Contraction of
Economy; Expansion of Greed
By Dave Playfair
Greed exists everywhere at all times;
however; during the economic downturn there
has been an inverse relationship between
this less than admirable human quality and
scarcity of economic resources.
Of course, this makes perfect sense to most
as the human condition naturally tries to
hoard resources – money, effort, etc. – when
faced with the possibility that these
resources will run out. Like the squirrel
collecting nuts for the winter, we generally
try to save our pennies and spend less
during a recession.
The other day, I was contacted by a friend
of a friend who was travelling in Costa Rica
and was interested in the possibility of
investing in real estate. Since we have
evaluated hundreds of properties at this
point and are very much aware of the
intricacies that surround assessing and
purchasing land and buildings in this
country, we were happy to meet this fellow
to give him the “low-down” on things.
Since we have no vested interest in actually
selling real estate, we would consider our
unbiased opinions to be valuable to someone
like this and agreed out of courtesy to our
friend to meet with this gentleman.
We happened to be in an area close to him
when he called and we met at a plaza in Jacó,
after he arrived in a taxi from his hotel,
and then walked to a restaurant. We kept
things simple and ate sandwiches while
discussing the ramifications of investing in
Costa Rica with his goals in mind. In the
end, after providing detailed information on
the country as a whole, our advice was to
simply refrain from investing in Costa Rica.
His goals did not match the conditions in
this country and his resources did not allow
him to navigate the issues and concerns that
someone with greater resources would easily
manage. He seemed like a pleasant fellow
with big dreams and a cautious direction.
After asking us to send him information on
“everything”, we suggested that he do some
online research. Of course, we have compiled
a great deal of information; however, we
were starting to get the impression by this
time that he simply wanted us to go out of
our way to help him gather statistics so he
could show his “real estate investing
mentor” how he was able to do so.
He finally told us flatly that he “probably
would not invest in Costa Rica anyway”.
He invited us up to his hotel to check out
the view and then informed us that he had no
cash to pay for lunch as the restaurant did
not take credit card, so we covered the
lunch with his assurance that he would pay
us back for his lunch after he stopped at
the bank. We drove him to the bank and
waited.
Then we drove him back to his hotel where he
seemingly forgot to pay us back, but did buy
us a beer and a glass of wine. We went out
of our way for this fellow with no
reciprocation whatsoever.
Now, here’s the point.
From my perspective, if I was to ask of
someone their time and advice (over two and
a half hours) and essentially a ride home, I
would be inclined to show my appreciation
by, at the very least, buying them lunch and
drinks. I realize that this sort of thing
happens to real estate agents all the time
and I don’t envy them at all! The difference
is that people seemingly justify taking
advantage of brokers because they have a
vested interest in selling something to
someone. This is unfortunate and
disrespectful, but many times that level of
disrespect when there is no vested interest
in “selling” anything.
The aforementioned is only a minor example
of greed at work.
The day before this occurred we had a Tica
friend recommend a friend of hers to move a
bunch of stuff from the city to the beach,
between two of our properties. He, like so
many Costa Ricans right now, was struggling
to find work of any kind but had a “huge
truck” and would be “very cheap”.
After receiving a ridiculous quote from a
moving company that we have used before, we
showed him what had to be moved and although
we were shocked at his size – he couldn’t
have been more than 5’ 3” – he had a big
personality and assured us that his “very
strong” friend would be helping. The price
was in line with what it would have cost in
Canada if I had rented a truck myself and
hired two much larger guys to help, since it
became apparent that I would be moving half
the stuff myself.
That was fine. I needed some exercise anyway
and it was too late to go back to the
ridiculous moving company quotation. Our
thoughts at that point were that we would
rather help someone who needs the money than
go with a company that was trying to gouge
people!
After some classic Costa Rica
disorganization, the move ensued with a
truck not too much larger than our project
vehicle and only a frame around the flat
deck about 3 feet high. This fellow’s friend
was only a little taller but a bit bigger –
mostly around the middle. Thus, there was no
way that we were going to be able to move
everything in one load and I would be
shouldering half of the weight myself. In
fact, we had to load up our truck and make
two loads and two trips as well. Of course,
we still thought we were helping someone
local and were happy to do that.
At the end of the two day move, since his
truck was also not capable of navigating the
two and a half hour drive under five hours,
we gave him a bit extra feeling bad that it
turned out to be such a big effort. We
thought we had made friends for life, buying
them dinner and drinks the previous day and
discussing all the other ways that they
could help us in the future.
Apparently, “amigos por siempre” meant that
he wanted to charge us double the price
agreed because there had been two loads.
This, of course, was never mentioned until
the end and we were livid. I explained to
him that he quoted us a price to move
everything and we never discussed a price
for each load, since I didn’t know how big
his truck was and only showed him what
needed to be moved.
He said he was sorry, but that was the
price. I then explained to him that for the
same cost, I could have had the ridiculous
aforementioned moving company do everything
in one load on one day and I wouldn’t have
the bruises on my arms and legs and the two
days of strain. (I didn’t mention that I
enjoyed the exercise and was using the
bruises to garner sympathy from my wife.) It
was the principle behind this that he just
didn’t seem to get, or at least he didn’t
let on to it. We ended up bargaining to a
point but we still paid him just shy of what
the moving company would have charged and I
ended our friends for life pact. We did this
because he was a “friend of a friend”,
otherwise I would have told him to leave
under threat of bodily injury. Needless to
say, we won’t be helping any other friends
of friends in the near future.
These are two small examples of personal and
very recent experiences, but I could tell of
a multitude of instances much worse than
this occurring to friends and acquaintances
around Costa Rica. The trend that I have
seen related to instances like this is in
direct correlation to the contraction of the
economy. People are thinking about today
(hoarding) and not about tomorrow. Vendors
are doubling prices and would-be investors
who really have no financial means to invest
are gathering information at the expense of
others. Personal relationships are on the
decline as respect for others disappear and
self-interest becomes pervasive.
When things are booming greed is always a
factor – certainly in Costa Rica over the
past 5 years.
When things are tough, greed grows
exponentially and is, ironically, our worst
enemy in combating recession.
After a couple of weeks we will most likely
forget about these moments in time, continue
to try to show our appreciation to others,
and in a little more time be willing again
to help friends of friends. Although much
more difficult to do in the short-term for
those with less resources at their disposal,
I can only hope that others will realize
that this is the only way to sustain an
economy, and more importantly live a decent,
happy life. |
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