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May 29, 2005 According to a two-year-old survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting and reported by CNNmoney.com, Asunción, Paraguay, which is my present location, is the least expensive of 144 world cities. Montevideo, Uruguay, which I visited twice in the last year and a half, is runner-up, according to the survey, while Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I spent a total of eight months during two separate visits in the same time frame, is in fourth place. And yes, there’s a lot to be said for that, I can vouch for that. But I think that, despite the survey, Egypt, among others, is cheaper than Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, unless there’s been a dramatic inflationary trend since I was there, which I doubt. But I won’t dwell on that consideration. Here is the article: http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/11/pf/costofliving/ On May 16, 2005, I posted an article challenging a similar cost-of-living comparison published by aneki.com, which showed Argentina as the ninth most expensive country in the world. That just goes to show you how meaningliness some of these tables on gross domestic product, purchasing power parity, cost of living and other such economic yardsticks are. But I find the Mercer survey approximately correct. Anyway, things are indeed generally quite inexpensive in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Entering Brazil, where I spent six months, you feel a definite increase in prices over Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. In both Buenos Aires and Asunción, for $13 to $15 a day, I’ve rented hotel rooms comparable to typical “economy” motel rooms in the US that would cost $30 to $40 a day. These have come with free breakfast. Actually I could get a room in Paraguay or Argentina for less than $10, but it might be dim and depressing. Because I have heavy baggage, though, I can’t do much looking around beforehand, but must take the first place that is it all reasonable. Then I could go out and scout around to see if I could improve upon the price, but I don’t. Once I get confortable, I get lazy. Public transportation is cheap in Paraguay and Argentina. In Buenos Aires, the subway is 25 cents. I never took a bus. In Asunción, there is no subway, and buses cost 34 cents. Compare this with $1.50 or more in most US cities. During the transit strike in Buenos Aires, I took cabs for a couple of days. Generally, it costs around $3 to go 5 or 6 miles. The bus ticket from Buenos Aires to Asunción is $30, one way, for 646 miles. I just checked Greyhound, which charges $75 for Los Angeles-Albuquerque, about the same distance. And of course, this is without food. But the most remarkable bargain is Internet time. In Buenos Aires, Internet time varies from 33 to 50 cents an hour, with cyber cafés all over the place. In Asunción it is 44 cents an hour, if you buy 20 hours at a time. In Hollywood, in Los Angeles, Internet is $6 to $10 an hour. For people who like to dine, I don’t know what the comparison might be, but for someone like me, who is content to eat a choripán (grilled chorizo sausage on French-style bread) or an empanada (a turnover filled with beef or chicken), the price of a meal, including a soda, is less than $1. In Argentina, half a pizza is 80 cents, a quarter pizza is 40 cents. Clothes are much cheaper too, especially if you’re a practical, utilitarian dresser. Stationery is somewhat cheaper. Toiletries are very inexpensive in Paraguay, costlier in Argentina. A liter of shampoo costs less than $1 here. One exception that I noticed was books, at least scholarly books, which cost as much in Argentina as in the US. Three books on Portuguese grammar and vocabulary cost me $70. I’m sure that appliances, electronics and so forth cost about as much as in the US too. Houses, condominiums and apartments are way, way cheaper in Buenos Aires, but I just took an occasionbal glance at advertisements in real estate agency windows, so I can't quote specifics. No one has to explain to me that these prices that I’m calling low seem high to the people around here, whose incomes are but a fraction of typical incomes in the US. I’m painfully aware of the fact that more people here are living at the poverty level. However, someone who comes from the US with US dollars can double his buying power in the three-country microcosm of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and that is incentive enough to come. Life is just as enjoyable in Buenos Aires as in Los Angeles or New York. Asunción, as a smaller city, lacks some of the things that big-city sophisticates might want. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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