But from what I understand Mexico could be a bit better off then it was decades ago.
But looking at history, the US took big chunks of land from Mexico in the 1800s. The resources from that land made the US what it is now. So in another time, Mexico and the US could have been completely different if that did not happen.
> The US kind of exploits Korea, Taiwan for cheap labor.and goods.
So we had a period where Korea was exploiting the US, then the US somehow broke their chokehold and started exploiting them? And if the Koreans improve their standard of living that mean they've regained exploitation dominance over the US? Or is Korea exploiting someone like the Chinese (a nation that I, naively, feel is a bit stronger than Korea)? Or who are they exploiting?
I'm not sure how this plays out to be internally consistent. It seems like being wealthy has more to do with internal policy than external exploitation or even resource availability.
Yes, they got better off due to it, but the US gets a bit more benefit from the arrangement. Fun fact, until about the 1980s, N. Korea had a much stronger economy that S. Korea due to support from the USSR.
