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To: Jim McMannis who wrote (21854)	1/20/2005 10:10:47 PM
From: GraceZ	Respond to of 116555

Hang around other Americans and you are bound to get ripped off. You have to go native if you want to see what things really cost, learn your numbers in Spanish because they'll always start the negotiation in English and wind up in Spanish when the going gets intense. I get my prices from the various Mexican friends who live there and then come stay here with me when they visit the states. We just had one staying with us for a few weeks at Christmas. He's a wheeler dealer who spends most of his time traveling to the states in order to bring back used clothing to Mexico. All we wind up talking about is relative prices of this or that. I've never met a Mexican who wasn't eager to learn how to make more money here and then tell me what that money would buy back in their home town. Gasoline in Mexico used to be cheap now is more than what we pay here. Don't get me started on Pemex. Pemex is a typical state run monopoly and is now suffering the pains of not being able to afford the capital investments necessary to maintain. Every argument I've ever had with a Mexican has been at a Pemex station. humaneventsonline.com >>>Even Cuba has a more liberal petroleum policy, allowing foreign companies to exploit offshore oil. PEMEX does subcontract out some work to private (even foreign) companies, but that isn't solving its undercapitalization problem. Yet, for a Mexican politician to call for petroleum privatization is to risk being branded a "vendepatria" -- of selling out the fatherland to the gringos. <<<<