Opportunitdades in Action and Underwear Sales

I’m back from a weeklong trip in Mexico, then a week getting settle. Lots of good stories to report, but I will start with this one. I visited a small village about 4 hours south of Oaxaca. It happened to be the day that the government was handing out cash as part of the Opportunidades program. This program pays households money if the children attend school and the family visits health clinics. The program has another twist in 99% of the household the payments are made to women, thus the picture on the side of the line shows a huge group of women lining of for their cash. The idea being that women are more likely to spend the cash payment on food for their children (this actually seems to work).

Of course some entrepreneurs set up a market just down the street from the school where payment were being handed out. Not surprisingly, the sellers wears included mainly household goods (plates, pans, ect.) and of some clothes.

Likely a result of the payment being made to women, the amount of women’s underwear for sale was probably triple the amount of men’s.