How Do Wealthy Expats Live In Argentina

Celia, I beg to differ.

Many people acknowledge that these very wealthy foreigners spend money that in other conditions wouldn't be spend in Argentina, but they do realise that this money generates employment and economic growth.
 
Can anyone briefly explain what literally happened after the crash in BA? Did people lose homes in great numbers? Retail businesses close? People live in fear?
 
You can google search some of the information. Homes here are bought with CASH, so those with a home didn't lose it unless they need MONEY then it was sold at cheap rates. Basically, the peso was devalued and those with dollars in the banks got them converted into pesos. If a person had $30,000US in the bank it was convereted to pesos and lost half its value. The robberies increased in most if not all areas. Families that had one person at home discovered all family members need to work. Items at the store didn't have prices on them because the price would change as you walked into the store picked up the item and went to the register. As one of my friends puts it, "it was scary, hard times and you just learned to survive. Just ask an Argentina what it was like for them. Each one has a different story.
 
mini said:
And, not to be a stickler, but the German billionaire you write of didn't lose his fortune. You are implying he killed himself because he was broke & this is not true ...

You've used "implying" in two posts of yours referring to mine. It's pathetic when you have to put words in my mouth to demolish my arguments. I am not saying the rich have disappeared nor that the German was broke. Read my posts again. Carefully. I am saying these are trying times for the rich. If someone's net worth has gone down from $30m to $20m, he will be unhappy. If a German industrialist's conglomerate is in acute financial difficulties, he will be distressed. These are not carefree times. This is what I am saying. Not necessarily that some billionaire reduced to millionaire status will downgrade from first-class to economy. The "good life" is now more than ever a stressed and insecure life.
 
bigbadwolf said:
You've used "implying" in two posts of yours referring to mine. It's pathetic when you have to put words in my mouth to demolish my arguments. I am not saying the rich have disappeared nor that the German was broke. Read my posts again. Carefully. I am saying these are trying times for the rich. If someone's net worth has gone down from $30m to $20m, he will be unhappy. If a German industrialist's conglomerate is in acute financial difficulties, he will be distressed. These are not carefree times. This is what I am saying. Not necessarily that some billionaire reduced to millionaire status will downgrade from first-class to economy. The "good life" is now more than ever a stressed and insecure life.


I'm not try to demolish your arguments. I think you are exaggerating how bad it is for the rich everywhere in the world as you said. Let's get real rich people are very lucky. If they have to live with buying $1000 hand bags vs $3000 hand bags & Mercedes vs Bentleys, so be it. The "good life" for them is still pretty good.
 
criswkh said:
You can google search some of the information. Homes here are bought with CASH, so those with a home didn't lose it unless they need MONEY then it was sold at cheap rates.

Actually prior to the crisis a lot more people did have mortgages. Since the dollar was one:eek:ne with the peso, a lot of people took out mortgages in dollar amounts, not thinking anything of it. Then of course, the pesos fell to 30 cents, suddenly they payments have essentially tripled, and they couldn't afford to pay.

Same with salaries etc. You could choose whether to save in pesos or dollars, a lot of people stuck with peso accounts, then the peso lost value, their savings essentially depleted.

Furthermore, there was the corralito, which meant the government put a limit on how much money you could take out in a day... hmm... are we sure that's not still in place?

it was during the crisis that tickets were introduced, just starting to be phased out now. Tickets are kind of like foodstamps, except you can use them almost everywhere -- shops, cines, restaurants included. It is a method to make sure that people continue to inject money into the economy -- so each person gets a portion of their salary in tickets. I think at the worst points it was 50%, it's not been reduced and i think by mid-year they want to get rid of it. It's about 10% or so now.

If you ask some Argentines, actually quite a scary percentage, they will plain tell you that it was all better under the Dictatorship, as at least then there wasn't crime (this is ridiculous reasoning, but I've heard it out of the mouths of many of the older generation).

Because a lot of Argentines don't like the banks (who could blame them?) they invest it in property, and then stow the money under their mattress (in a wall safe, in the floor, in the roof, under the stairs etc etc etc). Unfortunately this makes for easy targets on break-ins, and there are a lot of them. There's not many deaths from the break-ins fortunately, but the growing problem is that the gangs use minors (15/16 year olds) to do the dirty work for them because there's little to no punishment if the kids are caught.

There's a lot going on in Argentina that you'll just never get a feel for unless you're living here. I think before you make any decisions you need to come down for 6 months, don't buy, don't get a long term contract, just rent a furnished place for 6 months and see what you think. Better yet, rent a few furnished places in a few different barrios and figure out where you want to live.

Re: kidnappings: no they aren't anywhere as bad as Mexico, there's no need for bodyguards unless you're actually famous, but the flashier a lifestyle you live, the more of a target you'll be. there have been a few teenagers kidnapped and ransom demanded of their parents, kids usually released in good condition. However we are talking just a few incidents over many years, not a few every few days as in DF.
 
There's a lot of violent crime in this country. Anyone that implies otherwise is in total denial. There's murders, rapes, etc on a regular basis so it is no surprise that people here live in permanent fear, especially the well-off Argentines. This is in no way comparable to how the rich live in the US or other first world countries. I know many Argentines who moved to the US and are doing very well there. They all tell me the same thing: unlike in Argentina, in the US they can have a nice lifestyle and live peacefully without fear of being kidnapped, having their homes broken into, etc...
 
Johny said:
There's a lot of violent crime in this country. Anyone that implies otherwise is in total denial. There's murders, rapes, etc on a regular basis so it is no surprise that people here live in permanent fear, especially the well-off Argentines. This is in no way comparable to how the rich live in the US or other first world countries. I know many Argentines who moved to the US and are doing very well there and they all tell me the same thing: unlike in Argentina, in the US they can have a nice lifestyle and live peacefully without fear of being kidnapped, having their homes broken into, etc...

I don't think anyone said that. These violent crimes here and in many parts of the world are not limited to the rich.
 
Johny said:
There's a lot of violent crime in this country. Anyone that implies otherwise is in total denial. There's murders, rapes, etc on a regular basis so it is no surprise that people here live in permanent fear, especially the well-off Argentines. This is in no way comparable to how the rich live in the US or other first world countries. I know many Argentines who moved to the US and are doing very well there. They all tell me the same thing: unlike in Argentina, in the US they can have a nice lifestyle and live peacefully without fear of being kidnapped, having their homes broken into, etc...

Right you are. And so are syngirl's comments with regard to kidnappings. In fairness, though, Argentina is probably not in the league of Brazil and Mexico. Yet.

Somewhere out in cyberspace there should be some correlation cofficient linking violent crime and crime against property to the Gini coefficient. I suspect there will be a positive and statistically significant correlation.
 
mini said:
I don't think anyone said that. These violent crimes here and in many parts of the world are not limited to the rich.

I never said that violent crime is limited to the rich. What I'm trying to say is the well-off in first world countries are not as affected by crime as the well-off in Argentina, and thus, live more peacefully and without fear.
 
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