Stuff
Posted in Random Musings on 16. Aug, 2011
Greetings all!
This John in Brazil post comes to you from Texas. I am up here visiting with my mom, helping her move to Louisiana. (Insert education / firearms / IQ joke here.)
As I help my mom purge out the house and garage and cart load after load to donate to the local thrift shop, I remember one of my first impressions of Brazil when I visited there some 18 years ago.
That is that Brazilians had much less stuff than Americans, but they seemed to have closer relationships with family and friends than the average American.
That’s a sweeping generalization, of course, and generalizations are dangerous. Still, I think this one is true – but changing.
My mom isn’t nearly as much of a shopper as most folks, but her house is still filled with the accumulated archeological layers of a lifetime of living in a consumer-driven economy. Add to her stuff those items of mine that I couldn’t take to Brazil but still can’t part with.
The truth is simply that Americans love their stuff. More and more stuff. The old stuff gets moved to the garage, and the expensive SUV has to sit in the driveway.
And yet I would bet that, as far as you can measure these things, your average American is no happier than your average Brazilian – and quite likely less so. Brazilians are an amazingly upbeat and optimistic people. OK, sometimes it’s more for show (it seems to be a cultural requirement that you always appear happy, like in the American South of my youth).
My point I guess is that Americans love their stuff, and certainly have a lot of stuff, but it doesn’t seem to bring happiness. Maybe the opposite. If you have lots of stuff, if it comes too easily, you tend not to value as much what you have. And if commercials tell you that you need more, newer, better stuff, you will quickly become dissatisfied with your stuff. Current stuff goes to the garage, second car joins the SUV in the driveway.
As for Brazil the middle class has grown greatly in the last several years, albeit in part because of Lula’s giving money to the poorest. But even with transfer payments discounted, the economy of Brazil is growing in real terms. The middle class is growing.
And so is consumerism.
Brazilians watch a lot of US movies and TV shows. They see the lifestyle here and they covet it. I don’t think that’s too strong a word.
Brazilians, when they have money to travel, are in fact more likely to travel to the US than within Brazil. I currently have around 20 students (I teach English in Rio), and MOST of my students have visited or will visit the US this year. Stop and think about that. My students are middle to upper middle class and probably 75% will visit the US this year.
In part this is because air travel within Brazil is regulated and expensive. So, why not take a trip to the US for the same price?
And buy tons of stuff! I lived for years in South Florida. There are stores in Miami that cater specifically to Brazilians. You see them descend by the busload on Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida.
Did you know that most airlines which fly to Brazil have higher baggage allowances between the US and Brazil than between the US and other countries? Two bags of up to 70 pounds is the norm, versus one or two bags of up to 50 pounds when traveling to or from other countries.
I am guessing that this policy is not because because the airlines love Brazilians. It’s probably the market driving the policies. Brazilians love to come to the US and shop. The first purchase many Brazilians make upon arrival in the US is more suitcases to carry their loot in!
It will be interesting to see what cultural changes may occur in Brazil int he coming years.
I hope that the growing consumerism in Brazil (and elsewhere) doesn’t undercut the value placed on relationships which I so admired from that first trip.
I must run. More soon.
A quick thanks to those who have sent me e-mails recently. Thomas, Kyle, Gary. It’s good to hear from readers, old and new.
John
Not in Brazil at the moment
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I recently learned an English word: “hoarding”. I saw an American tv show about that. I was surprised because I never saw that behavior here in Brazil. We don’t even have a word for that. My mom and my aunt keep old things, but it’s not close to those people from the show. The funny thing is that I thought they kept too many things that they never used. Magazines that they’ll hardly read again. When I saw that show, I realized that there are worse cases than theirs.
I don’t think that Brazilians travel more to other countries than within Brazil. Those with money to travel, travel both abroad and in Brazil.