A culture that looks out for each other

I've mentioned before my frustrations with the banking system of Argentina. My head breaks when I think about it and I end up with a headache. In reality though, I'm a temporary resident, Argentines deal with this all the time.

This got me thinking as I noticed 2 interesting elements of human behavior the past few weeks.

The other night I was walking home from work, on a busy street in Buenos Aires, which cuts through the middle of Palermo Soho. It was about 7pm, a very busy time and there were about 20 people within 30 feet of each other, mostly walking or waiting for the bus. An older woman, probably in her early 50s stumbled and fell, right on her stomach. Her purse flew from her hands during the fall. All 20 people rushed to her aid, helping her up, grabbing her purse to hand right back to her, and tending to her, ensuring she was ok. They led her to a doorway to catch her breath and stayed with her for a few minutes. I couldn't really do much since the crowd had her taken care of, so I just looked on. In a city full of stories of muggings, pickpockets, and self absorbed Portenos in a rush, this was a nice sight to see.

The second example was my first week in B.A. I was in the central business district in the morning, walking towards a taxi stand. I saw a cab was just pulling to the corner to drop someone off. I waved at the driver as I walked towards him to get in. I figured he'd be excited, being able to go from one fare to the next without interruption, a nice morning for a taxi driver. Well, instead of welcoming me, he made eye contact and pointed towards the taxi driver who pulled his cab to the left of him. The gesture was saying, I just had a fare, let me look out for my fellow driver and give him a fare. The other driver drove for a different company and it didn't look like they knew each other. The other driver honked his thanks, waved, and off we were. When I saw this, my reaction was this would never happen in San Francisco. A city of me, me, me. It restored my faith in humanity that people do look out for each other.

How this ties back to the economy. Maybe it's similar to how Chicagoans look out for each other during a snow storm, shoveling their neighbor's sidewalk or helping push their car out of a ditch. When you and your neighbor experience a tough time, to no fault of either of you, it gives a feeling of we're in this together and although we don't know each other, we're humans and I've got your back.