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  1. #1
    Veteran velik_m's Avatar
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    A Constant Feeling of Crisis

    Think the U.S. economy feels shaky? Try doing business in Argentina, where corruption is the norm, regulations are absurd, inflation is rampant, and financial crises are a dime a dozen (11 cents next month).

    ...

    But although Argentina talks and walks like a European country, its style of doing business is distinctly Third World. The country ranks 115th on the World Bank's Doing Business index and 138th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, thanks to a tangle of taxes, tax credits, subsidies, prohibitions, exemptions, and delays. These rules change constantly, aren't enforced uniformly, and are forever subject to bending or breaking if a bribe is paid. And almost everybody pays: Transparency International ranks Argentina 105th in terms of corruption, worse than famously corrupt countries such as Mexico, Egypt, and Liberia.

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  2. #2
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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    Transparency International ranks Argentina 105th in terms of corruption, worse than famously corrupt countries such as Mexico, Egypt, and Liberia.
    And we're worried about Libya.

    Is president Obambam going to attack Argentina next?

  3. #3
    Scrumtrulescent
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    Is president Obambam going to attack Argentina next?

  4. #4
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    Thanks for posting. I had a couple of friends working for that company (OfficeNet) before I left back in 1999. From what I hear, things got substantially better in the economy since that 2001 crash, and since there's basically no credit available in the country, the 2008 crisis didn't even register. But it's indeed a palace of corruption and shady connections.
    I still remember having to do a presentation of a pretty innovative (at the time) interactive kiosk we developed to a government agency. The 'arrangement' with the government official was that we would need to overcharge by a considerable amount and then split the difference. They didn't give a about the tech or what it did. A week later the dude was being investigated on corruption charges and so they called the whole thing off. That's just the way you do 'business' over there.

  5. #5
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    Is president Obambam going to attack Argentina next?
    Argentina is a democracy. Savagely corrupt? Sure, but people still vote over there.

    And Liberia is not Lybia...

  6. #6
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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    Argentina is a democracy. Savagely corrupt? Sure, but people still vote over there.

    And Liberia is not Lybia...
    There are so many democracies on paper that really aren't. From the data I have seen, Libya was a better nation for people than Argentina.

    I know Libya is not Liberia. In fact, Libya was even better. Not worse.

  7. #7
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    There are so many democracies on paper that really aren't. From the data I have seen, Libya was a better nation for people than Argentina.
    Define 'better'?

    Argentina is definitely a democracy. There are elections, different parties, opposition, Congress, etc etc etc.

    Lybia is definitely not a democracy.

    I know Libya is not Liberia. In fact, Libya was even better. Not worse.
    That's hardly surprising seeing that Liberia is a tiny country in western Africa.
    I was merely pointing to Liberia since the quote you used to start your Lybian defense didn't include Lybia in it.

  8. #8
    e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 MannyIsGod's Avatar
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    Whats the problem? Isn't the free market in Argentina just setting the price for elected officials services? Can't another company just come in and pay more for the corruption if they wish? Surely we don't need regulation there.

  9. #9
    I play pretty, no? TeyshaBlue's Avatar
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    Whats the problem? Isn't the free market in Argentina just setting the price for elected officials services? Can't another company just come in and pay more for the corruption if they wish? Surely we don't need regulation there.
    Now you're just begging for speculators to start bidding up corruption. Dammit!

  10. #10
    Veteran velik_m's Avatar
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    Whats the problem? Isn't the free market in Argentina just setting the price for elected officials services? Can't another company just come in and pay more for the corruption if they wish? Surely we don't need regulation there.
    Regulations don't help, if everybody is ignoring them.

  11. #11
    Ain't over 'till its over MaNuMaNiAc's Avatar
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    yeah, tell me something I don't know. The problem with Argentina stems from its defective "raw material". I've been to a lot of places in my life, but I'd have to say that Argentina takes the cake for having the most ignorant, en led, lazy electorate of any place I've been to. No sense of the importance of planning for the future, its all give ME, and give ME NOW! Hence why people here are so easily duped by populist pieces of crap who promise to keep subsidizing the out of everything.

    Having said that, I don't think the problem stems from ignorance here, not really. We used to have a pretty educated society once upon a time, and even then corruption was still the name of the game. Civic responsibility is a ing joke down here.

    I must say, I'm pretty ing disgusted at the state of things in Argentina. They've turned my once beautiful country into a ing cesspool, breading ground for ignorant and increasingly more violent criminals.

    I don't see things changing any time soon either. It'll take us hitting rock bottom for people to realize that things can't keep going the way they are. That's hot ignorant we are as a nation.

    /rant

    PS. I really don't give a if I hurt some Argies' feelings of national pride with that rant, so don't bother getting all butthurt about it. You'll only be wasting your time.

  12. #12
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    I don't disagree. That said, it's easy to figure out why planning for the future never takes place. The rules of the game are ever changing (and corruption has a lot to do with that), and frankly people are already waiting for the next crisis and money siphoning/printing.

    The biggest problem with Argentina is that it always goes in a vicious cycle, of which everyone is aware of (and even got used to it), but are completely unwilling to get out of (and I don't mean the average citizen, I'm talking about the never changing political class).

  13. #13
    e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 MannyIsGod's Avatar
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    Regulations don't help, if everybody is ignoring them.
    Well, I said regulation, which by definition would be the enforcement of regulations.

  14. #14
    Abe Lincoln, NlGGA Kyle Orton's Avatar
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    Doing business in Argentina is pretty easy as long as you help gas 6 million Jews to death

  15. #15
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    Argentina is a democracy. Savagely corrupt? Sure, but people still vote over there.
    UCA is no better, just much more sophisticated in its savage corruption. And voting makes no difference, as Barry demonstrates.

  16. #16
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    And we're worried about Libya.

    Is president Obambam going to attack Argentina next?


    Thanks Wild Bizarro Boutons

    "Me am worried about Libya Obama"

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