My phone bill never arrives. Never. But yet, I’m expected to pay the right amount on time, every time. I get a nice reminder call from the TelMex operator every month, but she won’t tell me how much I owe either. So I usually have to load the baby up in the sling and head downtown just to enter into the TelMex offices, go upstairs to their public computers and print out my receipt. The only problem is that the receipt hasn’t been accurate for months. So I guess. I estimate, and I make a bank transfer. But that usually doesn’t happen until they cut off my service, no more than two or three days after the payment due date. What’s more, I pay about what I paid in the United States for basic phone service.

I’ve complained and filled out forms and spoken with managers and nothing ever happens. My bill never arrives. This is unforgiveable because Carlos Slim, the TelMex Monopoly King, is the richest man in the world. He passed Bill Gates by and left him in the dust. There’s a great op-ed by Eduardo Porter in the New York Times about Señor Slim’s influence on Mexico. Here are some highlights worth sharing:

Earlier this month, Fortune reported that Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican, had just surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man, with a fortune worth $59 billion.
To put it in perspective, Mr. Slim’s treasure is equivalent to slightly less than 7 percent of Mexico’s total production of goods and services — one out of every 14 dollars’ worth of stuff made by all the people in the country.
The income distribution in the United States may be fast approaching Mexican levels of inequality, but in relative terms, Mr. Gates isn’t even in Mr. Slim’s league. His $58 billion fortune is less than 0.5 percent of the nation’s G.D.P.

Don’t think I’m abandoning the Slim problem in Mexico so easily. There’ll be more on him next time…

Photo courtesy of Alejandro Páez