How Poor Is Your Country?

Traveling always opens your eyes and broadens your perspective about the world we live in; but, while awareness is always preferable to ignorance, reality can often bit a bitter pill to swallow.  I think I'm starting to understand the reasons behind the rampant theft in South America and it saddens to me to realize that this aspect of their culture is part of the reason why the countries here, and their people, will never reach their full potential.  It's not just the theft itself, but the lack of morals and values within the culture that allows people to steal from others that is the greatest problem.  What kind of society produces so many people who believe it's acceptable to steal from others?  What kind of society doesn't teach their children that the way to succeed is by working hard; that taking what doesn't belong to you will never solve your problems.  Perhaps I'm just a delusional American or I've just experienced a fairy tale my entire life, but working hard seemed to work for me.  Here in South America, you have a large percentage of the population who feel no guilt about stealing from other people even when the small monetary gain does absolutely nothing to help them.  We're not talking about homeless people and starving children.  We're talking about people who already have everything they need but have such a warped sense of morality that their greed and selfishness motivates them to steal.  The wallet or camera is not stolen so they can feed their kids; it's stolen so they can go buy a new pair of shoes, a flashy cell phone or a few drinks out at the bar.  The worst part is, while I'm sure the majority of the population isn't out there pick pocketing and shortchanging other people, even those who don't steal will justify and excuse the actions of the thieves because of their "lack of opportunities" in life.  I say "BULLSHIT".  That's why your country is second-world to begin with, because of a culture that excuses theft and allows people to go through life thinking it's possible for people to get something for nothing rather than a culture that fosters hard work and dedication. 

 

This is one aspect of American culture that has made the United States what it is, and what I'm starting to realize other countries STILL don't understand about America.  While current reality may be changing, throughout most of our history, the States has always been a country where success, to a large degree, was determined by how hard one was willing to work.  That's not to say that everyone can be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet; success can come in different forms, escaping poverty, for instance.  The point is, few people who really put effort into it and work hard will end up on the street or in a soup kitchen line.  That's what opportunity in our country means; the chance to be rewarded for your efforts and the chance to earn a decent living.  The caveat is, you have to really want it and you have to be willing to work, not just to get it, but also to maintain it.  People in South America can't seem to separate reality from myth, legend and what they see on TV when it comes to American wealth.  They especially fail to separate American corporations and corporate wealth from the American people, the vast majority of whom are no more wealthy than the people in South America.  The picture I posted shows the percentage of people living below the national poverty line in various countries.  The actual percentages for Argentina: 23.4%, Chile: 13.7%, United States: 12.6%.  I find these types of statistics to be a better measure of reality simply because poverty is determined by factors within each respective country.  Yes, a higher percentage of Argentineans live in poverty than in the States but not a higher number of people.  Out of a population of 300 million people, we have 37.8 million people living below the poverty line, a number almost equal to Argentina's entire population of 40 million people. 

 

What people in South America don't seem to realize is that most Americans go to work every day for years, throughout generations of families, and still live paycheck-co-paycheck.  We don't get profit-sharing checks just because we live in the same country as these corporate giants, and while other countries may pay more in taxes than we do, we don't have the social welfare system of even some developing countries.  I didn't get a free college education; I still pay $215 a month for a degree I don't have, a degree I couldn't finish because it's a little difficult to focus your effort on school when you have to work to put a roof over your head.  Since I no longer have a job, I no longer have health insurance, but even with the insurance I had, it still cost me more money to get a tooth filled back in San Diego than it did without insurance here in South America.  Don't even get me started on infrastructure like roads and bridges because I've still seen much worse back home than I have in most cities we've been to here.  I grew up in a city where the government doesn't have the money to tear down all the abandoned and condemned houses and other buildings so they're turned into crack houses and or taken over by the homeless.  We played flag football on a gravel field in middle school because there wasn't any grass.  Our football team in high school didn't even have a home field while I was in school.  Yet here in South America, I see parks and green spaces (with real grass), public sports fields and play areas scattered throughout every city.  And yet, Americans are so rich.

 

Sure, Americans drive nice cars and live in big houses, but they also shop at Wal-Mart.  Cars, like most things a country produces for itself, are cheap.  Houses are big because they're only as expensive as the land they sit on and since we live in the third largest country on earth by land area there's still enough space to spread out.  But beyond cars and houses, the "stuff" people have back home isn't that much different from what South Americans have.  Yet, I look at the hundreds of high end clothing, shoes and electronic shops down here and I can't figure it out who the hell is shopping there and how they can afford to while at the same time, people are swearing to me these countries are so much poorer than we are.  I couldn't afford these prices even if I were still working.  I'm wearing a $10 pair of Target shorts and a $5 Gap T-shirt because that's where I normally shop.  I don't have a D&G t-shirt, let alone a pair of D&G jeans or shoes, yet this is what I see locals wearing.  Here I am getting robbed in countries where people have more than I do. 

 

I had a conversation about these misconceptions of American wealth with Fede back in Rosario, although I'm still not sure he fully understood my perspective.  Yes, countries in South America are, by GDP or whatever arbitrary definition, poorer countries than the United States, but this designation has little to do with the individual wealth or standard of living for most citizens within each respective country.  As I've said recently and as I've said in the past, I see far more homeless people on a daily basis back home than I have in any country here in South America.  I see more people digging through trashcans for food back home, not just recyclables as they do here.  And I see just as many people begging for change on the streets of San Diego as I do here in South America.  You just cannot convince me that people here are so much worse off than people in the United States, especially if you've never been to the United States.  And for any of your foreigners reading who have been to the States and think you know so much, let me remind you that California and New York are two of 50 States and do not represent the country as a whole.  The bottom line is, I hear too many excuses as justification for a culture that simply doesn't place a high enough priority on having a strong work ethic and a decent set of morals.  I don't want to hear about corrupt governments; my government is one of the most corrupt governments in the world and does very little to help the American people.  I thought the world learned this with the news coverage of Katrina.  How many of you paid attention to the way people in New Orleans lived BEFORE the hurricane?  I also don't want to hear about economic collapses; finances work the same way at the government level as they do on an individual level: when you can't generate enough or simply mismanage your revenue, you end up over-spending and over-borrowing, you then default, your credit is screwed, it sucks for a while, but you suffer through it and you work your way out of it.  Trust me, I have personal experience in this area.  I just wish people would stop making excuses, stop expecting hand-outs, stop robbing people and just WORK to get what you need and want.  I'm not so ignorant to believe that hard work alone will always pay off; I recognize that discrimination and racism exist everywhere and that the indigenous people in South America, or those who look more indigenous, have it worse than others.  But as a Black man growing up in a country with one of the darkest histories of racism, a country that has yet to formally apologize for slavery, I do not want to combine the two distinct issues of "the effects of discrimination" and "the reasons for such high rates of petty theft".  One is not justification for the other and to suggest so is even more disgusting than robbery alone.  I hate to say it, but a lot of people here are just ignorant savages acting impulsively for immediate gain or gratification.  They're too lazy to work, or simply to stupid to consider and plan for their future or take steps to actually direct or impact that future in a positive way, so instead they blame their economic status or situation on anyone and anything but themselves. 

 

Frankly, I'm tired of the assumptions and generalizations people have about me personally as an American traveling in their country.  I'm not wealthy and I don't come from a wealthy family.  Everything I have, which isn't much these days, I have because I worked my ass off to get it.  I've been through a lot of shit and by some standards I've had a more disadvantaged life than many of the people here, especially compared to some people in Chile and Argentina, but I don't use any unfortunate circumstances of my past or experiences in life to justify doing something I know is immoral.  I'm no stranger to hard work so I get a little bit pissy when people assume I just skated through with a silver spoon in my mouth or assume I had the slightest fucking advantage over them just because I was born the States.  Fuck you!  I know what it's like to work for minimum wage, to survive on tips, to choose between food and gas money and what it feels like to go to bed hungry.  I've washed dishes, bussed tables, worked in a video store and a bookstore.  I've worked in a soup kitchen, delivered Meals-on-Wheels and worked in a post office warehouse during the busy holiday season.  I even worked in a restaurant where I had to stand on tables and sing and dance to the Macarena, YMCA and the Chicken Dance, and I proudly danced my ass off and made a complete fool of myself every night I worked.  Why?  Because I made good money doing it, which helped to pay the bills, and I would rather be a dancing waiter and earn my living honestly than steal from other people who probably have to work just as hard. 

