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Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

economist.com

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Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#31

Post by JoeAltmaier »

taejo wrote: post #30
jwilliams wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP was probably referring to Northern Ireland, which is a devolved part of the UK (and uses GBP) - Whereas your article refers to the Republic of Ireland, which is in the Eurozone.

If OP was referring to Northern Ireland, then s/he should have said so, since "Ireland" generally refers to Ireland, and Ireland did secede, while NI did not.

Isn't this more complicated than that? Declaring you've 'Seceeded' doesn't mean a new state is created/recongnized; there's a county in Iowa that 'seceeded' but it didn't change anything. Just sayin, how many people on the street know about anything but their hometown much less than the internal politics of Ireland.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#32

Post by skrebbel »

rasur wrote: post #6
dimfisch wrote: post #2

About cannabis regulation: "This is a change so obviously sensible ... that no other country has made it."

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but.. The Netherlands? I thought it was regulated there (although I'd have to check on what the state is these days).

Production isn't regulated, only its sale, in small amounts. It's better than nothing, but it's still screwed up. If you want to run a coffee shop, you can safely sell weed without fear of getting in trouble (as long as you don't sell to minors and don't sell large amounts). However, you still need to buy what you sell. Growing it is illegal (and prosecuted), buying it is illegal (and prosecuted). Worse, if you decide not to grow it yourself (and that surely is the safest option), the only place you can buy it from is organised criminals.

The sad part here is that the majority of current big parties appear to lean towards criminalizing drugs entirely again, rather than follow Uruguay's lead and regulate or nationalize marihuana production.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#33

Post by pessimizer »

JetSetWilly wrote: post #15

Apparantly Scotland is "foolhardy" if it opts for "secession", but Ireland, which already did opt for secession (less pejoratively, secession is typically known as independence once it is acheived), is a resiliant example to us all, with its HDI and economy miles above that of Scotland, and that despite a total lack of oil, and despite a bad housing bust. Funny, that. You have to be very careful with the Economist be…

>Ireland has come through its bail-out and cuts with exemplary fortitude and calm

That's not quite "resilient example to us all." I know that the Economist supports the kind of destruction that's been visited on the Irish economy, but they're not mentioning it here.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#35

Post by anonymousDan »

DanBC wrote: post #26
JetSetWilly wrote: post #15

Apparantly Scotland is "foolhardy" if it opts for "secession", but Ireland, which already did opt for secession (less pejoratively, secession is typically known as independence once it is acheived), is a resiliant example to us all, with its HDI and economy miles above that of Scotland, and that despite a total lack of oil, and despite a bad housing bust. Funny, that. You have to be very careful with the Economist be…

> while Ireland is inspirational. This Ireland? http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/eu-chief-barro... > Europe did not cause of the problems for Ireland; Ireland caused a problem for Europe, the head of the EU government said. > Following the bailout exit, the Government's bid to get backdated funding for the banking sector was dealt a spectacular blow as the head of the European Commission blamed the Irish…

Barroso is far from a neutral observer in all this. Personally I think it is extremely disengeneous of him to say Europe wasn't a problem for Ireland (and indeed there were major efforts to row back on the above comments subsequently). While there's no doubt lax regulation of the banking sector was the major cause of Ireland's problems initially, it is now widely accepted that the Irish Government was told in no uncertain terms by the ECB that it must bail out the banks on its own and that private bondholders were not to be touched, so as to prevent further contagion in the wider European banking sector. Thus an Icelandic style solution to Ireland's problems was ruled out, on pain of withdrawal of all short term funding. Whatever the effects of burning private bondholders for Ireland's future reputation in the markets, it would have been a much more just solution (as well as being popular politically in Ireland). To completely ignore the hit Ireland was forced to take is thus a bit rich IMHO.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#36

Post by anonymousDan »

forktheif wrote: post #20
JetSetWilly wrote: post #15

Apparantly Scotland is "foolhardy" if it opts for "secession", but Ireland, which already did opt for secession (less pejoratively, secession is typically known as independence once it is acheived), is a resiliant example to us all, with its HDI and economy miles above that of Scotland, and that despite a total lack of oil, and despite a bad housing bust. Funny, that. You have to be very careful with the Economist be…

Ireland has been independent for 95ish years? It's economy only really became something to be envious of around 20 years ago. 20 years out of 95 isn't a great record.

Ireland, which had been pillaged by Britain for hundreds of years, was starting from a much lower base after independence than Scotland will be.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#37

Post by gclaramunt »

alpeb wrote: post #34

Seems like Uruguay exports a lot of IT services kinda like India does. Any Uruguayan here that would like to comment about this firsthand?

Far from the same scale, but providing IT services (software development and testing for the most of it) is pretty big here.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#38

Post by tbastos »

redxblood wrote: post #5

I'm from uruguay, and i don't really see this as a good thing. And don't }ook at our president Mujica as a great leader, he killed douzens during his youth.

Quite frankly, "killing dozens when you're young" isn't a predictor of good leadership when you're older, especially after you've been through solitary confinement for over a decade. In this regard Mujica's story is similar to Mandela's. People in solitary confinement gather a lot of wisdom from the vast amount of time they have to meditate. And generally speaking, I believe people should be judged by what they are today, not by their pasts :)

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#39

Post by tbastos »

ballard wrote: post #14
orenbarzilai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just proved the power of good PR and the most ppl forget the past very quickly.

"Those who cannot remember the past ..." are doomed. Full stop.

This quote is about "drawing wisdom from the past, to interpret current affairs". It's not about judging people by their past. In fact, if you research history you will find many examples of people who did grave mistakes and then went on to do great good later.

Re: Uruguay is the Economist's Country of the Year

#40

Post by poulsbohemian »

cphoton wrote: post #7

Uruguayan here, be prepared to face security issues, bad education quality and very high prices in general if considering moving here.

Can you talk more about this? I have some cousins who moved there who reported feeling very safe (and they were coming from Switzerland...). I had a contractor there for a while and the main issue he had with high prices was on imported electronics due to tariffs. Otherwise, everyone I've spoken to has said housing, food, etc are very affordable. What's the issue with education, IE: funding? access?
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