Mexico is one of the hardest working countries in the world; unfortunately, Mexico is also one of the countries where its people contribute less to their savings and retirement accounts.
Why?
Because we are a culture that adores instant gratification.
I was born and raised in a middle-upper class family in Mexico. My grandfather from my dad’s side made a fortune with a three story hair salon in the most posh area of Mexico City in the fifties; the golden era of the Mexican film and theater industry.
Their clientele included some of the biggest celebrities of the time as well as some of the most influential people in the city; politicians, singers, actors, ambassadors, etcetera.
My grandpa and his family lived very well; big house, big parties, many travels, but above all, he loved cars; he owned Lincolns, Cadillacs, Jaguars, and other nice cars. My dad’s first car was a 1956 baby blue Jaguar, which in those times and especially for a 20 year old, was very rear.
However, my grandpa never saved, nor did teach his children to save. As a result my grandfather struggled when he and grandma couldn’t work anymore.
I saw history repeating itself with my dad; he worked as a pharmaceutical rep for an American company and did very well for almost two decades, but again, never saved a penny. One day he decided to sell our house to start a business and after a few years of struggle, the business went bad forcing us to come to the States.
These terrible saving habits or lack of, were passed on to us, and like it or not, I have to admit that I have the same problem. I do not have a problem making money, but I most definitely have a problem saving it.
This subject came to my mind a few days ago when I was reading Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture, specifically the 6th dimension, Indulgence/Restraint.
“Indulgence is when a culture allows for immediate gratification of the human universals we discussed earlier” (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede, n.d.)
After reading the lesson commentary, I actually googled Hofsted’s comparison by country and compared Mexico with some of the best countries to live, and also countries where people save the most for retirement (Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, United States, Canada, Germany and France).
I immediately noticed that something really stuck out, according to Hofsted’s comparison, Mexico scored a whopping 97 points on indulgence while the other countries scored anywhere from 30 the lowest (Italy) to 68 the highest (U.S.)
This is consistent with Hofsted’s notion that “national culture is stronger as it is engrained in people earlier in their lives during critical value formation stages.” We are a culture where instant gratification and indulgence is been passed on from generation to generation. Been aware of it is in my mind, the first step to change it.
References:
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2013/07/16/10-hardest-working-countries/index.html
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/mexico/
http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/SUMS_2013/dal_borgo_m5011.pdf
Marco,
Great post. I appreciated the candidness and insight provided by your post. I don’t mean to generalize, but I do feel that South and Central American countries tend to favor instant gratification and indulgence. I was born in Venezuela and raised there until I was about age seven, then we came to the states. I also witnessed my mother to be in the same predicament as your parents and grandparents and grew up thinking it was normal. The interesting part came when I started schooling in the states, specially high school where we were taught to also save for a “rainy day”. Now as a grown adult I can say that I try to steer away from the instant gratifications tendencies but I feel that I was educated and given the tools and knowledge that my parents and maybe your parents weren’t provided with. So I think the important thing is to get educated, get help or the resources that are out there… funny enough one day I asked my mother if she ever though about getting a financial adviser..she laughed and asked, “for what? They didn’t have those in Venezuela”. Go figure.
Hello Marco,
thank you for your informative post regarding your culture. Trying your personal experiences to Hofstede’s definition of indulgence gave clear understanding of the material. Given that you witness your family participate in the same habits of indulgence, including yourself, do you have any plans to change this after completing this assignment? I am curious, because I suffer from the same predicament as well, for I have witnessed loved ones struggle as they get older as well. Given how hard people have worked, just to suffer financially as they are older, do you think there is anything governments around the world can change in order to improve this predicament for the elderly?