Banco Popular still in decline

In many ways, Banco Popular is the perfect poster child for these dying capitalistic/socialistic/greed run amuck/corporations that perpetuate themselves at the expense of everything else. Yesterday, Moody's downgraded ratings of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and its parent, Popular Inc., a day after the company suspended preferred dividends and announced an exchange offer to raise common equity. Amidst this turmoil, shares of Popular dropped Tuesday afternoon, falling 19 cents, or 7.4 percent, to $2.36.

Shares of BPOP were at $7.54 when I asked Why is Dick Carrion still CEO and President?. Now, nine months later, the stock is down another 68.7%. With their bonds quickly dropping towards junk and their stock bearing down on delisting, I ask again, why is Dick Carrion still CEO and President of Banco Popular Maybe it is more accurate to ask, why hasn't the Board of Directors of BPOP demanded his resignation?

The void

Here's what most of us don't get. What, we of the middle and lower classes, are witnessing is an elitist band of "good o'le boys" that are willing to do anything to sustain their luxurious lifestyles. While the line staff at their companies are laid off and increasingly asked to pay for their own health care and retirements, the golden parachutes are rapidly deploying around them. In addition, the true owners of these companies, have witnessed the elimination of such vast amounts of wealth, that they are literally speechless.

What I was told as a small boy was that when you screwed things up, you got punished. I was also admonished to take good care of my reputation, because it would follow me and impact my future. Now as an adult I witness the exact opposite. According to 2008 figures, here is the compensation for 4 executives from Banco Popular:

• Richard Carrion - $1,395,622
• David Chafey - $2,162,303
• Brunilda De Alvarez - $747,925
• Jorge Junquera - $801,232.

My worry from this situation comes from trying to teach my children well. What lessons do I use? What guidelines can I give them? Some have exploded over the possibility of President Obama getting involved in executive pay. I say, for the sake of our country, for the sake of capitalism, someone should. We've allowed a corrupt system to become cemented into common practice where executives are paid independently from their performance. This MUST stop! Executive pay must become predominantly based on merit. For executives of public companies, this means the price of their companies stock. Stock goes up, executives party. Stock goes down 70%, executives sell the yacht and the second beach house at Palmas. Seems fair to me.

The sales confusion paradigm

Consulting recently with a client has revealed to me, yet another obstacle explaining why Puerto Rico is unable to use information technology strategically. The scenario is simple.

Imagine a person in charge of information technology for a small to medium sized business. The business is growing and now needs to improve their information technology capability. The company already has several companies they use or have used in the past to meet their IT needs. With a general understanding of what is needed, the IT person calls his sources and asks for help, or more simply, a proposal to meet the new need. The IT provider gladly receives the new lead and generates a proposal that will solve the company's problem.

Now here's where the situation gets complex and confusing. The IT person doesn't really have decision authority, he (and it is predominantly a he) can only recommend a solution. The owner of the company is where the buck stops, he (and it is predominantly a he) asks the IT guy to get some competitive proposals. So the IT guy diligently gets the proposals, but in all honesty, doesn't really understand the solutions being proposed. When the owner asks for a recommendation, the only advice he can give is to go with the sales pitch that seems to make most sense.

Honesty disclaimer

Now for purposes of simplicity, I want you to assume that all of the proposals are on the up and up. Let's not be naive and accept that sometimes a decision is made based on the kickback offered to the IT guy. However, that is not the case in this scenario, or at least I hope not.

Enter the sales confusion paradigm

Enter a third party. Unsatisfied with the IT guy's explanation of the needs, proposals, and justifications, the owner asks a friend to evaluate the situation and help him make a decision. Don Dees to the rescue!

After struggling through the proposals and sitting through a few meetings. It finally dawns on our hero that what he's stepped into the middle of, is a case sales confusion. On one side of this nasty equation is a sales team that wants to sell as much as possible. If we examine, only briefly, it is easy to understand their motivation. They are compensated (motivated) by sales. The more they sell, the more they make.

