CHILEANVENTURES – La feria en Santiago – In praise of economic freedom
Surprise, surprise. We left the Cryptofarm under the snow for three months in Chile. A tip: on the 31st of December you can find very affordable flights.
We are now in Santiago since a few days and yesterday we went in the open-air market (la feria) nearby to cachurear, that means to look for cheap stuff, cachureos - can I say bits and pieces in English?
One of the thing I like the most here in Chile is that many people feel free to sell, barter, invent new businesses – how many people act as if they were economically free.
In the morning, when I went buying some bread, I found those two posters in the bakery.
Cocino por ti = I cook for you. Nice and cheap. I wish I could see more of these kind of advertising in Italy. Unfortunately, the cost of complying with regulations in Italy discourages many. Italian newspapers often report about domestic workers who get punished for not complying with regulations or for not paying taxes. Take the case of this esthetitician. She created a laboratory in her house for nails and she had success until some colleagues told the authorities. The Italian IRS came and fined her 90.000 euro for not paying taxes on income and 10.000 euro for practicing the profession of onicotecnico (nails worker - sic!) without authorization.
I cannot judge this peculiar event - I took it as an example of a phenomenon I repeatedly noticed in Italy - but I can tell you that many perceive those kind of news as a form of “psycho-terrorism” – that is, actions aimed to discourage other people from doing the same. From my point of view, I barely understand why should you have an authorization to perform a work. I mean: no-one can authorize you to serve a fellow man, but himself. If you are good and cheap in painting nails, epilate legs, painting the walls of your neighbor’s house et cetera, the only authorization you need is your neighbor’s. Someone asking you to perform a service in exchange of something.
For example to cut your hairs as this open-air hairdresser I saw yesterday in la feria. She will cut your hair (corte de pelo) for 2000 chilean pesos (approx 2.5 USD).
I also took a picture of this man selling cold drinks on a shopping trolley. He asked me smiling: “Why are you taking a picture of my shop?”.
Unaware of my deep economic reflections on how to save my country and the world, the girls seemed to enjoy the feria quite a lot – used clothes at 500CLP (less than one USD) each. In a couple of days we'll be leaving for the seaside and need some beach wear.
I am also surprised of the myriad of business that have emerged online. I am suscribed to several Facebook groups and you can find any type of business you can imagine.
On the other side, not in "la feria", but in the city, it's not always easy to offer your services or to sell your stuff, since sometimes carabineros can kick you out or confiscate your goods. I always feel sorry for the ladies that sell their freshly squeezed orange juice; carabineros sometimes drop their charts to the floor :(.
But if you want to sell in municipal fairs, depending on the event and the value of your goods, the permissions can be very cheap.
Thank you, that's useful information: with my wife we often sell artisan products and it's good to know that we could participate to municipal fairs for cheap in Chile. We should also consider to go online to sell our things.
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haha how could they be unaware of the deep reflections on how to save the world?
As they are seemingly just concerned about their wardrobe! ;-)