 

People assume that because I'm traveling around the world, I have money to give to every person on the street who asks and that I can afford to be robbed every now and then, when in reality, I have less than what most of the people here have and I don't have any income coming in.  I have no home.  I have no car.  I don't even have a fucking job!  What I do have is a little bit of money that I worked very hard to save by making a lot of sacrifices in life; but all that money I've saved still wouldn't be enough to buy a car, or put up a down-payment on a home, or buy any number of things even people in South America have and I don't.  My hope is that my savings will last until I can find another job and get back to where I was financially before I started this trip, a point at which I still had no home and no car.  It sucks sometimes, but I place a higher priority on traveling at this point in my life so those are the sacrifices I make.  I get frustrated enough when people back home don't understand this, but the sacrifice part is especially a foreign concept down here.  This trip wasn't a spur of the moment, I'm going to drop everything and travel for a while just because I can sort of thing; this is something I've planned for years and something I still had to save for and do on a budget.  How long did I ride a bicycle around San Diego because I didn't want the expense of a car?  For how many years did I take the bus and the train to work, a 90-minute commute each way, because a monthly bus pass was a fraction of the cost of owning a car?  Even when I bought my motorcycle, partly because it was cheaper than taking the bus and train, I bought one that I could later sell without losing much through depreciation.  I've been wearing some of the same clothes for ten years and I typically wear the same shoes until the soles disappear or simply detach from wear.  I ate McDonald's or Jack-in-the-Box a few times a week, not just because I love french fries, but because fast food (while not healthy) is about the cheapest thing you can eat back home.  I lived in a 440 square foot studio apartment for over five years and only considered moving when they kept increasing my rent.  But most significantly, I have been able to save money because I DO NOT HAVE KIDS!  Most people who know me know I want kids, but adoption is still years away from now because I can't afford to raise kids and still do things like travel around the world.  People seem to forget how expensive kids are, even when they have them. 

 

Whatever the case, sacrifice not only allowed me to save money before the trip, but I have even more sacrifice to look forward to when I get home.  I sold whatever I could to add to my savings for this trip.  I donated most of my clothes, dishes, and other household goods to charity.  Everything left that I own fit in a 8' x 5' x 7' storage container, with room to spare.  The insurance settlement I got for my motorcycle, which was totaled back in August, added to the financing for this trip so I won't have money to buy a new one when I get home and will be back to taking public transportation.  We all know the job market is not good and without the money I'm now spending, I will have to take the first job I am offered just in order to survive.  It's not a very happy life to look forward to when I get home, which is why I'd rather focus on enjoying my trip while I'm taking it.   But it's hard to enjoy your trip when you're constantly being targeted because people have fucked up and erroneous assumptions about you and your wealth, when your budget is being blown because you have to replace losses.  It pisses me off when I'm robbed and taken advantage of as a traveler when I could just stay at home like most people.  I could just remain ignorant of other countries and cultures and spend my life living in a bubble.  It would definitely be a lot easier, but it's not what I chose to do.  I'm not going home yet and I will deal with whatever unfortunate events happen throughout the rest of this trip, but I will not excuse theft or similar offenses as acceptable under any circumstances.

 

When I was in Berlin a few months ago, I met a really nice Croatian guy who told me about the wonderfully creative swear words and expressions they have in his country.  Thanks, Karlo, for giving me the words to express myself right now, which I've modified to suit the occasion.  To all you thieving bastards in South America, I shit on your Daily Bread and piss in the Cup you don't deserve to drink from anyway!  Evil begets evil.  May your souls burn in the raging fires of the most vicious Evangelical Christian Hell for all eternity!

 

I curse you thieves and then I move on.