Things common in the US that are rare in Mexico, and vice versa (hair, job market)
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Plain yogurt is impossible to find in Mexico... even the yogurt labelled "original" or "regular" has sugar in it. In the U.S., there is an abundance of plain yogurt in many varieties... 1%... fat free... whole milk... greek...
Mexico doesn't have skyscrappers like the US has, and this has to do with different conceptualizations of downtown. The big cities (Guadalajara, Mty, DF) do have them, but even in travelling to a large city outside of those like Tijuana, there is really only one. Ditto for Mexicali, Merida, and a number of other large cities I've been to. Most downtowns are based on a zocalo, not a high-density business district as in here in the US.
someone sent this message to me in a reputation comment. There is no way that i know to who wrote it, but i will share the person's ignorance about mexican medical care.
There are many canadians living in my area of mexico who can return to canada for "free" medical care and instead pay out of pocket for mexican medical care.
Almost every foreigner i know here much prefers his mexican doctor over doctors up north. I know of one person here who was unhappy with his back surgery out of at least 20 who can't rave enough about how wonderful their doctors are and the surgical results. I've never met one (1) person in the u.s. Who thought his back surgery went well or was thrilled with the results or his doctor, including me. The same results are for every type of surgery, hip, knee replacement, heart bypass, every foreigner is happy with the outcome and treatment.
If anyone is unfamiliar with canadian characteristics, canadians are very thrifty. For a canadian to pay $30,000 out of his pocket instead of returning home for free care certainly says something about mexican medical care.
Is that true of Walmarts and local supermarkets too?
It depends.
Wal-Mart on the Paseo de Montejo in Merida charges, I think.
Sam's Club in Cardenas, as far as I remember, did not charge.
I've heard of other big-box stores in Guadalajara or some place like that DO charge. The reason is not just because of the money in it, but because others who do not shop there could just park in their lot to go to other stores.
My family has always been middle class, and I can assure you that the middle class in the USA was never known to have servants. No one, not myself, my parents, my grandparents, my great grandparents ever had a servant, and we're about as middle class as they come. I've never known any one middle class that had servants in the USA, that has always been associated with the wealthy class.
In fact it's common for middle class types to have done some domestic type work, a landscaper in the USA wasn't traditionally seen as a impoverished type servant before, it was a middle class kind of job.
Actually, in the 19th century, they did. But your family may not have always been "middle class"...after all, everybody, from the working poor to the upper-middle-class (and even upper class) considers themselves "middle class" in our country. The "middle class" then may have been more like the "upper middle class" now in terms of what percentage of society they made up. Middle class DOES not mean "near the 50th percentile" of income. After all, many countries (including Mexico traditionally) have had little or no middle class.
One of the more noticeable features in Mexico, which is sorely lacking in the U.S., is the construction methods. I always feel safer staying in an average concrete motel in Mexico, which was built to last for a century or more, than in these wood-stick Motel 6/Super 8's in my country. Can't ever recall staying in a wooden motel anywhere in Mexico or Central America. Don't know if Mexico would even allow a Motel 6 to be built down there more cheaply with wood.
Even the commercial strips, all concrete!
Our powerful lobbying lumber companies in the U.S. wouldn't have it any other way! A smoker in bed sets one of our tacky wooden motels on fire some night, more money into their pockets!
As for the concrete houses, those on the Tijuana side of the border must get a real chuckle out of these brush fires which, occasionally, destroy acres of wooden houses north of the border! Chuckle-chuckle and the lumber companies chuckle right along with them!
Commercial buildings aren't built in the US with wood. They are built with steel and concrete. Our building codes are so much higher than in Mexico that it can't even be compared.
Does it have anything to do with the way property or land is taxed? (IE, tax is based on land and parking lots aren't worth the expense)
Travelling the world, I think you'll find that the U.S., along with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, are most of the few places with ubiquitous parking. In other nations, not only is land often too dear to build parking lots (especially the surface parking common throughout the U.S.), but they do not have the high levels of car ownership that we do in the U.S., or have not until recently. The car has been a commonly owned item in the U.S. since the days of the Model T, and nowadays it is assumed that 95% of people will travel to 99% of local destinations with their car, hence the provision of parking, in the majority cases free, virtually everywhere outside the core areas of certain large cities. Car ownership in Mexico is common, but by no means universal, with about half or less of households having a car at their disposal, and traditionally, as in most countries, was the domain of the rich and wealthy.
Also, Mexicans often do not need to travel outside their neighborhood to find necessities. As houses are built at much higher densities in Mexico than the U.S., there is no problem accessing the businesses by foot.
Walkable communities! In Mexican towns, you can basically walk everywhere, to everywhere you need. And buses will take you anywhere that is too far to walk. And I like how they get down to business with the buses, using whatever buses they can get VS the US requiring those expensive quarter-million dollar buses and if not, nothing at all.
That comes from the lack of regulations and zoning policies. It's easier for individuals to start up their own bus lines in Mexico because of the legal and regulatory climate being very different than the US.
My family has always been middle class, and I can assure you that the middle class in the USA was never known to have servants. No one, not myself, my parents, my grandparents, my great grandparents ever had a servant, and we're about as middle class as they come. I've never known any one middle class that had servants in the USA, that has always been associated with the wealthy class.
In fact it's common for middle class types to have done some domestic type work, a landscaper in the USA wasn't traditionally seen as a impoverished type servant before, it was a middle class kind of job.
What I said is true. Middle-class Americans used to commonly have servants. Most middle-class housing built prior and up to the 1920s/1930s had/has sevant's quarters, servant-oriented kitchens, butler's pantries, butler access and stairways, etc. Even in small houses and condos.
The middle class having servants is even indicated in some black and white tv shows, such as Hazel.
Middle-class in America used to basically be synonymous with the "professional class". Middle class was doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, business managers, small business owners, etc. Basically, what is considered the upper-middle/professional class today was the middle class then and is arguable the true middle class today.
Nowadays, the term middle class is overly used and applied to folks who really aren't middle class. I'm sorry, but a landscape laborer is not middle class, and is a modern form of servant. Landscape laborers are working-class, they serve the middle and upper classes. Maybe you're confusing "middle class" with "common worker". Working-class doesn't necessarily = impoverished.
Middle-class in America used to basically be synonymous with the "professional class". Middle class was doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, business managers, small business owners, etc. Basically, what is considered the upper-middle/professional class today was the middle class then
So the US definition of middle class pre-WW2 was like the UK definition of middle class? The US definition of middle class, AFAIK, is like the UK definition of upper working class or lower middle class.
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