U.S..Citizens - why did you move to Buenos Aires?

[rmartinbuenosaires]

Sergio-Fair enough about the medical coverage. I am in my early forties so I suppose mine is cheaper although I do use one of the better companies you mentioned.Regarding the U.S. and living outside a major urban center: Well, I'm sure DUDESTER will agree, can you really LIVE in rural West Virginina? Yeah, its cutsie for about two hours and THEN you deal with the natives. This may "upset" some people, but whatever....the fact is..at least 50% of Americans are stupid, ignorant rednecks and you certainly don't want to live with them. For the most part, Sergio, they are not the ones flying down to Buenos Aires and have probably never even left West Virginia their whole lives. On the other hand, it seems to me that a large amount of Americans here in Buenos Aires try to "pretend" that they are all Duponts, Rockerfellers and Mellons. EVERYONE is special and lived a gifted life. Please. Americans are in a different way, just as obnoxious and pretentious as Argentines. Guess it just must be my neighborhood. I dunno. Here everyone has five last names and everyone is related to each other, everyone has a very important name and everyone's uncle, father, whatever was President of Argentina or something. Big f)(&$ deal..
Funny how people are. They can't just believe in their own self-worth or their own accomplishments as substantial enough.

 

[donquixote]

I should title this post as (why I didn't move to Buenos Aires). rmartinbuenosaires You don't have to live in the hills of West Verginia to find affordable housing. I live in Souther Oregon on a 1500 sq ft house on a quater of an acre lot with a view of the mountains and a major university nearby. I am retired and get medicare whitch I pay 20% for the best health care in the world.
I lived in Buenos Aries in Palermo Chico for 3 months in a very nice neighborhood. Admittabley BsAs is a beautiful and interesting city. If you can take the noise the dog s--t on the sidewalk. the mal aire. most every Porteno is trying to rip you off. I have met some very nice Portenos but most Portenos I found to be rude, inconciderate of other and have a total disrespect for the law, the invronnment and people. When I left I told a friend that if I don't leave BsAs I will either be run over by a car crossing the street or I will pop one of the citizens. When I left Argentina I went to Lima Peru. There I found the people very friendly and clean.
I need a little order in my life. I don't fear for my life when crossing the street. I find it refreshing when a total stranger says hello. When I buy garbage bags they don't fall apart before I put garbage in them. I don't judge expats on their motive for living in BaAs. BsAa is not for me. note: 39% of Argentines polled say they would like to migrate out of the country.
DQ

 

[sergio]

Martin, You must think like Obama – Americans are stupid people (I’m referring to his criticism of Americans for being religious and liking guns – guns mostly for deer hunting, from what I can tell). I too like cosmopolitan areas but I find Americans generally very generous and kind people and not necessarily stupid. I guess it is hard for people to shed old stereotypes, i.e. all West Virginians are dumb red necks, Ohio is full of nothing but dull hamlets, etc. I disagree with these prejudices. I too like big metropolitan areas however we were talking about affordability, so I chose two examples of pleasant places with a low cost of living. I would never choose to live in a “hamlet” in Ohio but I might choose a small city in southwestern Ohio, less than an hour’s drive from Cincinnati – a very pleasant historic city with a lot to offer culturally. I could find all the books I need, a few universities and colleges, a group of educated friends, good museums, a great orchestra and a lot of other cultural attractions and my quality of life would be very high for relatively little money. Remember, the subject came up as a result of a discussion about how expensive the US is. I tried to point out that it does not have to be expensive - that it can be fairly inexpensive and tolerable to people with brains.

 

[antupata]

so maybe 39% of the argentines would like to migrate. why would that be? perhaps to find a place where they can make a decent living. why did people move there in the first place? everybody bashes the u.s., but if you have half a brain, and i do mean half, you can make some decent money. my mortgage is 1/8th. of my monthly income and i am not a rockefeller or mellon. from an argentine standpoint 600 u.s. per month is a pretty expensive apartment. tells me they are not making that much money. and, i must be missing out on some thing because i was born in argentina but do not have an ex-president in the family lineage. must be white trash.

 

[austin]

During the last "crisis" there were enormous lines in front of the Spanish and Italian consulates. I remember well because I walked past the Spanish embassy almost every day and often past the Italian consulate. The lines in front of the Spanish consulate made a "u" - they crossed the street and continued on the other side of Guido. Why? Because millions of Argentines either have or have a right to Spanish or Italian citizenship entitling then to EU citizenship and therefore the right to live and work in Europe. Those lines are not as long as they used to be however they have not disappeared, nor have companies who promise to help you acquire EU citizenship. I am certain that well over 39% of Argentines would like to emigrate (the US is the #1 desired destination from what I can tell) however it is too hard or they have family commitments here that make it impossible. This thread, as I recall, started out on the subject of why expats came here in the first place and, predictably, turned to US bashing. Does that mean that those American expats who hate the US came here because they wanted to escape the US? And, if so, do they find Argentina free of the things that they hated in the US?