On the other side of the equation we have the unprepared IT guy. He's a good guy who understands enough to solve his company's IT needs, but really doesn't understand WHY the solutions he owns work their magic. Of course he can't really admit to his boss that he doesn't REALLY dominate the situation. On the other hand, if he claims ignorance to the sales team, it's like giving them a blank check and asking them to "do what's best" for his company. Yes, I'm implying that sales people do not always operate in the best interest of their client's pocketbook.

The problem

It's really an unfair battle when you pit a well informed and motivated sales team against an adequate, but ill-prepared IT guy. Hopefully the solution being proposed is actually going to solve the company's problem, but let's just say that sometimes all a client really needs is an aspirin to get rid of a headache and the sales team is pushing Morphine. If the solution requires software development or implementation, then let's also hope that the IT provider actually has the talent necessary to complete the job. Unfortunately for us, those hopes were ripped apart in a long history of unsuccessful IT-related projects.

A battlefield of Roman proportion

I'm ashamed to admit it, but the IT landscape in Puerto Rico is filled with the dead and rotting carcasses of the sales confusion paradigm. Over the last twenty years, unsuspecting IT Guys have been asking their "trusted" IT providers for help. What has been the result? Instead of these two parties developing a mutually beneficial, long term relationship based upon trust, the IT providers have been throwing their clients to the lions. Surrounded by an environment where truth, honesty, and a criminal mentality, our IT industry is composed of predators and victims.

Now consider for a moment when a small company doesn't even have an IT guy. Imagine what happens when a predatory IT provider is pitted against the technology guy in the office who seems to know the most about computers. Unfortunately, it is like trying to fight a hungry lion with your hands and feet.

By the way, do you think we live in violent times? Now imagine people paying to watch the unwitting IT Guys being devoured by IT provider lions! Getch'yer peanuts and beer folks, it looks like we're up for an exciting afternoon of torture and suffering.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: David Paul Ohmer

Why we care so much about the economy

You probably already know this, but there is a reason why the economy has been such an overwhelming news story. It might seem obvious to some, but it wasn't for me. So maybe there are some other lost souls out there who haven't yet connected the dots.

The economic downturn has been such a long standing news topic because money is what most people care about most. No, really I mean it. Stop laughing in my face, I think I'm on to something here.

I can hear what you're saying, no shit Sherlock, the economy is such a big news topic because it impacts so many people, right? Everybody has a family to feed and take care of, am I right? It's inescapable, Money impacts nearly every aspect of our life, so of course when it gets harder to come by, well that's important.

Still, I think there's something more subtle going on here. We as a society say many things are important to us, the environment, education, our families, equality, liberty, freedom, yada, yada, yada. But if these things are important, and if they are failing us, or if those ideals are under attack, or eroding away, wouldn't those topics be in the news more?

Let's take education as an example. I submit that, like money, education touches us all as well. We're fortunate enough to live in a place where, if we want an education, it is available to us. It's difficult to believe, but there ARE places were that opportunity does not exist. Therefore, let's assume that we've either attended school or our children are attending school now. Now let's assume that the quality of our educational system is bad and that it has been for a very long time. Then why don't we constantly see news about education? We have a long-standing crisis with our educational system, but we rarely hear about it, talk about, or do anything about it. Why is that?

If we examine our society, we will find system after system is in a state of crisis. Many of these crises are in the very areas we say are important to us, but our leaders, our politicians, nor our media want to talk about it. Are the problems just too complex? Are the solutions so few? Or is the problem that money, the pursuit of money, the love of money, mass consumerism, and a hyper-materialistic drive have all silently snuck-in and replaced everything else we say we care about?

I've come to believe in one common trait in all human beings. What we say and what we do are usually two different things. So if you want to know what is important to someone, examine what they do, not what they say. It should be obvious then, that since we are doing a lot of different things to try and stimulate the economy, then we must think that money is important. So it must follow that if we're not doing much to improve education, eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, reduce solid waste, safe guard our freedoms, yada, yada, yada, then they must not be as important as money.

Why Puerto RIco is a Socialist State

Today marks a historic moment. Today, May 1st, with the multiple work stoppages, boycotts, and demonstrations against the Governor's plans to lay-off 30,000 government employees, we are officially declaring Puerto Rico to be Socialist state.

