The Steak Nation

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Eighteen pesos. That’s how much I spent on my lunch today, a Peruvian sopa from the restaurant next door to my apartment. Equivalent to about four and a half bucks, it’s similar to the meals I frequently ate while staying in Santiago, Chile. Not a bad deal and considering that I frequently eat for cheaper, it’s actually pretty wonderful in comparison to the United States. As I have become a little more adjusted to life in Buenos Aires, I have tried to pay attention to these things; from how much I spend on meals every day (an average of 28 pesos a day on food) to average weekly expenditures. It led me to an interesting contrast between the differing financial principles between Argentina and Chile.

Imagine yourself in a group of young adults, and you all decide to go out to eat at a nearby pizzeria. After sitting down you receive the menu of food and prices which are somewhat cheaper than those in the US, and your group quickly decides that the price for pizza is too high and you get up and walk out. Now imagine doing that six more times before you finally find a restaurant that suits your price range. Welcome to the world in which I lived for the entire time that I was in Chile. Spending money was a huge ordeal for Chileans. It was a process that required a highly premeditated decision on whether or not to spend money, one which usually leaned more to the side of not. I lived with a middle class Chilean family, and in the six months that I lived there, we did not go out to eat a single time. If school events didn’t offer free food, the students would often not attend so as to avoid spending bus money (which was about a dollar). Even though Santiago is a capital city just like Buenos Aires, I saw a lot less name brand clothing adorning each of its citizens. Compare that to Buenos Aires, which likely averages three shoe stores for every block. A city of fashion conscious, steak-filled people.

Considering the strong European influences within Buenos Aires, it makes sense that the idea of spending money is a completely different concept to them. The large number of European immigrants that came to Argentina brought their cultures and along with that their appetite for European products. This continues today, as Argentines still identify themselves more as white Europeans than Latin Americans. It is comparable to “keeping up with the Jones’“in the United States. Chile does not have the ‘Paris of South America’ persona that Argentina boasts, and therefore we see much more conservative actions by the Chileans. Though they are neighbors, Chile and Argentina have a lot of differences between them.

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