About the dollar cost of living, crime, etcetera

[davonz]

I am not sure how people can say that the depreciation of the peso has effectively taken care of 50% of inflation in US$ terms.. here are my examples..

In oct 2007 i was getting around 3.15 pesos for a US$, last week it was 3.95, so thats an increase of 25%, or i am getting 25% more pesos for my US$.

In 2007 1 lt of milk cost me 0.90 pesos, now that same 1lt of milk costs me 3.29.. which is an increase of 366% in peso terms..
In US$ terms that same milk cost me US$ 0.29 in 2007, now US$0.83, an increase of 291%.. is this not correct ?

Other examples that i remember are: Buffet restuarant on lavalle - Was 8 pesos (US$2.54) for a meal, plus 1 peso added if you didnt buy a drink with it.. Now that same meal is 34 pesos (US$8.61).. 339% increase in US$ terms..

1/4 kg of ice cream.. Was 3 pesos now is 12 pesos.. 319% increase in US$ terms..

I remember the ice cream and cheap meal because i would think nothing of it to just have a meal and ice cream.. it was often as cheap to eat there as cook at home - or so little difference i didnt care.. now that isnt the case, and the ice cream has gone from being an almost daily treat to a weekly or bi-weekly treat.. i can buy 6 times as much ice cream in my home country for the 1/4 kg i buy here..

 

[dillster]

I was pickpocketed this year on the A line. Other than that I have not been a crime victim. I have contact with many Argentines through my job. All of them have been crime victims. In fact, I have noticed a jump. In the past month, I know 4 victims.

Regarding cost of living, things go up every week here. Quality is low and its the most polluted place I have ever seen, so quality of life here? You will see your lifestyle sink like a stone.

 

[jp]

I've been here since 2007. Quality of life for me is much higher than it was back home, and I earn pesos. I can afford to eat out more, take taxis more, see my friends more, live in a nicer part of town, buy better meat, wine and produce - there are loads of ways living here is more comfortable.

Crime is a worry, pollution depressing, travelling abroad expensive, buying imported electricals a joke - but if I was desperately unhappy here I'd leave.

 

[dennisr]

With all its faults and all its problems, will take Argentina. Visit London, mortgage everything for a dinner: $160.00. Tokyo, seven dollars for an apple. Hong-Kong, twenty-two dollars for a cup of coffee. Los Angeles, seventy-two dollars for a taxi, LAX to the Valley………….and the beat goes on………. It is still a bargain for this old fart. Utopia: "Once upon a time there was this place..."

 

[citygirl]

But again - I go back to my argument or question - most people here don't earn salaries in dollars. So discussing how it is a bargain (well...I'm not sure) if you have dollars still doesn't address my question about people who live here and earn here.

However, it seems to be the consensus that people are just spending what they have as opposed to worrying about tomorrow. Carpe diem I guess.

Re crime - well, I've posted about this before and been ridiculed but I will simply say that 90% of the people I know have been the victim of some type of crime and leave it at that.

 

[darmanad]

I am not sure how people can say that the depreciation of the peso has effectively taken care of 50% of inflation in US$ terms.. here are my examples..

In oct 2007 i was getting around 3.15 pesos for a US$, last week it was 3.95, so thats an increase of 25%, or i am getting 25% more pesos for my US$.
In 2007 1 lt of milk cost me 0.90 pesos, now that same 1lt of milk costs me 3.29.. which is an increase of 366% in peso terms..
In US$ terms that same milk cost me US$ 0.29 in 2007, now US$0.83, an increase of 291%.. is this not correct ?
Other examples that i remember are: Buffet restuarant on lavalle - Was 8 pesos (US$2.54) for a meal, plus 1 peso added if you didnt buy a drink with it.. Now that same meal is 34 pesos (US$8.61).. 339% increase in US$ terms..
1/4 kg of ice cream.. Was 3 pesos now is 12 pesos.. 319% increase in US$ terms...I remember the ice cream and cheap meal because i would think nothing of it to just have a meal and ice cream.. it was often as cheap to eat there as cook at home - or so little difference i didnt care.. now that isnt the case, and the ice cream has gone from being an almost daily treat to a weekly or bi-weekly treat.. i can buy 6 times as much ice cream in my home country for the 1/4 kg i buy here..

