Hurricane Patricia punctures myth of American superiority to Mexicans?

by philg

American media tends to have a persistently anti-Mexican bias. Life south of the border is plagued by corrupt government, drug gangs, poverty, etc. “Wal-Mart Bribery Probe Finds Few Signs of Major Misconduct in Mexico” (WSJ, October 19, 2015) calls into question the idea that Mexico is more corrupt than the U.S. (where getting a real estate project approved often requires political connections/financial contributions). Mexicans get a lot more for their health care dollar than do we (some data) and they’re happier than we are (chart). Mexicans offer a superior environment for building cars (it is not just about the wages: WSJ). Now Hurricane Patricia, one of the strongest storms ever, has come through and via a combination of preparedness, engineering, and organization to evacuate citizens and tourists, the damage to life and property was minimized (contrast to Katrina or Andrew).

Readers: What would it take for Americans to stop belittling the accomplishments of our neighbors to the south?

13 thoughts on “Hurricane Patricia punctures myth of American superiority to Mexicans?”

  2. It’s interesting how many extremely broad conclusions are drawn from this event.

    AFAIK, the facts are that the storm fell apart much more rapidly than had been predicted and the possible damage had been way over-hyped.

    We have Phil saying that this proves that Mexico is less corrupt, better healthcare, and just happier than the US.

    Climate skeptic (of which I number myself) Steve Hayward says this shows the alarmists’ pronouncements were overblown (so to speak 🙂
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/10/severe-hurricane-fizzles-climatistas-hardest-hit.php

  3. One news report I saw said the storm “threaded the needle” in terms of missing heavily populated area’s of Mexico’s coast. Compare to Katrina or Sandy, which slammed into major US cities.

    To answer your question: Solving the drug violence problems.

  4. Patricia hurricane winds where reported in a very small radius according to NOAA.

    “Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the
    center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles
    (280 km).” (src: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2015/ep20/ep202015.public_a.015.shtml? )

    One can guess that the 200 MPH CAT5 winds covered even a smaller radius.
    It was not a remarkable storm which formed and dissipated within 24 hrs. There was very little storm surge.

    Compare to the Katrina NOAA advisory:
    http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/pub/al122005.public_a.025.shtml?

    HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND
    OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER

    So Katrina was almost an order of magnitude larger (based on the pi*r^2 formula :). The duration was much longer as well, 7 or 8 days..

    The media tries to make Patricia look like the biggest hurricane ever seen on earth but it was a non event compared to some of the big storms.

  5. When Americans start emigrating to Mexico, I will believe it is a good place to live. Currently migration is in the other direction.

  6. We seem to think the USA was always #1, or at least, always on a trajectory to rising to #1. I remember Izzie saying Argentina was a s****y country. That may be true today, but in 1913-1930 Argentina was one of the highest in per capita GDP in the world. The French at the time would say “riche comme un argentin”. And even in the post-Peron years (where most of the damage was done) it was not a poor country (exceeded Japan/Spain/Greece and not far from Italy/Austria). Before the crash in 2001, Argentines did not even need visas to visit the USA.

    I also remember a formerly s****y country that went through two dictatorships: Lincoln and FDR. Luckily for that country, things managed to get back on track.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Argentina#Interwar_period
    http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21596582-one-hundred-years-ago-argentina-was-future-what-went-wrong-century-decline

  7. @george “When Americans start emigrating to Mexico, I will believe it is a good place to live. Currently migration is in the other direction.”

    Actually net migration has been in the toward Mexico direction for the past seven or eight years. The Latino arrivals in the USA now predominantly come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and further south. Many Americans continue to move to Mexico for the opportunities and quality of life.

    Corruption in Mexico is now distinctly below the levels evident in the USA. The previous sentence should not be read to suggest that corruption in Mexico has shrunk.

    @Peterson Reducing drug violence in Mexico will require more corruption. Let’s hope they can handle it.

    @Phil Americans have always been ignorant of foreign conditions and we like it that way. When we do learn about foreigners, we’re much more interested in China or Israel than Canada or Mexico. As long as the sort of people who write the news aren’t interested and don’t speak Spanish, expect more of the same.

  8. The reason for all of the auto manufacturing going on in Mexico may be not just be about the wages, but the other benefits if manufacturing down there are nearly irrelevant.

    To be sure, wages top the list of Mexico’s auto manufacturing advantages. Workers at the auto assembly plants south of the border earn an average $5.64 an hour compared to $27.78 for their U.S. counterparts, according to the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich. Those at the parts suppliers earn just $2.47 an hour. Workers at U.S. auto suppliers average $19.65.

    http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-ford-toyota-mexico-factories-20150417-story.html

  9. I really wish “Katrina” would stop being a proverb for natural disasters. The mess that has become known as “Katrina” wasn’t really due to the hurricane, but rather the levees bursting, as I’m sure readers of this blog are aware. Does it not matter that “Katrina” is more a story of government misappropriating the money that was SUPPOSED to prevent EXACTLY what happened, rather than of a natural disaster? Or does this angle not matter enough to try to separate the issues, and, hey, the levees broke because of the storm?

  10. David, a comparison is being made here between Katrina and Patricia. The comparison is supposed to show that Mexicans are better than hurricane preparedness than Americans. It doesn’t actually show that because Patricia didn’t hit a city.

  11. Patricia has Pettered out, whereas Katrina has Leveed In. It’s that simple. Also Patricia will continue to be a hurricane of a lesser god until it receives a proper prime-time TV mythologizing treatment equal to that of David Simon’s “Treme” for post-Katrina New Orleans (and, to a lesser but still significant degree, the one in “Yes Men Fix The World” (2009), where Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno laid bare the hypocrisy and greed of local politicians jockeying for federal relief).

  12. Not knowing the area well but just a quick Google maps looks shows that the landfall area looks similar to the California coast – quite steep. No storm surge possible. The opposite terrain compared to the usual places US gets hit.

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