ARG ranks 49 in Human Development Index

[fifilafiloche]

Oddly enough, i frequently talk with Argentine employees and the "it s too hot to work" argument would make them bounce. Working 12 hours a day is not rare when you start working and have no laws to protect you. In scandinavian countries, this is plain impossible, the legal and social environment wouldn t allow it, even by minus 20 degrees.

 

[Napoleon]

Don't think this has much to do with the quality of life of relatively rich westerners living in Argentina. In fact our quality of life is so good because labour is cheap amongst other things.

This does not make me want to run off to Norway!!!

Now, if you saw what the average girl looks like in Norway (and if you have a thing for fit blonde-haired blue-eyed angels), then THAT might make you want to run off to Norway... at least for about 3 or 4 months out of the year.

Norway's niiiiicccceeeee in the summer time.

 

[fifilafiloche]

Norways moskitoe invasion in summertime is worth Buenos Aires anytime

 

[orwellian]

Norway sucks. If you like blondes, go to Stockholm or Copenhagen. At least they are cities worth living in.

 

[ssr]

These surveys are useless as they judge peoples lives by solely materialism . Norway is a case of point with the worlds highest standard of living by GDP terms and also one of the worlds highest suicide rates. If people standards of life were based on material benefit only this would be the opposite.

Argentina and Brazil have very low suicide rates and why is this? Its because that people are actually more happier here and have time to enjoy their lives .

Some Norwegian girl once told me that they have an expression in Norway, that translates roughly into "luxury problem" in English, to describe why some stupid Norwegians choose to live out on the streets and get addicted to heroine (she seemed to think there was a pretty large heroine problem up there but she may have been exaggerating a bit). So, yeah, all the money and security in world doesn't guarantee anyone happiness. People have a tendency to create their own problems (particularly the young, hormonal and rebellious).

But poverty is most certainly not the key to happiness, either. The stress of not knowing where your next meal is going to come from or that you may never find steady income or a solid roof or that your daughters are prostituting themselves isn't fun for anyone. I'm sure there is plenty of unhappiness in the villas here in Argentina, and in the favellas over in Brazil, and no shortage of folks who consider suicide often. I'm sure there is also no shortage of folks who would greatly prefer the benefits of being a Norwegian, "luxury problems" and all, to their lives of hopeless poverty here.

 

[Moxon]

The Norway thing is something of a myth. They have never to my knowledge had one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Sweden did have quite high rates in the 70's (ABBA?) but they have declined significantly since, maybe the misconception came from those days and just stuck for Scandinavia as a whole (although Finland is up there). Neither does Norway have the highest standard of living by GDP, this is only part of the HDI calculation. Here is Norway with compared to some Southern Cone countries from this table (suicides /100 000):

Argentina 8.7 (53rd)
Chile 10.4 (47th)
Norway 11.6 (39th)
Uruguay 15.1 (25th)

Uruguay has always been something of a regional anomaly, I'm sure some Argentines could make some interesting contributions as to why.

Anyway, the HDI has never tried to represent itself as a 'happiness' index - its about developmental economics, and was introduced to get a more complete picture from the days when GDP per capita was considered the most accurate way to gauge one nation's development against another's (and, no, neither is it a survey).

 

[arty]

Oddly enough, i frequently talk with Argentine employees and the "it s too hot to work" argument would make them bounce. Working 12 hours a day is not rare when you start working and have no laws to protect you. In scandinavian countries, this is plain impossible, the legal and social environment wouldn t allow it, even by minus 20 degrees.

they use any excuse not to work..... and when they do work, most of the time is spent on the cell phone, sipping mate and chatting about anything except work. it's amazing anything gets done

 

[orwellian]

they use any excuse not to work..... and when they do work, most of the time is spent on the cell phone, sipping mate and chatting about anything except work. it's amazing anything gets done

Who doesn't? Watch the movie Office Space. That's so how it is being a programmer and working in an office.

 

[arty]

Who doesn't? Watch the movie Office Space. That's so how it is being a programmer and working in an office.

well, i only make money when i work, and the more i work, the more money i make. funny how that works!

i haven't worked in an office since 2001 and i never have, nor will i ever, wear a silk leash to work each day.

if you choose to have a shit job, then yeah, screw off all day long. but when you work a job where you interact with the public (something I haven't had to endure since college) then maybe you should step up and do it. i hate waiting in line at the bank while the teller is texting on her cell phone. or waiting in line at the airport while everyone behind the counter is chatting and not working.

 

[steveinbsas]

well, i only make money when i work, and the more i work, the more money i make. funny how that works!

i haven't worked in an office since 2001 and i never have, nor will i ever, wear a silk leash to work each day.

if you choose to have a shit job, then yeah, screw off all day long. but when you work a job where you interact with the public (something I haven't had to endure since college) then maybe you should step up and do it. i hate waiting in line at the bank while the teller is texting on her cell phone. or waiting in line at the airport while everyone behind the counter is chatting and not working.

Well said!

The sooner wannabe expats realize that Argentina isn't going to come close to (easily) fulfilling their fantasies the better.