I work in a building that has a nice cafeteria staffed by a caterer. The food there is quite good, and quite cheap. One of the cooks there is a Mexican fellow of pleasant disposition. This fellow and I were talking the other day while he was cooking my chiliquilas, and he revealed to me something I found interesting.
First, let me state that I do not think this fellow is an illegal considering the security checks you have to go through just to get in our building. This was a pain in the rear for me, and I have a Top Secret clearance. I doubt the Pinkertons are so lax as to allow an illegal immigrant to work in the building.
So what this fellow told me is that every month he sends $1,000 to his family in Mexico, and that that $1,000 is roughly equivalent to $10,000 here. He said that sending home $2,000 would support his family there for a year.
So it seems what this fellow does is work here in the U.S. for most of the year, then he spends the winter basking on the beach, living off of this exchange rate.
It made me think that maybe I need to look into extended vacations.