Argentina Ranks 4Th On Cato Institute Misery Index

[Caliexpat]

[background=transparent]Argentina: The eighth biggest country in the world and home to Buenos Aires, Argentina ranked fourth as the unhappy nation with a misery index of 43.1. This is mostly attributed to high inflation. It is struggling with a weakening economy and rapidly rising inflation, which currently stands at roughly 30 percent. The constant hike in prices and a sharp devaluation in the currency earlier this year had set off hundreds of smaller protests. Argentina's currency crisis and economic depression are mainly because of the government's bad policies, economist Kurt Schuler said. [/background]
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http://www.siliconindia.com/news/general/Top-10-Least-Happy-Countries-in-the-World-nid-165820-cid-1.html [/background]

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Measuring Misery around the World[/background][background=transparent]
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/measuring-misery-around-world [/background]

 

[Matiasba]

do you believe in these rankings?

 

[Redpossum]

One question, when was the last time Kurt Schuler visited Argentina?

Cago en la leche del Cato Institute.

 

[Davidglen77]

I don't really think this is an appropriate forum for this topic. Reason being many expats live on dollars converted to the blue rate and will never experience what 90% of the people here deal with in terms of devaluation, constant inflation, poor public services and an overall lack of seriousness on the part of the government.
Many Argentines will agree with this, and most expats will not. Those who live on a peso income will tend to agree.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I don't really think this is an appropriate forum for this topic. Reason being many expats live on dollars converted to the blue rate and will never experience what 90% of the people here deal with in terms of devaluation, constant inflation, poor public services and an overall lack of seriousness on the part of the government.
Many Argentines will agree with this, and most expats will not. Those who live on a peso income will tend to agree.

Of course it's an appropriate topic, unless you believe that it's impossible for the relatively prosperous to empathize with their poorer counterparts. That said, the Cato Institute does not exactly rank highly on any empathy scale.

 

[steveinbsas]

I don't really think this is an appropriate forum for this topic. Reason being many expats live on dollars converted to the blue rate and will never experience what 90% of the people here deal with in terms of devaluation, constant inflation, poor public services and an overall lack of seriousness on the part of the government.
Many Argentines will agree with this, and most expats will not. Those who live on a peso income will tend to agree.

No one I interact with has a dollar income. Not one of them is happy with the Argentine government, but no one I know is going to let that ruin their lives.

 

[Alicia karr]

I found the article interesting because I'm an ecomicsignorante...but it's conceptual basis was easy enough for even me to understand and utterly believable. Makes a lot of (unfortunate) sense to me. I get more miserable every week I do my grocery shopping here.

 

[Rich One]

One question, when was the last time Kurt Schuler visited Argentina?

Cago en la leche del Cato Institute.

Like your swear words jajajajaj lots of icreativity jajjaja wonder what it means....?

(Me) Cago en la leche del Cato Institute...?? La leche del Cato? Is the Cato Institute also into dairy products production, jajajaja

Add this saying to your repertoire !! Pastelero a tus Pasteles!! :wub:

You seem to know when Schuler was here last ? Please educate us?

 

[EdRooney]

David, I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the BAExpats demographic.

From looking at most of the polls and comments here, the posters on this site tend to be far more anti-oficialismo than do most Argentines (notwithstanding whether or not they earn in Blue dollars). For example, I ran a "Peronism and Democracy" poll here that showed that some 90% of the voters thought Peronism was vastly negative for the country. Meanwhile, the Peronists are by far the most popular party in the country. I.e., expats tend to be far less supportive of the government than the natives-- and it's the natives that earn in pesos!

I'm not saying your view of the government is wrong, I'm just saying that you seem to have it backwards when you say "[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]Many Argentines will agree with this, and most expats will not".[/background] The majority opinion here tends to reflect (as one would expect) the interests of expats, who generally are better off financially and live overwhelmingly in the richer areas of Cap Federal. Meanwhile, that is not at all representative of Argentina, as can be seen in the elections here, where barrios like Palermo and Recoleta inevitably vote in the opposite direction of the majority of the country.

I know you've been here a considerable amount of time, and that you've been around the Argentine block more than most expats here, so I don't take it lightly to take issue with something you say, but while I think you're right when you say we expats run the danger of getting trapped in a sort of expat bubble, I think you might have the bubble backwards.

 

[Ceviche]

Most of the Argentines, I meet earn in local currency. They do not look miserable to me or looking to leave their country. Their are many horrendous countries in this world where lot of bad things happen to local people of that land. I don't think Argentina is one of them. And I am not even talking about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Congo, South Sudan etc

Yes, the country is not rocking and propering but their are lot of good things here which the locals enjoy.