Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "Understanding Latin America." video.

  1. Of all the SoAm countries, I least understand Argentina. They keep recovering from the worst dictatorships and economic systems. Then they try the same thing over again.
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  2. My favorite latam joke: "gringo go home! .... and take me with you". Brazilian joke: One day one of the angels comes to God: "God, my assignment was Brazil, but there is a problem". God says "what's that?". Angel says, you have put a huge amount of land, wood, and mineral wealth into just one country!". God: "don't worry. Wait until you see the people I put there".
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  3. If Colombia had stayed unified, things would have been different. Brazil was large, had all the usual authoritarian/communist issues, but is emerging as the SOAM power state simply because of its size, population, and the amount of wealth it controls. I don't think you can say that the USA succeeded initially because of those factors. It was stable, and then it acquired a lot of territory fast.
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