Wonderful economic history of Argentina

[on the brink]

.
10-They are chained to a cellar.

Just give this government time - they will get to it.

 

[elgordito]

I quite agree with you - being able to get out of the nuthouse every few months makes all the difference.

I think the main thing is that foreigners/expats here have the option to leave if we want to, so we're lucky enough to get the best of both worlds. If things really do become unbearable here there are better places that we could go/return to, it just so happens that at this moment in time we have deemed, for whatever reason, Argentina to be the better option

 

[Johnny]

In addition to the other positives, there are no hurricanes, essentially no earthquakes (here in CABA), and no tornadoes. The absence of the hurricane threat is a big plus for someone who spent most of their life in coastal Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

 

[jblaze5779]

I get paid in dollars. For a few months during the elections my pay was forced to pesos and I set a time table of 3 months for the company to get it together and figure out how to pay dollars. No way was I staying here for pesos I couldn't pay my bills at home with.

In dollars it's not so bad and once you get used to just not having anything high tech or new or a variety of good foods.

In pesos, forget about it.

I'm stuck here for family reasons, but why do so many expats suffer through this? Family, too?

 

[gracielle]

Hi Gracielle. When a player gets a hit every time at bat he/she is batting 1.000. Your baseball statistic lesson for the day.

Thanks, obviously I am not a baseball fan but one can learn something new every day.

 

[on the brink]

I forgot that true expats can always change the channel when the programming is bad. My whole family - a clan, really - is here, so that option is not open to me. Frankly, it hurts to see what many years of inept governments have done to this country.

And the class hatred - the cancer seeded by Peron for political gain that has turned into the awful gift that keeps on giving. Uruguay has no class hatred - perhaps that's why they are doing so much better than we are.

 

[Somewhereinba]

Government struggles to stop precious dollars draining away

Foreign currency reserves dropped to a four-year low last week, totalling less than they did when the International Monetary Fund started its mega-loan programme with Argentina in 2018.

www.batimes.com.ar

Government doing its best to limit the peso devaluation by burning through reserves to support their socialist system they want to keep. Keep the people dependent - great tactic by the K's.

 

[elgordito]

I get paid in dollars. For a few months during the elections my pay was forced to pesos and I set a time table of 3 months for the company to get it together and figure out how to pay dollars. No way was I staying here for pesos I couldn't pay my bills at home with.

In dollars it's not so bad and once you get used to just not having anything high tech or new or a variety of good foods.

In pesos, forget about it.

I guess it does sort of put things into perspective, doesn't it? I remember going to Bariloche last year and meeting a few Argentinian friends there (they were relatively upper-middle class and had decent-paying jobs), we went out for drinks and for some reason I still remember we had a few beers at a decent bar that cost something like 100 pesos, so at the blue rate about 2 dollars iirc.

For some reason I blurted out 'wow, this is a great price' considering you'd be paying at least 3x that price in any touristy place in Europe, and it wasn't until one of the guys said 'yeah, for you it is', that I realised I was sounding like a spoiled brat.

 

[jblaze5779]

I guess it does sort of put things into perspective, doesn't it? I remember going to Bariloche last year and meeting a few Argentinian friends there (they were relatively upper-middle class and had decent-paying jobs), we went out for drinks and for some reason I still remember we had a few beers at a decent bar that cost something like 100 pesos, so at the blue rate about 2 dollars iirc.

For some reason I blurted out 'wow, this is a great price' considering you'd be paying at least 3x that price in any touristy place in Europe, and it wasn't until one of the guys said 'yeah, for you it is', that I realised I was sounding like a spoiled brat.

I have to catch myself all the time. Any discussions about money with my expat friends needs to be out of earshot of any locals. One local heard how much my rent was and flipped out. I feel like we just have different expectations about what accommodation should look like. I like to live in a bright place where everything works and with many windows. At least in Neuquen most buildings are those type with windows only on one side because all the buildings are touching each others. To live in a free standing building is expensive because there are only a couple in the city, but it allows you to have more windows.

When I first got here I stayed in airbnb's for 4 months. They were the best apartments on airbnb but at the same time they were crap. Each apartment had most things that were broken or required some kind of trick to get to work. They all had windows on one side. After having dealt with that, I would pay whatever to just live in a space where everything works and was bright. Of course, after I moved into this expensive place I learned that just because you pay a lot does not mean the quality will be any better. Many things in this new apartment were still broken, and I was the first person to live there!

 

[semigoodlookin]

Yeah, I think us expats who get paid at least a reasonable amount in dollars have little to moan about at the moment, in terms of economy. My rent has gone down to around $200 because I get the blue rate. In most other major capital cities you would get a shoe box for that money. I admit it's hard to remember that sometimes. For example, when I am in the supermarket and see the price has gone up on a product. I sometimes forget to snap out of thinking in pesos and bemoan the rise in cost. If I was a local earning in pesos my concern would be justified, but it is completely misplaced by me because in terms of income the product has probably gone down. I think I just get locked into the culture when in fact I am still very much on the outside in many ways.