I can say that the change in the exchange rate of the dollar over the PAST TWO YEARS has compensated for about 50% of the inflation in pesos prices. Your examples are from 2007 prices. That is 3 years ago assuming your memory of dates as well as prices is accurate. While I can not (will not) dispute the accuracy of your specific examples, I can dispute that real inflation in the past 3 years in dollar purchasing power has been about 300% as you maintain. For example, my 96 peso dinner at Bar Norte cost $24 last night. I was eating at Bar Norte in Oct 2007 and that meal was not $8 (about 24 pesos). No way.
As for the 2 year time frame I posited one can calculate it as follows. If a widget cost $1 in 2008 and there was 27% inflation, it would cost $1.27 in 2009. If inflation continued at 27%, in 2010 the widget would cost $1.61. If the value of the dollar increased in that same time frame to $1.30 (30%) in purchasing power, it would compensate for about half the increase in peso prices. Do you think the true rate of inflation in peso prices over the last 2 years is much greater than 27% per year?

p.s. even though I spoke of 2 years, not 3, a quick and rough crunching of the numbers indicates that for the purchaing power of the dollar to fall 300% in THREE years as you maintain, the average annual rate of inflation would have to be about 75%. I do not think that is the case.

 

[SaraSara]

Lunch at the neighborhood restaurant, housekeeper wages, gardener, and ADT alarm monitoring have all gone up 100% since 2007.

 

[darmanad]

Oh, concerning taxis... when I arrived in 2005 it was .70 centavos on the meter when you got first got in the cab -- now what is it? $5.80? What is that? An 800% increase?

Yes cabs were cheap, but neither inflation nor NAFTA has gone up by 800% in 5 years.

Back in 2005 when the taxi drop was 70 centavos and the dollar was close to 3 pesos, taxis were not just cheap, they were ridiculously cheap. Things could not stay that way forever, not would it be fair. Even with the latest 26% increase in tariffs, BA taxis are still a bargain compared to other major world cities. That is true even as the dollar weakens against other currencies.

 

[mcaffa]

A large chunk of these people are probably paying with credit card, in lots of ''cuotas.'' Stop into any store that accepts credit cards and you'll find that you can usually pay in at least 3 to 6 monthly installments without any interest. And oftentimes for electronic items, in even more interest-free cuotas (12, 18, 24, 36).

For example, we just bought an LCD TV that we'll be paying off in 36 cuotas - only $110 pesos a month, no interest. For those who can rely on a steady income and won't max out their cards, this is not a bad deal at all. In my case, it works out perfectly since the price is in pesos and we will most likely be spending less in dollars down the line.

For those who aren't loaded and don't have credit cards, I really don't know how they do it. I guess they spend every extra dime they have so they can strut around in style. It seems that priorities are really different here.

Regarding crime - I also know many victims of violent and non-violent crime both here and in the interior.

But again - I go back to my argument or question - most people here don't earn salaries in dollars. So discussing how it is a bargain (well...I'm not sure) if you have dollars still doesn't address my question about people who live here and earn here.

However, it seems to be the consensus that people are just spending what they have as opposed to worrying about tomorrow. Carpe diem I guess.

Re crime - well, I've posted about this before and been ridiculed but I will simply say that 90% of the people I know have been the victim of some type of crime and leave it at that.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I am being completely serious - where the hell are people getting the money to shop? Is it "who the hell knows what will happen tomorrow so lets spend all our money today?" that is happening?,

This is a bad country to be an employed but if you are an entrepreneur, it is a paradise. For example, the chinese supermarket, these guys comes to Argentina because they have 12% profit in china and 45% in Argentina. On the other hand, soy is produced by big companies, farmers and pooles de siembra. The last means that 10 or more people unite and produce soy and share profits, this is one of the ways argentinians invest money instead of playing casino at the stock market.

Because I don't have kids, earn a salary in dollars and still wince every time I go out these days. Everything seems expensive to me. I took a cab from Canitas to Recoleta and it was 30 pesos. The price of clothes is astronomical. Lunch for two in a cheap place is 80 pesos. My health insurance is almost 900 a month.

As I said, bad country to be an employed. However, I pay 385 for Hospital Aleman, you should review your medical insurance, seems they are charging too much.

Seriously, where are people getting the money? Local salaries can't be keeping up with inflation. So how are people doing it? Putting it all on credit cards?

Argentinians don`t "put it on the credit cards", this is too American. People don`t have 15 credits cards in this country. People don`t take credit or mortage his asset and spend this money in gucci as happend in the US.
Argentinians buy using credit cards but esencially for TV, air conditioner, etc.

Inflation is not a big deal for argentinians.

About the rise of prices in dollars, don`t forget that the dollars is falling down too.

About salideras, they aren`t new. But it is at the screen now. I am a criminal lawyer and I can tell you that never was a biggest lack of clients as nowadays, so I trust more in this indicator than in the media that is against the goverment.

Regards