My analysis is Absolutely Subjective, I speak Spanish, like European type culture and ethnicity, enjoy local weather , etc. I have spent time in Thailand and must say the language and the culture are impossible to assimilate and participate, the hot humid weather as well is not my favorite. If the cost of living wasn't such a critical factor, I would select the South of France or Spain.
I've spent a few weeks a few times in Thailand and as unoriginal as it is to say it, I really liked it there. I think the humidity is manageable by the beach, even in the monsoon season. Of the places I've been to in Asia it's my favorite so far.
i tend to believe that a lot of those people with those dreams of moving here don't really understand the difficulties.
Moving to or from Argentina? Either way I agree, the grass is always greener, and while I don't consider myself an expat because I'm literally naturalizing as an Argentine citizen, and I've worked for years to learn Spanish and don't have any intention of leaving, I still have the privilege of a career that more or less hedges against inflation compared to most Argentines, and while not rich, I want for nothing in the grand scheme of things, which isn't most people's reality here.
If you have passive income or are already wealthy to begin with then moving here would let you live a quality of life most people in the US and Europe don't even have, but much like those that express the deepest desire to emigrate from Argentina, they tend to be people who aren't aware that the country has been an economic basket case for 65 of the last 75 years.
One thing everyone here is kind of ignoring, either because it's so normal, or it doesn't apply to them, is that basically all expats are evading taxes. Although practically no one complies, the thought of legally needing to give up half your already taxed income is sickening. Let's take a California person making 100k. The take-home is 68k after taxes. Now imagine giving up half that to be left with 34k. If Argentina ever gets the means to really enforce this, who in their right mind would move here?
People don't like when I mention this either, but this isn't an expat/foreigner in Argentina specific thing to be fair. Nobody, poor, middle class, or rich here actually pays unto Caesar what he is owed, and I don't blame them, and would argue you'd be foolish to do so.
We live in a country that doesn't even pretend to follow the social contract (this criticism doesn't imply the US or Europe does btw). Argentina pisses away the tax revenue it does get on stupid shit like subsidizing Aerolineas Argentinas or Vaca Muerta, buying pesos on the global forex market with dollars to prevent a devaluation, and just pure, unadulterated graft.
Forget the people here who have obtained tax residency status that don't pesify, or under declare their income, the average Argentine is willing to pay in cash for a discount because they
know that tax revenue not paid wouldn't be going to fix the potholes or get cancer meds for the hospital anyways, it just ends up in things like that convent, or the "Rosadita", or being offshored by the Macris, or Cristina's double privileged pensions + salary, or ñoquis working 12 days a year for a state salary and pension. If you went to McDonald's and after paying for a Big Mac combo your fries were cold, half eater, there was no Big Mac sauce, and your coke was actually water, you'd be reluctant or completely unwilling to pay full price too, and for good reason.
For me because i'm from country that is so much worse than Argentina in every possible way, economically, politically, etc. Also it has good passport that is somewhat possible to obtain, and Argentina is not closed for me like most other countries in the world. Argentinians often says that their country is the worst place on planet, but it's not true at all, everything is relative, at least they don't have wars and crazy dictators, that's already good enough for me. For example i'm in constant trouble just because i have my citizenship, no matter where in the world i am.
Are you living here already? Would you mind sharing where you're from? I think this is an interesting prospective we often forget; as many problems as Argentina has, it truly can always be worse.
Argentina needs a Portugal-style tax holiday for certain categories of expats like retirees and gig workers.
I really doubt this will happen even with a PRO government. I'd argue that repealing Comunicación “A” 6770 1/9/2019 and/or eliminating the cepo makes the most sense.
Hell, just modify it so that people can bring in dollars via the CCL exchange rate and oblige them to pay their contributions in dollars or at the CCL exchange rate would be something, you'd see a big decrease in the amount of people working en negro because of how increasingly difficult it is to do so.
