Before talking about the Average Chilean it is convenient to point out two aspects that directly involve it, such as Postmodernism and the neoliberal economic model.
Postmodernity arises in France, in the sixties in connection with the student revolution of May 1968, it proposes a rejection of the Enlightenment and the enlightened concepts: the spontaneous, the autonomous subject, the rational. It potentiates No identity or unity, but differences and multiplicity. Establish new types of information and knowledge. New technologies. Cultural fragmentation. New modes of experience, subjectivity and culture. Modification of the experience of space and time. In political matters critical to discourses and institutionalized forms of power.
It denies causality in favor of multiplicity, plurality, fragmentation, and indeterminacy. It abandons the rational and unified subject of modernity in favor of a fragmented, socially and linguistically decentered subject. Debate in the fields of architecture, art, cinema, aesthetics and culture. Its main characteristic is the break with modernity.
The neoliberal model favors the liberation of the markets, the promotion of exports, the reduction of the fiscal deficit and public spending, the privatization of public companies, the opening to financial markets. It is in Chile where the first states of change of the neoliberal model occur, and it is with the administration of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan when the model begins to take hold and spread worldwide.
For the model, the individual is considered a consumer, who acts fundamentally by promoting individualism, selfishness and ambition. His desire to "be more" of progress is expressed in his desire to "have more", in consumerism. Everything about him is motivated by selfishness and it is ethically acceptable as long as it does not violate the laws of the market.
The average Chilean has the vision that we are only bad for soccer and tigers for everything else, that despite earthquakes we are a solid nation, that our flag and the national anthem is one of the most beautiful in the world, that pure Chile is your blue sky and we are not a half country.
But, in practice we know how it is? That makes? What do you think? this Chilean at heart.
The average Chilean has 10.3 years of schooling, that is, until the second year of middle school. Now if we think that the great opportunity for the modernization of the country, to make an important qualitative and quantitative leap compared to developed countries, the figures are not very encouraging. The strategy basically aims at prolonging the study or permanence day in the educational establishment, not at improving the quality of Chilean education. The Chilean allocates 5% of his income to education, which represents a per capita expense of $ 109,000
His reading habits are very low, this implies that the ability to understand and manage the language is very poor. Carlos Cousiño sociologist from the Catholic University pointed out "that 80% of the population had trouble understanding the instructions for a jar of powdered milk to prepare a bottle." To this we must add the decrease in interest in science and technology.
In other words, our average Chilean has a low level of education to face the demands of the new modern society. International tests carried out in the verbal area and in science and mathematics demonstrate this, Chile occupies the last places.
In terms of their socioeconomic distribution, we find that the high groups represent 15% of the population, the middle groups 65% of the population and the poorest today are 2% of the population. Of these, 84% live in urban areas and 16% of the population live in rural areas of the country. Today's media groups are the most interesting target for companies, for which they offer various products and services, such as bank checking accounts, condominiums in emerging communes, resorts in resorts on the central coast, entertainment venues, meeting rooms cinema, malls. It is a matter of seeing the development of communes such as La Florida and Maipú.
This Chilean at heart is special in political matters as he votes for candidates from the right and left, more with a pragmatic than ideological sense. That is, they look for those candidates for mayors or parliament who have a more executive profile or who "do things". People are looking more for a solution to their individual problems than to the common good. It also shows a growing lack of expectations vis-à-vis political parties.
It should be noted that what weighs most on this individual are the modern political advertising campaigns that have managed to convert today's voter into a consumer of utilitarian political products strategically launched on the market. This makes those candidates who have more resources for their campaigns achieve better exposure and recall, and ultimately, the greater the investment, the greater the probability of choice. Hence, a couple of minutes of television on a high-rated program, doing anything, are worth much more than several hours of political activity.
It manifests a growing distrust towards companies, towards the State that is not synonymous with progress and the common good.
In public, it is "politically correct", in some way influenced by the behavior of television "opinion leaders", who, with honorable exceptions, emit some type of opinion that the establishment will tell. He is conservative and gregarious in spirit. However his private speech is quite the opposite
His behavior towards the media is quite particular, for example the most listened to radio is Oasis, which preferably broadcasts music from the 60s, the newspaper The Clinic reads, it does not buy newspapers, but it reads those of free distribution such as Publimentro and La Hora in the morning. For a long time his favorite radio programs were the Chacotero Sentimental and the Bonvallet program, true "leaders" of opinion for the great mass.
In terms of television consumption, it has a marked preference for national programs, National Television television series, stellar programs and programs from the heart or where the details of the private lives of the "famous" or type programs that are broadcast to six in the afternoon where the great contribution is made by "musical" groups like Ashe Bahía "a real boom in Chile, apparently they are from Brazil. In other words, his great interest and cultural dominance is related to the life of Titi Aubert, the Carlita Ochoa who will surely write her memoirs soon (in fact she already pointed out "that she had written the front part of the book"), which without place doubts will be great literary sales successes as they are today "My name is Anita Alvarado" by the author of the same name or Marcelo Ríos,in the glory and the reverse or the wonderful life of Don Francisco.
He is a person connected to the world through cable television, that if he demonstrates his typical national behavior, "he is hanging" at the neighbor's house. Regarding the Internet, his preferences are basically aimed at visiting triple XXX pages, although he is obviously part of the private discourse, visiting pages on television channels, reading the covers of electronic media and consulting the results of gambling. If it is a means to communicate with others through chat, it is a matter of connecting from nine o'clock at night and we will realize the number of individuals talking about the most varied topics, sex, profanity and countless stupidities.
