Comment by prigazzi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by prigazzi | Hacker News Reader

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You don't need to admit you're not an expert. It shows, don't worry.

First of all, since WHEN metrics really show anything? Let me remind you all the companies developed here in Argentina, that made it globally, like Patagon, Mercadolibre, Startups.com, OLX, ElSitio, etc versus companies in Chile. Chile? Really? Where do you get your numbers? I'll get them right for you :

http://bit.ly/JflMXt

66% average internet penetration in Argentina. That means 27 million people. Want to know more about Chile? What about wide band penetration?

http://bit.ly/Jfmh3H

There you go.

I'm not even going to start about the "dictatorship" because that's just bollocks. If "recently" for you is 26 years, then yeah, we have a "recent" dictatorship. One that the US government helped. As they did in Panama, Chile, and so many other countries. So please, refrain yourself before even saying the word.

Last, but not least, official inflation records against those that are real, are just double. No "three to six". It's huge, but it's not what you're buying.

PS : I don't defend AT ALL the Argentinian Government. I'm actually against them, but I can't really stand that somebody, just from what they read online or hear "from friends", starts giving opinions and recommendations. So, if things get "hard", then just leave Argentina alone and make business in Chile? Bitch, please, that's what you would recommend somebody in other countries? "Don't create value in your country, because it's TOO hard. Instead, make other countries wealthier. That's fixes the problem".

Please, come and live in Argentina for a while, and you'll learn a lot more than just reading Wikipedia.

Round 1 - Fight!

Have I been too hard? :(

Wikipedia gave me those stats, but I checked the spreadsheet from the ITU they are based on and it's accurate.[1] Given the Chileans are richer it makes sense that they have 1 in 10 more people connected. Although I concede that the stats on this one point are contested.

I think you are being a little naive regarding countries. 26 years is extremely recent when we talk about countries and their institutions. I've also addressed dictatorship in another comment. The US comment is a red herring.

You seem to have misread me on inflation. I said it was three to six times the Chilean rate, not that the real rate was three to six times the official rate. I.e. if the Chilean rate is 3.something and yours is 10.something it's roughly three times more, but if your rate is actually 20 or 25 as some suggest you will be roughly six times higher than the Chilean rate. This is massively important to running a business of any kind.

I am not going to bother responding to your insults other than to say it's not appropriate on Hacker News (or anywhere) and there seems to be a lot of ego and patriotism from the Argentine commentators in this discussion. A criticism of a country is not a personal criticism.

This cheer-leading seems somewhat ill-considered, given your top global wealth early last century your country is practically a textbook cautionary tale. It's not an Argentine Yahoo! being compared to first world Googles either, it's more like someone at AltaVista claiming they are in the big leagues with Google because once upon a time they were good. To revert to weaker arguments: nobody I know would dispute this state of affairs as I have put it. And nobody would dispute that it's absolutely plausible that with good governance Argentina could have been as rich or richer than Japan right now, as rich or richer than Spain (and with far less debt than those two). But governments count, and you got some bad ones. Chile on the other hand is benefiting (albeit mildly) from making far better choices and it's clear to an outsider which is better and all data points to that (GDP, education, corruption, economic freedom, inflation). Either all those sources are wrong or my case holds. I don't see anyone from outside Argentina making the case that it's as wonderful as you people say. That's telling. Most good countries have people from outside showing them respect. For example, I admire some of what the Chileans have achieved and consider them better than quite a few first world countries now on a few metrics. They deserve praise and respect for that hard work getting things right. But respect is earned with work, not with claims of greatness that aren't backed up with anything other than insults.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_...

"Either all those sources are wrong or my case holds."

Maybe you're right and Paul Krugman is wrong http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/down-argentina-w...

>Maybe you're right and Paul Krugman is wrong

Indeed (btw. where is Chile on the chart? can't seem to find it).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/04/paul-krug...

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG/countr...

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