cost and availability of young men to move stuff, question about gas tank

[colleen]

Now this is the real bitchy me. It's so nice to have an attitude like Lisa does, but, that's exactly what raises the rates of everything around here. Because non-Mexicans have that very nice attitude toward the young, poor, deserving Mexicans, they rip us off over and over again. I know. I've paid in the past with exactly that attitude. But then I got smart. 150 pesos is a little over $10US per hour. $10 is not the minimum wage in many states. Many Americans who are working full time jobs with families and much higher prices than are here, are making less. Does my policeman earn 100 pesos per hour? I'm going to find out. I'm sure he doesn't. That would be more than $4,000 a week. And I'm pretty sure he works more than 40 hrs a week. Why should we pay a kid more than the cop makes?

One time when some guys came to the house to figure out a railing and design and build it, they gave us a price. They wanted 1/2. It was reasonable. My husband gave him what they wanted. I'm sure he was tempted to pay the full amount. But he held back. When the young man offered a receipt Sven said, no. Huh? He thought he was saying "I trust you" and the guy heard (I am sure) "money doesn't matter". If we are getting a better deal here than we did wherever we came from that doesn't mean that we should help raise the base price that independents are charging, to what it is in that other country. We live in MX. Yes, my friend can afford the 150 pesos but that's not what a Mexican would pay.

I thank Bill and I'll check out that site. I was a lawyer in the US but I don't want to fight any more. The price of that gas tank was $1,000 (!!) pesos and it was nowhere near new. If they'd just lower it a little to the amount that is more than you expected but not so out of line, it would be easier to take.

So today I'll take my friend to the vet who has family in this area and find out what his take on this is. Maybe he'll have someone he would call. Maybe he'll call for me. That always worked well when I was looking for property. Once I had a MX friend call for info and then I called for info. Oh, how different.