<story><title>Mexico seeks to solidify rank as top U.S. trade partner, push further past China</title><url>https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2023/0711</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alephnerd</author><text>Why do HN commentators assume Mexico is a 3rd world shithole?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s kind of surprising how a country that China has only just caught up to in GDP per Capita [3] and HDI [4] is assumed to be a shitshow of an economy.&lt;p&gt;Hell, the household income in China [0] (~$4,000) is still 30-50% of Mexico&amp;#x27;s [1] (~$12,000)&lt;p&gt;Mexico has it&amp;#x27;s problems, but most of that stems from the Peso Crisis in the 1990s, which was similar to the recession China is faced during COVID.&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.stats.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;PressRelease&amp;#x2F;202201&amp;#x2F;t20220118_1826649.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.stats.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;PressRelease&amp;#x2F;202201&amp;#x2F;t2022011...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economia.gob.mx&amp;#x2F;datamexico&amp;#x2F;es&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;geo&amp;#x2F;mexico&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economia.gob.mx&amp;#x2F;datamexico&amp;#x2F;es&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;geo&amp;#x2F;mexico&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;data.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;indicator&amp;#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;data.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;indicator&amp;#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hdr.undp.org&amp;#x2F;data-center&amp;#x2F;country-insights#&amp;#x2F;ranks&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hdr.undp.org&amp;#x2F;data-center&amp;#x2F;country-insights#&amp;#x2F;ranks&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xtracto</author><text>Because it is in a lot of ways?&lt;p&gt;[Mexican living in Mexico here]&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve had the chance to live in other countries in Europe (Germany and the UK) for 8 years. I also have lived most of my life (and currently live) in Mexico.&lt;p&gt;As someone else said, &amp;quot;rich&amp;quot; people in Mexico can live a good-enough life. But the problem is that  43.9% [1] live in poverty in Mexico. That is, they don&amp;#x27;t have a way to make ends meet. Worse, the next 20% are just barely living by.&lt;p&gt;On top of that, society is naturally corrupt. You have corruption ingrained in the Mexican culture. From the typical politician corruption, the &amp;quot;plata o plomo&amp;quot; narco corruption, the police officer &amp;quot;get out of a fine&amp;quot; layman corruption; to the &amp;quot;inconsequential&amp;quot; I&amp;#x27;ll stop in the  middle of the street for one minute, just-because.  Like, normal layman people always have some reason why some law or rule wont apply to them.  It&amp;#x27;s freaking enraging.&lt;p&gt;Finally you have lack of accountability. In Mexico only 1% [2] of the crimes are resolved. There&amp;#x27;s murders, assaults, robberies, violations, everything you can think of, and police, the judicial system and all that branch does absolutely nothing. They don&amp;#x27;t do their work. Moreover, normal people are &lt;i&gt;scared&lt;/i&gt; of going to the Prosecution Authority (Ministerio Publico) because they know most likely they will be abused and further defrauded there.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Mexico has it&amp;#x27;s problems,&lt;p&gt;You have to have lived in Mexico to understand the extent of the brokeness that we have here. A lot of people who live in Mexico and haven&amp;#x27;t had the chance to live somewhere else will tell you that &amp;quot;it is not that bad&amp;quot;, but it is just a lack of knowledge of what &amp;quot;Normal&amp;quot; should be, part a coping mechanism and part Stockholm syndrome.  (What else can people do?)&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imco.org.mx&amp;#x2F;las-cifras-mas-recientes-de-pobreza&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imco.org.mx&amp;#x2F;las-cifras-mas-recientes-de-pobreza&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.impunidadcero.org&amp;#x2F;impunidad-en-mexico&amp;#x2F;#&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.impunidadcero.org&amp;#x2F;impunidad-en-mexico&amp;#x2F;#&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Mexico seeks to solidify rank as top U.S. trade partner, push further past China</title><url>https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2023/0711</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alephnerd</author><text>Why do HN commentators assume Mexico is a 3rd world shithole?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s kind of surprising how a country that China has only just caught up to in GDP per Capita [3] and HDI [4] is assumed to be a shitshow of an economy.&lt;p&gt;Hell, the household income in China [0] (~$4,000) is still 30-50% of Mexico&amp;#x27;s [1] (~$12,000)&lt;p&gt;Mexico has it&amp;#x27;s problems, but most of that stems from the Peso Crisis in the 1990s, which was similar to the recession China is faced during COVID.&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.stats.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;PressRelease&amp;#x2F;202201&amp;#x2F;t20220118_1826649.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.stats.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;PressRelease&amp;#x2F;202201&amp;#x2F;t2022011...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economia.gob.mx&amp;#x2F;datamexico&amp;#x2F;es&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;geo&amp;#x2F;mexico&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economia.gob.mx&amp;#x2F;datamexico&amp;#x2F;es&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;geo&amp;#x2F;mexico&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;data.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;indicator&amp;#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;data.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;indicator&amp;#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hdr.undp.org&amp;#x2F;data-center&amp;#x2F;country-insights#&amp;#x2F;ranks&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hdr.undp.org&amp;#x2F;data-center&amp;#x2F;country-insights#&amp;#x2F;ranks&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>goodbyesf</author><text>&amp;gt;  Why do HN commentators assume Mexico is a 3rd world shithole?&lt;p&gt;Because the economic disparity between the US and Mexico is so vast that in comparison, it is a 3rd world country. Also, the millions of mexicans immigrating to the US, the neverending news about cartels, etc adds to the perception.&lt;p&gt;Also, most HN commentators are americans, not chinese. Not sure why you are comparing mexico to china.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Mexico has it&amp;#x27;s problems, but most of that stems from the Peso Crisis in the 1990s&lt;p&gt;No it doesn&amp;#x27;t. The negative perception of mexico goes back to the first half of the 1800s when we conquered 51% of mexico and turned it into texas, california, etc. Remember the alamo, mass deportation of mexicans and so forth and that negativity has existed ever since. Also, the peso crisis affected mexico only, while the pandemic affected everybody, not just china. The world endured the recession while only mexico suffered immensely during the peso crisis.</text></comment>