Free email via Hot Mail, Yahoo.com or Latin mail is another widely used medium to send any kind of thing, jokes, cheap philosophy, chains of all kinds and porn images, among other high-level cultural content. To the above we must add, the large number of misspellings and the conciseness of the messages. In some surveys carried out by some channels, it is clearly demonstrated that the Internet associates it with “email”.
The average Chilean, globally or reluctantly, is globalized in one way or another and is part of it. The phenomenon of globalization is unstoppable, and its effects will be felt, with a growing impact, in every society. Although some think that the phenomenon of globalization has a preponderance mainly in the commercial and financial area, nevertheless, it is becoming clearer every day that it is affecting and shaping the immediate future worldwide.
From the point of view of their religion, 70% declare themselves Catholic, however, a large majority agrees to legislate on divorce, with premarital relationships and sexual tolerance. The above can be illustrated with some figures, marriages decreased from 91,000 in 1992 to 73,000 in 2001. Acceptance of divorce in 10 years increased by 66%. Annulments increase and there is a marked decrease in extended families, this is reflected in an increase in "births without a book." Finally, people declare themselves more unfaithful to their partner, they are women.
From the point of view of solidarity, their contributions are made preferably through the church or institutions such as the Hogar de Cristo, according to figures published in the morning, 71% of donations in Chile are received by this organization. The Telethon is the other expression of solidarity that each year in the month of November moves our character.
The postmodern economic model fosters a world society model based solely on efficiency and competitiveness standards where "giving" is more a care than a solidarity attitude. Hence, the average Chilean is supportive through institutions that efficiently manage resources.
As a postmodern individual said, he believes more in legal justice than in social justice.
One of the characteristics that this average Chilean has is its xenophobic trait, according to a study by the company Pisos Search Marketing. 53% of Chileans reject the arrival of foreign immigrants, in particular, those from Bolivia 59%, Peruvians with 58% and Argentines with 55% rejection. The main reason is that it comes "to take away our jobs."
This is reinforced by a study by the Ideas Foundation that in March 2002 detected that 67% of Chileans believe that Peruvians and Bolivians who come to look for work should not have political rights since they are not a contribution to the development of country.
Apart from his xenophobic character, the Chilean is distrustful, which makes it difficult for him to ask for favors, to claim, it is difficult for him to recognize that he has problems and he does not like to show signs of weakness in front of his fellow countrymen.
One of its main consumption situations is the celebration of special days, Father's Day, Children's Day, Grandfather's Day and especially Mother's Day. The malls, restaurants, hotels carry out events, promotions, gifts of cars, money on purchases and countless utensils, flowers, chocolates, etc. Our consumer actively participates during those special days of consumption and especially of all kinds of promotions since according to some figures published in some media indicate that 85% take advantage of them "due to the crisis."
His behavior as a consumer is also changing, he considers himself more unfair compared to brands than traditional brands, he buys his own or white brands, he is a much more informed consumer, aware of his rights, more aggressive, concerned about his physical health and safety and mainly seeks to have fun.
Our Chilean at heart product of over communication and exposure to the media is better informed about the different brands present in the market. They are price sensitive, especially in times of recession or crisis. Every time he spends less time consuming, privileging other activities such as walking, staying at home or sharing with his few friends. In this area, it is worth highlighting a study carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Catholic University in which it was found that Chileans have an average of 3.3 friends, unlike other societies where the average is much higher.
It should be noted that the average consumption expenditure in Chilean households grew 97% in the 1990-2000 decade.
Per capita consumption of Chileans in some categories of food products can be seen in the following table
| Bread | 90 kilos |
| Milk | 127 liters |
| Fruits and vegetables | 40 kilos |
| Came | 17.8 liters |
| Drinks | 98 liters |
| Beer | 27 liters |
| Red meats | 29 kilos |
| Poultry meats | 30 kilos |
| Fish | 7 kilos |
It is important to note that the consumption of cell phone subscriptions reaches 5,271,565. People with Internet connections are estimated to be close to three million. The computer park increases considerably as well as the consumption of durable goods such as televisions and microwaves, among others.
Another important fact is the departure of Chileans abroad, which in nine years (between 1989 - 1998) grew by 75%. To show a button, how many Chileans got into debt to go to the World Cup in France 98 to see the national team?
The distribution of the average expenses of the Chilean family reaches a national level of $ 593,000 per month, which it distributes as follows:, 8% of its income destined to buy clothes
- 26.8% of their income goes to a family for food. 14% goes to lease / dividend payment. 9.4% of income to household equipment. 12.7% of the income goes to transportation. 5.5% of their income goes to recreation. 5.5% of their income goes to health.
An important fact published in the newspaper El Mercurio is that there are groups in society that allocate 45% of their monthly income to pay debts or loans.
To finish, the question must be asked if the Average Chilean is a postmodern consumer? Who is for the simplification of life, the control of his destiny, personal and work, the renewed focus on the family and has an increasing need to fill his emotional vacuum or is an individual who is only concerned with succeeding in the logic that if he is unable to compete he is condemned to marginalization and failure.
The place in the consumer society must be earned by oneself, in direct competition with others.