 

[tangobob]

I too find most people from US kind generous and intelligent (who me? anti american Bob). It is an unfortunate fact that the boorish minority with the biggest mouths tend to define a nationality. That is why all Yanks are arrogant the irish are thick we brits are moaners the germans have no sense of humour I could go on, but without these stereotypes what would the comedians do?
But back to the thread, as a part timer I can understand how it can be said I still have rose coloured glasses. This may be true, but it still gives me a realistic view of prices (admitedly not related to income). and compared to the UK almost everything is cheaper. Some white goods and electronics are comparable.
Someone commented on the taxi drivers, while I agree with the positive comments, when one tries cheating the gringo, it does rather upset ones day.The beuracracy drives you crazy and builders need a rocket, but when you complain have a good old row and five minutes later it is forgotten.
So I am not US, not here (yet), so I suppose my opinion does not count here,but I am giving it any way.
Friendly, still cheep, mad as whole bunch of hares and I can Tango every night. oh! and the weather at home sucks!

 

[Salvador.Russo]

As a person looking forward to moving to Argentina upon my retirement in 5 years, I enjoyed reading all of these posts.
Looking at the question in the first post starting this interesting discussion, I am one of those who Americans who thoroughly hates George Bush. I truly believe he has set the US on a path to ruin. I only hope that there isn't going to be a complete collapse that might threaten my pension on which I hope to live on in Argentina.

The damage really started decades ago, but most recently in the 70's with the termination of the Bretton Woods agreement. The US is in it's last throws. All the "front runners" will continue to push us towards complete bankruptcy and merge us with countries like Canada and Mexico. My words of advice are this: if you are banking on USD checks coming in, bank on them being damn near worthless in the near future.
I'll reference a book I just read called "Crash Proof" by Peter Schiff. Men lie, women lie, numbers don't. America is on borrowed time and as you can see, the dollar is well on it's way to the financial graveyard. As a U.S citizen, this disgusts me.... for more information on just incredibly grave things are, read the work of Lyndon Larouche: http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/05/08/webcast-transcript-tragedy-and-hope.html

 

[Salvador.Russo]

Turn on the news G. It's already happening. Food riotes in Hati, Nigeria, Gahana. the Pilippines. Hording in Indonesia, India. Argentina seeing food prices rise. Someone had the bright idea of converting corn into ethonol so the US can keep their SUVs. So the price of corn skrocketed, more farmers planting corn, less rice, rice hase risen in price by 50% since January. Chickens eat corn. What happens eggs go up 27% chicken prices go up. followed by beef pork. This is a little simplified but I think you get the idea
Was it Dick Chenny that said that defficits don't matter. The US is indebted to Japan and China in the tune of 9 trillion dollars that does not take into account the debt owed to the social security trust fund, No one know how deep in dept the US is. The chickens are starting to come home to roost. Ron I hope you plan to live longer then 5 years and I hope you dont' plan on retiring in comfort. Ask your Argentine friend what happened to their retirment.
7 more months of George dubya. I'll give money that we get another conservative in the white house, god forbid.
DQ

You nailed it man. Also, "free trade" agreements pushed by the WTO like CAFTA and NAFTA are destroying nations' abilities to sustain themselves. Read more about it here: http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/05/08/webcast-transcript-tragedy-and-hope.html

 

[Salvador.Russo]

The problem with living in the USA is the majority of the people are just plain ignorant about politics, government, personal financial issues/responsibilities , and other VERY important things. In Paris, they have almost weekly street protests when the French Government tries to pull a fast one on the very aware public. In America, they just keep watching "American Idol" saying they "can't do anything about the Government" YES YOU CAN !!!

STEP ONE: You don't vote in a mentally impotent, totally retarded frat boy clown like GWB for President. Now, the country's in very big financial trouble... well, you reap what you sow.... want to stay effing stupid about politics and vote in a guy "you can have a beer with?" Well, you got him, he'd LOVE to have a beer with you and shoot the sh*t but he's an ALCOHOLIC !!! The next time (if America makes it to "next time") it'd be great to elect someone who can "Run the Country"... someone with a functioning brain - forget the fricken BEER !!! So, as pretty as the mountains may be, as cheap as the houses may be - I can't live in a state (West Virginia) or a country (USA) full of people with minds just full of dark empty spaces and stupidity. Sorry to say but I can't even discuss politics with 8 out of 10 Americans I know. It's a lost cause, this country is going to do some major SUFFERING before it get's a CLUE. In the mean time, we don't have endless years so you gotta do whatever it takes to make you happy and somewhat comfortable..... That means leave, be a life long Expat... (Will the last one to leave the US please turn off the light?) Thanks ........

As an American, I sadly couldn't agree more. The vast majority of the population are mindless, consumer sheep being led to the edge of the cliff... how sad... how far we have fallen...

 

[Stanexpat]

Nastysal, why are you posting so much nonsense. Perhaps you need to identify what it is you represent. Two of your posts ask readers to go to another web-site for more info. The sites you reference are run by the Lyndon Larouche organization. For those of you who don't know Lyndon Larouche is a well known political crackpot. He did time in the late 80's for mail fraud and many people believe his ideas are anti-semitic and fascist in nature.For those of you who like throwing rocks at the U.S.(the U.S. certainly has many faults and failings) I have a solution. Simply come to Argentina to live and get a job and get paid like the locals. I would give you maybe 30 days before the US started looking like nirvana.All the expats I know here live off of income they have from the home country. Very few work in the local economy. Very few of these people have to suffer the severe problems of daily life expierenced by most Argentines.
All you have to do is go by any U.S. embassy in South American and see the lines of people trying to get a visa for the states. Perhaps you could go to the people in those lines and convince them that the U.S. is on it's last legs.