Mexico To Drop GDP Statistics For Happiness Meter

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Let me preface this blog post.  I'm not rving and I'm sheltered in place.  I'm sure that by now many of you are tired of reading about me cutting the grass, trimming the yard and washing the windows.  Over the next few weeks, you may find some of my blog posts to be on the political side, not all, or a mix of both.  Your choice to read it or not.  Funny thing is, viewer numbers have doubled in the last two months and more so when I present facts about Mexico and the systems we have in place.  

Here's a little bit of my happiness before I move on to the president's.  The path I take for my 10k walks each day.

Just by reading the title it's obvious something is rotten in Denmark.  The first two semesters have proven disastrous for Mexico in all senses of the word.  Obviously, Covid has taken its toll on many countries as well as Mexico.   S&P has dropped Pemex to a B- while Moody's has rated the government-controlled company to a -A or as most of us know, junk bonds.

Remesas or remittances from Mexicans working in the U.S. for the month of April hit an all-time high of 4 billion dollars.  The president is very happy about that as though it is a feather in his cap.  What that really says is that more Mexicans are working in the U.S. and sending more money than ever when they should be in Mexico making good money and doing what they really want, living with their families.  

I mentioned that the feds will take over state and federal trust funds.  The largest of those is FONDEN the FEMA of Mexico.  As of July 2017, FONDEN had a total of 683 million dollars in its trust.  FONDEN has been known as a preventive organization.  Under the new regs, the funds will be lumped together and then dispersed when needed but not reserved just for natural disasters.  When Monterrey was hit with its worst hurricane, Alex in 2010, FONDEN invested 4.5 billion dollars for the reconstruction of highways, bridges, avenues, and a breakwater called Rompe Picos.  Rompe Picos has since saved the city from severe flooding.

As the GDP begins to tumble for some obvious and not so obvious reasons, Presidente Dingus has decided that we will no longer count on the GDP to tell us how well Mexico is doing.  Yesterday in his two and a half hour verbal diarrhea, he has decided to create a Happiness Meter which he says is very common in Europe.  You know as well as I do that no European country has dropped its GDP statistics or doesn't take them into account.  Most of the above, especially S&P/Moody's ratings rely heavily on GDP.  Yes, there are lists that you can find online and I'm sure you have seen those list countries by their ability to be happy.  Mexico always rates high because we are just that way.  That is a completely different concept and one that will be used in the future according to PD.  When asked during the conference how he would gauge Mexico's happiness, his response was the typical one.  Well, I don't have one yet, but we are working on a formula and I will have it ready for tomorrow (today, and it wasn't mentioned).

I'm still not sure why many NGOs are still ignoring the use of government funds that are available for Mexico's poor.   I guess there is disdain by NGOs not to take advantage of the monies they beg so heavily for, not to mention the large NGOs that have six and even seven-figure salaries for their CEOs.  There are some that do it solely for the exposure and of course those that really care about helping those in need but either lack the knowledge of those funds and programs or do not have the language skills needed to work in harmony.

Another interesting post I will be making over the weekend or maybe Monday will be how much Mexican teachers are paid, their benefits, unions, and retirement pensions.  Someone mentioned it on a Mexican forum and that they are very poor.  Well, I am one of those and I can vouch that most of that isn't true.  I attempted to contact the poster but the person has their private message box blocked.