The end of the Farmers Conflict

[Napoleon]

The good news is that the Uber Rich won't have to pay as much in taxes as they were going to have to.
The bad news is that NO ONE ELSE in this country pays taxes.
As one of my students said "I HATE Kirchner." And as another one of my students said "I think that the middle class maybe will disappear."

 

[CABJ]

Who are the uber rich you refer to?

 

[Napoleon]

Who are the uber rich you refer to?

For Argentina? It's from the people who would be rich anywhere in the world down to the people in nicely pressed oxford cloth shirts looking very nice on television everytime there was a split screen showing "El Campo" gathering watching the senate vote from Plaza Espanyola (or whatever it's called).
It's the people who can't imagine being buried anywhere but Recoleta Cemetery and aren't really friends with people who won't be.
It's the people who hire 7 other polo players so that their son will have a full 4 on 4 match to practice their game.
It's for the owners of large estancias, large farms, luxury yachts, and who rarely venture into Buenos Aires proper.
I've met some and some other American friends have met the other examples listed. There are thousands from Salta to Patagonia and from Entre Rios to the Andes that fall into that category.
And as for "The bad news is that NO ONE ELSE in this country pays taxes."- there are millions here in Capital Federal and the immediate suburbs that fall into that category.

 

[CABJ]

All the oligarcas you hate were in Palermo tuesday.
Did you count them?

 

[Stanexpat]

Actually the taxes here are quite high and are paid by everybody every time you buy something, IVA of 21% included in the price. In addition if you own properties property the taxes are substantial. I've added every thing up I pay for property and it's about the same as I paid in the U.S. Overall I'm paying more in taxes than in the states.Perhaps the problem with the government is not that people aren't always paying their fair share but how the money they collect is used. What I am referring to of course are thousands of people on government payrolls who do no work, piqueteros who are paid only to demostrate and imtimadate, dubious public works projects costing billions, acquistions of private companies that serve no purpose other to enrich presidential friends and cronies, life long veterans pensions costing millions every month to thousands of undeserving people, this is only a partial list.

 

[Stanexpat]

Good article on the government and the fall-out from the conflict in the Economist magazineLosing Friends Fast

 

[rmartinbuenosaires]

Stanexpat: Hold on there....You are saying that veteran's are NOT deserving of a pension after serving their country? Well that is plain ridiculous. Regardless of what country it is, everyone who served SHOULD be given a pension if they qualify. I know one person who's father was a Colonel or General and retired in 1970 or something. His pension is NOT very much....I'm guessing less than $US 1000 a month and he was a pilot in the Army. How can you compare his pension with Senor Elia..the fat pig who supposedly was a teacher, hasn't been in quite sometime, and still gets $US 300 free every month? Or look at the Portero's Union. That little union, thank Juan Peron for their strength here, has raised their own salaries almost three-fold in five years and NO ONE can stop them or fire a Doorman without heavy consequences.

 

[Stanexpat]

rmartinbuenosaires, sorry maybe I wasn't clear. I think people who serve 20 or 30 years in the military earn their pensions and deserve them.What I am referring to in Argentina is that over 30,000 people that get a life long pension as the result of the Malvinas(Falklands) war. I believe the current pension is about 2400 pesos a month. I believe the pensions started in 90's when a lot of these people where probably still in their 20's or early 30's. In other words these people don't have to wait until normal retirement age, but get this money for their whole lives. They may have served only a year or two in the military at most and I would guess only a small percentage of these people ever heard a shot fired in anger( I wouldn't be suprised to learn that many of the 30,000 were never in the military to begin with).I can see paying pensions to war widows or people that were disabled, but to pay all these people for rest of their lives starting in the 90's is nuts.

 

[steveinbsas]

What I am referring to in Argentina is that over 30,000 people that get a life long pension as the result of the Malvinas(Falklands) war...
...I can see paying pensions to war widows or people that were disabled, but to pay all these people for rest of their lives starting in the 90's is nuts.

Fortunately, the "farmers conflict" has ended peacefully, at least for the time being. Peaceful conflict resolution is always desirable, though certainly not always achieved.
Isn't it ironic that 30,000 "soldiers" receive pensions for "serving" in the military during the Malvinas war(1982), which was the "last gasp" of the military rule (1976-1982). About the same number of Argentines, those who did not survive the military junta that proceeded that war, will never see a pension of any kind. They simply disappeared.
Are the mothers and widows of the 30,000 who disappeared at the hands of the military thugs receiving anywhere near the same compensation, if any? As a matter of fact, many women disappeared, too. Some of them were pregnant with unborn children (now young adults) whose identity is still sought today through DNA testing, Some of those "missing children" may have also been raised by "retired" military personnel and supporters of the junta.
Speaking of today, it is18 de julio. I wonder if many expats know what this date signifies.A visit to Pasteur 600 will provide the answer.

 

[rmartinbuenosaires]

Got it, Stan. Thanks for the clarification. I really had no idea about the pensions for the Malvinas situation. You are right....that is a JOKE. All I can say is that I would LOVE to have been a fly on the wall in the
"Presidential Boudoir" yesterday when the Princess was probably awakened from her slumber by some poor maid who must have been frightened to death....Frightened at the sight of her without all the clown make-up she plasters her botox infested face with and frightened by the reaction she would surely get when she delivered the news. I am sure there were a few extra pair of high heels (purchased from her last trip in Rome on world hunger) thrown across the room at her head.