My family and I visited in 2007, and fell in love with the City. We have lived part of the year in BsAs ever since.. We have lived in various other countries, and travelled all over. I certainly wouldnt call Argentina "third world: Burma is third world. Indonesia. El Salvador. Mozambique.
Argentina is quite civilized, by my standards. I understand its difficult to make an upper middle class income here- and I certainly know people who have emmigrated to other places to make more money. But I know people from all over the world who have moved TO argentina, too. As an artist, I find it one of the most interesting art scenes in the world- very good education, lots of galleries, museums, and shows. I love the music, and go out to see live bands all the time- at a tiny fraction of the cost in the US or Europe. I love the architecture, industrial design, and culture.
But really, the reason I live here is because I like fugazetta.