June 1, 2008

The Magically-Appearing Mechanic

I have no idea who this guy is, but that's my family's car. 
It's a bit of a P.O.S., and on the way to lunch in the mountains it broke down. We hadn't even come to a complete stop before this guy pulls up right in front of us, jumps out, pops the hood, and gets to work unscrewing things. He fixed the problem, whatever it was, within 15 minutes. He asked $80 for his services. We coughed it up. The afternoon conversation often came back to whether that was literal highway  robbery or not. It's a lot of money, but if this happened in the US, you'd be waiting an hour for a tow truck, then you'd have to leave your car in a garage for several days, only to pay an assload. 
By comparison, 80$ to have your own on-the-spot personal service (that appears out of nowhere) ain't too bad, but for this country that's quite a chunk of change.

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