Why else would so many same people reject reducing a government that is so large it's size is only dwarfed by that of California. Now let's consider this for a moment. California is estimated to have 36,756,666 residents. According to a recent article in the Dia, they have 394,000 government employees, or about 1.07% of all citizens. Puerto Rico on the other hand has an estimated population of 3,927,776 and has 300,000 government employees, or about 7.6%. What about other states?

• Texas = 282,000/23,904,380 or 1.17%
• New York = 249,000/19,297,729 or 1.29%
• Florida = 191,000/18,251,243 or 1.04%.

See a trend here? In the four largest states, the government's size as a percentage of population is around 1% (about an average of 1.26%). So if we reverse that, then Puerto Rico's government should be around 50,000. 50,000 people, 50,000. And yet, all of the government worker's unions and probably a significant portion of the population of Puerto Rico would deny that our government is grossly too big.

Disclaimer: I am not immune to the hardship caused by eliminating government jobs, but the fact of the matter is that if we do not DRASTICALLY REDUCE the size of our government, no amount of stimulus spending or economic development can ever rescue us from a catacylismic destruction of wealth in Puerto Rico.

Socialism Defined

Socialism is simply defined as a society where the government owns more than just manpower (the 300,000 workers). Staying with that simple definition here are the reasons why Puerto Rico is a Socialist society:

1. The government is the biggest employer (by far)
2. They own the water and sewer company
3. They own the power company
4. And they still own 10% of the telephone company.

I submit, as I have done in the past, that the reason our government is so big is that previous "economic development" advisers made the case that there were simply not enough jobs to keep up with the population explosion Puerto Rico was experiencing. Their solution was to rapidly expand the government to absorb the excess employees and keep the economy growing. Propped up upon a generous influx of greenbacks from Tio Sam and a huge cash-based economy, prosperity reigned.

Who's in the bubble now?

It is estimated that only about 29% of all eligible workers file a planilla. In general numbers, 4 million residents equals about 2 million eligible workers, equals about 580,000 planillas. If 300,000 are from the government employees themselves, then really you have a mere 280,000 workers funding the government. Of course we need to add in business tax income and the IVU.

With a contraction of the global economy on the heels of the elimination of generous tax benefits, bona-fide businesses and jobs are disappearing from Puerto Rico at such an alarming and consistent rate that our economy is in chaos. In the past three years alone it is estimated that the tax collections have missed their target by more than $2.7 billion, with another 800 million (it'll be more) deficit expected for 2009.

And yet, I've not heard any journalist, nor any politician, come forward and state the grotesque truth. We are socialists and are incapable of facing the "facts" that our government is 6 times the size it should be.

Let's say that anyone who doesn't recognize this is John Travolta. They should be VERY AFRAID that their bubble is about to burst. Someone with authority needs to step forward and lay out the facts. No matter how disgusting, nor matter the wailing and gnashing of teeth, if we don't dramatically reduce our government, the credit agencies will eventually downgrade our government bonds to junk, and then the proverbial fecal matter will really hit the fan.

Really? Miss USA? Really?

Really folks, this is starting to go WAY beyond schizophrenic. Really, really? In a recent announcement, Art McMaster, President and CEO of the Miss America Organization, announced that, for the first time since 1961, Puerto Rico will participate in the Miss America beauty pageant.

Ok, so let me get this straight, and try to stay with me. Even though we already participate in the Miss Universe pageant as Puerto Rico, we are now going to also participate in the Miss America pageant as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Don't we also select a Miss Puerto Rico Mundo beauty queen as well?

Still with me? While the Miss Universe contestant is selected by the Miss Universe Puerto Rico beauty pageant, I'm guessing that we'll have ANOTHER pageant for Miss Puerto Rico. Ok, so now there will be the possibility that Miss Puerto Rico will win Miss America and compete against Miss Puerto Rico Universe for the title of Miss Universe.

