MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Uruguay has become one of the most expensive countries in the region
Uruguay has become one of the dearest countries in the region taking into account prices of goods and services according to a survey in eleven cities done by the Group of Newspapers from the Americas, (GDA) a network of the main dailies in the continent. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWhy can't Uruguay tame its inflation?
Aug 20th, 2013 - 03:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1
Aug 20th, 2013 - 08:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0Oh, come on!
You clearly have not been reading my posts if you don't know that.
Pepe is to western standards a Marxist commie and fervently believes in “social inclusion” BUT not the reasonable looking after the sick, invalided and mentally deranged only, but anyone without a job gets paid from the public purse.
What do you think happens to these uneducated “poor” people when they are paid NOT to work, the bastards DON’T work, ever.
One of the area managers for Movistar, a young lady who works really hard covering six outlets for her company speaks good English and whenever we meet we have a chat. She agrees with looking after those that need it but is livid at the numbers who receive “her” tax money when they are in perfect health. She voted for Pepe but now despises him for weakness towards Argentina and the unions.
Pepe also had a “good” idea to reduce unemployment: not the one we all wanted such as encouraging inward investment, oh no. He put the bastards on the public roll sweeping streets or lounging in the public offices, further degrading the “customer service” which is laughable in the whole of the country.
But I still love the country and the people, I just feel sorry for the hard working ones in the private sector having all the unnecessary fiscal drag they to have to pay for.
On top of extremely high prices the quality you get in Uruguay is poor. Be it materials for construction, or also services.
Aug 20th, 2013 - 08:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0The mentality of the Uruguayan was well represented by a sign in a restaurant in la Barra saying: Abrimos cuando llegamos, ceramos cuando nos vamos (we open when we arrive, we close when we go). In other words: We don't care a shit about our clients! Good luck Uruguay, you need a deep crisis!
ChrisR
Aug 20th, 2013 - 08:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0I do read our posts. Promise. I guess I'm just wondering why here is so little pressure by the average person to pressure the government. Surely Uruguayans learnt their lessons from watching Argentina. You would think there would be an incentive for the opposition to differentiate itself.
As an example, governments on Australia are debt adverse because the electorate is. However our outgoing left government has still raised our debt to 12% of GDP and we're chucking them out for many reasons but one is because they can't balance the budget. We don't want a high debt burden and yes we consider the 20% debt we now carry by all levels of government as high! Europe and the US could learn a thing or two.
We don't need austerity but we do need to trim in some places especially government employees.
Do we just have to wait for Mujica to lose the next election?
Does nobody remember the 60's. I was lucky to be a tourist there in '65 and spent a quarter of my budget, had a ball and if you count the leather gear I purchased actually made a profit. Only drawback was the smell...Refuse collectors, Banks and Taxis were on strike.
Aug 20th, 2013 - 09:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0Loved Monte and did not set out to exploit anybody but took the deals the shops were offering,
Hope you get Sorted Out,
4 Anglotino
Aug 20th, 2013 - 02:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Please accept that I am guided by my Uruguayo friend, mainly professional and business people who did not vote for the coalition in control.
How things work here reminds me of a Charles Dickens novel: twists and turns enough to make you dizzy with a fair amount of madness afflicting the main characters thrown in for good measure.
Pepe is undoubtedly influenced by his wife Lucia Toplinsky, herself a figure in politics in her own right. She is definitely an argie sympathiser of the highest order and not well liked by the people.
Vasquez, the president in waiting for his second term is similarly influenced by his deeply religious RCC wife hence the fact he outlawed abortion during his last effort by Presidential Decree because the law had not gone through a tortuous ratification by referendum of the public. This it has now done and cannot be suspended again. He is an oncologist by profession and is against The Weed Law for health reasons (the smoking of it) but has recently come out in favour of legitimising cocaine! This has caused his professional colleagues to polarise themselves for and against him. His one redeeming feature is that he NEVER talks to TMBOA and had the balls to solicit help from the USA over the disgusting actions by the argies regarding the new pulp mill (in Uruguay territory but the argies wanted greasing) including a promise of military help if the argie bastards invaded.
Vasquez nearly did not put himself forward because of all the profligate spending by Pepe and all his commie mates (and they ARE his mates) who infest government ministerial positions and the difficulty of getting the economy (that he left in excellent condition) sorted out after this bunch ruined it.
Now, how do you think that the vast majority of poorly educated, lazy, hands out for Pepes “social inclusion” payouts are going to vote? Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and they most certainly do not understand economics!
ChrisR
Aug 20th, 2013 - 05:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Politics is so boring here, thankfully!
It is hard to convince the 'expectation' class, those that expect to have their hand held and benefits paid, of the value of growing the whole economic pie.
I will say this, conservative social policies like banning abortion or no gay marriage are much quicker to reverse or overturn than fixing an economy that is off course. Social policies can be overturned in as little as a day but some economic policies can take a decade to reverse
Thankfully we are heading into 6-9 years (2-3 terms) of centre-right that will now fix our economy. I'll probably have to wait longer for gay marriage but at least my country will be stable and prosperous.
Interesting choice Uruguay has coming. Especially as it has to deal with Argentina's eventual economic collapse... again. Maybe the lessons will sink in a little more.
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