Quality Of Life In Usa Vs. Argentina

[camberiu]

Bajo has a point regarding health insurance and (academic) education, I wouldn't like to live in the US myself.

Depends on what you are comparing against. Finland or Switzerland? Sure!
But compared to Argentina the US still has a lower child mortality rate, higher life expectancy (what does that say about health services?) and significantly lower crime.

Education - According to the latest OECD PISA study, that measure overall high school performance in math, reading and science across countries, Argentina scored 388, lower than Brazil's tragic 391 (which is a feat on itself). The US scored 481, ahead of Sweden Israel and Hungary.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Bajo has a point regarding health insurance and (academic) education, I wouldn't like to live in the US myself.

US universities are far superior to their Argentine counterparts (unless you're talking something like https://en.wikipedia...d_accreditation, though generally less affordable. It is very inexpensive to take your first two years at a community college and then transfer to a four-year institution. Meanwhile, you could make the argument that Argentines get what they pay for.

When I've needed medical care in Argentina, I have paid it over the counter or with travel insurance, and it's usually been excellent, but I've never needed anything major (I once had an MRI in Buenos Aires for what the insurance deductible would have cost me in California, where I had no insurance at the time). As confirmed by this week's Supreme Court decision, the US is moving toward solving the problems of access and affordability (even though the ACA is not optimum, it's clearly headed in the right direction, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/opinion/paul-krugman-hooray-for-the-aca.html).

 

[Gringoboy]

Apparently, the average cost of an MRI in the US is about US$2600 and I've had about four over here for simple sprains and suspected fractures (football, biking etc), when a simple xray would have sufficed, just saying.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Apparently, the average cost of an MRI in the US is about US$2600 and I've had about four over here for simple sprains and suspected fractures (football, biking etc), when a simple xray would have sufficed, just saying.

My orthopedist in California thought I might have a torn rotator cuff (critical for playing baseball, irrelevant for sports that do not require hand-eye coordination). Since I was traveling to Argentina anyway, it made sense to have it at the Fleni (where the orthopedic surgeon taught me that the term is manguito rotador). The final diagnosis was a strain, and I was able to resume playing the outfield and third base after rehab exercises. My California orthopedist was impressed with the quality of the images; x-rays, by the way, are useless in diagnosing soft-tissue injuries.

 

[thorsten]

No, it doesn`t.

I just dislike the argument that the US is better because the clothes there are cheaper. Right! I accept that if the same person defends slavery at the same time.

If you want to be honest, the only reason to do not regularize the 10 million illegal workers in the US is because being illegal they don`t have to pay them the minimum wage.

What I dislike is the preach that the US is the best democracy in the world when you have serious issues there that were already solved in almost any other civilized country like health, due process, the prohibition of torture, the regulation of weapons, the illegality of brives to politicians (I refer to lobby) among others.

So, going back to the topic: health, education, guns regulations, vacations as a right, family oriented society. slave free culture and the social network is what made me decide to come back to Argentina because I see on this things life quality.

You see, not mixing up unrelated claims helps in finding an agreement: I am with you in regards of not seeing the US as a golden standard - in fact, I think a lot of the areas you mentioned, e.g., health insurance and education, are handled not very well there. Similarly, however, I wouldn't say that for example the labor laws here are great. The typical debate is a black and white one, but in fact you don't need to choose between a system that has no rights for workers and a system where employees basically cannot get fired; there are ways in between and they are working in a lot of countries very well...

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Employeds can be fired in Argentina, you just has to pay the compensation.

But here is the big deal, the compensation is f...ng expensive is the economy of your company is in black, otherwise, instead of paying income tax, you pay the compensation and then, it is not a big deal.

I fired an employed 2 months ago, I paid her 30.000 pesos compensation and that`s it.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Apparently, the average cost of an MRI in the US is about US$2600 and I've had about four over here for simple sprains and suspected fractures (football, biking etc), when a simple xray would have sufficed, just saying.

The mother of my child got injured in Miami doing Yoga. The MRI costed there about 2800 usd. We made it 2 days later here por 1800 pesos.

When I was living in NYC, I got an infection on a tooth and a second one got broken. It costed about 3.000 usd to make the root channel for the second and the extraction of the first started at 1000 with no limit according to what they find while they do the extraction (chamuyo).

So, I had to wait 2 weeks to my visa run to Spain and I fixed everything plus carbon fiber perno/corona for 800 usd. The work was bad done and I had to doing againg here for 400 usd.

One of the employed of my former girldriend who lived in Seattle had lyme disease and no medical attention. Nice. She didn`t expected to live too long and she was 29.

 

[thorsten]

Employeds can be fired in Argentina, you just has to pay the compensation.

But here is the big deal, the compensation is f...ng expensive is the economy of your company is in black, otherwise, instead of paying income tax, you pay the compensation and then, it is not a big deal.

I fired an employed 2 months ago, I paid her 30.000 pesos compensation and that`s it.

You are assuming a company which makes decent profit. In many cases, employees get fired because they don't have enough work and then paying a large compensation is in fact a big deal, especially if the effective tax reduction doesn't apply. Moreover, if such a company gets a big contract which leads to more work in the next few month but could end medium-term, they are far less likely to create a new job.

 

[ElQueso]

Employeds can be fired in Argentina, you just has to pay the compensation.

But here is the big deal, the compensation is f...ng expensive is the economy of your company is in black, otherwise, instead of paying income tax, you pay the compensation and then, it is not a big deal.

I fired an employed 2 months ago, I paid her 30.000 pesos compensation and that`s it.

The unfortunate thing is that there are too many people here who don't pay attention to the laws and when justice is attempted by people on the low end of the economic scale it really affects things. Take my sister-in-law who got fired the day after announcing she was pregnant and after two years working in the white, although not 100% legally on the part of the employer because she was being paid for one job but covering three different jobs because her employer worked her to the bones and she needed the work. He offered her 1000 pesos and she told him to shove it. She sued and more than two years later still is awaiting justice. Of course her ex-employer is a lawyer who owned the restaurant where she was the chef, the food purchaser and the dishwasher all rolled into one, and has a lot of connections.

But that's OK because she's only a Paraguayan (with residency, I might add, for years, trying to comply with Argentina's laws and customs).

And as Thorsten said, companies here can't legitimately reduce their size when profits are down to try to protect the business itself, which protects other employees who they could still keep on - without facing up to criminal charges for not being patriotic. Not to mention people who go to get a job and after three months screw around hoping to get fired so they can either get a whole month's salary free, or try to blackmail their employer with suing them so they get a good offer from their employer.

But that's OK because so many people accept their "quality of life" here and say the only thing they say they need is the love of their family - while it's really the only thing many of them have hope of.

Again, you move in circles much higher than most of the people I know here, and the people I know who move in higher circles here are pretty much clueless as well as to how a lot of people here live under the "equality" the Kirchners bring to the populace.

So, while I agree, as a citizen of the US, that the US lacks a lot of things, I find it a bit irritating to see someone from here who thinks their country is perfect and won't admit to any defects of any importance whatsoever while huge numbers here suffer and can only find solace in the love of their families.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I don`t believe this country is great, I just pointed the god and bad point of each society because this is the topic about.

Regarding working rights, the lack of them didn`t stop American companies to move to China and Mexico. Apple itself moved there because the US lacks ingeniers because the education system they have that was designed for the XIX century when qualified workers were not so necesary.