According to the press release,

Similar to the states, District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Miss Puerto Rico Scholarship Program will provide scholarship awards to program participants and will hold an annual competition, the winner of which will proceed to the national competition as Miss Puerto Rico. The Miss Puerto Rico Competition will be held in Caguas, Puerto Rico with the winner being crowned on Saturday night, July 18 by Miss America 2009 Katie Stam.

Yes, I know. If you ask anyone who knows me, that I've always said that we need to find a way to capitalize on our most valuable natural resource, our beautiful women, but, I BELIEVE that this goes just a little bit too far.

While we say that one of the reasons we want our independence is to have our own candidate for Miss Universe, we now want to represent the country that most of us want to separate from (and some even despise). Is there no limit to how low we'll stoop for fame or money?

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: cattias.photos

Criminal definition = our demise

I've ranted on this before, but it's always worth the time to provide concrete examples to justify my opinions. Briefly, a criminal is anyone guilty of a crime. It's a pretty simple definiti9on which probably lumps nearly everyone together. We're all criminals, some get caught, some don't, some get punished, some don't.

But for most of us, if we commit a crime or whether we get punished it's really not really news. I contend, that it does make a difference, if we do or don't, but I'm getting ahead of my story.

Now let's imagine that you are a highly recognizable public figure. If you commit a crime and get punished, well, it's just what we would expect. That's news. So knowing that you are a public figure, it should be pretty clear. If you step out of line, you'll see your indiscretions plastered all over the news. Should that impact your behavior? Apparently not.

Recently the President of the Popular Democratic Party, Héctor Ferrer, was caught illegally using the emergency lane, for which he was fined $250. When asked about the infraction, Ferrer commented, "Me dieron un boleto y se acabó." Loosely translated, he said, "Hey I broke the law. I'm a criminal, and so what?"

Well I'll tell you so what. Right or wrong, like it or not, when you are one of the leading political figures on the island and you express absolutely no remorse for committing a crime, it speaks volumes about you and the society that you live in. What is says, is that breaking the law is something to be taken lightly.

What that says about our culture is that we live within a criminal state. Crime is diminished and accepted, until someone innocent gets hurt. Then we ask, "How could two cars of fugitives have a shoot-out on one of the busiest streets in all of Puerto Rico?" Answer: It's easy! When the lines between what is accepted behavior and what is unacceptable are blurred by commoners up through leading publicly elected officials, it becomes increasingly difficult for some to tell the difference.

Just to clarify, this isn't about morality and right or wrong. This is about consciously and unconsciously making decisions that shape our society, our future, and, from my perspective, our demise.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: JustUptown

Step 1: Generating Puerto Rico Internet Marketing

It should be no surprise after my last post, but until local marketing professionals "get-it," they will never be able to really reap the full potential of the Internet for communicating with consumers. Did you notice that I used "with" instead of "to?"

I'm not here to try and convince anyone that the Internet is the be all, to end all, of marketing media options. It isn't. However, it MUST be an integral, if not dominant piece of any marketing campaign.

So even though we all talk about how wonderful the Internet is and we expound upon it's wonders, advertising on the Internet in Puerto Rico still remains nearly non-existent. Why is that?

A simple root cause

I think it essentially starts with simple misunderstanding. From my experience, you don't trust what you don't understand. Simply, advertisers and marketers don't use the Internet more because they don't really understand how it works. They also don't understand how master marketers use the Internet successfully.

Why do I think this is the root cause? Three reasons:

1. Probably most importantly, in general, most companies (executives) don't believe that technology is a strategic asset. Frankly, how is a marketer going to understand the Internet, when most of them think that computers are magical? Again, same root cause, you don't trust (technology) what you don't understand.
   
   There is a related observation that may also contribute to this. In general, most local executives will throw manpower at a problem long before they will use technology. I'd say this proves my fundamental theory. Executives understand people, and while wages have been rising in Puerto Rico over the past 20 years, it is still probably "cheaper" to throw low cost workers at a problem then any other possible solution.
   
   
2. As I recently mentioned, due to a zero-sum mentality, most Puerto Rican Internet users resist participating on the Internet. So, it is an easy extrapolation to conclude, if marketing professionals don't participate on the Web, then they won't include it within their campaigns. Go with what you know, right? Nevermind that few consistently "measure" the effectiveness of advertising, if my competitor is advertising in the Dia, so will I.
   
