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Comment by throwanem | Hacker News Reader

Depends on where in the US you're talking about. I'd hesitate to suggest there's an inverse correlation between SES and this kind of family orientation, but I don't have a better explanation for the observations I've made. I would have to question rather strongly the blanket assertion that people in Mexico just fundamentally care more for their families than people in the US do.

Certainly I could be happier, on a daily basis, were I plying my trade as part of an organization more closely focused on the kind of work that I do. On the other hand, where I am now has the twin virtues of being quite stable and enthusiastically remunerative, which counts for a lot more when I've got folks back home to look after.

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Excuse me? Please don't put words in my mouth; I did not say "people in Mexico just fundamentally care more for their families than people in the US do." I said the culture is more family oriented. You can certainly care about your family deeply and not have a culture of living together and financially supporting one and another/pooling resources. Caring is not the same thing as resource pooling. You may be willing to jump in front of a bus for your sister but not come from a culture where it's normal for you to live with your sister into adulthood. It's simply different cultural expectations/norms than we typically see in the US.

This culture may have come about from a practical standpoint out of need, or maybe not. It's certainly worth noting that even if the culture wasn't such it's certainly practical for maquiladora workers to pool family resources due to low pay.

And yes, um, certainly parts of the US that have a large Mexican-American population would have a more Mexican-American culture.

http://www.livescience.com/38647-mexican-culture.html

>Mexicans put a high value on hierarchy and structure in business and family matters. Especially outside of cities, families are typically large and Mexicans are very conscious of their responsibilities to immediate family members and extended family such as cousins and even close friends.

>I would have to question rather strongly the blanket assertion that people in Mexico just fundamentally care more for their families than people in the US do.

No one said that. Societal and cultural conditions being what they are in that part of the world lead to a situation in which living together and pooling resources makes a lot of sense. That's not true for most Americans. It has nothing to do with "caring" more or less. Most people, given the opportunity to do so, will chose to live on their own rather than bunk up with three generations of family members.

Cohabitation and provision of support aren't necessarily the same thing, though. The latter seems to be what's argued to provide the family motivation discussed in the article; the former, while perhaps not entirely orthogonal, certainly isn't necessary for the latter to occur.

> Most people, given the opportunity to do so, will chose to live on their own rather than bunk up with three generations of family members.

This is just not true at all. In most of the world, looking after one's parents is not seen as a chore or a hardship, but basic empathy for one's parents.

When you grow old, would you rather live in a multigenerational household - vs being alone or in some kind of facility?

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