In defense of tourists

[arty]

The only difference I see is the job taking part, talking about en blanco jobs of course. I have met many perma tourists that are flat broke and live worse than locals piled up in a studio with 5 or 6 others. Not all perma tourists have enough to support themselves. How do pt pay into the system? Last time I checked they do not pay taxes, except for vat on food, etc, which is the same any illegal immigrant would pay anyway, what am I missing?

If you don't use the schools for you children and the hospitals then you aren't ripping off the gov't like illigals in the USA do. I pay to use mass transit, I don't have a car and use the roads unlike illegals in the USA. Maybe you do know perma tourists that do, but I don't.When I take my money out of the bank I pay a service fee. And then there is the job which thing, which is a big deal. That is when you go from tourist to illegal. That is the difference between illegal and tourist. If you can't support yourself and take advantage of the system you are illegal.

 

[mendozanow]

As I said, that's a good point.

BUT: although it is true that SOME Argentines don't pay taxes, NO perma-tourist pays them.

Not true. Many perma-tourists do not have legal residence, but they can still get monotributista status and pay taxes. AFIP (the infernal revenue service) is happy to collect taxes from "illegals", and do not care if Immigration knows or not. I know many people in this situation, people who do not benefit from the taxes they pay to the state here.

They do this because their employers insist on this for paperwork reasons. It is the tax people that care, not immigration. I should add that these are jobs that would not otherwise go to Argentineans due to the need for specialized skills or language facility. Argentina needs foreign workers, be they blue-collar Bolivians or white-collar gringos, because Argentineans cannot or will not do the work (or not do the work properly). This is NOT stealing jobs, it is aiding the economy and the Argentineans in it.

 

[ssr]

Yet, no perma-tourist is turned away. And we all pay for the services they receive for free.

Hah!

Well, SaraSara, I think one reasonable solution to this problem is for all countries to keep track of all taxpayer-funded services utilized by citizens of other countries and to tally up the costs every year and exchange bills. Considering how many Argentines fled Argentina after 2001, I'm afraid that Argentine taxpayers would be on the hook for some pretty hefty charges. The US healthcare charges alone would probably bankrupt Argentina again. But at least those perma-tourists wouldn't get away with taking advantage of the Argentine taxpayer anymore! No more free visits to decaying, outdated, overcrowded Argentine public hospitals for those perma-tourist scoundrels!

Or...

We could take a second to think things through and realize that there really aren't that many perma-tourists in Argentina, that they probably don't cost Argentine taxpayers all that much and that, unlike folks who flee from corrupt developing countries, most perma-tourists are just folks looking for a good time and spending money earned someplace else (and often lots of it!).

Or...

We could blame the perma-tourists for EVERYTHING! TIA, baby! You don't need to make sense here! You can say any crazy damn thing at all and someone somewhere will agree with you! Like, hey, did you know that all perma-tourists are actually CIA agents and that they're slipping satellite-activated mind-control microchips into innocent Argentines' Fernet and Cokes? Holy shit! Que mierda! And, also, did you know that all the CIA-agent mind-controlling perma-tourists are also carrying secret machines that they disguise to look like iPods and jars of peanut butter but which are actually components in a massive global weather and tectonic plate manipulating system that is controlled by Washington and has been causing all the crazy rain and earthquakes recently?! Did you know?! Wise up, people! Every time someone innocently asks about "electronics" or "peanut butter" here at BAExpats.org, it's really coded instructions to their fellow CIA-agent mind-controlling weather-and-tectonic-plate-manipulating perma-tourist conspirators! And they need to be stopped, SaraSara, they need to be stopped!!!

I, for one, think that there can never be enough hilarious Argentine crazy talk here at BAExpats.org so I would choose option three.

 

[jazrgz]

Hmm, i dont know about blaming perma-toursists for everything, they could label them as self-rightous egocentric folk when they act as so and then mistakenly believe other perma-toursist are so as well ! such a shame when that happens !

 

[jp]

I'd be stunned if perma-tourists didn't contribute more to the economy than they took out. Most people are injecting dollars, euros or other hard currencies directly into the economy.

 

[tangobob]

Hah!

