The economy in NW Mexico is pretty bad. How bad? Well, we need to distance ourselves from our regional economic perspective and really do the math (converting $'s to pesos and converting the average US wage to the average Mex. wage) to see how hard my good friends and neighbors here have to work to survive. Lets really put ourselves in the Baja, Mex. workers shoes and see what they're up against.
Comparing the average Mex. worker wage with the US wage gives us roughly a 7.5 to 1 ratio. Lets call this ratio the "Comparative Cost" or CC. What does that mean? It means that if the average person in San Diego, California is making about $11.00 an hour, here in Ensenada the average laborer is making about $1.47 an hour. From talking with a lot of my friends, this is a fairly accurate figure for here. Just a note: Ensenada is much more prosperous than other parts of Mexico, people flock here looking for the highly touted 'good paying jobs' and excessively rumored 'strong economy'. Sure, gas & diesel are cheaper here, for US incomes, but the real question is how hard does the purchase of gas, diesel, milk, eggs, & cheese impact the economy of the Mexican worker. This will really make your eyes bug out! We are groaning with $3.80 to $4.00 a gallon gasoline in the States. Here in this oil producing nation, the gasoline is fluctuating around $2.40 a gallon. If you do the math with a Mexican income, it is as if they are paying (remember, CC)$18.00, US dollars, a gallon. No wonder no one wants to steal cars with V8 engines! The 4 cyl Toyota's and Nissan's are still hot items though. One gallon of milk cost us yesterday 43 pesos, that is equivalent to $3.48 in US dollars at today's wildly fluxuating exchange rates. But you can see why for many Mexican households milk is a luxury at (CC)$26.10 per gallon. A flat of 30 eggs cost us 50 pesos, that figures out to about $1.62 US dollars a dozen, the CC is $12.15 US dollars per dozen. I won't even mention cheese, It has always cost twice as much here for a comparative quality cheese in the US.
Electricity costs: this has been a challenge for me to explain to people in the States. This is going to get a little 'nerdy' at first, but please bear with me, clear understanding of electrical usage and expense is going to be more and more important as time goes by for all of us. It is essential to understand electricity usage before it becomes an out of control money pit, draining our precious few resources. I will endeavor to bring understanding to this for two reasons, first, so that my friends and family stateside can be thankful, even in these days of crisis and increasing cost, for how good they really have it. And secondly so that you can understand what many in other parts of the world are struggling with.
A few internet searches revealed that the average US household uses about 950 Kwh a month of electricity. I checked with two friends in the Pacafic NW and found this to be accurate. I found our own Pacific Power and Light bills from 1995, a family of 5 living in Yakima, Washington, and our average use was 700 Kwh per month. Technical stuff: A kilowatt hour (Kwh) is the standard measure of electrical usage and it is how our bills are calculated. A 100 watt bulb that is left on for 10 hours will consume approximately 1 Kwh of electricity. Our freezer here in Ensenada uses about 1.65 Kwh of electricity a day in summer. In our time here we have always tried to limit our use of electricity. from 2001 to 2005 our average monthly usage here in Ensenada, Mexico was 410 Kwh/month. From 2007 through current our average monthly usage has been about 316 Kwh/month. There are two reasons for the decrease of use, the prices have been going up causing us to conserve and convert to fluorescent lighting and more economical appliances, and in the past we had all three children living with us as well as 2 or 3 guests. We have strictly limited or stopped the use of the toaster oven, microwave, and the electric coffee maker in exchange for the use of the gas stove & oven for cooking.
Help! Someone is swiping my wallet!
This past winter the Mexican power commission made some outrageous rate adjustments. If we as a residential customer use more than 250 Kwh per month, we are upgraded to the distinguished 'Luxury Power User' status. What does that mean in billed cost? It means a bold faced GOUGE! It means that we have two curves to cope with, the per bill rate curve and the yearly use quota scale. These two pricing modifiers "piggy back" causing the cost of electricity to increase almost exponentially! "Excuse me folks, I've used up my quota for the day, I have to shut off my PC and continue writing this article tomorrow." Well, that's where we are headed! Practically speaking, last spring our electricity costs went up from a difficult .14 cents US dollars per Kwh, to and impossible .37 cents USD per Kwh. If that rate was charged in the "average" US home your electrical bill would be more than $350.00 per month.
Needless to say we have been scrambling to keep our electricity bill as low as possible. Five years ago we left outdoor fluorescent lights on all night for security. Now our home looks like a haunted house. Then we left our PC on all day (about 180 watts), now we turn it on standby every chance we get (about 11 watts). In the past we left our laser printer on standby, now we only plug it in to print. The laser printer must keep some internal parts hot to enable quick print times, this means that there is frequent 800 watt power pulses as the device is kept ready for any immediate possible use (the energy cost we pay for convenience is astounding!). Our VCR and TV were using 38 watts just sitting there, shut off, 24 hours a day. Now they are left unplugged when not in use. I purchased an economical device for measuring Kwh usage (www.smarthome.com search for "kill a watt"). While using this simple device I learned that our freezer is 20% more economical if the windows in the back room are left open during the summer days and we don't go beyond 90% full load of food and If we defrost it periodically. On the hottest days I put a small fan by the freezer compressor to help cool it, even with added usage of the fan, the freezer is 5% more efficient. Over time we have opted for the front load clothes washer. This has been another BIG energy and water saver!
I am thankful that we have been able to evolve into a more energy efficient mode. Unfortunately, it has come at a cost. The front load clothes washer cost almost 3 times more than what a top loader would. But it uses about 1/3 the amount of water and here in Baja, water is very expensive. I wonder about my Mexican friends, their money situation does not allow for these options. Here you can buy big, older American refrigerators cheap, but they consume 2 to 3 times more energy than a newer more efficient model. Confronted with the option of paying $150 for an older used American model or $800 for a new refrigerator, guess what many Mexican homes end up with? Only to have to shut it off after a couple of shocking power bills and push it into a corner of the patio as a monolithic monument reminding us of the long lost times of cheap electricity.
The surge of industrial growth in China has caused steel and copper prices to go sky high here in Mexico. Thieves here will have all the wiring stripped out of a vacant house very fast. Some have even managed to steal copper wiring right off from the power poles! People have been stealing anything they can resell. Power meters are stolen from homes and sold in Guatemala, Water meters are stolen at night and sold to whoever will pay without asking any questions. In the past, most crime has been linked with alcohol abuse, drug usage or just laziness. But the economic situation has increased the desperation of the average person on the street and now some are committing crime for lack of food and shelter.
We definitely live in a different world, and things keep on changing. We must keep ahead of the raging currents to survive.
