Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei's sweeping cuts

[MilHojas]

‘I don’t want my training to go to waste’: the Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei’s sweeping cuts

Javier Milei’s government’s punishing budget cuts have forced researchers to take up work as electricians, school teachers or Uber drivers

www.theguardian.com

Archived version

 

[antipodean]

Argentine doctors in public hospitals have for a decade or more been working side jobs… but yes, Milei makes it newsworthy.

 

[redlobster]

Argentine doctors in public hospitals have for a decade or more been working side jobs…

Doing what, exactly?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Argentine doctors in public hospitals have for a decade or more been working side jobs… but yes, Milei makes it newsworthy.

Anecdotal, but I recall not too long ago my handy man brought a friend to help him hang some drywall for me. Come to find, the friend - an older gentleman, was a nurse who worked for public hospitals for a while. He explains that he dreads showing up for his personal medical visits because they won't stop asking him to come back. He used to help part time but they kept adding more shifts and he couldn't take the load anymore. Strange times...

 

[antipodean]

Doing what, exactly?

Private medicine, botox and aesthetic medicine, uber/ cabify etc. I’ve even met one who worked shifts at a hotel.

Ocho de cada 10 médicos tienen más de un empleo

Es uno de los problemas estructurales que fueron planteados después de la inédita marcha de los equipos de salud. Qué otros reclamos se sumaron al de la judicialización de la salud.

www.lavoz.com.ar

An article dating back to 2020 that gives some insight into the prevalence of the issue.

 

[redlobster]

Private medicine, botox and aesthetic medicine, uber/ cabify etc. I’ve even met one who worked shifts at a hotel.

I wouldn't call it a side job when a doctor does something related to medicine - that's just a second job. The example in the article, where an economic geographer works part-time as an electrician while keeping their main job, is clearly a side job.

And it's kind of ironic that you have to go back to the COVID times to find a worse situation.

 

[antipodean]

I wouldn't call it a side job when a doctor does something related to medicine - that's just a second job. The example in the article, where an economic geographer works part-time as an electrician while keeping their main job, is clearly a side job.

And it's kind of ironic that you have to go back to the COVID times to find a worse situation.

The issue of insufficient medical salaries did not start during COVID. If you speak Spanish, try talking to a doctor, ask them how many hours they work and when the last time their salary at a public hospital was enough to get by on and how many hours a week they work.

 

[carride]

The original post does not mention anything about medical doctors. Why is that the discussion here?

The news story is about scientific researchers who work for the national science council. The ones who do the real science to improve the industies that Argentina requires to grow the economy. Agriculture, medical industry, oil and gas, mining, etc all require this knowledge. The federal government has already invested in their skills and needs these people concentrating on their jobs, not how to put food on the table for their families. Over their careers they have studied around the world to gain these talents, which are now being inefficiently wasted instead of applied properly towards the ultimate goal of economic growth.

"His administration’s budget slashing has extended well beyond salaries. According to the UK’s Inter-University Council, Milei’s government has suspended contracts with academic publishing houses, in effect cutting off access to scientific journals; defunded all international cooperation programmes; and dismantled procurement systems for lab equipment and supplies."

 

[antipodean]

The original post does not mention anything about medical doctors. Why is that the discussion here?

The news story is about scientific researchers who work for the national science council. The ones who do the real science to improve the industies that Argentina requires to grow the economy. Agriculture, medical industry, oil and gas, mining, etc all require this knowledge. The federal government has already invested in their skills and needs these people concentrating on their jobs, not how to put food on the table for their families. Over their careers they have studied around the world to gain these talents, which are now being inefficiently wasted instead of applied properly towards the ultimate goal of economic growth.

Insufficient salaries in profesional public jobs is nothing new in Argentina. The article links it to Milei’s Argentina yet fails to mention that during the last government highly skilled professionals such as medical doctors were barely earning US$300 a month, having regular strikes, and were also forced to work second jobs as public sector scientists are also doing just so they could continue doing essential work for the community, saving lives, with all that knowledge they have dedicated their lives to learning.
Why does the article paint the issue as a new phenomenon and link it to Milei but chooses to ignore the decades old context of insufficient public sector professional wages in Argentina?

 

[Ries]

Doing what, exactly?

I had a cab driver a couple of years ago, just pre-milei, who was an emergency room physician, and drove taxi at nights and on weekends.