Wonderful economic history of Argentina

There was an interesting post on the Argentina subreddit a while ago discussing salaries, and to be honest it is quite sobering to see the figures that many of the locals earn, I remember many IT and engineering professionals saying that they were making something like 50, 60, 70k a month, and even if we took the generous rate of 1 dollar to 100 pesos that'd be something like $500-700, while a similar professional would easily earn 5x-10x more in western europe or the US.

Essentially what I'm saying is that it's probably not a good idea to discuss costs or wages with locals unless you know they've worked abroad or earn in dollars haha.
 
I'm a manager of several locals and I know what they make. The amounts are less than what they'd earn in the states but it's not on another planet. Factor in that food, health care costs and most don't have vehicles or insurance payments I think it's doable. Nobody really owns anything here. You don't own a lawn mower, or tools or home maintenance stuff because you pay someone else to fix those things. So I feel like the overall cost of living is lower.

It's a weird dynamic.
 
I'm a manager of several locals and I know what they make. The amounts are less than what they'd earn in the states but it's not on another planet. Factor in that food, health care costs and most don't have vehicles or insurance payments I think it's doable. Nobody really owns anything here. You don't own a lawn mower, or tools or home maintenance stuff because you pay someone else to fix those things. So I feel like the overall cost of living is lower.

It's a weird dynamic.

Huh, that's a good point about 'not owning things'... Come to think about it I think owning home maintenance or repair equipment is a very American DIY thing... most people i know in Europe who live in cities at least, dont have any of that and also rely on hiring people to do stuff
 
Huh, that's a good point about 'not owning things'... Come to think about it I think owning home maintenance or repair equipment is a very American DIY thing... most people i know in Europe who live in cities at least, dont have any of that and also rely on hiring people to do stuff

Just from my time in Argentina, owning a major tool or equipment (even such as a lawn mower) is something a business owns. A guy buys a lawn mower because he decides he's a landscaper. A guy buys a pool net because he's a pool guy today. If a guy buys a saw it's because he wants to make some tables to sell. I think this is why Argentina mostly uses these old ass keys that remind me of the 17th century, no one wants to buy a new key machine (anyone have any insight into why new keys don't exist here?).

If you need a lock replaced or a new key only one guy in town has the equipment to do the work and your guy has to wait for the other guy to come over and bring his tools. Even a plumber doesn't own any stock to fix your problem, he barely owns any tools. They come to your house and make a guess as to what the problem is and go to the store to buy the parts. Overall this process takes days compared to a USA plumber who will arrive to your house with all parts and tools to complete 99% of any household jobs. I called the caldera repair guy and I have to basically hold him hostage until he gets it running because "he needs a part or something" he didn't need anything... and I knew what the issue was.

I agree with you that DIY is an American attitude. I can do just about anything in my house without relying on calling anyone. Now if I just had my tools in Neuquen I wouldn't need to wait 5 days to fix a leaky radiator, take a look at why the grounding in all my outlets doesn't work, or figure out why my brand new plumbing under my kitchen sink...

Maybe it's the "stay in your lane" type attitude that I see a lot here. What do you mean you want to fix that? That's not your job! Call someone!
 
I'm a manager of several locals and I know what they make. The amounts are less than what they'd earn in the states but it's not on another planet. Factor in that food, health care costs and most don't have vehicles or insurance payments I think it's doable. Nobody really owns anything here. You don't own a lawn mower, or tools or home maintenance stuff because you pay someone else to fix those things. So I feel like the overall cost of living is lower.

It's a weird dynamic.

Home ownership is another factor that has a strange dynamic here. I think home ownership rates are about 70+% (especially outside of CABA) Many live in inherited homes they paid nothing for or in case of many younger workers they live at home with their parents until they get married (something cultural for many families, regardless of how rich they are.) Many others purchase new build homes using government assistance programs / UVA loans, family loans, paid in cuotas, somehow bet inflation and played with their capital gains.
 
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