October 2009

I wanted to pass along a recent letter from my friend Dr. John Cobin– a ‘former’ American who is a full-time expat in Santiago, Chile, one of my favorite places in the world. John is author of the book Life in Chile: A Former American’s Guide for Newcomers, which is easily the most comprehensive work about the country. From John:

There has been more than one occasion in which a Chilean has asked me why Americans do not take more than one newspaper out of the coin-operated rack when they can easily do so? Why do they pass up such an easy opportunity to have more? The answer involves more than saying: “because they only want one copy,” “what would they do with two?” or “their relative incomes are so high that taking an extra copy does not enter an American’s mind like it would a Chilean’s.”

The nature of the question reveals a cultural difference, perhaps a latent cultural tendency, between America and in Chile that reaches not just to poorer people, but even to the upper classes. This tendency can be simply summed up as follows: The great majority of Americans do not want to be liars and thieves, while the great majority of Chileans do not want to be known as liars and thieves. Otherwise, most Chileans do not mind lying and stealing when they can get away with it. Moreover, they think Americans are foolish for not taking advantage of a perfectly good opportunity to cheat or steal when his actions can go undetected. It is not that Chileans do not realize that what they are doing is wrong. They do. Nevertheless, they look at themselves as being clever opportunists rather than generally dishonest people. Besides, the person creating the opportunity to be dishonest is the most culpable. If he suffers a loss or opens the way for cheating then why should he be surprised when it happens?
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Tagged as: Chile, Dr. John Cobin, home depot in chile

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