   
3. Finally, most people don't like to admit they don't understand something. It makes them feel like they look bad. So many executives will uh-hum, and yes their way through a presentation and never ask a question that might actually expose themselves as not understanding what is being said.When smart people resist asking questions to save face, it is really bad for business.

The cure?

I'm afraid that there is not a magic bullet to kill these three contributing reasons why Internet advertising hasn't exploded in Puerto Rico. However, eliminating the lack of technology use in companies and having viability and profitability over-power an executive's self-perception, are out of my league. There are just too many hidden cultural barriers to expect rapid (any?) change in these trends.

The bottom line about Internet marketing is obvious. In order to understand the Internet and Web 2.0, you HAVE TO PARTICIPATE. There is just no other way for someone to learn this stuff except from first hand experience.

If your company is struggling with marketing on the Internet, fire all of your senior executives and replace them with teenagers. No, okay then, all of your senior executives must spend a lot of time online to experience the Internets for themselves. (It might also help if they changed their frame of reference and approached it like a young child, you know curious, inquisitive, innocent; then they might make some progress.) Only then will they understand that it is just not a bunch of tubes that you shove stuff through.

Luckily, Mark Redgrave has written a great article ("Marketers Need To Understand Discussion Before Joining It") explaining how to get started. A couple of real kickers in the article include:

• ...engage the user with highly relevant, targeted advertising...
• Understanding [that] the conversation is not about identifying keywords...
  
  Bonus: If you understand what this excerpt is really saying, then you know where advertising on the Internet will evolve:
  

  "If someone is talking enthusiastically about going skiing in Utah in March, they will react positively to skiing advertising and specific ski travel offers that fit their timing. If, however, they are talking about how they hate the cold weather and just don't understand why their friends spend money on skiing and winter holidays, those same skiing ads will have the opposite effect. This creates an experience that is bad for the user and bad for the advertiser. That's why the technology used to understand the conversation and to serve the ad must be sophisticated enough to understand the nuance in language. Just latching onto the keyword "skiing" is not sufficient. This is why current efforts are falling short."

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: DucDigital

Web 2.0 meets Puerto Rico

A friend of Dondequiera asked recently how the Internet could emerge as a valid marketing channel. My immediate reaction was good luck with that, but on second thought I said to myself, "That is a legitimate question! What would it take?"

However like anything I've ever done, before I can answer that question I need to obsess over, err I mean define, the background, context, and boundaries of what a possible answer might exist within. So in a series of posts, I'm going to answer, "What it would take for local marketers to embrace the Internet?"

The Web 2.0 experience in Puerto Rico

For me, a good place to start is to assume that the Internet is a wonderful marketing tool that helps many companies create powerful relationships with consumers. Recently this tool has transmorgified into being synonymous with Web 2.0. So by transference, let's assume in an overly generalized way, that successful Internet marketing relies upon Web 2.0. So a great question to answer is how has the Puerto Rican Internet community reacted to the Web 2.0 trend?

So, right there, IMHO, we've hit our head with a hammer. In general, again IMHO, the Puerto Rican Internet community has, with the exception of watching YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace, wholly ignored the Web 2.0 trend. There are pockets of participation, and you know who you are, but they are the extreme minority. So why is that? I think I've deduced the answer.

Unfortunately, it always seems to come back to this, but I believe that a zero-sum mentality prevents participation by the Puerto Rican Internet community. For those of you who haven't already read my rants about zero-sum theory. In game and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). The metaphor that is used to illustrate this theory is the pie. Imagine that everything we do can be symbolized by a pie. A pie that has already been divided up into pieces, and someone owns each of the pieces. There is no pie left over for new participants.

One of the characteristis of the Web 2.0 trend is the free creation of user generated content. Whether that content is photographs, videos, web pages, blogs, comments, etc., they all must be freely provided by the creator (user). The motivations for providing these free contributions vary, but some of the more compelling are recognition, creating realtionships, status, and self expression.

