Not lazy in Mexico

The Mexican cultural stereotype (which, sadly, is still prevalent) is famously centered on laziness, with people taking long siestas.  Now the OECD notes that Mexicans work longer hours than anyone else.  I agree, though, that this is nothing to brag about:

But Rubio and other economists said revelations of such hard work by Mexicans is not really good news — rather it is a symptom of underdevelopment and inefficiencies.

“The environment in which they work tends to demand more work, more hassle and more complexity to arrive at a similar result,” Rubio said. “In other words, productivity is lower in Mexico because there are so many obstacles to efficient work,” such as the mountains of red tape produced by a sprawling government and corporate bureaucracy.

So working harder does not get you much further along.