Why being “vivo” might actually mean the opposite of what we think
In our country people always praise someone for being “vivo”, as a matter of fact being vivo might be
more highly valued than being smart. But what does it exactly mean to be vivo?
The Salvadorian definition would definitely include phrases like: Not letting others full/harm you, finding
an easy way to make more with less effort and not getting caught when you do something wrong. Sadly
evidence has shown us that these types of attitudes cause more harm than good and that being “vivo” is
actually the opposite of being smart1
The first reason for why being “vivo” is not smart is because it values short term benefits over long term
benefits. If being offered $10 today or $10 at the end of the year and at the end of every year for the
rest of your life, everyone in his/her sane mind would choose the later. However, that is not how our
society as a whole seems to make decisions.
One does not need to look further than at our agriculture where our soils, once one of our most
valuable assets has deteriorated2 from abusive mono-cropping, Agriculture as percentage of DGP has
steadily declined over the last 5 years3, which would be fine if the decline meant the Salvadorian
economy is industrializing and moving to more productive sectors. Unfortunately that is not the case in
El Salvador, where services and “remesas” seem to be holding the economy from collapsing, while
Salvadorian farmers seem content to continue to harvest the same crop year after year with diminishing
results.
Another example of long term blindness is fixing things “para mientras”. Who hasn’t heard another
person say fix it at the minimum cost and effort, I don’t want to spend what fixing it for good would
cost. It seems like the attitude is to let someone else deal with that problem later. Guess what? That
someone else is very likely to be yourself in the future.
An undeniable evidence of this mentality is the low levels of investment on infrastructure from both the
private and public sector. Great infrastructure makes people more productive, investing in infrastructure
should be a key component of the competitive strategy of any country or company. El Salvador invests
14.11% of it GDP not only below the level required to foster economic growth but sadly below the level
to maintain our current productivity. Simple things like getting to work on time can become a challenge
if the roads that take us there are not enough to handle the level of traffic. It’s pretty difficult to
estimate the total cost of the time spent in traffic due to poor roads but we can safely conclude that a
tired/stressed person is less productive than someone who doesn’t struggle just to get to the office.
The second reason why being vivo is not smart is because it prioritizes individual benefit over social
benefit. We don’t have to go as far as to point corruptions cases, looking at everyday behavior suffices.
From people cutting in line to other common activities like stopping in the middle of the road to drop
someone instead of driving off the main road to avoid causing unnecessary traffic.
If you are the “vivo”, you win, you just saved time, if you are the one still in line, sorry, you are not
“vivo” enough. What the aggressor (“vivo”) does not see is that his/her behavior encourages the same
type of behavior from others and would lead to him/her being on the opposite end of the situation
more and more often.
Trying to get personal gain from the detriment of somebody else is not only unethical but irrational
within the context of any society. Being a member of a society implies that you will be part of recurrent
transactions with the other members of your society. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice… well
we all know the saying. You can only be “vivo” with someone once and destroying any chance you have
at cooperation leads to sub-optimal long term results.
Not all people in a society behave the same but it seems that there are some societies that value long
term over short term more than others and also value social benefit more than others, so it is really
important to identify what values, circumstances and social systems drive these behaviors so we can
encourage really smart behaviors in our society.
We will address these questions in another column
1- To put it kindly, my editor convinced me not to use a 7 letter word that cannot be printed
2- http://www.marn.gob.sv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=1:noticiasciudadano&id=1464:ministro-rosa-el-salvador-ha-llegado-a-un-grado-de-degradacionambiental-que-amenaza-su-desarrollo-
3- https://www.quandl.com/c/economics/agriculture-share-of-gdp-by-country