On Tuesday our class engaged in an experiential activity called the Market Basket Survey, which required us to split into small groups and go to the main market in Cuernavaca to purchase items from the basic food basket that most Mexican families need for survival. We were given money to purchase those items, which included beans, milk, tortillas, eggs, and cooking oil, among other things. It was a practical assignment since we later got to eat that food. However, we were also asked to check the prices of person items that we might consider "necessities," such as shampoo, toothpaste, tampons, and diapers (for those with children). It was a fun activity, as we got to walk to the huge main market that covers the span of several streat blocks and see rows and rows of beautifully arranged fruits and vegetables and other items and interact with the merchants in a meaningful way since we were buying their good
s. As we purchased items and checked the prices of others, we jotted down the prices in pesos. Afterwards, when we came back to our campus, we converted the prices to the dollar amounts, dividing the peso price by 13 since the current exchange rate is approximately 13 pesos to the dollar. In addition, we were asked to calculate the TIME COST for Mexican minimum wage earners - that is, the number of hours that a Mexican worker would have to work to purchase each item if s/he were earning minimum wage, which is approximately US $4.20/DAY, or slighlty over 50 cents per hour. Once we did that, we were shocked at the results, as we discovered that "necessity" items like tampons and diapers would take days of labor to purchase, and even the basic food basket exceeds what one earns on minimum wage! So what initially seemed to us like "cheap" prices when we simply converted peso prices to dollars are actually very expensive when we think about them in terms of wages. No wonder so many people feel pressure to go to the United States to find jobs where they can earn a lot more in one hour than they can in one day here!
In class we talked about the fact that in the cities most people earn more than minimum wage, whereas they often earn less than that in field labor in the countryside. Moreover, lots of people don't earn regular wages because, like taxi drivers and street vendors, they are self-employed and don't receive a paycheck, so earnings can vary from day to day. Obviously, the cost of living is a complex issue. Nonetheless, this exercise was extremely helpful to us in starting to get a sense of costs for the majority of the population here.
One simple example to illustrate the point of the high cost of living is the cost of a movie ticket - currnetly $46 pesos, which is only US $3.50. Seems cheap by U.S. standards, right? Well, if you earn Mexican minimum wage, you'd have to work for 6.7 hours in order to buy that movie ticket, and if you had 2 children to take to the movies, you'd have to work for 20.1 hours (nearly 3 days) just to buy the tickets, without including your bus fare to get to the movie theatre and back, much less popcorn or soda. So taking your kids to the movies is a luxury that Mexicans living on minimum wage could simply never afford. That really helped put things into perspective for me.
Do people who are strongly opposed to undocumented Mexicans working in the United States understand the economic challenges that they face here in Mexico? Also, what about minimum wages in different states of the U.S.A.? Can people really live on minimum wage in the U.S.? How much do you need to earn in the U.S. support yourself and/or a family with two children? I'd love to hear what you think! Please respond!
The minimum wage in Mexico is unbelievable. No one can possible live off of it.
ResponderEliminarInteresting post. I actually have no idea what minimum wage is in Thailand, but I was thinking about the cost of living the other day. I was in a slum community on a home stay, and seven of us had a small exchange with our home stay families. They asked us about our college educations and how we can afford it... which led to them asking us how much we have in loans. I converted my number to baht (33 baht to the dollar) and decided not to tell them, because I think they’d faint. That number doesn’t tell the whole story though, as was mentioned in this post. The minimum wage is higher in the States, but the general cost of living is also higher. Because of the cost of living in the US (or at least in Boston), I’d say that minimum wage ($8/hr in Massachusetts) is definitely not enough to raise a family on.
ResponderEliminarSteph Liu, Northeastern University
I volunteer with an organization that provides legal services to Maine residents living below the poverty line. As part of our training, they had us do an activity where we had to budget living expenses based off minimum wage (it was around $8 but I don't remember the exact number) for a family of four. It was actually impossible to do so. Then we tried to do the same thing at DOUBLE the minimum wage and it was still nearly impossible to do so. I was absolutely astounded and think about that exercise regularly.
ResponderEliminarHere in Thailand, we have stayed with families that were previously self-sufficient. For different reasons (i.e. they have to buy water because theirs has been contaminated by a near-by gold mine or their dependence on chemical fertilizer) they are no longer simply able to live of their land. Many have begun migrating to cities in order to provide supplementary income for their families, working on construction sites and as taxi cab drivers. This need for additional income has torn families apart, destroyed small farming and led to trespassing on state railroad land in cities. I've seen this firsthand.
Then I can come back Khon Kaen (our home-base), walk into the biggest mall I have ever been in, buy a $4 Starbucks iced chai latte. The I can go to Quiksilver and spend $90 on a bathing suit. This economic disparity is always really jarring for me.
Throughout my time in Thailand a recurring theme has presented itself--self-sufficiency. We have talked with farmers desiring to become self-sufficient, scavengers that have no hope of self-sufficiency, and villagers who are enjoying the lifestyle that comes with self-sufficiency. In regards to your post, when you talk about a “cost of living,” this idea of self-sufficiency comes back to me. In truth, self-sufficient communities are fading as businesses invest and development projects take hold. As dams go up, rich sources of food become flooded. Consequently, communities are forced to buy food. As Green Revolution policies took hold, farmers who could not compete, were forced into the cities. Consequently, these farmers, who previously did not have to buy food, were boxed into slums where they had to depend on an income for their survival. The list goes on. In the end, I find it upsetting that we have traded a self-sufficient system for a system that depends on money. Previously, people would barter--a tomato for a basket, a potato for a casket. These were real goods that people were trading for real things. In the present day and age, we trade a thing called money for any number of other things. Our currency has become something fake--a piece of paper. As a result, millions all over the world have suffered. Those in Mexico seem to be no exception.
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