to the same period of 2007, the National Self-Service and Departmental Store Association reported.



Mexico's informal economy has swelled in the latter year, reorienting around 650,000 Mexicans towards joining its ranks as a way to survive, the INEGI (National Statistics and Geography Institute) reported on Friday.



The authority said that only a third of 960,000 people that found jobs in the last 12 months were employed in the formal economy.



Street sales are still the only way out to millions of Mexicans that look for jobs each year, as part of the economically active population.



The INEGI revealed that the number of employees in the informal economy reached 12,100,000 people by the end of the first half of 2008, and there are five million other Mexicans that remain unemployed.



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http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={236E632A-1B88-49AC-8819-6DA13C6CC328})&language=EN

"Informal economy"? "Street sales"? What are these? Reading this, I felt like I was back in the Dark Ages.

WHICH IS A CONUNDRUM BECAUSE I BELIEVED IN WHAT PRES. CALDERON HAS BEEN VOMITING: "Mexico is rich and advanced."

Hmmmmm. Maybe Calderon was comparing Mexico to ummm, say El Salvador?

The "informal economy" may be the only way that many can survive--if the government is as corrupt as it is reported to be. After all, they probably got good practice in the US.

I don't know if Calderon himself is so corrupt--he is just one man. Various reports have highlighted how corrupt local politics is in Mexico. More power to the returning activists trying to change it.

Good thing all those millions of illegals can get free food stamps, welfare, WIC, housing subsidies, healthcare, etc. at U.S. taxpayer expense, they might not be able to afford to buy those shiny new Escalades and Expeditions with the spinning chrome rims. Well, at least they don't have to worry about paying for that meaningless little thing called car insurance. We sure wouldn't want any of them to go without a new batch of Mariachi CDs every week to blast at 140 decibels at all hours of the day and night. And I sure hope the Congress acts fast to pass that mortgage bailout plan. It would be awful for all those illegal alien families with phony documents and stolen SS#'s to lose the homes they bought with subprime loans that they really had no business qualifying for. Damn those high prices. Heaven forbid, they might not be able to crank out a new anchor baby every 9 1/2 months.

Originally Posted by reptile09

Good thing all those millions of illegals can get free food stamps, welfare, WIC, housing subsidies, healthcare, etc. at U.S. taxpayer expense, they might not be able to afford to buy those shiny new Escalades and Expeditions with the spinning chrome rims. Well, at least they don't have to worry about paying for that meaningless little thing called car insurance. We sure wouldn't want any of them to go without a new batch of Mariachi CDs every week to blast at 140 decibels at all hours of the day and night. And I sure hope the Congress acts fast to pass that mortgage bailout plan. It would be awful for all those illegal alien families with phony documents and stolen SS#'s to lose the homes they bought with subprime loans that they really had no business qualifying for. Damn those high prices. Heaven forbid, they might not be able to crank out a new anchor baby every 9 1/2 months.

LOL!

I just have a gut feeling that somehow their economic problems are going to be blamed on the US. Not enough remittances going to Mexico from the illegals working illegally here. What was it at last count, $27 billion a year?
Since we are already in a recession heading into depression here, the whole world is slowing down because of this inter-tied global economy. Of course they will blame us.