Well, SaraSara, I think one reasonable solution to this problem is for all countries to keep track of all taxpayer-funded services utilized by citizens of other countries and to tally up the costs every year and exchange bills. Considering how many Argentines fled Argentina after 2001, I'm afraid that Argentine taxpayers would be on the hook for some pretty hefty charges. The US healthcare charges alone would probably bankrupt Argentina again. But at least those perma-tourists wouldn't get away with taking advantage of the Argentine taxpayer anymore! No more free visits to decaying, outdated, overcrowded Argentine public hospitals for those perma-tourist scoundrels!

Or...

We could take a second to think things through and realize that there really aren't that many perma-tourists in Argentina, that they probably don't cost Argentine taxpayers all that much and that, unlike folks who flee from corrupt developing countries, most perma-tourists are just folks looking for a good time and spending money earned someplace else (and often lots of it!).

Or...

We could blame the perma-tourists for EVERYTHING! TIA, baby! You don't need to make sense here! You can say any crazy damn thing at all and someone somewhere will agree with you! Like, hey, did you know that all perma-tourists are actually CIA agents and that they're slipping satellite-activated mind-control microchips into innocent Argentines' Fernet and Cokes? Holy shit! Que mierda! And, also, did you know that all the CIA-agent mind-controlling perma-tourists are also carrying secret machines that they disguise to look like iPods and jars of peanut butter but which are actually components in a massive global weather and tectonic plate manipulating system that is controlled by Washington and has been causing all the crazy rain and earthquakes recently?! Did you know?! Wise up, people! Every time someone innocently asks about "electronics" or "peanut butter" here at BAExpats.org, it's really coded instructions to their fellow CIA-agent mind-controlling weather-and-tectonic-plate-manipulating perma-tourist conspirators! And they need to be stopped, SaraSara, they need to be stopped!!!

I, for one, think that there can never be enough hilarious Argentine crazy talk here at BAExpats.org so I would choose option three.

Don't forget the tinfoil hat, they can read your mind with satelites you know!

 

[Liam3494]

ANd don't forget the Pizza Conspiracy

 

[Jimbo]

So ridiculous...

But true.....

 

[SaraSara]

The US healthcare charges alone would probably bankrupt Argentina again. But at least those perma-tourists wouldn't get away with taking advantage of the Argentine taxpayer anymore! No more free visits to decaying, outdated, overcrowded Argentine public hospitals for those perma-tourist scoundrels!

Thanks for an imaginative and highly exclamatory post!!!!!!!! However, f you are considering a career as an entertainer, don't give up your day job.

Two points:
-- In the US, health care is not free: only emergency visits are.
-- In Argentina, medical care and even elective surgery are free at municipal hospital. The buildings themselves are decaying and overcrowded, but are manned by skilled and dedicated doctors.

By "dedicated doctors" I mean doctors who care about the patients, not their wallets. The breed vanished from the US years ago, and now only survives in TV shows like "Dr. House" and "E.R."

And, tangobob, I did try to buy a tinfoil hat but the demand from local conspiracy theorists is so high that aluminum foil has vanished from the shelves. I'm still getting commands from the Mother Ship. Or is that the CIA? Sometimes their signals get scrambled.

 

[SaraSara]

Not true. Many perma-tourists do not have legal residence, but they can still get monotributista status and pay taxes. AFIP (the infernal revenue service) is happy to collect taxes from "illegals", and do not care if Immigration knows or not. I know many people in this situation, people who do not benefit from the taxes they pay to the state here.

They do this because their employers insist on this for paperwork reasons. It is the tax people that care, not immigration. I should add that these are jobs that would not otherwise go to Argentineans due to the need for specialized skills or language facility. Argentina needs foreign workers, be they blue-collar Bolivians or white-collar gringos, because Argentineans cannot or will not do the work (or not do the work properly). This is NOT stealing jobs, it is aiding the economy and the Argentineans in it.

Thanks, I did not know that. I agree that Argentina needs foreign workers, but people who come to work for a couple of years and then leave just fill a temporary need.

We need people who settle here, become part of the community, and bring good skills, good values, and a good work ethic with them. More than anything, we need people to show us how to work as a community - people with fresh ideas like the board member who organized a volunteer park cleaning.

The problem is that this is a hard country to break into - by and large, we are an insular, closed society, concentrated on family and lifelong friends and not open to foreigners. Hopefully, some day that will change.