A country that's at least TRYING to help its less-fortunate citizens

argentina's got plenty of problems, no doubt about it... corruption in public officialdom is certainly one, as is unemployment, the rising cost of living, and the still-way too high poverty levels... while it's easy to focus on those (reporting all varieties of bad news is a media obesssion here as it seems to be everywhere), the government does believe that it has an obligation to look after its citizens, unlike some other country we could name...

Probably one of the best pieces of news of the week was the announcement of easier access to home loans for people who are now renting the properties they live in. The idea that the government, through the Central Bank, will back 90 percent of the value of property worth up to 300,000 pesos is indeed revolutionary, even if that word is not always to the liking of officials.

[For reference, the dollar-peso exchange rate is currently 1:3 and the price of an average 50sq meter apartment is rougly $USD50,000. Property in Argentina is bought and sold in U.S. dollars.]

rentals are increasingly hard to come by in the capital because everybody is trying to sell, sell, sell... for the vast majority who would find it impossible to buy their own apartment or house, this is truly good news... but, for every silver lining, there's usually a dark cloud...

[S]ome experts warned that it will have little effect in view of the huge gap between real estate prices and salaries.

[Again, for reference, a "living wage" for a family of four in Argentina is considered to be roughly 1000 pesos per month.]

as i've mentioned before, approximately 40% of salaries earned in argentina come from the "informal" economy, meaning workers are paid "off the books..." such wages are roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of what workers in the "legitimate" economy earn, come without benefits of any kind, and zero employment security...

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