Let's examine some of these motivating factors. First, we must exclude creating relationships, because Puerto Rico is a face-to-face socially dominated culture. Hence one of the biggest culture shocks I've had since I got here. When discussing the trend for people to pay bills in person, I was told, "You don't get it. For Americans going to the bank is a transaction, but for a Puerto Rican it's a social opportunity." In some ways, this also explains why we should exclude self-expression, because that is done through conversations conducted in person (or more likely, on the cellular phone).

So we are left with status and recognition. In many social circles these characteristics are considered as important, if not more important, as money. As an example, IMHO, there is nothing more important in Puerto Rico than the perception that you are wealthy or important, or that you are closely related to someone that is. So if we can assume that status and recognition are as closely guarded as money and power, than it is clear why we don't participate in the Web 2.0 culture.

By contributing my content to your website for free, I'm essentially giving away my pie for free. Then, not only will I have less pie, the owner of the website will have more pie. As a dominate characteristic of our local business culture, we must therefore extrapolate that a zero-sum mentality exists when Puerto Ricans meet the Web 2.0.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: Vita Arina

Gran Depresión de Puerto Rico

I ran into an old co-worker over the weekend. Nice guy, kids, and a beautiful wife. Back when I knew him, he was a talented and charismatic salesmen. He climbed the corporate ladder with me, and I saw him demonstrate professional and responsible management of various parts of our company's sales function and eventually became manager of all of our retail stores.

When we both "downsized," I lost track of him. About a couple of years ago I was surprised and pleased to see that he had been selected to run a new retail store that was opening on the island. As bad luck would have it, he wouldn't last very long in that position because the company went into bankruptcy and recently shuttered its' doors.

So as we talked I was thinking to myself, "Damn what a bad time to be on the street looking for a job," especially a senior level sales or store management position. As are most of us, anyone who still has a "decent" job is holding onto it for dear life. Surprisingly, none of this seemed to phase my friend. He was actually pretty upbeat.

He explained that he had been doing some research and was going to open a "carrito" to sell tripletas. He said based on his research, some successful owners of roadside stands were pulling down around $2,000 a day. (That jives with a napkin calculation my wife and I did on a highly successful nightime hambaurger stand near our house. We calcuated that before expenses he was probably making $8,000 a week. His week was Wednesday night through Saturday night, four days).

He said he already had all the permissions and was now conducting a secret shopper exercise to determine the right price for his menu. His opinion, and who could blame him, was basically "pa' carajo," it's not worth risking your livelihood on a "real" job anymore. After so many let downs, he was going to be the Mr. Mom during the week and run the carrito on the weekends. If he can gross $1,200, no let's be conservative, $1,000 a day for Thursday through Saturday, he would be pulling down, tax free, $3,000 a week. That's $156,000 a year, tax free. His family gets their health care from his wife's job, so really, almost all of that is net profit.

Conclusion

I say more power to him, right? I mean he's been dicked around by the corporate world so much that, if I were him, I'd be pretty disillusioned about working for anyone else, ever again. Then again, depending upon your point of view, his move into the underground economy could be considered a great tragedy.

When highly talented, charismatic, and successful professionals decide to become street-side hotdog vendors, the end is nigh. I'm still not sure when, but if your keeping score at home, then you'll have to give this round to Puerto Rico's very own "Gran Depresión." For not only are we losing talent to the U.S in droves, we are now losing it to the underground economy. Either way it means one less planilla, one less contributor to Hacienda's income stream. Looking at my scorecard, I'd say that Puerto Rico's economy and government (and therefore any chance of economic recovery) is losing and the "Gran Depresión de Puerto Rico" has us on the ropes. The knockout blow should be coming any time now.

Is ignorance bliss? A visit to the pulguero.

Last weekend, my oldest daughter asked if we could stop at Walmart to buy her friends a few birthday gifts. I suggested stopping at a "pulguero" (flea market)*. I was curious about them, since I'd never been to one here in Puerto Rico. Plus, I thought that she might be able to pick up a few deals. I'm also a firm believer in voting with money. What's that you say? No I don't mean what our ex-governor is accused of participating in, no I mean choosing where to spend my money.

