Argentines’ latest weapon against currency controls? Shopping abroad

[Mitch]

Yes you're right. It does sound like a blanket statement but I was talking about companies keeping the context of the OP in mind.

However, if you do want to talk about cruise liners, I never said companies or individuals for that matter should never pay any fee for the services they use. Ideally, there shouldn't be any subsidies given to any company at the expense of others who don't use them. When a government offers any service for no charge whatsoever, the fact is that the government in turn is increasing taxes on the general populace.

That's messed up.

If I use a service, you or anyone else shouldn't have to pay for it. I should pay the full price. Same is true for education, health care and whatever else you can think of.

If cruise liners use a service, they should pay for it and so should their passengers. Its not that hard to institute fees for services that one provides.

But if a cruise liner is taxed extra just because "its a big bad cruise liner that should help distribute wealth so a little kid can go to school". Well that's messed up too. No one is responsible for the well being of a third party that they never agreed to look after in the first place...

Oh well, I seem to be going off topic here.

Hmmm,,, good post.

 

[sesamosinsal]

Lol. Very funny. I laughed through most of your post. It was good fun read and I took it as that too, funny and not serious because you seem to have ignored most of what I said in your passion to defend your position.

You believe that everyone, no matter what, should take care of themselves. If they don't, then it is their fault. I am not advocating for zero personal responsibility. I think people need to be held responsible for their actions. At the same time, people make mistakes, and at other times, things that happen are of no fault of their own.

I know a few people working two or three jobs part-time just to keep their heads above water. They're paying off student loans, paying rent, paying their bills, etc, but they can't afford health insurance on their own (it's very expensive) and their employers don't provide access because they weren't hired full-time. (Some businesses in my state weasel around the law by only hiring employees for 39.5 hours a week to avoid paying them benefits that would have to paid for a 40 hour work week.) What if, for whatever reason, one of them has to be rushed to an ER? Of course, they'll get cared for, but they'll probably get a $50,000+ hospital bill on the way out. Could you pay for that working three part-time jobs at $7.76 USD/hour? Don't you see anything wrong with this picture? Or are you still laughing? Really classy, by the way.

My parents brought me up in a country that recognizes that basic, public education isn't a hand-out, but a necessity for the country to function, just like roads, policemen, firemen, military, etc. If the police and the military should be a government responsibility, why shouldn't roads, education, health care, etc.? Aren't they all extremely important aspects of maintaining a nation that is fully-functional, or even just economically?

 

[nicoenarg]

Yes Bradley I am still laughing because you still ignore my original points and still insist on talking it out here.

You're talking to me like I just stepped out of my palace to see what my peasants were upto and whacked one of them just for the heck of it.

Now I've mentioned this plenty of times on here that my father lost all his money in a business venture gone wrong. We sold our house, cars, furniture and whatever else we had to survive. Screw education and health care, we had to worry about where our next meal was going to come from. During this time, my dad had a stroke and he was paralyzed on his right side, unable to work.

All of this happened in a third world country with no government program or intervention designed to help. We didn't go beg anyone for money, or help. We came together as a family and made it out fine. Now my dad is healthy, albeit his stroke has left him permanently partially paralyzed, and we have doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs in our family. There is no one else to blame for what went wrong and no one to praise.

We did it on our own and that's a fact that I will repeat as many times as I feel necessary.

In fact, we wouldn't be as better off as we are if not for what we went through. It's called family Bradley. The government or the rest of the tax payers don't need to tell anyone that.

You can keep coming up with your theoretical BS (sorry but I've had enough of this academic view of poverty) it's not going to change the facts on the ground.

I'm done here. Like I said before, start another thread if you want to continue talking about it. And try not to talk to me like some rich King who doesn't know the plight of the general populace!

 

[sesamosinsal]

I'm done here. Like I said before, start another thread if you want to continue talking about it. And try not to talk to me like some rich King who doesn't know the plight of the general populace!

Well, I'm not the one saying that people who don't have health insurance should be left to die. I'm sure you wouldn't have favored such an idea if it involved your father.

We are both probably very fortunate people. If I fell, I know my family would be there to help me out as soon as they could. However, not everyone has this support structure. You may call it an "academic view," but it's reality. Some people's experiences vary drastically compared to yours and mine, which is what I tried to illustrate with real cases in the previous posts.

 

[Conorworld]

Wait...
If one argues that the reason Argentina is expensive because of labour and machinery are more expensive in Argentina (for various reasons) compared to other countries, that would imply that Argentina has always been an expensive country?

But it wasn't, especially during most of the last decade.

The way I see it is that Argentina is expensive NOW because of inflation coupled with a rigid exchange rate to the dollar. The space to maneouvre is getting smaller with inflation biting you form one side and the ceiling of a currency peg on the other. One of them will have to give.