Learning To Fly

I can only speak from my experience. Where I came from, bartering and bargaining were seen as despicable. It was considered a terrible way to do business, a crappy sales technique. My background is NYC aspirant working class, Protestant, white, US mutt. Until my generation everyone was a Republican, and some still are. Buying goods was a necessity of life and it was a rule to never do business where you haggled over a price. A price was a price, and if there was any question you didn't buy from that seller. It was akin to dishonesty, and who would deal at all with someone you didn't trust? But other parts of the world, other peoples, have a very different viewpoint. They think you'd be a fool to pay what a vendor first asks. You want the goods, but that doesn't mean you'll pay what s/he wants for it. After all, why shouldn't you bargain for the best you can get at the least cost? Money is valuable. Offer what you want to pay, and see if it floats. Then maybe strike a happy medium. ( I never knew a happy medium, they were all very unhappy. And I never had a good reason to strike one). So that seems to me a huge cultural difference problem. Like trading between the Europeans and the Vikings, there's mistrust. That's a huge problem. But we all need to stretch ourselves these days or we won't survive. All we really need to do is recognize and realize our differences- without judgment. Is that hard? Not if you're conscious of it. Just tell each other that's not how you operate and communicate to a balance and understanding. We can end up laughing and being friends. It's all in your hands, heads and hearts, every moment. We can all learn to fly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlcTDNaerQU