Rising Prices And Other Things: Time To Leave Bsars

[Rich One]

3 minutes explained it to the core. I loved it

Good...!! Gloria Alvarez Idola...!! Guatemala here I come...?



https://www.youtube....h?v=7WylR8EvhnE

https://www.youtube....h?v=_04ZS7b43eU

 

[garryl]

Choosing a home based solely the cost of living seems a bit bizarre to me. There must have been other reasons for a person to move to a new country.
I just can't imagine. One of the reasons in consideration yes, BUT the only one?
Nancy

I have been traveling in US lately from coast to coast, boy, things are very expensive in US now due to the crazy QEs, big cities or small cities, housing in SF is ridiculous, and Boston is crazy too. Every 10 years, the buying power of dollars declines about 30% to 50%, you will see that every 10 years (the change is not that gradual). So if you are retired, and your income does not adjust to the inflation, you will feel the pinch, in BsAs or US or Europe. If you are based in US for years, there are many ways to get things at affordable prices, but if you live in SF or Boston (other than your home) for a year or two, you will feel everything is a lot more expensive.
If you choose a place based on cost of living, then Thailand is much better than Argentina, some remote area in Africa is better than Thailand, and province is better than capital federal.

 

[Noesdeayer]

A big Gracias (Thank You) once again to Gloria Alvarez from Guatemala,I believe, and to Camberiu who posts a lot of interesting things for this explanation of L.A. populism in a nutshell.it fits the saying perfectly -" Lo bueno,si breve,dos veces bueno"----Something good,if brief,.doubly good".

 

[Rich One]

A big Gracias (Thank You) once again to Gloria Alvarez from Guatemala,I believe, and to Camberiu who posts a lot of interesting things for this explanation of L.A. populism in a nutshell.it fits the saying perfectly -" Lo bueno,si breve,dos veces bueno"----Something good,if brief,.doubly good".

Populism loves so much the Poor, that multiplies them... Gloria Alvarez sic B)

 

[SherbertDip]

But daily costs like food at the supermarket, clothes, flights within Europe (certainly compared those of AA within Argentina), internet and mobile costs, even rents (specially in the gringo alquiler temporario-sector), health plans (1900 pesos, 120 blue euros, at the HA while here it's 100 euros)

But as a 'local Dutch' person you're able to access much lower rents than any foreigner (rent control, housing association lists etc). If you turn up in Amsterdam today as an expat and start looking for a place within the ring, good luck with finding *anything* below EUR 1,500 a month + bills (which in the winter get pretty steep).

I cannot comment on health insurance here but EUR 100 a month in the Netherlands gets you almost nothing except trips to the huisarts (family doctor) and your own risk price must be pretty high to have your payments that low. And don't forget your whopping 42% income tax on anyone earning a median salary.

Not doubting that everything you say about life in BA is true (I've been here less than 2 weeks and I'm stunned by the price of almost everything...except rents... but then again I'm earning in dollars and only here temporarily). I just don't think the Netherlands is the utopia everyone tries to make out it is (that's with 15 years insight!)

 

[jantango]

I came end 2012 and just left back to Amsterdam. The mala onda porteña, the filthiness of the anywhere the city, the cuts of electricity, water during the summer and even in the winter, the overflows when it rains, the overcrowded subte and specially the fact that you as half Argentinean but with a foreign accent (as I've been living in the Netherlands since I was 12 y) are target of many many attempts of getting screwed made me take the plane back.
And here in Amsterdam, I'm amazed about how expensive is BsArs compared to north-european prices. Usually prices were here always much higher. Now that's the case in some extends: public urban transport is far more expensive than the colectivos, cinemas and tango lessons too, culture in general is cheap in Bsars. But daily costs like food at the supermarket, clothes, flights within Europe (certainly compared those of AA within Argentina), internet and mobile costs, even rents (specially in the gringo alquiler temporario-sector), health plans (1900 pesos, 120 blue euros, at the HA while here it's 100 euros), are here far more cheap and better of quality.
I'm lucky I work online so I may live here and there -i'll stay every year weeks or months there- but I stop looking for ways to settle there. Take alone the bubble of prices of flats in bsars: I saw so many crap flats for ridiculous high prices!
Anyway...this may sound familiar to many, isn't it?