Believe it or not, every time we buy at Walmart, we are saying I want more cheap products made in China, available in a store like this. At the same time, we are saying I want less of any other type of store. Yes it is nationalistic, but we do have a choice! Whenever I can, I choose to give my business to the local pharmacy, the local tire shop, the small road side fruits and vegetables stand. I think you should too.

A visit to the pulguero

Anyway, I digress. So we're walking through the pulguero, taking it all in. I found the whole experience, very interesting, and quite impressive. While some of the vendors were just displaying their goods on tables, some had power. The vendors with power were located in old trailers (like goods transportation trailers), which had been modified. The modifications included the addition of power, telephone, and the means to store and lock merchandise into individual compartments.

What kind of merchandise was on sale? Well it ranged from jewelry, clothing, accessories, electronics, toys, shoes, and even kiosks for snacks. The most popular shops were those with jewelry and clothing. Hmm, does that mean that women are more frequent visitors to flea markets?

Ok, so here it comes. While some of the merchandise was either second hand or self-produced (homemade), a lot of the merchandise was name brand products. Where do these merchants get their products? While some were clearly knock-offs (cheaply produced products which are made to look like the real thing) some of the merchandise included Apple iPod Nanos. So, it is difficult to know whether the merchandise was a forgery or stolen.

Bottomline, the production of copy-cat products, which contain the unauthorized use of the trademark of a company, is a crime. To my knowledge, it is not a crime to buy them. However, it is a crime to purchase or accept property that you know or believe was obtained through theft. So the possibility that laws were broken, or are being broken at flea markets is high; especially the guys selling recordable CD's with popular artist's music and recordable DVDs with popular movie titles printed upon them. Those guys were clearly selling music and movies without the permission of the copyright holders, which everyone knows is a federal offense. We must also ALL acknowledge that ALL of these "businesses" are cash-based and therefore pay no income tax on the production and sales of goods, which is also a crime.

Conclusion and Dillema

As I have said, one of the challenges to our society and economy is the high level of crime. From littering to speeding, from running red lights to embezzling, from corruption to robbery and murder; we are surrounded by criminals. Just like voting with our money, I believe we also vote with our behavior. When someone we know breaks a crime and, in some way, we accept that action, then we are saying that breaking the rules (laws) is acceptable.

We can accept the crime by not saying anything to anyone about the crime, continuing a relationship with a criminal (yep, that's what you call someone who breaks the law, a criminal), or in general doing nothing. But we can also accept crime by benefiting from it. In this case buying forged or stolen goods. We also accept crime when we support a "business" that does not file a planilla.

In these desperate economic times, what do we do when asked to decide between accepting criminality and saving money? And if we choose to accept a crime, how clear will it be for our children and friends to make, let's say, the choice between stealing and buying something they want?

I know for most people, this debate never happens. Most of us see a bargain and ignore everything else. In these tough times, it's hard to blame them. However, what outrages me is when these very same people are surprised, shocked, and indignant when our headlines are dominated by domestic violence, murder, and political corruption.

In this gray soup of morality, we all struggle through. Hoping to "do good," praying that we are going up to heaven, while looking for a little rest, recreation, and relaxation. Most of us try to "do our best", profess our faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings or __________________(substitute your deity of choice here), while struggling with our humanity. A humanity which causes us to fail, contradict ourselves, lie, act vane, envy, and become selfish. And don't even get me started on the debate over acting moraly or ethically. I guess, for most people, they are ignorant to all these machinations.

It is true, ignorance IS bliss. If so, then I have to conclude that truth is grief, misery, sorrow, and unhappiness. Ask yourself! Which you would choose? Now tell me! Are you sure we don't live within an illusion? Tell me we do not prefer the illusion. Tell me we are not Cypher in the Matrix:

"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?"

[Takes a bite of steak]

Cypher: "Ignorance is bliss."

* I originally included the location of the flea market, but I dropped it to protect the guilty. Which is what this whole post was all about. It's very uncomfortable to encounter a crime in progress. It is even more uncomfortable to decide what to do about it.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: wsilver