"Matty" said:
I am not sure why the "resentment and poverty" are being factored here. My cleaning lady cleans several houses in this barrio and she cleans mine only once a week for a couple of hours. Inflation does not only affect her, uhh, it also affects me - and who looks out for me? ME!
Exactly, Matty our wages here also reflect what we could pay, especially when our wages are paid in pesos as well. Most expats do not live here long enough to a point where they have to worry about their dollars, euros, pounds, etc. running out and have to compensate by matching the current rates. We have to keep in mind that we're artificially causing the costs of labor to go higher by thinking of things in terms of wages of our home countries. The cleaning ladies here know that they can get more from expats because we're thinking in terms of our home currencies so they are more than likely to get what they want from the "ignorant & uninformed." Sure cleaning ladies in the US gets more, they are also better equipped, and rising fuel costs, which justified their overhead. We're making more out there but it also offsets our costs of living. For most of the US population, who earns less than $40,000 a year, end up with only a few hundreds dollars of disposable income after taxes, rent, or mortgage, bills, personal spending, and food. I highly doubt that these same people would be willing to pay for a cleaning lady, even for $20 per hour, plus 15-20% tip, which was the cheapest rate in the Hollywood area as of late 2007/early 2008. For $20 per hour, you get 2 people, with their own cleaning equipments & supplies plus they arrive in a van. Heck, they would even take your trash bags in their vans and throw them in a dumpster for you. I have a friend back home who is making over $60,000 per year and he has to get a roommate so that he could make ends meet. They had a cleaning lady come in once a month at $20 per hour for 4 hours. I highly doubt if there are a lot of Argentinians living here that even makes over $40,000 a year. Last I checked the average income in Argentina is $13,000 per year, if you're making twice that, you're doing very well here. Sure, I'd love to make the same amount that I was making in the US, but this is Argentina and I'm also taking a hit in my pay rates as well. I'm making way above the national average but I refuse to be looked upon as an American who has loads to blow because he is a tourist on vacation. By the way, that same tourist is probably the same guy who will cringe and cry bloody murder after he sees what he has to pay and how much he has spent when he gets back to his home country. That's my 2 cents.