You finally faced the fact that Buenos Aires wasn't a good fit for you. You listed all the things you didn't like about it, mostly related to money. Only two months ago you were actively seeking property to buy because you have Euro/dollars to spend.

Some see a glass half empty, others see it half full.

If one hasn't made connections, put down roots, gotten involved in city life, how can one expect to feel like staying? It didn't work for you, but many expats call Buenos Aires home.

One size does not fit all.

 

[ARbound]

You finally faced the fact that Buenos Aires wasn't a good fit for you. You listed all the things you didn't like about it, mostly related to money. Only two months ago you were actively seeking property to buy because you have Euro/dollars to spend.

Some see a glass half empty, others see it half full.

If one hasn't made connections, put down roots, gotten involved in city life, how can one expect to feel like staying? It didn't work for you, but many expats call Buenos Aires home.

One size does not fit all.

Even when doing these things or trying to its not enough to justify living some where.

Even with the dogshit and power outages I like BsAs better than Toronto, but one has to be pragmatic and realize economics should play a large role, albeit not the only one.

There isn't much economic mobility in Argentina for expats who maintain some strong ties to other nations.

If you're willing to go all nac y pop and are poor in the country you're from then sure Argentina is a good pick, but for most I don't think this is the case.

 

[gpop]

Even when doing these things or trying to its not enough to justify living some where.

Even with the dogshit and power outages I like BsAs better than Toronto, but one has to be pragmatic and realize economics should play a large role, albeit not the only one.

There isn't much economic mobility in Argentina for expats who maintain some strong ties to other nations.

If you're willing to go all nac y pop and are poor in the country you're from then sure Argentina is a good pick, but for most I don't think this is the case.

I don't think that being poor, nac & pop benefits the zombies that believe that crap either... like when an aircraft stalls, no matter how much you try to pull up; the fact is your're still going down... sure you may still be looking at the horizon, but the ground is going to hit you faster than you expect, and hard.

It's all in the training and habits of the nac/pop folks, short-sighted and ultimately destructive when you can't see past your nose. This is the way of the left isn't it though? No sense of a sustainable future, no acceptance of sacrifice and effort to achieve goals beyond the immediate 'money in my pocket today' no matter how useless those bills are.

Still, somewhere in the back of the collective-head, must be that looming question of "is this really working? Will we be better off getting what we want instead of what we really need?". The country is full of opportunist *(as admitted to me by many Argentines, with the usual "es lo que hay, es Argentina"), and like jackles, they take what they can get despite the uncertainty of the future... I think though, that many are too afraid to contemplate the reality of what going on and been going on for a long time; and really, does anyone have a better plan than buying blue dollars to keep themselves solvent? When the US dollar tanks... it's going to be bedlam here.

 

[mariano-BCN]

Choosing a home based solely the cost of living seems a bit bizarre to me. There must have been other reasons for a person to move to a new country.
I just can't imagine. One of the reasons in consideration yes, BUT the only one?
Nancy

it's not only the craziness of prices for crap products in Argentina. It's the combination of a filthy city, feeling screwed all the time by sellers/shopsowners/etc, the "patoterismo/mala onda porteña", bureaucratic stupidity in many things, the fact that traveling from BsArs is much more expensive than in Europe gives a feeling u r indeed far away from everything.

 

[citygirl]

For some reason I keep humming that song from Beauty and the Beast "

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)]Tale as old as time/[/background]​

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)]Tune as old as song/[/background]​

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)]Bittersweet and strange/[/background]​

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)]Finding you can change/[/background]​

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)] [/background]​

[background=rgb(204, 204, 221)]Learning you were wrong"[/background]​

Buenos Aires certainly isn't cheap. Besides for a short blip post 2001-2007, it's never been cheap. Inflation is always a problem. I wish that things would change but history seems doomed to repeat itself ad nauseam here. So for those coming here for economic reasons (which are a very real reason to look for a place to live), this is a bad bet.

I don't hate ARrgentina by any stretch. There are some great things about living here. But if you're looking for a place where cost/quality of life are both good - this is not going to be the place for you.