Why are the people of Mexico overall poorer than the people of Canada?

[Boojatta]

Poll question: Why are the people of Mexico overall poorer than the people of Canada?

[marmar]

1. I want some of whatever you've been smoking.

[OllieLotte]

20. Canadians produce a lot more goods and services than

Mexicans. For a host of reasons.

[angstlessk]

2. Boojatta I have learned to AVOID your posts...

if any person can make less sense then you please link to them!

[PassingFair]

23. Have you ever run across....

Random Thoughts?

[baldguy]

3. Answer: Corrupt rich people.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. historically due to

1) Grains and fruits (crops) produced by the two countries in question.

2) The variety and disparity in the grazing or herding animals originally located in the two countries.

3) Gold and silver and other natural resources.

4) Inventory (stock) with which one does business.

[Boojatta]

6. All four, or should I choose one?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. all four and I could add a fifth

the estblishing of industry and tools.

[pscot]

5. One's an autocracy

the other is a democracy. Autocracy creates an underclass. It's happening here, as the rich suck up all the wealth. There's no way for them to get richer except by grinding the poor.

[Anakin Skywalker]

8. RELIGION

[Boojatta]

9. I thought of another one.

Neither Canadians nor Mexicans know what they are doing, but the combination of English-speaking and French-speaking people in Canada has made Canadian products popular in the UK and France. In contrast, Mexico has only the small market of Spain available.

In the history of economics, salt is of great importance. For example, "salary" comes from the word for "salt." For a long time, companies in Canada and Mexico have been copying the old-time chemical formula for salt without really understanding what they are doing. The sodium and chlorine atoms aren't combined correctly, so the salt produced by Canada and Mexico is not very good. However, the detrimental health effects resulting from the consumption of that salt haven't been serious enough to overcome the sentimental preferences of people in France and the UK.

More recently, Canada has been making pharmaceuticals. They aren't as safe as the drugs produced in mainland China. Often the manufacturing location isn't even specified on the label, because it's of no importance. What matters is where the headquarters of the pharmaceutical company is located. It just happens that China is usually the manufacturing location of choice for companies that know their stuff when it comes to choosing the right kind of metal spring to hold together the little billiard balls.

[OHdem10]

10. They believe in Raw Capitalism: The Rich are not willing to pay

taxes enough to change things.

Small group of very very rich and the masses
of working poor and poor, no real middle class.

This is exactly how Capitalism works when there
are no regulations and no real interest in fairness
in a society.

[On the Road]

11. Canada Remained Part of the British Empire

and later the commonwealth. They share a common cultural and legal background with the US. Most of the inhabitants were from England or adjoining countries. They maintained trade relations with Europe and the US, and were an integral part of the Western economy. They had and still have a large quantity of natural resources. All major population centers are close to the US border, and Canada has benefited from relatively open borders and free trade.

As a Spanish colony, Mexico was never close to the US. The US needed little that Mexico produced, but it held a lot of territory that the US wanted. The upper class was Mediterranean, and the rest of the population was indigenous, which made them seem to the US a less suitable partner than Canada. Unlike the US, Mexico did not stay as integrated with their former colonial master after their revolution, and was not as export-minded. The border between the US and Mexico is relatively sparsely populated and the major cities are remote. Exacerbated by the difference in language, US is much, much further from Mexico City than from Ottowa.

Canada industrialized sooner and to a great extent than Mexico, possibly because their natural resource industries lent themselves to it. To top it off, for a large part of the 20th century the Mexican government in effect disincented exports while leaving imports free -- not good for the economy, the balance of payments, or the wealth of the citizens.

Mexico is also more class-oriented, and the upper class had traditionally held much more of the wealth of the country. That tends to result in a low-growth, low-wage, high-profit, high-inequality country.

The effects of all these things have been in effect for a couple of centuries.

[golfguru]

12. Why people of different racial & national backgrounds

in USA have different income levels? Also different scholastic achievements in colleges?
If you can answer that then you will have the answer for Mexico Vs Canada.

[Boojatta]

14. Should we compare immigration levels into Mexico and into Canada?

That seems to be a consideration if we're talking about the ancestry or previous citizenship of segments of the population. After all, all legal (and I suspect the vast majority of illegal) immigrants in both Mexico and Canada are from the planet Earth.

[golfguru]

15. Mexico has zero tolerance of illegal immigrants

They deport them as soon as found.

[applegrove]

13. 1//3 of Mexicans are rich. 2/3 of Mexicans are poor. Equality is the issue.

Canada has a much more equal distribution of wealth. There is no middle class in Mexico.

[Peter1x9]

22. exactly.

Mexico is just a plutocracy and has been for an extremely long time.

[howaboutme]

16. Just like in the USA

the ultra wealthy really don't want a country of critical thinkers. Critical thinking leads to success of the non-elite and it questions those who get success only because of the group that they are now in. Those at the top of the power pyramid see those who are critical of the status quo as a threat. George Carlin had it right and he probably paid a big price because of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

[LibertyFox]

17. Lack of stability?

Just going to take a stab at a guess but I'd say that the Mexican government being significantly less stable than Canada or the US mainly due to a mutual war on drugs. The current level of conflict as I understand it is a real threat to the government and may eventually overthrow it. That sort of thing can't be good for economic development.

Less equal distribution of wealth would only make sense if there were Mexican billionares comparable to the ones in the US. The US has a pretty large wealth gap yet a much higher standard of living.

If we wanted to help the Mexican people achieve prosperity I think the strongest possible way would be to end the war on drugs. No matter how I look at it, trying to use mexico as a proxy to fight the cartels is causing only needless suffering and holding them back.

[Boojatta]

18. Welcome to DU, LibertyFox!

:toast:

[LibertyFox]

24. Thank you!

If I may elaborate on my point.

Because of the fact that Mexico is considered to be a less stable form of government than both the US and Canada it makes sense that less investment can be expected to take place there. Companies don't want to invest in a place where they think that their property or output could be stolen.

Another poster postulated that it was that you can't grow stuff in most of the country. That only works as a theory if agricultural output is the basis of wealth. Agricultural output could be a catalyst for the creation of wealth if it allows more people to be employed outside of the fields but those people also need someplace to work.

"I have a friend" moment:

I have a buddy in Mexico who told me a story about a friend of his family that was murdered by the drug cartels. They had ordered him to surrender his land to them for use in their operations (He refused, barricaded his home, and killed several of them before being blown up), and that this is an ongoing thing that they do. This sort of ongoing lawlessness stifles growth and innovation and that's why I say that the lack of a firm government is whats keeping the country from becoming more wealthy. That's also why I said that the US could help Mexico very much by re-examining the war on drugs and looking for ways to defund the violent cartels through legal trade rather than fight it (which clearly is not working.)

[PassingFair]

19. Climate.

Can't grow shit in most of the country.

[upi402]

21. they kill real union organizers and journalists there

and it's coming to a country near you as we allow the media to dehumanize unionists and others here. that and the corruption here is catching up with Mexico - some ways more-so.