To the critics with no opinion of their own

[perry]

I came to Buenos Aires in 2004 and if we compare the city and country since then the changes have been nothing short of incredible. The negativity and the lack of hope then with today has been turned full circle . Argentina in those days was a unknown backwater to many many people and certainly had very few tourists and a negative international image .

Palermo Soho where I am now is barely recognisable from those days . While all those changes are not to my liking ie . Too many Brazilians speaking loudly , expensive prices and the loss of a real barrio feel there is also a wealth and a optimism here that was unimaginable 7 years ago.

Argentinians in the main have more money today than they had for a long long time. Now I do understand that there is a lot of poor people who have not parcipitated in the economic boom of the last years . Saying that wages are higher in dollar terms and employment is there for most who look and present themselves well. Many European countries are worse off than Argentina today with stagnant employment rates , low wages that can getting lower and economies in freefall.

The Kirchners have changed Argentina for the better and as much as people will criticize them it is absolutely undeniable that the country from Puerto Iguazu to Ushuaia is a more optimistic place with a standard of living the envy of our neighbours .

 

[gouchobob]

I can see all the usual suspects have been responding. The recurrent theme seems to be that the economy is booming therefor it must be due to the leadership of the K's. Gee, I thought it was due primarily to external factors. What brilliant policies have the K's implemented that has brought about these happy circumstances? Please no generalities or subjective statements please.

 

[nikad]

Both menem and Kirchner have used the structure of Peronist party to be able to win the elections, betraying all its principles. It is a highly corrupt structure, that typically buys vote intentions. I could go on and on for hours on the Ks achievements, but honestly I do not even feel like wasting my energies. Milanesas para todos y Good Show!

 

[dr__dawggy]

I can see all the usual suspects have been responding. The recurrent theme seems to be that the economy is booming therefor it must be due to the leadership of the K's. Gee, I thought it was due primarily to external factors. What brilliant policies have the K's implemented that has brought about these happy circumstances? Please no generalities or subjective statements please.

Price controls on beef that have resulted in lowered production of beef as farmers turn to soya? mmmm soy burgers.

Confiscating retirement accounts? Followed by placing government appointees on the board of directors of large corporations? Sure fire way to raise confidence among investors.

Implementing the reciprocity fee in the midst of a global recession? Too many tourists cluttering the streets. They clearly needed to be dissuaded from visiting.

Denying the presence of inflation? Saying it isn't there makes it so....

Trying to stifle those pesky journalist naysayers? Freedom of the press is way overrated.

Import taxes of 100%? Viva Industria Argentina!

All this and more. Don't understand why you aren't rallying to the K cause, Gaucho. Join me ...."We're number 3...We're number 3"....(numbers one and two being the economies of Brazil and Chile).

 

[Davidglen77]

"Confiscating retirement accounts?" this is TYPICAL of the hype that is printed in the newspapers, and spread around the media.

No retirement accounts were confiscated! They were passed back to ANSES and put under control of the government. Anybody who knows about retirement accounts and how dangerous it can be to manage them without professional advice (such as the millions of people in the USA with 401k accounts that took a nosedive and are now worth pennies). Nobody lost anything! Do your homework before making those kinds of statements!

 

[Guillo]

Eh no, you are missinformed. The accounts WERE confiscated. The money that used to be in personal accounts now is just a big, uncontrolled bag of cash that is wasted in subsidies, corruption in "obra publica" and other things that benefit the Ks and their friends, like everything else in the country.

 

[perry]

Its amazing that people like Gouchobob have the nerve to continue with his ridiculuos rants against Argentina considering the millions of USA citizens who have been chucked out on the street for not paying their illegal home loans created and abbetted by big business. They are strangely silent about the USA downfall and the loss of freedoms there that amount to a dictatorial state .

I know of very few people who have suffered homelessness because of non payment of home loans in Buenos Aires but in the USA is it common with a rising underclass eaking out a existense in trailer parks and their own cars.

Buenos Aires and Argentina are much better places to live than the USA for many reasons .

 

[dr__dawggy]

"Confiscating retirement accounts?" this is TYPICAL of the hype that is printed in the newspapers, and spread around the media.

No retirement accounts were confiscated! They were passed back to ANSES and put under control of the government. Anybody who knows about retirement accounts and how dangerous it can be to manage them without professional advice (such as the millions of people in the USA with 401k accounts that took a nosedive and are now worth pennies). Nobody lost anything! Do your homework before making those kinds of statements!

Conversely, do your homework about 401k accounts. My 401K is doing quite nicely. When the economy took a nose dive, I just kept right on making my monthly contributions....which enabled me to buy more shares of mutual funds each month while prices were depressed. Now that the market is recovering, I am way ahead of where I was before the recession. There are millions more just like me in the US.
Income averaging works.

I trust myself to make decisions about my own economic future more than I trust a government appointee to make good decisions on my behalf.

 

[Davidglen77]

Eh no, you are missinformed. The accounts WERE confiscated. The money that used to be in personal accounts now is just a big, uncontrolled bag of cash that is wasted in subsidies, corruption in "obra publica" and other things that benefit the Ks and their friends, like everything else in the country.

I am not going to get upset over something that is simply not true. I used to have a retirement acount with OSDE which was called Arauct BIT. When those funds were passed over to ANSES, they were counted as additional contributions to my required aportes for retirement. Nothing was confiscated. It could be that you prefer to keep your monies for retirement separate, that is your right, however you will have to open a private retirement fund to do that. State required contribuitions now go into a pool of retirement money that all state government jubilaciones come from. EXACTLY how it works in the USA and the most efficient and equitable way to administer these funds.

 

[dr__dawggy]

Its amazing that people like Gouchobob have the nerve to continue with his ridiculuos rants against Argentina considering the millions of USA citizens who have been chucked out on the street for not paying their illegal home loans created and abbetted by big business. They are strangely silent about the USA downfall and the loss of freedoms there that amount to a dictarial state .

I know of very few people who have suffered homelessness because of non payment of home loans in Buenos Aires but in the USA is it common with a rising underclass eaking out a existense in trailer parks and their own cars.

Buenos Aires and Argentina are much better places to live than the USA for many reasons .

I am pretty sure most poor people in Argentina would swap places with their counterparts in the USA in a heartbeat.

I do agree that the housing bubble in the USA has caused a lot of hardship for many people who were given loans that could not possibly hope to repay. However, the rate of homelessness and poverty in the USA does not begin to rival the rates of abject poverty in Argentina.