Picture this. You are in your office and have written a check to cash. You need to have cash because everything is done with cash. You pay the electric bill with cash. You pay the water bill with cash. You buy a ticket on the train in cash. What you get back are bills denominated in 500, 200, 100, 50 and 20. The bills are colored yellow, green, blue, and red. Drive in certain parts of town and you can see entire blocks uniformly painted in different bright colors. Add two dice and a silver colored dog and one could be forgiven for thinking this is all a life size version of Monopoly.
Such is life in Mexico.
A small tub of ice cream is 80 pesos. Two pounds of tortillas are 5 pesos. A 2 liter of Coke is 40 pesos. Minimum wage is 50 pesos a day. A normal lunch out is 200 pesos. A live in maid is 150 pesos a day. The current exchange rate is 11 to 1, so to get dollars divide all those numbers by 11.
So is living in Mexico cheap, expensive, or just confusing.
For me, it has been confusing. It is hard to say what things are “worth”. As an amateur economist, I am used to cost and price being rough approximations of value and worth. My first reaction to this shock has been to devalue money as a signal of value. The seemingly conflicting signals are just too much at odds with my values. As I begin to learn about Mexico, in particular its culture, history of socialism, and focus on pride, I find that they do still act as signals of value and worth. They make sense in their own way. It is just a way that is still difficult for me to understand. This is just another piece of the culture puzzle.
Such is life in Mexico.
A small tub of ice cream is 80 pesos. Two pounds of tortillas are 5 pesos. A 2 liter of Coke is 40 pesos. Minimum wage is 50 pesos a day. A normal lunch out is 200 pesos. A live in maid is 150 pesos a day. The current exchange rate is 11 to 1, so to get dollars divide all those numbers by 11.
So is living in Mexico cheap, expensive, or just confusing.
For me, it has been confusing. It is hard to say what things are “worth”. As an amateur economist, I am used to cost and price being rough approximations of value and worth. My first reaction to this shock has been to devalue money as a signal of value. The seemingly conflicting signals are just too much at odds with my values. As I begin to learn about Mexico, in particular its culture, history of socialism, and focus on pride, I find that they do still act as signals of value and worth. They make sense in their own way. It is just a way that is still difficult for me to understand. This is just another piece of the culture puzzle.
1 comment:
So if I lived there, I could choose between 2 small tubs of ice cream (would that be enough for my family?) or a maid for one day? I'd have the maid! I don't like those prices. Why is the good stuff so high?
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