The lion's tail

I keep running into people who seem to gloat about what they perceive as the impending collapse of Punta del Este. They even feel the need to discredit or question the validity of an independent report that shows that real estate prices have actually increased during the worst of the global crisis, and they insist on forecasting an imminent crash.

This line of thought has been cropping up for about 3 years already, and of course, nothing I can say can deter what at times sounds like plain ill-wishing. There are some who genuinely believe that an x% price increase means a bubble (although few of us can ever pinpoint the bursting of a bubble with any accuracy).

There are others who simply want to transpose their experiences in other markets to this one. What I learned in financial reporting was that you can't expect identical behaviors in different markets. It's just not that easy. Brazil is not Mexico, the U.S. is not Uruguay, that much I've learned.

But among the Punta bears there are many who simply appear resentful, intimidated by the proximity of wealthy people. This has got me thinking about the eternal lion's tail/mouse's head dilemma.

I was recently told of a social experiment whose results go something like this: pay a guy 300k and put him in a place where everyone makes $600k, and he will be miserable. Pay the same guy $100k and put him among neighbors making $30k, and he will be in heaven. So I guess it's human nature.

But I prefer to be the one living among people who make a lot more than me. It's very easy to save money by not eating out so often in the pricier location, or by buying produce at the farmer's market on a regular basis, rather than at the more expensive supermarket. And let's face it, there's always budget options for everything.

But at least in Uruguay - and to a certain extent this applies to most countries - in places where everyone makes barely enough to scrape by (I'm thinking of places like the Costa de Oro, Piriapolis, Atlantida, etc. where many expats are settling down these days) it's impossible to find a top quality restaurant meal, a multiplex movie-theater, or a variety of sports facilities or generally well maintained and clean public spaces, be them parks or beaches, not to mention roads that do not look like the result of a meteorite shower.

And when you have a similar facility, it's really not the same in the poorer place. A case in point is the Tienda Inglesa supermarket. Atlantida is their only money-losing store, and it shows. Conversely, Punta del Este's is the highest grossing store, and they work hard to keep it that way. In Piriapolis we are "blessed" with the Devoto, which saves on lighting so you don't really see what it is you're buying.

After a year and a half of exploring and ruling out every dining possibility in Piriapolis - which is half the distance from our place than Punta del Este actually is -- we're down to two establishments, one of which is an excellent pizza joint, and another whose meals are uniformly very good, although unimaginative and unoriginal, set in a drab space, and whose catalogue of side dishes features only POTATOES and mixed salad. The prices are the same as our favorite place in Punta del Este, which, to make it short, is in a completely different league.

Last but not least, many wealthy people are interesting! Financial success in itself is, often, a result of other traits that can make a person very engaging, so I don't personally feel the need to run away in the opposite direction. Further, Punta del Este offers the chance of attending social gatherings where topics go beyond Uruguayan soccer and politics because everyone is from wherever and those two subjects therefore fail to gain much purchase. That alone is worth living in (well, near) Punta del Este for me, but that's maybe because I'm Uruguayan :-)