re: Why can't Mexico get it together?

It seems like a nation's proximity to the equator the likelier for that nation to suck.

The US has been an enabler. Its no different than a mother with 2 kids , Jose (Mexico), Ike (Canada). Ike has a good job and is successful and self sufficient. Jose is the younger brother with a drug addiction that still lives at home and is babied because he is troubled. He steals mothers money from her purse and sells her jewlery for drugs but the mother makes excuses not to allow herself to blame Jose. Ike gives the mother $500 for christmas because she is struggling to pay the bills and one week later she has no money for groceries so Ike asks where did the $500 go so quickly and she says she just didnt realize that she spent it all getting caught up knowing damn well Jose took it out of purse.

Thats what this is like and why Jose will never get better because as long as he is living at home under the enabling ways of mother there is no readon for him to get better.

quote:

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He said the US and Canada are unique in the Americas because of the first people who settled there from Europe.

In the US and Canada, these people came to build something new and stay.

In Latin America, they came to trade/plunder, then take it back home.

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That's not exactly accurate.

It is populated by a citizenry which tolerates corruption of an unacceptable degree. Almost all of us are a little corrupt, and will tolerate some corruption, but they seem to have crossed that "acceptable" line somewhere. Everywhere you go in Mexico there are those with their hands out for that "mordida." The word "mordida" literally means bite, but in Mexican slang it is used to mean a bribe, usually one paid to a public official. The more formal word for a bribe is "soborno." It is culturally accepted to give and accept bribes. With that flaw of morals at work, one can see how it slows down business, and squeezes entrepreneurism. Also, for the longest, they took a siesta every day, from noon until 4 to 6PM, then in the cool of the day, they came back to their work. That's ok for small populations that could slip back and forth to work in 10 minutes, but in high traffic areas, it eliminated good workers applying to places far from work, like 45 minutes or so. They are industrious and smart people, but living in a culture which diminishes that "go get'em" attitude, it becomes engrained, and hard to shake. There are other reasons I suppose, but these are observations I have made.