Comparsion of supermarket prices Montevideo vs BA

[SinPulgas]

the reason Argentina has Ford, Fiat, Toyota, and Renault/Citroen factories is not the size of the country. Its only 40 million people. Columbia has more people, and fewer factories. Peronism, since the 40s, has been tipping the scales towards Industria Argentina. Its why there are still steel mills, stamping plants, textile mills, shoe factories, mass production of hand tools, transformers, food prep equipment, commercial laundry machines, and dozens more industrial products here, and many of those things are no longer made in the USA, which has just a few more people.
When i buy screws, or a hammer, or fabric, in the USA, its made in China. When I buy it here, its Industria Argentina.

Every law, every regulation, every tariff, every bureaucrat benefits somebody, and hurts somebody else, economically.
Argentina has laws that have kept industry here. Uruguay, and the US, do not.
This was intentional, and, to a large degree, it worked.
Uruguay does not have a similar industrial policy.
They have hitched their wagon to tourism, liberal banking laws, and some exports of raw materials.
In many many social measurement caterories, from literacy to life expectancy to education, Uruguay and Argentina are very very similar.
The big difference is the government here decided to build things, and there, to raise cows.

An Overview of the Economic History of Uruguay since the 1870s – EH.net

eh.net

If you're making a defense of Peronism (and I'm not sure that you are), you have a captive audience of about 15 million people in a world of 8 billion (0.19%). Please don't count me in.

 

[Reply Guy]

The free market. Plus, due to having no import controls, virtually nothing is made there. Imports are expensive. In Argentina you can buy a new Fiat Chronos car made here for $10,000 USD, or an imported car for double or triple what it costs where its made. A new porsche SUV is a quarter million dollars in Vincente Lopez at the dealer. In Uruguay, everything more complicated than a bottle of coke is imported.

Under that logic Paraguay would be expensive like Uruguay too and it isn't.

 

[Ries]

Under that logic Paraguay would be expensive like Uruguay too and it isn't.

Uruguay has not been a dictatorship for 40 years. Paraguay has never emerged from being run by nazis, oligarchs, and a corrupt military, and, of course, it has no beaches. It’s also very poor, racist, and has 1/10 th the economyof Argentina . But neither paraguay nor uruguay has an industrial base, and that is the difference that keeps argentina going. Without that industrial base, we will pay more for imports, which both other countries do.

 

[sergio]

Mr Ries, what is that little drawing next to "Ries"?

 

[Quilombo]

Uruguay reminds me a lot of Canada compared to the United States; the boring, more expensive, if more stable version of the larger neighbor, that's basically the same country separated by a river/49th Parallel.

I think people forget just how small Uruguay is, it has 3.4 Million people, and it's population is flat thanks to Argentines moving there, otherwise it would have a negative growth rate, vs. Argentina which is over 13x more populated. While liberal economic policy (especially in smaller countries) can be a double-edged sword, Uruguay is basically CABA, and this is going to effect economies of scale. It's also been historically interconnected to Argentina's economy, meaning investment/tourism/etc. by Argentines when things are less bad here, and malaise or worse when we're in a hyper inflationary such as now.

 

[Reply Guy]

Uruguay has not been a dictatorship for 40 years. Paraguay has never emerged from being run by nazis, oligarchs, and a corrupt military, and, of course, it has no beaches. It’s also very poor, racist, and has 1/10 th the economyof Argentina . But neither paraguay nor uruguay has an industrial base, and that is the difference that keeps argentina going. Without that industrial base, we will pay more for imports, which both other countries do.

You said the reason Uruguay was expensive was the following:

"The free market. Plus, due to having no import controls, virtually nothing is made there. "

The same goes for Paraguay. Yet Paraguay is much cheaper than Uruguay, and only slightly more expensive than Argentina overall.

What's keeping prices lower in Paraguay is that they are run by Nazis and don't have beaches?

I don't follow your logic.

 

[FrankPintor]

At least leave the beaches out of it... Paraguay does indeed have beaches, as I can personally confirm, having stayed a week in Encarnacion early last year.

 

[Reply Guy]

At least leave the beaches out of it... Paraguay does indeed have beaches, as I can personally confirm, having stayed a week in Encarnacion early last year.

Yep, you know someone doesn't have a sound argument when you ask them to explain why the free market and imports aren't making things as expensive in a neighboring country and they go on a rant about beaches and nazis.

 

[Ries]

Mr Ries, what is that little drawing next to "Ries"?

That is a photo of a Jarra Pinguino, a ceramic wine pitcher uniquely Argentine. This particular one is a "Smoking", which means Tuxedo in Lunfardo, and he is wearing one. I have been collecting these for 15 years or so. They were originated in Tigre, and many were made there.

 

[Ries]

Yep, you know someone doesn't have a sound argument when you ask them to explain why the free market and imports aren't making things as expensive in a neighboring country and they go on a rant about beaches and nazis.

My point is simple. If you manufacture things in Argentina, you pay less for them than if you import them from abroad.
Paraguay manufactures virtually nothing. Uruguay manufactures essentially nothing.
Both import all kinds to things, and pay world prices for them. Paraguay is relatively broke, so they import less.
The average monthly wage in Uruguay is triple that of Paraguay, so yes, Paraguay is cheaper.
But it doesnt really seem like changing the Argentine economy to one based on how Paraguay does things is going to be popular.

Argentina manufactures an incredible variety of things, which argentines take for granted, almost all of which are no longer made in the USA, but imported from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and so on.
But its absolutely true, and I would say, a sound argument, that the beaches of Paraguay attract far fewer tourist dollars than the ones in Punta. Paraguay is the least visited country in South America, after Guinea and Surinam.