5 ms·

I make $24K after taxes anually. I live in Uruguay, and program in VB6, VB.NET, and occasionally in Forte4GL, C# or PHP, but I'd make the same programming in J

I make $24K after taxes anually. I live in Uruguay, and program in VB6, VB.NET, and occasionally in Forte4GL, C# or PHP, but I'd make the same programming in Java or C# (it's an average local salary for a developer). The way to make more money, as Patio11 said, is not to switch languages, but the "ability to use computer code as leverage to accomplish things that capitalism cares about" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6249373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6249373 If I made $100K, I wouldn't mind reading HN either :) (I know people that make orders of magnitude more and who occasionally browse it, or even post).

V-2 13y ago
I make about 14K per annum in Poland (net pay) : )
- GFischer 13y ago
  Ouch, is that a full-time job? Is that 14K euros or dollars? I barely manage on 24K for me and my girlfriend (made some bad decisions though). I've heard rent and cost of living is cheaper in Poland than in Uruguay - we're still in a housing bubble here, and it's close to the most expensive country on earth for some stuff (example: cars).
  - V-2 13y ago
    US dollars. See http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml The numbers are dated, but it doesn't turn upside down in a decade. Uruguay is not included in the statistics. It does seem to be more expensive at first glance - I looked it up on http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Poland&country2=Uruguay http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_resul...
    - GFischer 13y ago
      Nice, those numbeo comparisons are really good to know, and relevant to this article :) . As many mentioned, 100K is a lot, but you have to take into account cost of living. Can't believe Uruguay is 50% more expensive to live in than Poland, used to be the other way round a decade ago.
      - V-2 13y ago
        Well I can say that the prices on Numbeo are fairly accurate for Poland
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - JPKab 13y ago
    Why is Uruguay's cost of living so high? Just curious! I always hear how far money goes in South America in general, so what is unique about Uruguay in that sense?
    - pmelendez 13y ago
      Cost of living in south america is only low if you have a salary in USD or another strong currency. For locals in most countries in south america the truth is that they have to face economies with high inflation rates and a salary that don't catch up fast enough
    - GFischer 13y ago
      I wonder about that too... We still have a housing bubble, that accounts for the ridiculous rent - just across the river from Montevideo, in Buenos Aires, rent is 50% cheaper. The economy is pretty strong at the moment, so the exchange rate for us is favorable, that means cheap imports, but relatively expensive local stuff (especially bought in USD). However, there are stiff trade tariffs, so we can't import cheap foodstuffs, and local ones are pretty expensive - mostly labor went through the roof, and we aren't that much automated yet. The left-wing government imposes taxes on everything - left-wing voters would say that most were left over from other governments, but they were added upon and expanded. An employee is extremely expensive due to all the added social security stuff - close to 100% over the salary the worker receives, and very hard to fire. While the take-home salary is lower, a restaurant employee is probably more expensive in Uruguay than in the U.S. (and more expensive to replace) Same for other stuff, taxi drivers, etc.. are more expensive. Gasoline is more expensive than in Europe, basically twice as much as in the U.S., utilities are not subsidized as much as in other Latin American countries, and very inefficient, so they're a lot more expensive than in the U.S. or Europe. Clothing is taxed absurdly, there's now a 200 dollar allowance for imports, which are basically 3 to 4 times cheaper. We also have some ridiculous bureaucracies in place that impose a huge burden on buying and selling property (housing, cars), creating huge market inefficiencies. The differences with, say, Argentina, are that they're subsidizing heavily - while cratering their economy, since they impose ridiculous tax burdens on exports (Soy, etc..) and have protectionist barriers which are hurting capital expenditures. Brazil is almost as expensive as Uruguay. Other countries such as Chile or Peru are a lot cheaper, because they took much different approaches (with their pros and cons of course), and other countries have an "informal" economy where they don't care that much about nominal taxes and legal system.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

V-2 13y ago

I make about 14K per annum in Poland (net pay) : )

GFischer 13y ago
Ouch, is that a full-time job? Is that 14K euros or dollars? I barely manage on 24K for me and my girlfriend (made some bad decisions though). I've heard rent and cost of living is cheaper in Poland than in Uruguay - we're still in a housing bubble here, and it's close to the most expensive country on earth for some stuff (example: cars).
- V-2 13y ago
  US dollars. See http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml The numbers are dated, but it doesn't turn upside down in a decade. Uruguay is not included in the statistics. It does seem to be more expensive at first glance - I looked it up on http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Poland&country2=Uruguay http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_resul...
  - GFischer 13y ago
    Nice, those numbeo comparisons are really good to know, and relevant to this article :) . As many mentioned, 100K is a lot, but you have to take into account cost of living. Can't believe Uruguay is 50% more expensive to live in than Poland, used to be the other way round a decade ago.
    - V-2 13y ago
      Well I can say that the prices on Numbeo are fairly accurate for Poland
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- JPKab 13y ago
  Why is Uruguay's cost of living so high? Just curious! I always hear how far money goes in South America in general, so what is unique about Uruguay in that sense?
  - pmelendez 13y ago
    Cost of living in south america is only low if you have a salary in USD or another strong currency. For locals in most countries in south america the truth is that they have to face economies with high inflation rates and a salary that don't catch up fast enough
  - GFischer 13y ago
    I wonder about that too... We still have a housing bubble, that accounts for the ridiculous rent - just across the river from Montevideo, in Buenos Aires, rent is 50% cheaper. The economy is pretty strong at the moment, so the exchange rate for us is favorable, that means cheap imports, but relatively expensive local stuff (especially bought in USD). However, there are stiff trade tariffs, so we can't import cheap foodstuffs, and local ones are pretty expensive - mostly labor went through the roof, and we aren't that much automated yet. The left-wing government imposes taxes on everything - left-wing voters would say that most were left over from other governments, but they were added upon and expanded. An employee is extremely expensive due to all the added social security stuff - close to 100% over the salary the worker receives, and very hard to fire. While the take-home salary is lower, a restaurant employee is probably more expensive in Uruguay than in the U.S. (and more expensive to replace) Same for other stuff, taxi drivers, etc.. are more expensive. Gasoline is more expensive than in Europe, basically twice as much as in the U.S., utilities are not subsidized as much as in other Latin American countries, and very inefficient, so they're a lot more expensive than in the U.S. or Europe. Clothing is taxed absurdly, there's now a 200 dollar allowance for imports, which are basically 3 to 4 times cheaper. We also have some ridiculous bureaucracies in place that impose a huge burden on buying and selling property (housing, cars), creating huge market inefficiencies. The differences with, say, Argentina, are that they're subsidizing heavily - while cratering their economy, since they impose ridiculous tax burdens on exports (Soy, etc..) and have protectionist barriers which are hurting capital expenditures. Brazil is almost as expensive as Uruguay. Other countries such as Chile or Peru are a lot cheaper, because they took much different approaches (with their pros and cons of course), and other countries have an "informal" economy where they don't care that much about nominal taxes and legal system.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]