4 ms·

I have friends and family in Argentina and the pace of economic deterioration is quickening.

by jstalin 14y ago

csomar 14y ago
Could you elaborate more? I thought Argentina was doing well from the financial side.
- yeahsure 14y ago
  I live in Argentina. Since October 2011 the government has been enacting new legislation almost weekly to restrict citizens access to US dollars, as well as tightening tax control to an almost ridiculous level. Also, for the last couple of years the government has been restricting imports, specially if companies refuse to export something (for example, Porsche is exporting peanuts so it can bring cars into the country). Apple for example refused, so none of their products can enter the country. The only Apple store in my city closed shop a few months ago. Finally, inflation is rampant (around 25% annually) but the government denies it and so it can collect more taxes since salaries are going up every year and more people fall into high-income tax brakets. In a nutshell, the economy is not that bad, but the government keeps screwing up and everyone can see we're going down. There are country-wide protests right now, here you can see them: http://tn.com.ar/envivo/24hs http://tn.com.ar/envivo/24hs
  - ramoncito 14y ago
    I totally agree. I live here and I cannot travel abroad anymore, since the government does not allow me to buy any foreign currency. I collect payments from US using Paypal, in dollars, but I receive pesos here. There is a lot of corruption. The president said, on TV, that the people must be afraid of her. There are a lot of products that are not available anymore, for example, pacemakers (a relative of mine needs a new one and, at the moment, there are none available). A picture of the protests of today: http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c99.0.403.403/p403x403/383362_526614650687462_165775346_n.jpg http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c99.0.403.403/...
loboman 14y ago
I live in Argentina and I agree. It is becoming a bad place to live in, sadly. Edit: let me add, Argentina is great, there are great people creating companies or doing amazing stuff; but the general climate for doing anything good is becoming terrible. If you want to do anything as an Argentinian, you have to fight against lots of obstacles, or you have to emigrate. It is really sad. Argentinian entrepreneurs are survivors of some of the craziest stuff you can imagine.
leothekim 14y ago
This is a real shame. When I visited in 2004, which was a couple years after the last big economic crisis hit there, things were starting to look up. There was a bit of entrepreneurship among the younger Argentinians I met, particularly in Mendoza and Buenos Aires where many were trying to start businesses, though that might be because there weren't many alternatives. Also, there's great agricultural export potential - Argentinian beef and wine are fantastic, but for some reason you can't really find much of that on U.S. shelves. The country itself is beautiful to visit, and it was pretty cheap for an American to get around (as it probably is now). Still all was not good. A lot of families were taking on boarders to make ends meet, and corruption was pretty rampant. The general sense I got was that, if the politicians only got their shit together, the country would be better off.

I have friends and family in Argentina and the pace of economic deterioration is quickening.

by jstalin 14y ago

I have friends and family in Argentina and the pace of economic deterioration is quickening.

csomar 14y ago

Could you elaborate more? I thought Argentina was doing well from the financial side.

yeahsure 14y ago
I live in Argentina. Since October 2011 the government has been enacting new legislation almost weekly to restrict citizens access to US dollars, as well as tightening tax control to an almost ridiculous level. Also, for the last couple of years the government has been restricting imports, specially if companies refuse to export something (for example, Porsche is exporting peanuts so it can bring cars into the country). Apple for example refused, so none of their products can enter the country. The only Apple store in my city closed shop a few months ago. Finally, inflation is rampant (around 25% annually) but the government denies it and so it can collect more taxes since salaries are going up every year and more people fall into high-income tax brakets. In a nutshell, the economy is not that bad, but the government keeps screwing up and everyone can see we're going down. There are country-wide protests right now, here you can see them: http://tn.com.ar/envivo/24hs http://tn.com.ar/envivo/24hs
- ramoncito 14y ago
  I totally agree. I live here and I cannot travel abroad anymore, since the government does not allow me to buy any foreign currency. I collect payments from US using Paypal, in dollars, but I receive pesos here. There is a lot of corruption. The president said, on TV, that the people must be afraid of her. There are a lot of products that are not available anymore, for example, pacemakers (a relative of mine needs a new one and, at the moment, there are none available). A picture of the protests of today: http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c99.0.403.403/p403x403/383362_526614650687462_165775346_n.jpg http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c99.0.403.403/...

loboman 14y ago

I live in Argentina and I agree. It is becoming a bad place to live in, sadly. Edit: let me add, Argentina is great, there are great people creating companies or doing amazing stuff; but the general climate for doing anything good is becoming terrible. If you want to do anything as an Argentinian, you have to fight against lots of obstacles, or you have to emigrate. It is really sad. Argentinian entrepreneurs are survivors of some of the craziest stuff you can imagine.

leothekim 14y ago

This is a real shame. When I visited in 2004, which was a couple years after the last big economic crisis hit there, things were starting to look up. There was a bit of entrepreneurship among the younger Argentinians I met, particularly in Mendoza and Buenos Aires where many were trying to start businesses, though that might be because there weren't many alternatives. Also, there's great agricultural export potential - Argentinian beef and wine are fantastic, but for some reason you can't really find much of that on U.S. shelves. The country itself is beautiful to visit, and it was pretty cheap for an American to get around (as it probably is now). Still all was not good. A lot of families were taking on boarders to make ends meet, and corruption was pretty rampant. The general sense I got was that, if the politicians only got their shit together, the country would be better off.