If you come to visit us in Oaxaca when we get back, you
might want to go shopping. We have so much to choose from. You could walk the
aisles of the Artisan Market and get shawls or embroidered blouses or beaded
purses. You could buy Christmas ornaments made of embossed tin or supple
leather pouches. Or you could sit at one of the tables at the 20 de Noviembre
market and drink hot chocolate frothed with a wooden paddle and served with
rich pasca-like bread. Chocolate comes originally from Mexico and is used there
for other things besides desserts, so you could buy chicken bathed in chocolate
mole with a side dish of crunchy, salty grasshoppers. Or you could go to a
village where people weave rugs in their homes, and you could choose your own natural
colors (the red comes from the tiny cochineal bug that grows on cactus leaves).
Or you could take a local bus to the town that makes black pottery or to the
workshop in Etla where Neftali and Noel, Mixe artisans, some of the best in the
nation, apprentice young men from Indian villages in the intricate carving and
painting of fantastical creatures called alebrije. For much of this shopping,
you will need bargaining skills. You might have to haggle a bit and even walk
away to see if the price will come down. If your purchase is the vendor’s first
sale of the day, you might see her genuflect to show her gratitude. Bargaining
is part of market culture in Oaxaca. It’s part of the shopping experience.
Unfortunately, for me, I hate bargaining, so when visitors
want to do that kind of shopping, Robert takes them, and I stay home. Robert, the true shopper of the family,
bargains wherever it’s useful, like at garage sales, Kijiji (Canada’s version
of Craig’s List) listings, and pawn shop offers. It’s a skill he was born with.
I, on the other hand, want to walk into a store and find a price tag dangling
from every item so I can comparison shop without any hovering.
I wonder if this relates to the whole introvert/extrovert thing.
Extroverts have long D4DR
genes, which make them less sensitive to the neurotransmitter dopamine (a “feel
good” gene), so they need to get their “chills and thrills” from outside
stimulus like bargaining. Introverts, on the other hand, don’t need as much outside
stimulus because their short D4DR
genes are quite sensitive to dopamine, and so they get all the “buzz” they need
without parachuting out of an
airplane or haggling at a Oaxacan market. Whatever the reason, I don’t like it, but I bet it's a necessary skill in making lots of money.
So there is at least one advantage in living
in North America: I can at least go shopping without bargaining. But wait! There is a vital product for which bargaining
is required, actually, and it’s a matter of living or dying, of solvency or bankruptcy.
It’s American health care. In Canada, the Insurer (the Government) has done a
lot of bargaining behind the scenes, so the prices for health care are set and
not going any lower, no matter who asks. In the US, however, the costs vary all
over the place, and they can go up or down depending on who asks and why. If
you have insurance, you might get a much higher price for a procedure, or a
much lower price as an uninsured individual. Bargaining is absolutely necessary. When
Robert got his back surgery, our insurer negotiated with the hospital (standard
procedure) and the bill got cut in half. What would the final bill have been
without their bargaining power and knowledge? What if we'd had to to pay the $8000/IV treatment for my cancer? We’d be bankrupt right
now.
And my kids are now caught in the US health
care system with no safety net, and I have to admit it alarms me, making me
feel like a tiny fly caught in the web of a giant spider. I don’t know what to do. Elai has no insurance
because her insurance was cut off when she got married, and Philip’s may be cut
off, too—we don’t know—and none of us can afford the $8000/year per child that
it would cost to insure them. What do we Americans do?
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