I didn't mean that Mexico is better today. I just meant long-term, I would not be surprised if Mexico becomes better than California. Yes, I was biased but to be fair, I did choose California's most important city (LA) for the photos. I could also find similar photos in San Francisco. First-world cities don't have massive tent cities in their downtowns or at their popular beaches. I visited Seoul, Busan, Taipei, and Singapore and didn't encounter such scenes. California cities are becoming more like a second-world cities in Latin America or S. Africa with its massive wealth-poor divide and high crime.
Remember that in 1950, Venezuela was ranked #4 in GDP per capita. Now, people from Venezuela are even willing to move to Columbia, Peru, and Brazil. California will likely head down a similar path (only with a better movie industry). Promise people free stuff and they will vote for you until you start to run out of other people's money. Yes, I am pointing out an extreme case. However, it is not good to be too confident and believe California will always be prosperous. Also, South Korea had a lower per capita income than Brazil and Malaysia in 1960. South Korea decided to get focused and improve themselves much more than Malaysia and Brazil did. If Mexico decides to act more like S. Korea, it will probably pass California in 20-30 years.
These charts give context on today's crisis in Venezuela from a historical perspective, showing how the country fell from being one of the world's richest.
money.visualcapitalist.com
On the eve of independence day, here’s a comparison of progress India has made in improving income, health, education, and in preserving its forests, to five countries–China, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea and Brazil.
www.hindustantimes.com